REVIEW: OPECHEE HAUNT: The donnie darko experience

October 24, 2018

REVIEW: Opechee Haunt: The DOnnie Darko Experience

Opechee Haunt (@opecheehaunt) has been an annual Halloween event during which a modest front yard in Glendale Hills is transformed into a magical and otherworldly place. Last year we were in awe of the amazing yard show for “Jack’s Halloween JamBOOree”. The JamBOOree was an intense and beautifully energetic multimedia show in which projections, projectiles, lighting, and sound were all synched together in unison with a large group of talking and singing Jack-o’-lanterns. This show was performed several times a night and was thoroughly original and impressive.

This year Opechee Haunt’s creator, sixteen-year-old Sam Kellman, has teamed up with friends from his high school theater and film department to create the “(Donnie) Darko Experience” - a tribute to the film. You may have visited a version of the Darko Experience at Midsummer Scream this past summer, but this new maze is totally different. There are new actors, newly constructed scenes, and Kellman’s signature mastery of multimedia presentations.

Inside the maze you will follow a green light which tells you where to go. In each room you will watch scenes which have been recreated from the film, creating an interactive theater experience at each turn. Kellman has synched sound and lighting to create an intense and realistic experience. The actors who play Donnie, Frank, Grandma Death, and more, are extremely talented and their performances are so finely tuned that on our second time through the maze every line and movement was exactly the same.

The Darko Experience is proof that Sam Kellman’s creative genius is developing at a rapid pace. His commitment to his vision and execution of ideas is both impressive and admirable. The Opechee Haunt crew have done a wonderful job of bringing to life Donnie Darko, if only for a few nights a year.

VC

October 24, 2018

Hauntsofla.com

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