JFI’s Inside Brings Nine Beautifully Haunting Stories to Life
Happy Halloween. Below is a review and partial recollection of JFI Production’s Inside. Expect spoilers below. For those that did not get to experience the beauty that is JFI’s Inside, please see the photo gallery at the end. Afterall, pictures are worth a 1000 words. Special thanks to Jeremey Connors, Taylor Winters and Alyssa Concha for the images in this post.
Candy was a new babysitter in the manor – and her boyfriend snuck in as the parents drove away. They were madly in lust, bumping and humping wherever they could. And after their roll in the hay, they would drink the family’s booze. But Mrs. Lance, the old nanny, watched from an adjacent window. She picked the lock on the door, sneaking in and watching Candy break her pre-marital bond each night. Tonight, Halloween night, Mrs. Lance had planned a fright for the couple; she slipped strychnine into their drinks. And when the parents returned, they thought the scene was fake, until they couldn’t find their baby – but by then, Mrs. Lance was long gone. inside
Just Fix It Productions’ (JFI Productions) Inside is a 15-minute immersive experience that offered audiences a chance to walk a gorgeous mansion property, observing dark vignettes that play out from within. JFI’s Inside recommended that audiences get up close, take a peep, and be a creep. Due to current social-distancing policies, the action was always separated by a window or door, allowing participants to be close and the action to be personal, but always safe. The experience embodied a dark voyeuristic tone as guests observed the lives of people that had been murdered or died within the house – and now, on Halloween, the spirits return to the house to play, like a haunted and sweet ballet.
Inside was a structured experience, placing small groups in the company of a guide. The guide was silent, but held a speaker that cleverly narrated each scene. A secondary guide followed the group and used a flashlight to ensure that guests did not linger too long past the end of a scene. Using physical cues, the guide would stop in front of a window or a door and allow a scene to play out, and as guests heard the narrator’s voice move away from them, they would move on, following the guide to the next area of the house. Each area had designated sections outlined in caution tape to help audiences know where to stand. This helped keep guests safe, socially distanced from the guides, and indicated the best viewing angles for the scenes as the action unfolded. This combined movement of the actors and audience was expertly crafted by Justin Fix and Stephanie Turek.
To further enforce social distancing, all actors were isolated in their own room, to ensure that they could act without masks safely. In scenes that had multiple actors, JFI was able to cast actors who shared a household to ensure that everyone in the production was as safe as possible.
Inside was an exercise in voyeurism, murder, isolation, and sin. Each story felt beautiful, artistic, and romantic, but drenched in a dark Halloween spirit. This was in large part due to Daniel Montgomery’s writing. Each story felt like it could be real, but just fantastical enough to be a bedtime story. And that feeling was further enhanced by narration that had a sing-song quality to it. Sentences rhymed within stanzas, giving the whole piece a feeling of a dark nursery rhyme made for adults.
It wasn’t just the writing that contributed to the quality of the piece; it was also the set dressings, lighting, and music. Each scene felt contained within its own unique time period, detailing a different resident of the home. Sets were elaborate, letting the now-famous mansion of The Willows become a different home to each of its inhabitants throughout the ages. The writer waited in a foyer filled with furniture draped in white cloth, with gorgeous reds and oranges being projected upon him like an ever present heartbeat of the past; two lovers danced around a room, a ballet of spiders spun in the literal webs that enveloped the room; and a witchy woman spun a spell around a room lined in a hundred candles, each casting their own shadow upon the woman’s black attire. Each scene felt distinct yet cohesive; a new room in a house of stories.
It’s in these details that JFI excels. The use of neon lighting and a soft ’80s ballad helped set the mood for a scene taking place in 1984. Pale blue lighting signified the blue shimmer of moonlight in another. Feeling reminiscent of an E3W production, another entire hallway was lined with newspaper. They could have easily rested on the laurels of the beautiful mansion Inside occupied, but instead, JFI transformed the house, making each room feel appropriate for the character or characters within.
Below, the review contains mild spoilers. Bookmark this page to revisit later if you would like to go into this experience blind (which is recommended).
The Pit
A pit to Hell has opened in the basement. While no actors were present in this scene, a single shoe remains as a lesson of a house that may be a vortex, or maybe was just born bad. And while we won’t know its true intention, what we do know is that it is hungry – for all things dark and sad. As the ghosts come out each Halloween, only one writer could capture their stories. Let’s just hope he emerges with more than just one missing shoe.
Locked Inside
A 30-something-year-old woman (Kassie Winkler) has been locked inside her room by her over-protective mother. She longs to go outside and spends all of her time staring out the window – at us looking up at her. The actress used her eyes to call out to us for help, but we watched helplessly below. On Halloween, her rage overflowed, and she stabbed her mother to death while carving a pumpkin. Yet, the girl realized she didn’t know where to find the keys, and now she is locked inside forever. The set design was beautifully 1950s inspired, and the girl was dressed perfectly, complete with a bouffant hairstyle. The room was beautifully decorated.
The Lover and The Killer
Set in 1984, with a fun 1980s soundtrack, the lover (Daniel Montgomery) sits on window wistfully smoking a cigarette. He is preoccupied by the fact that his lover cheated on him, and isn’t aware that there is a serial killer on the loose. This isn’t any ordinary serial killer though, but rather, one who wears the skin of the last person he kills. As the audience moves to a second window, the serial killer (Matthew Vorce) rises up to kill the lover. As the killer removes his clothes, the lover loses his skin. The beauty of this scene is the distance put between the actors and audience. Taking place across a courtyard and on a second-floor window, it reinforced the fact that we have no power in changing what happened to the people in this home.
I Want Candy
Set sometime in the 1960s, Candy (Kylee Thurman) is a teenage girl, hired to babysit a young child. As soon as the parents leave, her boyfriend, Trevor (Jacob Miller), comes over to drink the family’s liquor and indulge in each other, taking full advantage of the empty house. Using two actors that already live together allowed for this scene to feel intimate, racy, and a bit naughty. But we weren’t the only ones watching the couple make out and remove their clothes. The previously fired nanny, Mrs. Lance, is watching from an adjacent window. While the teenagers were distracted, she snuck in and laced their beers with strychnine. As the kids continue to drink and fornicate, they are poisoned. Guests are led away from the scene haunted by both the laughter of Mrs. Lance and the sounds of two teens vomiting out blood.
The Wolf
Newspapers line the alleyway, trashcans punctuate its sides, and blue moonlight shines down from above. A man (Gui Agustini) takes the trash out, but he’s not alone. Some kind of animal bites him; and as the man moves inside to check on his wound, he begins to transform. Staring at us from a reflection in the mirror, he becomes animalistic, frenzied in his behavior. We rush to the next window—and he emerges, a wolf-man, howling at the pale, blue light above. But was it the bite, or the curse of the house that caused this transformation?
Practical Magic
The dining room is littered with candles, occult paraphernalia, tarot decks, and a Ouija board. A black mass is huddled in the corner – it’s a witch (Deirdre Lyons) who has trespassed to perform a dark spell in this haunted house. As she moves around the room with ferocity and power, her magic takes form. She approaches the window, engaging us with her tarot deck, trying to predict our future – but her magic fails and she is cursed, her spirit now trapped in the house. The energy of this scene was infectious.
The Writer
A writer (Mason Conrad) moves into an abandoned house. The entryway is filled with boxes and furniture covered in white sheets, transforming this home into an abandoned, dusty remnant of its former beauty. Gorgeous lighting and projections make this room feel haunted by the ghostly sheets of past residents and an ever-present heartbeat coming from the depths of the house. A writer stands motionless in the doorway, armed with the mission of capturing the stories of the house; but like us, he hears noises and voices in the home, and he is slowly driven mad. As his mind devolves, his movements shift from slow and precise to frantic and desperate. Paranoia takes over as the lighting shifts to reds. He rushes up the stairs, looking for a noose, tying it tight, and ending the voices haunting him.
The Premonition
A grandmotherly woman (Melinda DeKay) sits in the study. She rocks back and forth in an antique, wooden rocking chair, her nightgown flowing beneath her. She holds a book close to her chest, reading to three dolls sitting on chairs around her. This woman is special; she has a gift in which she can speak to “the other side” and sense when someone is going to die. She stands, approaching the windowed door that we peer into. She freezes, looking directly me: “It’s you, you there, you’re next to go.” She singles me out, drawing me into her narrative, mouthing the words in time with the narrator. Yet, she never really saw me – instead, she saw her own reflection staring back at her – it was her own death she was predicting.
Haunted Ballet
The final scene is drenched in blue light and enveloped in white spider webs. A ghostly couple dance captivatingly through the webs, caught in an eternal ballet. The female (Stephanie Turek) is cloaked all in pink netting giving her a ghostly glow, and the male (Nicky Romaniello) is wearing all blue. Their dance is as beautiful as it is hypnotic; the way they move draws you in. There is no escape from the house; each member has a part in this story, trapped in the home’s thick web. And, as the audience is led away, all of the actors fill the windows. The writer slips the noose over his head; Mrs. Lance laughs; and the others look on, trapped Inside.
Final Thoughts
Inside was a full JFI show reflected through a socially-distanced lens. Despite the brief 15-minute duration, the company managed to pack in a full, satisfying narrative that felt exactly the right length. They included nine, complete mini-narratives that added up to a fully history. While there was no real interactivity, the actors were able to still make the show feel personal and engaging through clever ways of singling out participants, including the audience in the storyline, and making the show feel creepy and naughty. Utilizing the incredible acting JFI is known for, through beautiful lighting and the transitioning of the scenes, JFI was able to capture something so wonderful and creepy in a socially distanced, 15-minute show. I’m just glad the spirits trapped in this house were allowed out for one night of fun this Halloween!
For more information about JFI Productions, check out their website, Facebook, or Instagram pages. Check out our Event Guide for more Halloween and horror events throughout the year.
JFi’s Inside was actually an outdoor show and no guests were allowed inside. Instead guests stood outside inside the cold.
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