Heretic – Death has no Safe Word – Interview with A. Marcato

Two parallel doors stand in front of you. While one offers you the comfort of a safe-word, the other strips you of the right. The first offers a beautiful narrative that lets you out at a specific time, and the second offers you the unknown, fear, death: you do not know the running-time of this experience, you do not know how to leave, and you do not know what awaits you on the other side.

Which door do you choose?

On a rainy night close to midnight, Haunting met with Adrian Marcato, creator of the now deceased HERETIC and the extreme haunt that took its place: THE PARALLEL. We talk to him about how The Parallel evolved from Heretic, discuss details about the newly added Death element, and learn more about his cannabis haunt.

T H E   P A R A ll E L

What is The Parallel?

Marcato describes The Parallel as the next evolution of the Heretic horror simulation. Heretic was an extreme haunt; The Parallel is still an extreme haunt, but is now built on the foundation of narrative and choice. The experience is not just your own anymore–instead your choices can affect others who walk along the parallel path. Thus, your actions matter and have consequence–you now have a responsibility to make the right choice. Marcato compares it to such movies as Die Hard and Saw: “Imagine something is strapped to you and you have multiple decisions to make in a short amount of time—and someone you don’t know will be affected by one of those decisions.” The responsibility is on you.

At the beginning of The Parallel, the client will be shown two doors: one that has a narrative that has a safe-word and a running-time… and another path that can be anything: no safe-word, no running-time. Something a little darker. But there is another side to The Parallel. Marcato will be remixing some of his previous shows to include this element of choice. Currently, a follow-up to Vanish is planned to incorporate choice. If a wrong decision is made, participants will be sent to another realm, called Death, in which they face an extreme haunt section where the safe-word is removed. This will be discussed in full detail in the section below entitled Death.

Safety

“If your client is happy, is safe, and isn’t in the hospital—you’ve done an excellent job.”

So does having no safe-word mean you will just beat people up and torture them? “Well no” says Marcato. “We are implementing this because it is scarier when you don’t know your running time… and there’s no way out.” Safety is still a number one concern for Marcato and his team. He assures us that by removing the safe-word, it does not mean he’s pushing us into areas we have not been before. There will be no force-feeding, no electric shocks, no punching, no slapping, and no kicking—but it will be an intense and scary experience. Events will be rehearsed and planned out, and a medic will always be on-site. There will also be an ease up word that they are test-running during Death if the experience ever gets too intense. They are just removing one more layer of control from the participant, pushing them further into the unknown to generate a truly frightening experience.

Evolution

Marcato equates The Parallel to a morgue. “Imagine you are in a morgue and you are choosing a body. If there are fifty bodies and they all died differently, you chose one—that’s one storyline. When you come back, you’ll choose another body and that’s another experience. But you are always in the same morgue so it will all tie in together.”

Much like Heretic, Marcato says he “doesn’t see The Parallel running forever; it will have to change eventually into something.” He estimates that he has enough bodies to tell stories for two to two and a half years before his vision evolves again.

Permanent Location

The Parallel is looking to secure a permanent location, and for those who have explored the website may have stumbled across a donations page to help with this. While accepting money has always been difficult for Marcato—he did run Heretic for free for the first two and a half years—he is offering some fantastic perks for donations. A donation will land your name on the page and designate you as a Guide. Guides will have opportunities to watch the build, bring in groups, and create a personalized experience. If you’ve ever wanted to help design something to scare your friends—this is your chance.

D E A T H

What is Death?

“Death will test you cerebrally and it will scare the shit out of you.”

Death is a separate extreme haunt section that results from a wrong decision in The Parallel. In this consequence, there will be no safe-word, only an ease-up word that can be used three times. But unlike The Parallel, Death will have a running time of 13-15 minutes. It is an intense show employing extreme haunt techniques. This allows for a separation between the extreme haunt aspects of Death and the more narrative-driven sections in the main shows. This separation is a novel undertaking for Marcato and his team and could really elevate the storytelling and emotions felt during a The Parallel experience.

Because it is a consequence of a choice in the narrative, Death has ties to the narrative, but it does not have it’s own narrative during the experience. You may see a glimpse of what led you here, but this is not a story–it is more of an unknown. On the other hand, the main shows will still have some extreme elements contained within the narrative and will still have a safe-word to let you escape if needed. Death will usually live outside these shows, but Marcato teases that sometimes Death will live within the show.

Marcato cites the movie Flatliners, a story of med students who voluntarily flat-line to see what’s on the other side, as an inspiration.

What happens?

Guests will be transported into the underworld. Clients must enter alone, park in a specific location, and keep your keys in your pocket. Inside you will experience extreme haunt elements: cold water, extreme amounts of blood, restraints/gags, aggressive manhandling, hair pulling, destruction of clothes, claustrophobic elements, dirt, inversion, waterboarding, loud music, and sensory deprivation. There will be no force feeding or electric shock.

“Death will be tailored specifically to the participant,” Marcato says. But he doesn’t want to use their triggers because his goal is to get people out of the event and have fun–not cause any permanent damage.

How will you die?

You will be given a choice. These choices can range from a few to many during the course of the night.  And if you fail all choices or just fail one, the consequence is the same: you will have to experience death. But the choices you face are not arbitrary. Marcato tells us there will be context to them: “if someone showed up now and hooded you, you wouldn’t know how to respond. Similarly, if I offered you two pills, you wouldn’t know which to take. These choices are ones you will have to pay attention to and remember.”

Throughout the event, you will be given clues; you must listen. These will not be obvious or easy. For example, Marcato recalls a previous experience, Suffer, as an example of one such choice. “In an initial room, participants were forced to unlock a restrained man. Participants had been previously instructed that the numbers will be golden when you see them—and in that room, numbers were painted along the walls. However, only a few numbers were painted in gold.” For anyone that has been an extreme haunt environment, you know how easy it is to miss details, narrative, or even instructions when you’re facing intense stress and anxiety. But this difficulty will make Death interesting; it forces you to listen and punishes you if you can’t. If you survive, you won’t have to face Death.

Other Realms

Accompanying Death are two other realms: Purgatory and Health. While nothing is known regarding these yet (and what shows they will reside in), Marcato did mention that not all elements will be as frightening as death. While he describes Death as reliving an intense moment from your life, Purgatory is a waiting room. “It’s quiet, but that can be scary in a very different way,” Marcato explains. Conversely, Health is a place of recovery, separate from those fears.

These three new realms are meant to not only enhance the show, but also allow you to experience many different emotions across an overarching show and separate out pieces to allow greater focus on themes and narrative.

Cannabis Haunt

“For the extreme enthusiast, this will definitely open up a new door in your brain.”

The Cannabis Haunt (title TBA) will occur in October of 2017 and will play into the paranoia of over-medication. Focusing on the horrors occurring in a mental institution, participants will be asked to smoke a small dose when entering, and then later in the event, a stronger dose will be given to the participant—under the discretion of The Parallel. You can expect this haunt to still have the same extreme nature of other events.

Now that it is legal, it is easier to incorporate cannabis into an event. Marcato tells us the goal of this event is to innovate—to try something that people aren’t comfortable with. While, he does not smoke himself, he realized there is a market for it after urging from his partner. “We’ve always wanted to create an experience that messes with your mind while you are under the influence of something.” For those of us who do not smoke, there will be an option available to experience the event without the drug-induced effects. This experience will play more into the paranoia of a mental institution.

Final Thoughts

With the end of Heretic, Marcato continues to innovate and evolve his experiences as he moves into The Parallel. Marcato has plans to continue partnering with companies like Cracked in the UK and developing shows in other countries. But his main focus is his events in the Los Angeles with events like The End Sessions and The Cabin, which will return in 2017. Furthermore, The Parallel will have involvement in both Midsummer Scream and ScareLA and a booth at Spookshow next month.

We look forward to experiencing the incorporation of choice into The Parallel next week when we V A N II S H. Marcato has always created a beautiful tapestry of horror, weaving together real life events, horrific news articles, powerful narratives, and extreme elements. By placing some separation between these elements, we look forward to how the events and our feelings change. And finally, when we die–and we will–we will give you all our thoughts on the removal of the safe word, how it changes the dynamic of an extreme haunt, and any recommendations we have moving forward. Wish us luck, we’ll need it!

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