Step Into A Queer Gothic Tale Rooted In South Indian Folklore In Bengaluru This Weekend

A blood moon rises over an old Bengaluru home. Fifteen guests step into its forgotten library. Someone in the room carries a secret too dark to name.

Set in the candlelit library of a crumbling Bangalore bungalow in 1865, Blood Moon Over Bengaluru is a queer gothic mystery rooted in South Indian folklore, where the audience uncovers a forbidden story and decides whether it deserves to be buried or believed.

Part immersive theatre and part real-world role-playing game, this queer gothic folk horror experience blends theatrical performance, interactive gameplay, and immersive design to create an interactive theatre experience unlike anything the city has seen before. Created by IMMERSE, a vertical of the impact-driven storytelling studio Storiculture, the event takes place on July 4 and 5, 2025, with two performances per day. IMMERSE is best known for its flagship initiative, House of Play — a series of story-driven immersive worlds that invite the audience to become part of the narrative. Past IMMERSE productions include Once Upon a Night in 1865, a gothic horror supper experience, and Three Wise Fools, set in 1960s Goa during the resistance era.

Blood Moon Over Bengaluru takes that tested and true IMMERSE formula and transports it to 19th-century Bengaluru. Through flickering candlelight, and forgotten myths Blood Moon Over Bengaluru evokes the eerie and the intimate with palpable urgency. As fifteen guests enter the show, they unravel fragments of a forbidden story over five acts through lost journal entries, whispered confessions, and shattered promises. At the centre of this immersive mystery lies a single question: can truth survive fear?

This genre-bending experience also queers the gothic horror tradition by infusing it with Southern folklore, memory, and metaphors. By centering queer narratives within gothic storytelling, IMMERSE creates space for truths that history has tried to bury. The performance asks not just what we are afraid of, but whom and why. Backed by Storiculture, a media company based in Goa and Mumbai, Blood Moon Over Bengaluru is the latest in a string of boundary-blurring, participatory experiences aimed at reshaping how and why we tell horror stories, and who gets to tell them.

Blood Moon Over Bengaluru is free and open to the public, with limited seats available. Attendees are encouraged to arrive in gothic attire and will receive their character roles upon arrival. Showtimes are 3:00–5:00 PM and 7:00–9:00 PM at Bangalore International Centre (BIC), Indira Nagar. Registration is required through the BIC website here.

Learn more about IMMERSE here.

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