Twin Cities Horror Festival Day 5 Reviews: Gudlung, Gospel Gus’s Godly Good Time Get-Together

Two more TCHF reviews for you! Just eight days left to see these amazing shows and experience the unexpected and the uncanny. Go to https://www.tchorrorfestival.com/ for the full schedule and to purchase tickets.

Those of us who’ve been going to the TCHF for years now recognize the large tarp stained over the years with stage blood. We know when we see it on the floor that we’ve entered Dangerous Productions show. There’s one company each year that you know is gonna push the envelope when it comes to blood and guts, and this year is no exception with their entry Gudlung. Gudlung is some sort of demon whom the father of a family gives sacrifices of blood to in order to relive Christmas Eve over and over until it’s perfect. But Gudlung seems to be a bit like Siri in that it doesn’t always understand what you want. We’re not quite sure What’s happening when the show begins, but by the third go around we’ve clued in. It is the third time through the evening for us, but something like the 620th for the characters in the play. I don’t always enjoy the over the top blood shows but I can handle a little bit and this one seems almost a little restrained by Dangerous Productions standards it’s also a very funny script given how dark the humor is at times. There’s a mom who’s dying of cancer which clearly annoys her husband. And the grandma who’s brought back from the dead to hopefully add a little joy to the evening! The blood work is effective but also played for laughs, when someone gets disemboweled it’s more likely to tickle your funny bone than induce your gag reflex. When I started The Stages of MN six years ago, I never imagined writing a sentence like that.

Gospel Gus’s Godly Good Time Get-Together is hands-down the most elaborate large scale Incredible production design I’ve ever seen at a TCHF show. This makes The Neverland production design look like a kindergarten classrooms designs. The other thing it has over that show is a script which progresses the story from start to finish. The show is Created and Directed by Kyle B. Dekker and written by Sam L. Landman, yes that Sam Landman, making this the third show in this years festival that he is involved in. It’s reminiscent of 2023 when I think Allison Vincent was in every other show. Damn that was a good year and so is this! Gospel Gus’s Godly Good Time Get-Together is filled with satirical elements and it gives its competent cast something to work with. The script is inspired by a bit from Dekker‘s Fringe show He-Man is the Devil & Other Satanic Panic Tales from 2022. Its so elaborate, it’s not just the gigantic puppets, the crazy set pieces, and the wild puppetry effects. It’s also a multi media extravaganza! There’s video portions that interact with what’s happening on stage there’s projections, there’s entertaining use of black light technology. It also relies on the cell phone flashlight in the eyes of the audience, it basically uses every Technique we see in any TCHF show but uses every one of them in the same show and it actually seems to be in service of the script. I really like the cast, particularly Natavia Lewis who plays Nina and Angela Fox who plays Izzy. I forgot he was gonna be in there, even though he’s in the program, and giving a completely unhinged performance is Andrew Erskine Wheeler. All I can say is I hoped that the fluorescent liquid he ingests is not toxic. If you’re a fan of TCHF you owe it to yourself to check out Gospel Gus’s… I’m not gonna say it’s the best, but it is very good and is undoubtedly the largest spectacle you’re gonna see at the festival.

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