The Sessions House of Horrors presents THE SÉANCE Review 2023
We attended The Sessions House of Horrors presents THE SÉANCE in Spalding. With high expectations based on previous events, I was eager to witness this immersive séance performance. The production featured a minimal cast including a medium and a priest who guided us through the eerie séance experience.
The performance attempted to engage the audience through interactive elements, including the use of a spirit cabinet, and while it kept us on our toes with unexpected twists and turns in the narrative with captivating immersive elements, I felt that the use of space was a bit awkward, impacting the overall flow of the experience. For example the need to sit round the seance table or experience the spirit cabinet in two separate groups while watching the other came across a little clunky.
The lighting and sound design did a commendable job of setting the scene and creating a spooky atmosphere. Saying this though there was minimal to no use of any special effects which have become standard in similar style performances. While the acting drew you in I couldn’t help but feel that some of the characters were slightly overplayed, which hindered my emotional connection to the performance. It might benefit from toning down certain roles and exploring alternative ways to achieve the desired effects.
While I enjoyed the concept and the unfolding of the story sadly I feel the various elements distracted from the overall experience that was a disappointing departure from the Sessions House of Horrors we had grown to love.
If you’re a local resident, this immersive production is worth checking out for a spooky night. However, I wouldn’t recommend traveling a long distance to see it. In summary, The Séance is a fair attempt, but it could benefit from incorporating more magical and classic séance effects to enhance the overall experience.
The Sessions House of Horrors 2022
The Sessions House of Horrors, now in its third year of operating, has always impressed us, and has been something that we look forward to since its COVID friendly inception in 2020. Based in the old Sessions House in the centre of Spalding, the venue always looks spectacular from the outset. Running for just a few nights this year, we went along to see what was in store for 2022.
First up, it’s worth noting that whilst you have timed ticket entry you may have a queue when you arrive. The reason for this is a good one though as there is a very, very healthy amount of time between groups, and that you can go through in the group that you arrive in, meaning in this instance a solo run of 30 – 40 minute attraction.
Sessions has always been a more theatrical type of event and this year is no different. From the very start outside one of the main doors, we got an introduction to this year’s storyline. Something apocalyptic has happened in the world and the Sessions House is now a sanctuary for survivors, and is part of a network of survivor groups. Unfortunately, there’s been a murder and our job, as investigators, is to uncover the culprit, and leave in one piece.
The experience starts off with some fun and creepy theatrical scenes as you find out a bit more about the murder victim and you come across a number of interesting and slightly unhinged characters. All acted brilliantly and with some interesting bits of improv as well.
On top of the theatrical scenes, you also have some more traditional free-roaming sections including a fun crawling maze, a section with multiple dead ends, which was relentless on your own, but would be fun as groups get separated as a larger group. There’s also a hooded section, which whilst still fun, didn’t quite match the intensity of the very first version of this section.
This leads on to our only real criticism of the event. Despite the long gaps between groups entering and an amount of waiting between scenes, I still managed to catch up with the group in front during the hooded section and so was stuck at the back of this larger group for the remainder of the event. If there had been a little bit more holding back then it would have been perfect.
The use of the space is great, not just in the original courtroom areas of the building, but also to the holding cells, which were used for a funny interrogation scene as well as a much more hands on scene strapped to a chair in a very dark cell with a couple of characters. The whole event is hands-on, and there may be other effects e.g. spray bottles of water that help separate Sessions above more traditional hands-off events. I felt that the level was pitched well for something that was a little bit more intense, but certainly nowhere near extreme.
The Sessions House of Horrors was a really fun event, that sadly doesn’t get as much notice as many others and whilst writing this review, it appears that in its current incarnation at least there are only the remaining two nights left and unfortunately will not be returning like this in 2023. We are however looking forward to whatever the team put on next year. If you can make it though, definitely try to get down to Sessions before it’s gone.
The Sessions House of Horrors 2021
We visited Sessions House of Horrors last year. It was their first year and they absolutely smashed it creating an immersive theatrical delight. It was always going to be difficult to improve on last year but we feel that Sessions House of Horrors have created something even better this time round.
There is a new narrative that brings the scenes together so they all naturally lead on from one another creating an engaging story from start to finish.
From the moment we stepped foot into the first scene we knew that we were in for a treat. The actor in this played the role perfectly with a mixture of scripted bits and improv creating the right level of tensions that would continue throughout.
Sessions House of Horror is more like an immersive theatrical horror experience more so than a traditional scare maze but with the acting talent at Sessions House of Horror this works seamlessly as we go from scene to scene.
Unfortunately there was a small hiccup on our journey around the property that is of no fault of Sessions House of Horror but the fault of the group in front of us who for no apparent reason throughout the experience would stop and not continue. This meant that actors had to work doubly hard to lengthen the scenes we experienced while also trying to usher the group in front faster into the next scene. The event implements an 8 minute batching system which is more than enough time for this not to happen we just got unlucky.
Massive credit has to be given to the actors who had to deal with this group especially actors whose characters didn’t speak managing to hold us back to try and avoid the bottleneck they caused.
Throughout the event there were some nice effects especially one that I won’t spoil but was absolutely terrifying. The effect worked perfectly with excellent timing from all actors involved.
We cannot fault Sessions House of Horrors it’s a treat and one that immersive theatre and horror fans alike should experience. The event runs until the end of October so we would highly recommend making the trip to Spalding to experience Sessions House of Horror.
The Sessions House of Horror 2020
The Sessions House of Horror is another new event for 2020 and is based in a former courthouse in the centre of Spalding, with a large car park nearby. We headed there on the Friday before Halloween for our second event of the evening on the penultimate night of their limited run in the last week of October.
Seeing the building first was seriously impressive, the architecture works perfectly for a scare event and it was brilliantly lit up in red. There was a short queue outside the gates and again before entering the building. COVID and usual safety precautions were well accounted for at the beginning and throughout. One aspect that was different to any other event we’d visited this season was that mixed groups were going through together. They attempt to ensure social distancing between bubbles by having people spaced out on a section of rope that you keep hold of throughout the event. As a concept it worked reasonably well, though it is still possible to get too close to people and we’d have preferred to have gone around just in our bubble, but sadly this wasn’t possible due to the popularity of the event.
On to the event itself and Sessions House of Horror was one of the most fun, entertaining and well executed we’d been to all Halloween season. It covered all of the classics and had a good mix of more theatrical elements, which occasionally added to the distractions, as well as traditional jump scares. There was a fun simple puzzle aspect to the one part of the event, which also gave them the opportunity to switch the order in which we went through the remainder of the event, which is always a nice touch and shakes things up a bit especially as it lasted for about 35 – 40 minutes.
The homage to a familiar Dungeon scene was well done, and there was one brief element of touching one of our group, but that was it and was through multiple layers of fabric. The interior of The Sessions House was also suitably impressive and varied, from the traditional court room to the original cells. All in all we were impressed with what they had managed with the existing space. The use of sounds was great throughout, especially in the blindfolded section.
Usually we’re not massive fans of hooded / blindfolded sections, but felt that what was executed here worked really well especially with one audio and flooring effect combination. We were tempted to take a peak to see how that was done, but preferred to remain ignorant, but speculative. The next scene in a creepy church could have perhaps done with an additional scare or two.
The highlight though for us was the scene that took place in the corridor, through and inside one of the courthouse’s holding cells. This was really fun, with some great simple effects. Something that we felt could be built on even more in coming years and in our opinion could have led to a much more impactful ending rather than the slightly jarring finale that didn’t quite live up to the rest of the event.
All in all we had a cracking time at The Sessions House of Horror, easily one of the best events we visited this year and impressively so, given that this was the first year of running. We’re really looking forward to what they do in the future. Fingers crossed they will be back in 2021, if they are and you can make it to Spalding, we’d highly recommend it.
Thank you for a great first review from the ‘scary guard lady.. Ed’ s keeper’..