“I think the future of cinema is Secret Cinema,” says Fabien Riggall.
Riggall just happens to be the founder of Secret Cinema, which might make you think it’s a piece of sales bluster, but from Riggall it sounds like a statement of faith.
This is because Secret Cinema is a bona fide, hyperbole-free entertainment phenomenon. So phenomenal that many of its 70 productions have propelled the featured film into the UK box office’s top 10.
Some people label it “immersive” theatre or cinema, but it’s much more – and better – than the image that word paints. It’s more a creation of worlds, inspired by films, where visitors can escape reality.
They’re given characters and wardrobe direction in advance, but little else. At the event, multiple, simultaneous, interactive storylines happen all around, with actors gently guiding the fun. There’s food, drink, shops, music and, of course, the film. You step in, become someone else for a few hours, and leave entertained and happy.
“I was always really interested in cinema and theatre,” says Riggall, whose background is in making short films. “I used to love music and festivals and going clubbing. It was a mash-up of these things that gave me this idea: what if cinema could be something different?”
Then, in 2007, Riggall had the idea of not revealing anything about the night, not even the film, gambling on people’s love of mystery and suspense. Secret Cinema was born.
“Years ago, I was taken to see Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy,” he says. “I was a bit reluctant. I didn’t know anything about it. But it blew my mind. Imagine all the other things that I’d judged before I’d seen them. What if you created a night where people go just because of the secret? They might be surprised.”
This format was – and still is – called Tell no One. Films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shawshank Redemption were screened to curious, adventurous and unsuspecting audiences.
Participation levels were also increased. Guests were given instructions on what to wear. That was it. For Shawshank in 2012, they were told to dress for a court appearance, but with long johns and a vest underneath. On arrival, they were thrown into a blacked-out bus, marched through showers, stripped and put in prison uniform.
Brazil in 2013 was another evolutionary step. Rather than a rigid storyline, guests were allowed to wander, with some guidance, around Terry Gilliam’s dystopia like an open-world video game.
“A lot of the audience who’d come to Shawshank were expecting a similar experience – a ride,” says Riggall. “It’s happening to you, rather than you creating it. But I was always obsessed with this idea that each audience member was an actor.
“That’s a big part of what Secret Cinema is. You’re given an identity, a biography. You meet characters who are actors, but you also meet characters who are audience, and you move around the space.”
The thought of participation can unnerve anyone who likes to keep their entertainment at a distance, but Secret Cinema should hold no fear for even the most retiring. Riggall is keen to point out that participation is a sliding scale.
“You have the ability to choose your involvement,” he says. “By wearing a trench coat and looking like a bounty hunter, you’re in a Blade Runner unit, you’re a part of it. We’re trying to not force people into situations, but to allow them to just enjoy this environment.”
The smaller Tell no One strand continues, but for Secret Cinema’s biggest productions – and they are enormous now – people know what film they’re going to see. The reveal can help: who wouldn’t want to visit the worlds of Star Wars, Blade Runner and Moulin Rouge!? Though what happens to them once they arrive still remains a mystery.
But it isn’t just about dangling the carrot of nostalgia. New releases such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, Prometheus and The Handmaiden all flourished with Riggall’s touch.
Like any great success, any phenomenon, Secret Cinema had a defining moment; it happened in 2014.
“I was always really ambitious with the idea,” says Riggall. “I kept pushing it and pushing it. The greatest challenge was going from 30,000-40,000 tickets [per production] to 75,000 tickets for Back to the Future.
“We didn’t open the first weekend because of various problems, so for it to be as successful as it was in the end, to see people stepping back into 1955 Hill Valley, was both the greatest challenge and the greatest joy I’ve had. Because it nearly didn’t happen. That joy gave me a second wind of confidence.”
The current production, running until October, is Casino Royale, which will lure more than 100,000 people to the extremely glamorous, Bond-like location. But Secret Cinema’s next project is its most ambitious to date.
In November, it will be partnering with Netflix to create a world around Stranger Things: the 1980s-set sci-fi teen drama about an average American town, Hawkins, with a very unaverage parallel dimension. Riggall says it’ll be focused on the show’s unaired third season, but he’s giving little else away about Secret Cinema’s first foray into television.
“Stranger Things is about celebrating all those amazing movies we grew up with and turning them into this new world of Hawkins with all its mysteries. There’s infinite possibilities. It’s not about how we’re going to do it, it’s how many ways it can be done. It’s about taking that nostalgia, that innocence, that sense of mystery, and turning it into a world that people can live inside.
“Then there’s going to be a reimagined moment where all the different storylines are just mixed up together. It’s really exciting because Netflix has some of the most amazingly creative people working today. It’s a next-level Secret Cinema.”
Riggall is all about the next levels. Other plans and ideas include global expansion and Secret Cinema for kids. There’s a side project to create original productions that, again, will defy pigeonholing. Which brings us back to that bombastic opening statement about the future.
“I think traditional [independent] film distribution is dead,” he continues. “People are going to see big movies, not small movies. The film industry should look at what Secret Cinema is. Something’s happening. You had 75,000 people dressing up as prostitutes inside a carpet factory, pretending that they’re in Belle Époque France. Why?
“There’s something culturally exciting about it, like a new art form. I believe sincerely that this is the future of cinema, not virtual reality or AI. I think the future of cinema is where it started: social, friendly, interactive, immersive.”
For tickets to Secret Cinema presents Stranger Things and Secret Cinema presents Casino Royale, visit secretcinema.org
