Monday 28th October, 10pm,
ITV2
One-off horror comedy gameshow with a view to a series. Reggie Yates communicates with a team of three friends sent into a scary forest to complete apparently terrifying tasks and challenges for money, which they only get to keep if they can outrun the titular hounds at the end and escape the forest.
It taps into the primeval fear of it being very dark and the possibility that something may or may not be there. Letting people scare themself with their own imagination has been done before (in MTV’s Fear, for example), and has proven highly entertaining.
It looks like basically an hour of people getting “BOO!” shouted at them in the middle of the night for money, and whilst it sounds like a bit of a one-joke show it can be a helluva joke. I hope it’s got a little more meat to it then that otherwise we’re not sure it has a lot of places to go for a full series, but this is something we’ve been looking forward to for a while so are keeping our fingers crossed is good.
I’m actually quite looking forward to this, they’ve only really shown us little teasers to show the setting, etc. but the production design looks spot on and for once this is the type of show that actually lends itself to the young, over-excitable folk that tend to get cast in most prime-time game shows these days. Equally, as an end-game, running away from dogs sounds like it could be amazing.
Hannnnng on a minute – so, in one edition of Was It Something I Said the scores are a draw, but in the extended version one team suddenly wins!?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Was_It_Something_I_Said%3F_(TV_series)
I know the scores are dropped in in the edit, and I know the scores are only a vehicle for the comedy and not something to get wound up about, but surely there must’ve been a more elegant solution than rigging it like this?
Well it was different. I guess I was hoping for something a bit sharper and, well, spookier. I didn’t feel it came across as creepy in the edit as it could have done.
It didn’t captivate me I must say, but it certainly wasn’t awful and the reactions were amusing. Maybe someone a bit more eccentric would have worked as host/guide other than Reggie Yates.
That was a gameshow that dared to do something different, had some inventive set ups, a great iconic end game and had some real laugh out loud moments. Was it perfect? No – but it was getting pretty close. For me if anyone thinks ‘Prize Island’ was better then that then they’re a little bit mad!
Well done ITV2.
The thing is, Prize Island I wasn’t expecting much from and did at least meet that low bar, this I was expecting loads from and didn’t quite deliver for me.
Call me critical, but I feel like I wasted an hour of my evening for the main part [40ish minus ads]. For a one-off, fair play, but considering this was produced by the company that brought us Breakaway and the sorely-underrated The Exit List [ITV should be ashamed at how it scheduled that], I was disappointed to say the least. It didn’t scare me a great deal [barring the third key quest, which credibly had a jumpscare or three in it], and the editing was sub-par [Too many recaps when returning from ad-breaks, and cutting to ads at the wrong time. On that front, the follow-up takes of Reggie’s reactions seemed forced and unspontaneous. While the Twittersphere seems to like it [ITV2 programme remember], I just can’t find many merits from it. Kudos for trying, but if I had to rate it, 4/10 at the very best.
Naturally I loved it and everything about it as my job dictates I should.
Seriously though as an hour of horror-comedy-gameshow I thought it was alright, although it was not without flaws.
Great setting and backstory, which were then never referenced in the programme at all. It felt quite rushed, which is surprising considering there were only three and three half challenges and there wasn’t really any padding, and only very brief recaps. I might have a look in the schedule tomorrow and see what the actual runtime was, as I imagine they were under their allowance – 45’40” if you’re interested.
Challenge one was OK, probably needed it to be going dark for it work properly. I would have liked the scarecrow on plinth number two to have done something scary but subtle, so it wasn’t all on number three. Someone with and excellently twisted sense of humour came up with this.
Challenge two was a bit odd, I think it needed more of a narrative, and maybe two more steps in the treasure hunt. That being said I loved the way it was filmed, and I liked the way the first clue was delivered.
Challenge three was incredible, and they had just the right contestant. I would have made two changes, have a few books ready so it could be a bit longer and have specific references, and have the key in the had in the crib, rather than the head.
The hounds bit was, OK, it needs something added to it. I feel like maybe all three sound run together at the end, or some kind of arrangements where they complete a series of runs activating something to hold the hounds up at each stage. Also, if he hounds can bark a little less, after ‘The Door’ the have to be ‘seen’ to be content!
Overall it was great, probably needed night vision in a few more shots where we couldn’t really see and it definitely needed a nice overhead shot of the crawlspace in challenge two, not sure how obviously. I’d be tempted to rework it for teams of five and lose two at each stage. Game two needed a third person I think. Might have worked better as a 90 slot programme, but outside of reality-entertainment anything above a 60 is unusual.
Oh and as Brig tweeted, I would have moved the 3rd CB, about 2 seconds earlier I imagine.
Summary: Worse than Estate of Panic but better than The Door.
Hopefully it’ll get a small series for Halloween next year. A Christmas special would be pretty awesome too. Nice start to Halloween week for us anyway.
Yeah, the backstory stuff on Facebook had me very intrigued, then they didn’t do anything with it.
Christ, I think I’m just getting too old, I thought it would do all sorts of things for me from the trailers but I found the end result a bit disappointing. For me not creepy enough in the main (apart from the nursery, which I thought the whole show would be a bit more like, but even that ended a bit abruptly) – it felt way too overproduced, I was hoping it would feel a bit more Blair Witch lo-fi, as it was I don’t think I was drawn in nearly enough to get the desired effect. I’m glad there was less Reggie as the show progressed, not because I have a problem with Reggie particularly, but because it got more fun the more they felt alone.
It started off too slowly, I thought they’d push the freakiness of the crucified scarecrows a bit more, but the contestants just sort of dealt with it – I think they needed to be more on edge from the start. Yes one of the scarecrows moved a bit but I was expecting a bit more. It was neither creepy nor funny *enough*.
Outrunning the hounds – this should have felt a bit more natural – the dog handlers were a big thematic mistake, what it required was a gate for the contestant, a gate for the dogs, and the Entity of the Estate to boom “release the hounds” and open the gates. I was expecting this to be an endgame running through the woods in its entirety, as it is it breaks up the overall sense of foreboding it’s trying to create.
Creepy house – I was just desperately hoping for *something* to happen really and never really did, except for creepy scarecrow guy who briefly turned up and then everything was alright again.
The creepy nursery for me was the best bit because I think it was the bit that most felt like what I was expecting to get out of the show. I hope there was a massive argument in the edit suite as to the placing of that ad break, and I think the wrong person won. A person alone getting freaked out is funny, the challenge ended rather abruptly (I think I might have gone for one more jump), although if Reggie ad-libbed the “you’ve just got to wait there half an hour,” then fair play, I laughed.
I’d be surprised if many people could outrun a pack of hounds over 120m with a 30m head start. By this point I was praying Reggie would look at the camera and go “oooh, nasty!” before pissing himself laughing but alas, not to be.
The end sequence spoiled it – you can’t go “if the dogs eat you you’ll never be seen again” at the beginning and then show them at the end. We’re not American! If a viewer thinks they’re actually getting eaten then bloody let them think that.
In summary, I applaud the aims, I don’t think it went about achieving them quite correctly. No-one is more disappointed than me for having to write that.
I wouldn’t object to them having another go though.
Th interesting thing reading back my Twitter timeline is that everyone seemed to like and dislike different things about it – not really that much concensus. I don’t know what that means, but I thought it quite an interesting observation.
I watched this show because it was so hyped up on the WWTBAM Facebook and Twitter Feeds. Plus having a name like “Release The Hounds” would intrigue me. I (wrongly) assumed with the pitch being Halloween and scary they would use something to convey Hell Hounds (but in reality be something akin the The Interceptor or the Captors from CH4’s (could have been ITV) gameshow “Wanted” from the 90s.) where upon the compleation of a challenge the person had to go through a maze with a timed headstart with another person playing the hell hound trying to capture them, althoughout the maze would be speakers that would scream when they passed the laser trip switch scaring the contestant whilst giving a clue to the ‘hell hound’.
But I found the challenges a bit passe, but that could be because I like my horror shows (supernatural etc.) and found most of this tame, although I was multi-screening because the show couldnt sufficiently hold my attention, the main time it did was during the disembodied voices as I was trying to work out what was being said.
The show had a good idea but bad direction – 1st I would not populate the teams with TOWIE clones they reeked of fake sincerity, 2nd Reggie is not an ideal host to ramp up the tension and fear – he’s “too CBBC”, we need freaky and creepy rather like Edward Tudor Pole and Richard O Brien were in Crystal Maze someone who is just clinging to this side of being “unhinged” but not too over the top.
The first Challenge would have been better if either all the scarecrows were alive so they moved or did an effect each, like one would give you a hug as you grabbed the backpack, the second a soundbox made the noise of creaking wood and as the contestant reached for the bag the crucifix started to give way toppling backwards slightly (on a rig) with the third still having the third, but upon retrieving the key have the original scarecrow the team got the first bag of climbing pegs come chase them with a scythe until they were out of the field.
The second task I agree with others should have been a bit longer with each body part still in a corpse I
in the crypt and amongst the bodies have one or two of them be actors who grab or scratch as the contestant crawls over them to get to the next clue.
The third task has okay if a little predictable. I would have placed this on a stage area, when it came to finishing the story I would have put the chair on a large trapdoor that dropped into a dark cellar which the old lady would then have come out handing him a key which would open tbe door to the cellar as well as be the final key.
If we were to keep the final chase (instead of my idea above) after each challenge, I would have given the team a chance to buy a further headstart (half the money for 15m forward).
But back to the editing, the selected sections for ad breaks lose any suspense from the challenge, as for the recaps – I’m aware ITV2’s demographic hasnt many braincells to rub together but even most dull witted fools can remember just a couple of minutes previous (unless it was dull and banal – rather like this post of mine) maybe if it lacked the breaks (e.g. the BBC) the suspense could have held momentarily longer.
As for the post-production interviews I would have cut them from the broadcast completely and placed them on the website (not that the team had much to say in any case) at least if the broadcast did end with no mention of team the initial info screen would have made more sense “with thanks and permission of the families of the team”
Now I’ve analysed this show my scores have dipped from just after watching the show.
Pre-analysis: 5.5/10
Post-analysis: 3.5/10
Agree with a lot of the above, especially that it seemed simultaneously rushed but sparse in content. I actually quite enjoyed the contestants, as I think a lot of their reactions were fairly genuine, and while perhaps unintended much of the dialogue felt like a Simon Pegg film. (I particularly enjoyed the tactic of shouting ‘f*ck off!’ at pretty much everything.) Reggie Yates seems an odd choice, a bit too clean cut and not entirely sure how to arrange his face at times.
The dogs struck me as a bit too much like an idea that sounded great when first mooted in a production office somewhere, but then never got properly developed. It felt very out of keeping with the general ‘narrative’ (such that it was) and just a bit…artificial. Initially I was expecting a pursuit through the woods (with following the correct arrows getting you home quicker or something) but could believe that’s basically impossible to do in reality. A small tweak which I think would have improved those ‘scenes’ would have been to have a timer starting from the moment they unlocked the chest counting down to when the dogs were released; they can then spend as much (or as little) time grabbing money to give them less/more chance of escaping, while simultaneously making the whole affair feel a bit less contrived. A flat race seems both a) very difficult, and b) fairly boring after the first ‘catch’ (which was also spectacularly anticlimactic).
Still, there were some great moments, and I think the real strength with the format is when you have someone alone in a dark woods – perhaps if they could have the team split up earlier, with them each pursuing separate tasks, it might have been more engaging. Couldn’t see myself watching it every week, so wouldn’t expect it as any more than a one-off, but A+ for giving something new a go.
I will try and find it when I get in this evening, there’s quite a funny Japanese Batsu Game (that’s subbed) set in a haunted hotel and is hilariously relentless.
As promised, here is part one which provides some context. Other bits look like they’re on Dailymotion, details in the description:
http://youtu.be/UkSG9chxsIg
350k and below what was in the slot last week, is what I’m hearing.
Big shame, would have been interested to see if word of mouth would have done anything as it seemed to go down quite well with people who did watch it and commented on it generally.
Unusually for, well for anything other than the occasional film, this had nearly double the viewers on its Halloween night repeat than on its first TX so it broke the magic million overall. My fingers are crossed.
Well, this was a curate’s egg if there ever was one.
Two main mistakes they made – the setup was quite good only for the atmosphere to be immediately destroyed by the lovely friendly chat they have with Reggie. They should’ve put them in the van and let them camp in the woods for a few hours and then get on with the games themselves, as if they were on their own (as far as is technically possible).
Likewise, the walkie-talkies kept things too cosy for them. Every time you take the contestants out of the scenario like that, it relaxes them too much.
The way the dogs were used in the end was quite good – the heavily foreshortened shot made it unclear whether they were going to get caught or not. But the calibration of the game seemed messed up – if the fastest runner couldn’t outrun the dogs on the hardest setting, there’s not really any game there – it’s just unfair. It would have been nice if there was something the contestants could have done to outfox the dogs (make the first part of the track a simple maze?) or somehow earn extra time or distance before the dogs were released.
On balance, Reggie was the wrong choice for this. His gurning skills weren’t up to much. You’d have been better off with an actor in that role.
A great shame that it didn’t pay off as a whole, given that some of the scary challenges were fairly effective.
Interestingly I’m being told it got over 500k for its Halloween showing and steady throughout which is a bit more like it, especially as it was a late showing IIRC. Surprised that wasn’t its first one really.
I should always scroll all the way to the bottom before replying. I think it was helped by a pretty good line up on the 31st. Juice and Tricked are both going great guns at the moment. You’re right though, the 31st would have been a better first TX.
I wanna do this how do I apply