If you’re anything like me, then you get some kind of weird excitement out of medieval times and everything that goes along with them. If you’re as morbid as I am, then the ancient torture devices and weaponry from that time period gets your blood pumping even more. Well, what if all of those things were around and active today? We’ve read books and other things on all these real-life artifacts, but we know nothing of how they actually feel and what the experience with them is truly like. The brilliant guys at Scare Factory think the same way I do and wanted to know just how it would be to sit prone in a guillotine, wield a morning star mace, and stand alone in the iron maiden.
Surviving History is a bit of a misleading title while also being spot on with a great double meaning. What you’ll see in each episode is a number (usually two or three) different weapons and torture devices that were actually in use decades and centuries ago. There are even some instances where these devices were used as recent as the past couple years. The crew of Scare Factory (brilliant engineers, welders, fabricators, archaeologists, historians, and more) take the time to research particular devices/weapons and then build them to working scale. Using present day tools to build everything; the guys still do whatever they can to make the devices/weapons as authentic as possible.
Dave, Eric, Josh, Chad, Brian, Todd, Chrissy, Kermit, and more will also put themselves in the driver’s seat to experience some of these devices and use the weapons. They won’t ever put themselves in blatant danger (using dummies in things like the Gibbet and the Guillotine)…well, that’s not exactly true. The team created a “Wheel Of Misfortune” with everyone’s name on it and then they spin it to pick who will actually get underneath the blade or in the way of a cat o’ nine tails. Quite interesting and extremely scary for them I’m sure, but it frightens the hell out of me and I’m sitting on the opposite end of a television screen.
One of the greatest things about this series that makes it even cooler then it already is is the amount of history that is given out throughout each episode. Ancient hand-drawn pictures and some really awesome knowledgeable facts are given out so that we aren’t just watching these things in action, but knowing exactly what kind of damage they cause and why they were created in the first place. It is amazing thinking about people ever having to sit through or experience the pain and suffering brought about by these devices. What makes my mind baffled even more is that there were also people who used these devices on people to administer pain and receive information yet they had no problems with doing it at all. So many times I sat there in sheer awe as each new torture device was shown and built, because I couldn’t even begin to imagine someone inflicting pain on innocent, or guilty, people.
The DVD doesn’t call this a first season or anything like that, but it appears as if it may end up being a running series on the History Channel. Nine episodes total are included in this set and they each showcase different devices and weapons:
Archimedes’ Death Ray
The Rack
Baghdad Battery
Catalan Garrote
Halifax Gibbet
Branks
Fire Arrows
Twenty-Foot Tall Pendulum
Barrel Roll
The Joust
The Pretzel
Ducking Stool
Whirligig
Judas Cradle
Shame Flute
Cat o’ Nine Tails
Brazen Bull
Roman Missile Launching
Chastity Belt
Strappado
Iron Boot
Iron Maiden
The Gallows
Heron’s Steam Engine
Bastinado
Chinese Water Torture
Morning Star Mace
Chinese Repeating Crossbow
…and more
The episodes are shown in Anamorphic Widescreen format and they look just as good as they would when airing on the History Channel.
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Sound and it does the job for this series because there is virtually no need at all for the surround speakers. All dialogue, narration, and sound effects of the devices can be heard just fine.
Additional Footage – A few particular devices have some extra footage shown here including the Brazen Bull and the Halifax Gibbet. There is a little less than twenty minutes of extra stuff here and it’s all pretty good.
Wow, how I haven’t watched any of this series before is beyond me. It is exactly the type of stuff I love to learn about and watch, and it’s got a fun bunch of people putting it on that keep everything interesting even past the learning aspect of it all. Even some of the devices I had never heard of before and that’s kind of strange considering how much research I’ve done on the subject in the past. Surviving History puts a fun twist on what some may consider to be bland or dull history shows, and makes it entertaining and one of those that will suck you in even if it’s your kind of series. You’re going to feel every side of these devices by seeing how they were made, the type of people that would make them, and those that suffered the awful tasks of being subjected to them. The special features are good, but not too much which lowers the score of the overall DVD, but it doesn’t hurt the quality of the show itself. In a way, Surviving History is a demented and morbid version of Mythbusters which is another one of my favorite shows.
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A&E Home Video presents Surviving History. Directed by: Jason Sklaver. Starring: David Fachman, Josh Craig, Chad Reynolds, Scott Morton. Running time: 423 minutes on 3 discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: November 18, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
