The idea of gathering somewhere to get the pants scared off of you is hardly a new concept. People have enjoyed being collectively scared almost from the beginning. Yet in the 19^th Century, something fascinating happened. An overall interest in the supernatural intersected with a sudden advancement in technology. For the first time, people could convincingly recreate the world beyond the veil. The most common form of this was the séance, but there was also the phantasmagoria, and it’s this lesser-known, equally fascinating phenomenon that’s explored in Here the Birds Burn: A Phantasmagoria Revival.

Written and directed by Stephanie Delazeri, the one-hour, 18+ Here the Birds Burn aims to recreate this early form of horror theater, which uses magic lanterns and other simple optical effects to seemingly conjure spirits, demons, and anything else you can imagine. Performed at the Heritage Square Museum, audiences can expect to move between houses and within rooms, and will at times be asked to traverse areas while their vision is impaired. There are no jump-scares or gore – the experience is creepy and macabre, but not scary by modern horror standards. Here the Birds Burn is largely scripted and audiences don’t have much agency to alter events. However, guests are accompanied throughout the experience by several 19^th-Century patrons, allowing for quite a bit of interactivity and overlaying something of a narrative on top of the recreation.

Those patrons may be attending the phantasmagoria like you, but they’ll also serve as your guides for the evening, and no matter which one you wind up with, you’re in for a show. Lottie Sinclair (the flamboyantly vibrant Rene Lovit, Crimson Cabaret) is a socialite who’s attending because phantasmagorias are the latest fashionable thing. She’s there with her friend Arthur McKay (performed to stuffy perfection by Drew Lipson, Crimson Cabaret), an architect and major skeptic of all things supernatural. Arthur couldn’t be more opposite than Thomas Blackton (an intense, earnest Sam Chan, Give Up the Ghost), a quiet man who believes that spirits are more than capable of communing with the living. Finally, there’s Emily Cole (the always wonderful Shoshanna Green, Safehouse ’82), a reporter who’s there to review the phantasmagoria for the local paper.

After being introduced to your fellow audience members, you’ll slowly progress through the three parts of the experience – the lecture and puppet show (led by the immensely charismatic Ryan Leslie Fisher, also of Crimson Cabaret), the salon de physique, and the conjuration of spirits. The era-appropriate audience members provide some fascinating texture to each section, interacting with you and often with each other (Lottie and Arthur’s continual ribbing of each other is a highlight). Along with being great representations of common tropes that reflect the way we view the afterlife, they also provide some storylines to become invested in, which get clearer as the night goes on.

Everyone has their own unique reasons for attending the phantasmagoria, but in one fascinating exchange, the four patrons discuss whether they believe if any of this spiritualism is truly real. Thomas shares that his father recently passed away, and he won’t be able to move on until he’s had a chance to speak with him again. He has to believe it’s real for him to have any chance at peace. Emily says she’s there because of her job, but she also shares a haunting childhood story about a screaming skull she saw at a show. The “scream” was found to be nothing more than a frog inside the skull, yet even though she knows it’s nothing unworldly, Emily’s been plagued by nightmares about it ever since. Can you truly say there’s nothing supernatural about it when it continues to haunt her for so long? Arthur says he doesn’t believe any of it, but he still bought a ticket to the phantasmagoria, and judging by how bothered he seems during the night’s climactic conjuration, he may not be as much of a skeptic as he lets on.

The point is that all of them, like so many of us, are drawn to this seemingly supernatural display because they’re curious about what awaits us after death. Is it truly the end, or could there possibly be more? The irony is that unlike most séances of the time, phantasmagorias were never presented as real conjurings. The showman who conducted them would make it clear it was strictly entertainment, created by what was cutting-edge science and special effects at the time. And yet, the end result must have been so utterly unlike anything audiences of the time had seen before, you could easily imagine why guests would forget this once it got started.

The technology and overall effect may be simple by today’s standards, but it must have been absolutely terrifying to audiences unaccustomed to movies and special effects, especially considering many of them were under narcotic influence. Many of the effects that lanternist Melissa Ferrari creates – from rising demons to crying madonnas – have to be seen to be believed.

While Here the Birds Burn doesn’t incorporate some of the more extreme aspects of classic phantasmagorias, such as igniting gunpowder explosions and sending electric shocks through the floors, it succeeds at being discomforting and even frightening in large part due to phenomenal sound design by Sam Gurry. The entire conjuration is accompanied by an eerie, impressive soundtrack of dissonant music, otherworldly wails (care of Gurry and Allegra Jones), and bombastic sound effects, all created using only technology and instruments that would have been available at the time. It’s powerful and it works, easily getting under your skin in the best way possible.

In fact, it’s all so impressive that one can’t help but wonder how it’s pulled off. It’s entirely fair for Here the Birds Burn to keep that to itself. However, the show gives you a quick glimpse behind the curtain as you’re exiting, which takes you by the conjuring’s illuminated backstage area. You’re kept moving, allowing for only a quick glance, but it was one of the night’s highlights for me. Seeing the number of people involved, and the sizable materials they were using to create the visual and sound effects was striking and fascinating, but it left me with so many questions and I couldn’t help but wish I had longer to look over the equipment or been given the chance to talk to the people who worked behind the scenes.

I also found myself wishing for some sort of final, post-conjuring discussion with the period patrons, especially after learning so much about them. Did seeing the conjuring change Arthur’s opinion about the supernatural? Did the chance to speak with his father once again bring Thomas peace? What sort of review will Emily be writing up? Those questions remain mysteries as the characters don’t depart the conjuring with you and you’re not given a chance to interact with them again.

Here the Birds Burn: A Phantasmagoria Revival is a fascinating look at a near-forgotten art form that helped lay the foundation for much of the horror fans enjoy today. As such, it has the unique potential to draw audiences of all sorts – from horror fans to history buffs. The experience boasts a top-notch cast and production values that are second to none.

Here the Birds Burn bridges time, offering today’s haunt fans a chance to meet their Industrial Age counterparts and discover that despite all of the world’s progress, we really haven’t changed all that much. The promise of the supernatural remains just as enticing and relevant now as it did in the 19^th Century. After all, while science has unlocked so much, it still hasn’t allowed us to conquer the thing that unites all of us – death. Until it does, we’ll always dare to peek behind the veil, braving whatever we might find there. The excellent Here the Birds Burn reminds us that though the things that scare us may evolve, the idea of fear – and our love of it – is timeless.

Here the Birds Burn: A Phantasmagoria Revival runs February 7th through the 23rd; purchase tickets HERE. Check out our Event Guide for more immersive horror throughout the year.

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