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Alien war

Pauline McLean | 17:49 UK time, Friday, 5 December 2008

In space, they say, no-one can hear you scream.

The same is probably true of the labyrinth of basements beneath the Arches below Glasgow's Central Station.

It's there the team behind Alien War have set up their new show.

Inspired by the Alien films, the show is returning to Glasgow this week for a four-month run.

"It's definitely a creepy space," says Gary Gillies, who created the show in 1992 along with John Gorman.

"There's supposed to be a ghost of a little girl. No-one has seen her but there are some spots where you feel slightly strange."

And if that doesn't scare you off, the new show will.

Famously braved by Sigourney Weaver ( who screamed and giggled her way through the London spin off), shunned by Sylvester Stallone (whose restaurant was next door) and by Michael Jackson (who sent his bodyguards and they apparently warned him off), it's now back at the Arches for the first time since 1992.

The premise is that while refurbishing the venue, workmen uncovered a strange alien spacecraft.

Two burly marines are escorting us through the dimly lit corridors when it all goes horribly wrong.

The initial show was famous for ejecting screaming customers onto Argyle Street and for its fear factor.

"We've had people fainting - men and women - people trying to leave before it's even started and people who leave their children behind in their rush to escape," says Keith Gainham who played a marine in the first production and jumped at the chance to return this time.

"It's a very scary show but I think people like the adrenalin rush of it all."

Despite having Ripley's endorsement, the show's creators decided to cut ties with 20th Century Fox, who had endorsed the original show.

"We just felt it was like being handcuffed," says Gary Gillies.

"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.

"So we decided this time to do it ourselves."

And don't they worry about that possibility themselves?

"It's like a roller coaster,"says John Gorman.

"People love the adrenalin rush but they know they're strapped in, they can't get hurt.

"This is the same. And any publicity is good. Think of the ambulances parked outside the cinemas when they showed the Exorcist in 1973. people love all that sort of thing."

The team are expecting record interest - with tours of 12 taken through the set potentially every 10 minutes.

They'll also adjust the show for the audience.

"Late night audiences tend to be a little more raucous, a bit more lively. So we'll up the ante a bit," says Gary.

"We can spot the ones who are truly terrified and let them out as the tour progresses."

One major change since 1992 is that the Arches has been transformed into a proper venue, which means audiences are no longer thrown onto the street at the end of the tour.

Instead they'll end up in the bar, which should do a roaring trade in stiff drinks between now and the end of March.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I remember doing this with friends from uni.
    We'd been warned where to stand in the lift so the alien didn't get us but it still had us running straight into the gift shop.............not the street.

  • Comment number 2.

    I remember going to it at the SECC when it was last on there next to a sci-fi exibit. Really good rush and wound up not having to pay to get into the sci-fi exibit where we got to play around with the guns from Aliens.

    I will be going to the Arches for this one.

  • Comment number 3.

    I remember going to Alien War at the arches at least 7 times back in 1992 and I cannot wait to go back now.

    A superb experience that I have never forgotton and it will be great to see how the guys have updated the experience since then.

  • Comment number 4.

    Hi Folks

    Nothing new...

    "The premise is that while refurbishing the venue, workmen uncovered a strange alien spacecraft."

    Who remembers the 1950s Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú-TV screamie Quatermass and the Pit, where "while refurbishing (a London Underground station), workmen uncovered a strange alien spacecraft"?

    Greetings from Glasgow from d_roxof (whose parents wouldn't let him watch the original broadcast!)

  • Comment number 5.

    I went to the Trocadero in London for it, in the early 90's.

    Good to see it back. Wonder if I can blot out the existence of the woeful Alien3?

  • Comment number 6.

    d_roxof - well remembered on the Quatermass, although both of us confess to real old age by having seen it. I was at primary school for the original and saw it on one of the 'communal' tellies. There were only about 3 TV's in the whole village, one of them an electronic babysitter for a classmate with pubstruck parents. This was reality horror! Small huddles of terrified post-tots in the playground the next day, either re-telling the story or discussing how much of what they had seen was real. For many of us, it was the first time the telly had shown anything scary. And it worked, scaring the kack out of a whole generation - it wasn't until The Goons took the pmick rotten a couple of years later that I was able to lighten up on it..... Now a dedicated Alien fan, but exiled far from Glasgow - shame.

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