By Harry Mottram: Me, I’m hard. OK my family still tease we for walking out of the film version of The Woman In Black – but it was very frightening.
So I did have some concerns when I entered Bath’s latest attraction in Gay Street: Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein.
Visitors are told they are about to step into the dark world of Mary Shelley and meet her greatest creation: Frankenstein. And there’s no doubt that the sales pitch is accurate.
And that starts with a rather frightening chap covered in blood and holding a meat clever who welcomes you as you enter.
Steve as he is called told me that some parties of teenagers do run screaming from the building – but then go back in for more.
Not for me – I was determined to see the attraction and not scream or be scared.
That was until I entered the first room – nobody was there – just a squeaking floor board and a creaking door. Suddenly a crib in the corner began to rock manically on its own. I left and took some solace in the room dedicated to the writer herself with lots of information and images about her life and context to her writing.
And there was an exhibition about the many faces, images and manifestations of her creation Frankenstein which even featured a pinball machine in his image.
The house echoes to groans, screams and strange noises which are OK if you have someone there to reassure you but on my one it did give me a sense of unease. So far so good – and I was beginning to think the promised visceral and multi-sensory experience was over done. It was when I came face to face with the monster imagined by Mary Shelley herself that I lost it. Shocking yes, frightening yes, nightmare inducing definitely. At that point I panicked – no – came to my senses and with as much dignity as I could muster left the building into the street.
Bath Voice Monthly Newspaper is distributed free to thousands of homes and some supermarkets – out on the first of each month. Harry Mottram is the News Editor
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