The Hidden Glasgow Forums

AGGGGHHHHHH! What an experience, talk about frighteneing the shite out of you. Such a laugh, i went with my parents when I was 12, my mum was so scared. Old women or people with a heart condition were warned not to go in!

How come it was so scary? Just a guy in a suit. We all knew that before going in!

Was that the one in the Arches in Midland St. If it was yes, I almost sh*t myself. You start off very cocky and assured, by the halfway mark your pushing women and children out of the way so you do not get caught.


Fantastic Fun

There was a follow up, something to do with vampires or something? My mate used to work in the Arches and showed me round the set, can't remember much about it.

Read in a magazine about a year latter that they had gone through a score of out of work actors due to the over excitment of the Glasgow public IE Drunk blokes giving the Ailens a good Glasgow seeing to

skintobalinto wrote:Was that the one in the Arches in Midland St. If it was yes, I almost sh*t myself. You start off very cocky and assured, by the halfway mark your pushing women and children out of the way so you do not get caught.


Fantastic Fun

Something along the lines of the same frequency as a church organ, being put through that alien esq music.... Oh, shiver me timbers....

Funny how music and frequency(s) affect your being.

I went to Alien War on my tenth birthday in 1991, and all I remember was that it wasn't as scary as all the hype suggested.

Yes, I remember this. I was at the official opening, having worked on a video with John Gorman. John and Gary Gillies were the two folk behind it all. The lead modelmaker (Jim Something) was later part of the team that built the dinosaur outside Glasgow University.
This is another story, but I also collaborated with John and Gary on a film script, which was possibly going to be filmed in Lennox Castle. As far as I know, the film was never made.
Alien War then went to Aberdeen and London (and got written about in Wired)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.04/eword.html

It came back to Glasgow as Alien War Zone at the end of 1999. I don't remember that.

I went when I was twelve.

Excellent.

My little brother got scared and wandered off though... To this day, we still rip the p!sh out of him on that one.

Chris...

Ahem.
I guess you could consider me the resident Alien War expert, aside from Ronnie.

I was the first member of the public through the doors on the opening morning ( An hour later than advertised! ) and went through more than any other.
I only realised after about my 20th trip through that Gary Gillies was a friend of my Gran's.

I'll try to write up a general info thingy on it, but if anyone has any particular questions, go ahead

Ronnie wrote:It came back to Glasgow as Alien War Zone at the end of 1999. I don't remember that.

Was that not at the SECC or somewhere other than the Arches?

I seem to remember it being really crap compared to the original.

hi nodrog - a google search reveals that it *was* at the SECC.

The original Alien War was at The Arches.

It toured a little - they set it up in Dundee I think.

Then they moved it to London, and changed the format. The set was permanent, and instead of blank-firing weapons, the marines used an electronic "Soundfire" system with electronic Pulse Rifles triggering speakers built into the set.
Lame, by all accounts.

Well, the London one bit the dust ( Insurance job, according to some rumours ).

After that, the Alien War licence was gone so what came back to the SECC ( The one with the set built inside shipping containers ) was "Alien War Zone".
This was NOT officially endorsed by Fox so the Alien creature design was changed, the marines were NOT "Colonial Marines" and their armour was repainted black.

It also, indeed, sucked.
The blankfirers were too loud for the steel containers, and experiments with exploding BBs didn't work too well either.



The "Other One" previously mentioned was "Terror" and took the Alien War concept and replaced the Aliens with horror icons such as Leatherface and Jason Voorhees.
It was alright... With the added bonus of the Leatherface actor waving a real chainsaw

Judging by the website for the SECC show, it was a Gary Gillies solo show. So what happened to John Gorman?

By the way, the model maker who worked on Alien War - and on Millie, the dinosaur outside Glasgow University - was John Riddell.

i went about four times, it was brilliant, the bit at the end when they opened the lift door, I was in it and a guy done a runner leaving his son standing there. I heard it was crap when it was at the SECC. One of the actors gave me a copy of the trailer that was showing for ALIEN3, shame the film turned out so poor.

John Riddell is a bloody genius.
I'll try to find some pics of his work.


BTW, the guy that did the runner - plant.
I actually did my best to convince them to change the dialogue there - it was Gary Gillies himself that did it the first time round ( Looks a bit like Bishop/Lance Henriksen. Either that or Nigel Planer, depending on the angle... ) and he was saying stuff like "I know it's not real... I know it's only a game but I need to get out of this lift!"

Kinda destroys your suspension of disbelief...