THIS APP IS A HAUNTED HOUSE at The Hen and Chickens Theatre 3 – 6 August 2026

‘Promising material but needs honing’ ★★ ½

Designed as an interactive comedy, the protagonist is The Final Girl, the last one standing in every horror movie. It’s Played by Scout Black, an actor who can milk the sympathy and the comedy with dead pan assurance, she brings depth and resonance to her character.  .

In the set-up, The Final Girl is on a dating app, hoping to find the man of her dreams but instead she notches up a stalker (voice over) and a ghost. The show has many nods to various horror movies, although the horror being explored here is the dating app.  Was the opening scene a reference to Halloween?   It was explained to the audience that the last girl alive, is usually the one who isn’t having sex because those who are, don’t survive.   So, ‘don’t have sex’ says The Final Girl. A lovely irony is that The Final Girl is desperate to find a long-term relationship, so needy that abstaining from having sex (on the first date) isn’t really doable.  Her sidekick The Ghost is played by MaggieMarie Casto, who is a good foil, and plays it without any real depth, but with a slight sense of the ridiculous. Something like an improv player and in fact some aspects of the show are improvised as it has audience participation.   

The material for this show is very promising, with hilarious laugh out loud lines, plenty of conflict and time pressures. One of my favourite lines is the very relatable ‘I could fix him’ and we all know the truth of that one.

Here are the not so good points. Right at the beginning, the company had a technical issue and ran over time – this had a knock-on effect for the next two shows. The audience participation was a little messy.   Some audience members had been given notes to read out when prompted by the cast.   Potentially this was engaging and comedic, but it felt a little flat and uninspired.  Perhaps a few words at the beginning of the show alerting the audience to fact that they have their part to play and some details of how that will work, might prepare the whole audience to feel engaged with this aspect of the show.   The voice over, whilst adding much to the show, the timing was out. In a conversation on the phone, the delayed reaction of the voice over in response, seemed like another technical hitch and spoilt the effect.  In parts the show is messy, which is okay, but messiness needs to be more intentional. 

It is a very ambitious show and if the company can get on top of their material, it could be hit show, funny and entertaining.  If this isn’t where the company want to take their work, then perhaps it would suit them more to bill it as ‘part improv’, so that expectations are more easily met.

THIS APP IS A HAUNTED HOUSE at The Hen and Chickens Theatre 3 – 6 August 2026

BOX OFFICE: https://camdenfringe.com/events/this-app-is-a-haunted-house/

Cast: Scout Black and MaggieMarie Casto