Review: Ur Favourite Scary Movie (Louise Orwin)

After falling in love with Orwin’s work from seeing Oh Yes, Oh No at University, I was excited to get into the festive spirit listening to this spooky interactive performance. I also can’t do much else that is festive while London’s locked down, so was looking forward to being freaked out by one of my favourite artists. This work can be experienced through audio alone or along with visuals, I pick visual AND audio, hoping to get fully immersed. I do admit, I completely jumped out my skin, which isn’t easy to make me do as I thrive off of being made to feel uncomfortable by a piece of performance. With gritty spoken word and detailed sound effects Ur Favourite Scary Movie provides a refreshing perspective on horror, as well as a psychological journey.

Orwin confronts many traditions of scary movies, naming the cliches and plots of ones that came before: ‘the one where the woman picks up the telephone in the middle of the night’; ‘you see her check the locks’; ‘or is it this one?’; ‘A twilight cabin in the middle of the woods’; ‘sudden knock at the door’; ‘figure outside’. She tempts us down the dark garden path putting imagery into your head and sketching pictures on your eyes. The piece concludes with a twist, that perhaps the most chilling thing, is our own imagination. Your own potential. Though she is there to narrate, there is no limitation to this experience, as you yourself conjure up scenarios and fears, pictures and sounds along with Orwin’s voice. Her use of music and voice melt together, into the perfect scary potion to engulf you this Halloween.

Available at:  https://homemcr.org/production/ur-favourite-scary-movie/