Hasta La Creative!

The makers of “Lord of Tears,” a well-reviewed Scottish indie chiller, definitely ruffled some feathers with a pair of pranks that brought the film’s evil “Owlman” into real life.

In the first and less elaborate stunt, Owlman popped up on Chatroulette, where he set some teeth chattering with fear, though most users just seemed amused. (By Chatroulette standards, he’s actually not so bad.)

More recently, though, the beaked beastie nested in an an abandoned children’s hospital that’s reportedly a favorite haunt of sightseers and photographers. “Lord of Tears'” director Lawrie Brewster explains: “Whenever we got a heads up somebody was heading this way … we would get our hidden cameras ready to record what happened when they encountered our Owlman lurking inside. We did not expect the reactions we filmed, and had to cut short the second prank as our victim became too distressed. He was eventually fine in the end and even had a cup of tea with us!”

“Distressed” is putting it mildly. Some hospital explorers seem ready for the psych ward after encountering the Owlman in the hospital’s dilapidated halls. 

Some will insist the prank was faked, and indeed a cursory search of Google turns up no mentions of an abandoned St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital, which seems odd if it’s such a popular destination. (There is, however, an abandoned St. Mary’s asylum in Stannington.) And of course the reactions are almost too perfect.

Regardless, the video has proven scary popular, generating almost 1 million views in a few days and lots of buzz for a relatively small film. So I’d call Owlman’s latest flight a wise move indeed.