EDINBURGH 2025: Review: SCATTER: A HORROR PLAY, Underbelly

Horror media, in any form, is often one of the most difficult genres to get right. Whether it be cinema, literature or theatre, the simplification of what Horror audiences expect - a good scare - makes it all the easier for a production to crumble.

Horror and comedy have been compared in more than one way for many years. Both rely on audience expectations to expect one thing only to be taken by another, whether it be fear or laughter. Thus, when one fails to provide a chuckle or a scare, the whole production can fall in on itself. Thankfully, this is not the case for Scatter, a new horror play from Patrick McPherson.

The production is a simple one, with a single, moss-covered antique chair on the stage setting the scene. With this, a couple of props and his body alone, Patrick McPherson tells the chilling story of a man who travels to a remote Welsh village to scatter his father’s ashes, only to find that a horrifying legacy awaits him.

It is an admittedly predictable tale of generational trauma (what modern horror movie isn’t these days?). However, it isn’t about what you do but rather, how you do it. It is in this arena that Scatter succeeds, crafting a shocking tale in which the impacts of such traumas on this family are genuinely horrifying. 

With such a simple set-up, the show takes a fairly minimalist approach, allowing much of the terror to come in the implication rather than anything that is explicitly seen or said. Simply put, this would not work if it weren’t for the excellent performance from McPherson. Leading the entire production on his lonesome, the performer keeps the audience lingering on his every word throughout, maintaining their attention and perfecting his timing just to make them jump when they least expect it. 

On the opposite end of the scale, however, the show can rely a little too heavily on loud bangs or screams to get its scares from the audience. Imagine a book where, rather than building the tension by painting a horrifying picture with the written word and the reader's imagination, the writer just occasionally wrote in “BANG!” or “BOO!” It would be lazy, and that is exactly how it comes across here. Everybody involved with the show proves that they are much smarter than this tactic too, crafting a genuinely spooky production filled with thrills and chills. This only makes it all the more disappointing, with the show going from incredibly subtle to painfully obvious.

Thankfully, this issue doesn’t weigh things down too much, with plenty of moments filled to the brim with tension. There is one particular section of the play where all the lights go out and McPherson makes use of a hand held camera, with a screen in the background showing what the camera is recording whilst he walks through the venue. You could hear a pin drop.

Scatter may fall foul to the sins that plague much of modern horror media, but make no mistake about it, this is a play of exceptionally high quality. The script is tasteful in its minimalist, yet engaging, story that forces the audience to read between the lines and the direction from Johnny Harvey is well done, for the most part, when it is allowing the story and the scares to come organically. Truly, however, the star of the show is Patrick McPherson himself, who holds it all together with a great performance.

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