Funfear Attractions: The Playful Affects of Carefully Managed Terror in Immersive 28 Days Later Live Experiences

Kennedy, Helen W

Abstract

This chapter examines the audience experience of the highly acclaimed zombie street game 2.8 Hrs Later, which was launched in 2010 and successfully ran for five years in cities across the UK, and the 2016 Secret Cinema’s offering 28 Days Later, which ran in April and May 2016 in London, UK. These two examples are chosen for the extent to which they provide an insight into a novel form of experience design which takes familiar cinematic tropes and recognizable story worlds as the basis for the development of playful, interactive yet also highly controlled and tightly structured entertainment. These novel forms have developed new economic models and new modes of participations and audience expectations. I will be focusing on the intersection between the narrative content (the familiar narrative of zombie apocalypse in general and the highly popular film 28 Days Later in particular), the space of interaction and the audience experience and behaviours.

• Online Publication Date: Nov 6, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 8, 2021
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Pages: 153-167
• Book Title: 10.5040/9781501324840.ch-014
• Chapter Number: 10
• ISBN: 9781501324833
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3685334
• Publisher URL: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/live-cinema-cultures-economies-aesthetics/ch10-fun-fear-attractions-the-playful-affects-of-carefully-managed-terror-in-immersive-28-days-later-live-experiences
• Related Public URLs: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/live-cinema-9781501324833/