DETROIT – “It was promoted to be ‘edge of your seat,’ but people were actually leaving their seats.”
That’s how many of the fans who paid to see the “immersive” Broadway version of popular horror film Insidious.
The Insidious Live Show at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre, advertised as an immersive horror experience, left audiences disappointed and confused, leading to significant backlash.
Local 4 spoke to several people who paid to go to the show, and they said it was nothing like what was promised.
“When I walked out of the theater, it wasn’t even a sense of anger. Everyone was just as confused as I was,” Dylan Sides said. “I wouldn’t even call it a parody because a parody would infer it’s funny.”
The production was different that what was shown in trailers, fans told us. Sides said it was a clear case of false advertisement and nothing shown in the marketing was on stage.
The website for the show calls the play “a scare of a lifetime, as the world of Insidious jumps out of the screen into your theater seat.”
“Basically the only immersive part through the entire engagement was five volunteers who went up on stage,” Sides said. “They were put in white jumpsuits and it became painfully apparent they were all plants. And it’s, like, where’s the engagement? Where’s the immersive experience? Why advertise it as that if they’re not going to try?”
Detroit was only the fourth stop on the tour, but as a result of the horrible reception, the show has canceled the remaining 66 stops.
“It was promoted to be ‘edge of your seat,’ but people were actually leaving their seats,” Mark Ramos said.
Ramos, who runs MarkLovesHorror, already bought his tickets for the Texas show, but he said he has been notified that the show’s canceled because of the backlash in Detroit.
“Don’t promote things where you’re over hyping it, because as a true horror fan and fans of the film, you’re expecting one thing and getting another,” Ramos said. “It’s just not a good thing to do to the fans of the franchise.”
Officials with the Fisher Theatre are working with the production company to determine if refunds are possible.