Review: this app is a haunted house, Hen and Chickens Theatre 

Camden Fringe is great to test those weird and wonderful ideas running around your head.  Which feels exactly the case for Scout Black’s this app is a haunted house. It’s a clever and novel take on the world of online dating, pairing dating app horrors with the slasher movie genre. But it is currently a collection of mad ideas that are not yet fully formed; it’s clear the team just haven’t quite worked out how to piece them all together. What we get then is a show with lots of laughs but is rather disjointed.  

The concept is simple; dating apps are a horror show, which, in itself, is nothing new for a show. But in tying that in with the classic slasher movie trope, it opens a world of new possibilities. Final Girl (Black) is looking for love via the apps, and in doing so, experiencing all the horrors of them, from men who are only after one thing to those who bring their mum along to the date to vet potential dates. She’s called Final Girl because that is what the last girl standing at the end of the slasher movie is called, the one who survives while everyone else meets some gruesome end.  

Act One should set the tone, with Black telling us about her dating horrors and introducing us to Camp Can’t Catch a Break, a safe place for Final Girls, free of men, or so they think. But it’s not until Act Two, and the introduction of Emma Kowalchuk when some form of plot starts to show through. That first act would be better merged into this. Kowalchuk brings a new energy as the Spirit of Final Girls, one who somehow didn’t make it, now left haunting the camp. It completely changes the tone from one-woman monologuing about her experiences, to one with an attempt at story, albeit still rather scattergun. The pair bond as Kowalchuk’s Spirit tries to guide Black’s Final Girl into working out why she has had such poor dating experiences. Oh, and somewhere here is an attempt to get through the night while the slasher is somewhere on site. 

The issue is that the plotting is all over the place, ideas underpinning the play fall away too many times, leaving it floundering to find something solid to hold onto. Scenes come and go and while all are funny, they just don’t glue together. There is just no structure, meaning that it becomes extremely difficult to follow what is meant to be going on! 

But that’s not to say it isn’t both fun and incredibly silly. It really is, just in a completely haphazard way. There’s even some clever audience participation to add a little extra colour to things, with audience members given cards to read out when called upon, and marshmallows to throw later, although it’s an idea that needs thinking through; half the marshmallows were consumed leaving Black having to mime being hit by them, while the call out for cards needs clearer guidance.  

If the plan is to take this on from here, there is a need to think about how all the ideas can be better pieced together to make for a more coherent through story. The idea is sound, the performances are great (even dealing with severe tech issues on the night), but currently the structure is letting it down. But even so, as a Camden Fringe show, it’s more than worthwhile, because this is a safe place to find out these faults and decide how to work through them. 

Written by: Scout Black
Directed by: MaggieMarie Casto

This App is a Haunted House plays at The Hen and Chickens Theatre until Thursday 6 August as part of Camden Fringe.