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LOOKING BACK AT ALIEN WAR - by Mr Biffo

8/5/2017

25 Comments

 
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I'm a bit nervous. Another year, another Alien movie. Reviews for Alien: Covenant landed last night, and they're mixed, to say the least.

How many times have those of us who love this franchise - more the potential of this franchise - been burned by it? Alas, there have been just two great, profoundly influential, Alien movies, one interesting-but-disappointing one, one thoroughly bizarre instalment, and two movies which mixed the mythology with Predator and were straight-to-video wretched.

Oh, and - of course - Prometheus; a curious and well-meaning attempt at asking the big questions about our place in the universe, but which merely came across as a bit stupid. You know: like a boozed-up pub bore lecturing you on his theories about Darwinism, while you're distracted by the pork scratching crumbs in his beard wisps, and waiting for him to fall off his chair.

There have been numerous comics and video games which have done a better job of fulfilling the potential of Alien than the way it has been treated cinematically; the movie equivalent of winning the lottery, and then spending every last penny building the world's biggest bouncy castle in your back garden, inviting your family over to have a go on it, and then, while they're taking off their shoes, you start hacking at the castle with a garden fork.

"Ha ha! I burst you!"

However, there's one mostly forgotten expansion of Alien which remains as beloved by me as those first two movies; Alien War, a "total reality" experience that ran in the basement of London's Trocadero Centre for almost three intense years.
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ROCK ON
These days, you can't throw a shoe without hitting another immersive theatre production, or so-called "secret" cinema.

Back in 1992, when Alien War was first conceived by John Gorman and Gary Gillies, immersive theatre wasn't even a thing. The closest the world got to something like it were murder mystery dinner parties, or the haunted house attractions that pop-up in America every Halloween. Until recently - when the likes of Alton Towers and Thorpe Park started copying American theme parks - they've never really been part of the British cultural landscape.

Spinning out of Gorman and Gillies' own collection of Alien memorabilia, Alien War opened in April 1992 in Glasgow. It cost £30,000 to stage, funded thanks to the investment of a local businessman, and lasted almost a year before going on a short tour around the country. In early 1993 it was announced that Alien War would moving to a permanent £1 million home in London's Piccadilly Circus.

Gorman and Gillies (a former swimming instructor, no less) had meetings with Japanese investors, 20th Century Fox, and Sigourney Weaver herself to get the funding and rights they needed. Weaver reportedly signed a deal that gave her a share of royalties in return for her attendance at the opening of any future Alien War site (she attended the London launch along with other Aliens cast members, shooting at the site's branding with a CO2-belching version of her iconic flamethrower).

Without the short-hand of "immersive theatre", the press struggled to describe it, referring to "ghost rides" or "a live-action video game". It was neither of those things, but at the time there was absolutely nothing else like it - particularly in the UK.

Taking aim at the Virtuality machines filling the arcade upstairs from Alien War, Gorman insisted that his attraction was far superior: "What is the point of virtual reality? It's not really happening. People will prefer this to passive entertainment. Once you're inside you completely believe the scenario. After all, no one knows whether or not aliens exist. We're letting the public use their own imagination."

Gillies added: "Basically the alien is just a reproductive organ, intent only on breeding - like a walking penis..."
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HEAR ME NOW
I don't remember where I first heard about Alien War... but I was working at Digitiser at the time. It's possible a press release landed on our desk; for some reason we got all sorts of random releases sent to us (including one for a proposed - and swiftly aborted - Doctor Who 30th anniversary special, The Dark Dimension, which was so professionally put together that it described Patrick Troughton's 2nd Doctor as a "cosmic homo").

Such is the confidence of youth, that I had no qualms about contacting Alien War, and requesting - nay, demanding - a visit. I did that a lot back then. I dunno where all that bullishness has gone, but I never had any hesitation in requesting stuff, however tangential it was to Digitiser's intended output.

To be honest, the visit was disappointing. We were shown around the Alien War site by - I think - John Gorman, who seemed stressed and distracted, and for good reason. With less than a week until it the launch date, it was still a work-in-progress. The set was in the process of being being built, scarcely little more than a steel frame, and with no ceiling to the attraction's corridors, with the lights on, there was no atmosphere. Also, I was taken aback by how small the place was; how could such a tiny area represent what was meant to be a huge space station?

We waited to be invited to the launch... but the invite never came. Gorman wandered off back to overseeing the build. Instead, we were forced to book our own trip, hoping for much, but expecting little...

Fortunately, I had my mind blown.  I'd never experienced anything like it. So much so that I went back at least three more times - possibly more - taking other people with me, because I needed to show it off. I wanted them to enjoy it as much as I did, to feel the genuine terror, and subsequent elation of having survived.

Every time, the experience was slightly different, depending on the actors you got, and - most likely - which bits of the attraction were working that day. 

THE VIBE
In general, the experience was this: after walking through a mock-up of the prison base from Alien 3, you'd arrive at the Alien War ticket office, adjacent to which was a museum of props, containing a full-size replica of the Queen from Aliens. At your appointed time you'd be ushered into a waiting room, where a Colonial Marine would welcome you to a tour of this Weyland Yutani facility. He'd go out to check some things... and then the lights would go out.

Moments later, the Marine would burst back in, panicked, saying there was an emergency - several specimens had escaped containment, and we had to evacuate the base. Those brightly-lit corridors we'd seen before were transformed; smoke, darkness, flashing warning lights, sound - the steady throb and pulse of a motion tracker - and the performance from the actor playing the Marine (or Marines - some days, I had two) kept up suspense.

Because they varied the scares, you never quite knew when the Alien was going to explode from the shadows. Sometimes there'd be false alarms - a wounded Marine bursting out from behind some barrels - but eventually, sooner or later, an Alien would appear. Admittedly, doing little more than hissing and waving a load of imaginary flies away from its face, but the moment was one of sheer panic.

In the early days, the Marine was equipped with a blank firing pistol. Eventually, however, Gorman and Gillies got their special effects system working, and armed their cast with pulse rifles that were equipped with a strobe light and an infra-red sensor; as the strobe flashed - illuminating the Alien in staccato bursts - so the synchronised noise of a gun firing would erupt from nearby speakers.
FIRST CONTACT
This first encounter with the Alien was usually followed by a flat-out run to an elevator, up a short - and health-and-safety-challenging - flight of stairs.

At this point a member of our group - part of the cast, who had tagged along dressed in civvies - would be snatched by an Alien just as the doors were closing, and dragged away screaming. Then the lift would ascend a few inches, before stopping (this feature stopped working after my first couple of visits). A hatch in the ceiling would open, and an Alien would stick its head inside, hissing and bearing its teeth.

The first time this happened, I lost my mind. I cowered on the floor, and pointed at it, shrieking. Later, I felt like an idiot, but on subsequent visits I felt better about my cowardice; across my various visits, I watched many people freak out in a similar fashion. 

Following the lift there was a short run to an escape craft. On one occasion I saw a fight almost break out between a member of the public and the Marine, who wanted his help in getting the door closed. In genuine panic, the well-built guy pushed and shoved and shouted at the Marine, refusing point-blank to assist him.

And then it was over. We were disgorged out into the Trocadero, laughing and trembling, before baffled members of the public; that alone was a great PR tool.
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OVER AND OUT
Though it was over in less than 20 minutes, through the use of darkness, sustained suspense, and clever utilisation of a tiny space, Alien War was one of the most effective immersive experiences I've ever had, worth every penny of the £6.95 ticket price.

Though brief, Alien War worked better than a lot of the more recent, more theatrical, immersive productions, because it placed the audience in a moment. Punchdrunk Theatre's Drowned Man and Sleep No More, or Les Enfants Terrible's Alice's Adventures Underground (on now at The Vaults in Waterloo) are lavish in their production design and world-building, but you feel more like a bystander than a participant, a ghost moving through someone else's story.

Sadly, Alien War closed after less than three years. The site was sold to new owners, and following a flood resulting from a burst pipe, it was closed. According to Gillies, the new owner chose to collect the insurance money rather than reopen the site, though other reports state that the insurer went bankrupt.

Gorman and Gillies never got to expand the site as planned. On our visit for Digitiser, we saw impressive designs for laboratories full of Facehuggers in jars, and an Alien Queen egg chamber. Gilles and Gorman talked big about franchising the brand globally. They'd even, apparently, been approached by James Cameron with a view to launching a sister attraction based on Terminator - Future Wars.

None of this happened.

THE RETURN
Alien War returned in 2008, back in its original home in Glasgow, before moving for a short time to Liverpool. Now without the backing of 20th Century Fox, the new Alien War replaced the Colonial Marines with black-suited special operatives. According to Gillies, this Weaver and Fox-less incarnation was out of choice.

"They didn't want us to include anything too scary in case someone had a heart attack and we really wanted to give audiences a more terrifying show," he said at the time. "So we decided this time to do it ourselves."

The Liverpool attraction closed doors in March 2010, and - to date - hasn't reopened. With the rise of immersive theatre, and companies such as Secret Cinema staging stunning recreation of movie worlds such as Star Wars and 28 Days Later, it feels like its time has come. Unfortunately, outside of occasional rumours about a possible London reopening, and a sporadic official Twitter account, nothing has materialised.

Certainly, Alien War had a huge impact on me. Not just in terms of how much fun it was, but in how they successfully terrified an audience with limited resources.

It took close to 25 years, but that itch is finally getting scratched with Found Footage. I very much had Alien War in mind when I created the set dressing and look of the teaser trailer below. Consider it my own tribute to Alien War; my favourite immersive experience ever.
25 Comments
Steve
8/5/2017 10:02:24 am

Some friends and I really wanted to go and try it out back in the day. We finally got together and headed to the trocodero and it had only just closed down; we never got the chance to go through it. I was pretty gutted to be honest...
Admittedly I had great expectations for the experience, I just have this nasty feeling if it were to re-open just as it was, and I went through it now, I'd be disappointed.

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Laurence Sardine
8/5/2017 10:09:48 am

One of my Dad's old friends once bought a full size Alien costume. He said it came from something exactly like this. I'd never heard of it, so naturally assumed he was making it up.
But I did also assume he was lying when he once told me he'd won over 40 grand on Goldenballs. That turned out to be true because I have seen the episode (he stole).
Karma got him back though, when he fell down the stairs wearing the Alien costume. He suffered such terrible injuries, he has to drive a car specially adapted with hand controls now.

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Alan Cornet
8/5/2017 03:46:49 pm

That's really amazing, ive got a similar tale, My step dad(Tony Bovis) worked as a carpenter on the set of alien3,towards the end of the filming he would bring little trinkets home,one day and alien hand,one day an alien face and bodice. Well, one day he bought home a latex mask of Ron Perlman'so face,he would forever tease me when my mum was out by saying that he wears the mask while making love to my mum. Also,bizarrely, although nothing compared to £40,000 on golden balls,Tony and a neighbour(Tristan Friday) appeared on lucky ladders with lennon Bennett, they left with nothing as they were thoroughly beaten by two 'sisters' from Midlothian.

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Alan Cornet
8/5/2017 04:17:27 pm

It appears that I made a mistake whilst recounting my alien story,it wasn't Ron Perlman but Sir Brian Glover, I do apologise for any inconvenience but I'm currently on pills for a constant nose bleeding.

Laurence Sardine
8/5/2017 04:27:34 pm

Hey that's odd. The first ever famous person I saw with my own two eyes, was on a family trip to London in about 1990. Just off Oxford Street I saw none other than Paul Shane. Possibly most famous for playing Ted Bovis is Hi-De-Hi. Any relation?

Alan Cornet
8/5/2017 05:49:54 pm

Hill laurence, I'm not really very familiar with HI-DE-HI or many 80s TV shows as I lived in Yugoslavia for medical reasons for most of that decade(I bleed a lot). I've missed out on so much you would take for granted, I couldn't have a haircut until I was 27,I've never been allowed to ride a bike,roller coasters are a no go.

Nick
8/5/2017 10:14:51 am

I have been boring mates who never experienced this for 2 decades now. It was superb, when the actor from our group got grabbed we just weren't expecting it and the screams were just superb. As you say the final run and out into a normal trocadero (a girl from the group grabbing my hand as we ran, me probably screaming to be honest) was so clever. We were just standing there almost in shock getting our shit back together with everybody looking at us like we were mad.

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Biscuits
8/5/2017 11:18:11 am

I had never heard of this, but would have been too young for it anyway. But get this: it must have inhabited the Trocedero at the same time as Segaworld, when it was good and had the free rides and huge free arcade with Sonic Fighters and stuff

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MENTALIST
8/5/2017 11:33:27 am

I went to the original in Glasgow. The railway arches under Central station where The Arches Theatre / Nightclub venue was were pretty sinister, to begin with, and the whole things was certainly very frightening, if a bit short. I was maybe 14 at the time (in fact, looking at the dates it must have been around the time of my 14th birthday). In one alien attack, somebody charging past me to get away knocked my glasses off, and I had a weird double real-and imaginary panic to find and replace them, then got get pretend-eaten.

I went again, with some friends when it came back (I thought it was a fair bit longer ago than 2008), but it was just a maze of shipping containers in a brightly lit hall at the SECC conference centre, and it felt all to easy to see through what was going on. Especially since we were a large group, so the "taken" person was recognisably not one of us.

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smelly
8/5/2017 02:13:40 pm

hahaha the thought of them carrying on with the 'taken' charade despite the obvious giveaway of nobody knowing the person cracks me up

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Biscuits
8/5/2017 04:30:48 pm

'Hey guys I'm just going to check out this corner over here, OK? It all looks normal and fi....oh no! NO! NO, GET OFF! ITS GOT ME! IT'S EATING ME NOOO HELP GUYS NOOOOOoooooo'

'Who was that?'

*shrug*

MrDrinks
8/5/2017 12:01:00 pm

Easily the most terrified I have ever been in my life. The way you see the creature in the first corridor coming towards you, only lit by the strobe while steam shot out of the pipes was horrible. When one of the marines said we all had to stand against the wall I refused because I was sure a hand was going to pop out or something (as far as I remember it didn't unfortunately). "Check under the seats for facehuggers" - no chance I was doing that. When the alien then came into the ship at the end I was squashed trying to get through the exit along with fully grown adults. My mate said he once went back and they had the queen model in there along with some eggs that you had to sneak past but I think he may have been talking bollocks.

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Stoo
8/5/2017 12:58:08 pm

Wait, one of the guys who founded this was called Gorman?

If he seemed stressed I assume it was from all the people telling him he always was an asshole.

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Paul
8/5/2017 02:11:30 pm

You know what? The Asylum - that outfit that makes “mock busters” did a film called “Alien vs Hunter” to coincide with AVP2. It was as good as, if not better than, the film it was brazenly ripping off. This happened not because The Asylum somehow upped their game, but because AVP2 was so, so dreadful.

I am trying to remember why I never went to this Alien thing in London. I suspect it’s down to my discomfort with theatre, and real unease with audience participation.

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Fancy Pants
8/5/2017 03:10:56 pm

I'm glad I didn't do this in the end, although we spoke about it a lot. My friends and I would've definitely taken part under the influence of acid, as we did with all things slightly "crazy" around that time. I don't think I'd be sitting here typing this now if that had happened.

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Fore!
8/5/2017 03:38:33 pm

The worst thing about being old is not being able to do acid all the time

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Merriweather
8/5/2017 06:15:56 pm

I applaud all of this. I was lucky enough to go to Alien War for my sixteenth birthday and it scared the living crap out of me. Bravo everyone, bravo.

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Simon
8/5/2017 07:09:06 pm

Living in Blackpool, Alien War was too far away to visit - may as well have been LV-426. But I read about it in a magazine - think it was SFX - and just the thought of it gave me nightmares. I would love this to be a thing, now.

Oh, and I just nearly spat out my Vienetta at 'Cosmic Hobo'.

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Simon
8/5/2017 07:18:46 pm

'Homo' even!

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Kelvin Green link
8/5/2017 09:09:13 pm

I remember seeing the queen alien menacing Chris Evans on The Big Breakfast.

Or maybe it was Johnny Vaughan.

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Starbuck
8/5/2017 11:42:15 pm

Was it John Gorman as in John Gorman out of Tiswas? I so massively hope so!

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Ssslithe
14/5/2017 01:11:29 pm

I loved Alien War so bad. I guess I was about 14 when I went, and the girlfriend I took squeezed my hand so hard in terror, it was excellent. Aside from the stuff you mentioned above, there was also a part where we had to sneak past a batch of Alien eggs in a pit below, and a bit where we rode an APC and an Alien burst in. Wild adrenaline from start to finish. I often wish it was still there.

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Ando
25/7/2022 09:11:27 pm

Yes I remember the eggs and the apc too those were there on my visit. I must have also been about 14 and went with my uncle but he decided not to go in at the last minute so I went myself (even with the marine at the door saying to my uncle and I are you sure he wants to go on his own?) it was proper terrifying and really felt like being in Harley’s Hope. Big lad in front of me in a leather jacket kept telling me off for grabbing his jacket and I was right next to the marine in the lift as the alien grabbed a guy and hauled him out the door so got a proper look at the alien and yep it was an alien as far as I was concerned! Loved the museum of props across the corridor as you came out and used to have an alien war shirt, big poster and mug I wish I still had. Sega world was also upstairs so went there after and there was a Jack the Ripper experience on at London dungeon at the time. Definitely had some bladder control problems after alien war for a few weeks but so glad to have experienced it. I went to the 2nd glasgow one years later but wasn’t quite the same buzz as the London one even though the actors were pretty full on. Happy times.

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Joe
17/5/2017 12:31:04 am

"There have been numerous comics and video games which have done a better job of fulfilling the potential of Alien than the way it has been treated cinematically" Interesting. Name them, if you please.

Also you should check out Dread in Glasgow. Me and some mates recently did the Zombie one. Small scale and obviously low-budget but surprisingly effective.

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Stephen
4/12/2019 01:59:29 pm

Still have my "I SURVIVED" mug.

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