Terror Vault’s ‘Hexed’ – journey through a maze of queer horrors

As a serious fan of horror, you might say that for Joshua Grannell, aka drag icon Peaches Christ, it’s a vocation with him, as his stage shows have often paid homage to the genre. For the past several years, Grannell and his partner in crime David Flower have produced “Terror Vault,” an immersive horror show at the San Francisco Mint, where the audience is led through a maze of sets, with the audience actually becoming a part of the show. “Terror Vault,” now underway at the Mint through November 1, has become one of the Bay Area’s most popular Halloween attractions.
The current incarnation of “Terror Vault” is called “Hexed,” and it tells the story of three witches who form a powerful coven that threatens to destroy humanity. As this threesome perform their dark rituals, a rising number of missing children alarms a group of witch experts known as The Believers. These Believers seek to recruit people from the audience to help stop the witches. The audience is led from room to room, down long dark corridors, and up and down dark, shadowy staircases. It’s not an experience for the faint of heart.

Before and after embarking on their journey, the audience is invited to have a few drinks at the Fang Bang Bar, visit a haunted gift shop, and, for VIP ticket holders, to enter “Triple Hexxxed,” Minerva Moans’ Witch Strip Club. This is a Halloween experience suited for adults only.

Horror haven
In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Grannell spoke of what attendees can expect when they enter the world of “Hexed.” He also spoke of his deep love of the horror genre.

“It’s something I’ve loved since I was a little kid,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where the inspiration comes from. I’ve always been drawn to horror and darker things, macabre things, weird things, transgressive things. It’s always been part of my DNA.”

For his Peaches Christ persona, his primary influences are Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, drag legend Divine, and Frank-N-Furter from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” But as himself, he loves the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series and films like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Poltergeist.”

Grannell’s desire to do annual shows at The Mint actually harkens back to his youth.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” he said. “Even when I was thirteen, fourteen years old, I would do these haunted trails where I would get permission to use this chunk of woods next to where I grew up. I would write and direct these plays that would happen in the woods. It was called ‘The Haunted Trail.’ My parents would get involved, and I would audition all the neighborhood kids. I spent months building sets and props. It’s kind of like something I did as a kid that I returned to as an adult, after I met David Flower, my co-creator and co-producer.”

Minted bond
The two met in Provincetown, where Flower was doing haunted attractions and Grannell was spending the summer doing a show. Grannell was quite taken with Flower’s work and asked him if he would be interested in working together in San Francisco. Flower said he would, so Grannell spoke to the people at The Mint and put the deal together.

“Our inspiration was to take our love of old-school haunted house experiences and mash it up with our experiences as adult theater makers, and create something that was more immersive theater than just simply a haunted house,” Grannell said.

“Hexed” features around ninety actors on rotation, with 60-something actors scheduled each night.

“People are in different places throughout the show, so I really have to kind of direct chunks of the show at a time, if that makes sense,” Grannell explained. “I get a group of them together who are in four or five scenes back-to-back and we really work on dialing that in.”

And though the show’s story involves missing children, Grannell noted that there are no children in the cast.

“That’s part of the beauty of it,” he said. “I could do a show that involves children, but because they’re missing, I don’t have to cast children. I wouldn’t be allowed to work with children in a show like this. The show for sure is for adults.”

Grannell promised that there’s a lot of queer content in the show, and that his shows are always queer.

“The whole brushstroke of the show is queer horror,” he said. “We’ve never shied away from that. It’s a show about witches, created by a drag queen, so the whole thing is queer!”

Terror Vault’s ‘Hexed,’ through November 1 at the San Francisco Mint, 88 5th St. $60-$80.
https://www.terrorvault.com/ https://peacheschrist.com/