A 16-year-old schoolgirl obsessed with vampires turned up to her prom in a coffin.
Abi Ricketts roped in her dad and brother to act as undertakers, before ‘coming back to life’ on the red carpet.
The elaborate stunt was in tribute to Abi’s gran, Margaret, who had supported herarrival plan – but sadly died earlier this year at the age of 76.
Abi arrived at school in a 6ft coffin, with her eyes shut and arms crossed, as though she were dead on arrival.
Then, as the rock song Year Zero by Ghost played, the self-professed ‘goth metal head’ dramatically opened her eyes and ‘rose from the dead’ in front of a cheering crowd.
‘My teachers said that it was amazing, they had never seen anything like it and it would go down in history.’ says Abi.
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Speaking of how the idea came about, Abi, from Doncaster, said: ‘I’ve never wanted to fit in. I’ve always wanted to be outside of the box and outside of the norm.
‘I’ve always wanted to stand out from everyone else and never wanted to follow the crowd.
‘My favourite movie of all time is Lost Boys so I love the vampire aesthetics.
‘I’ve been into goth metal head stuff since I was four and it was an idea that I first spoke to my nan about.
‘She was so on board with it but she ended up passing away about four months ago.
‘I knew I had to do it to honour her. We’re a family of goth metal heads so my family thought it was great too.’
Abi had been planning the ‘out of the box’ stunt for a year.
Just a week before the year 11 prom, she managed to track down a £50 plywood casket being flogged on Facebook that she painted and lined with a bedsheet before clambering in.
She wore a black lace corset dress, lace tights and black boots, and after being unable to source a hearse to travel in, her dad, Alan Ricketts, drove her in the boot of his car.
After pulling up to the red carpet Alan, along with her 18-year-old brother John Ricketts, solemnly opened the boots and rolled her out of the boot.
Abi said: ‘It felt amazing that my dad and brother were involved.
‘My dad was the one that planned how I was going to get out the car and he wanted to make sure I had the prom I always wanted.
‘It felt amazing that they were doing it for me.’
Abi’s dad was involved in the song choice too.
‘Me and my dad are really big fans of Ghost. I play the bass guitar and I love heavy metal – the talent that goes into it and the way they use classical music to compose it.
‘My dad played this song in the car and we both looked at each other and knew this was the song I needed to come out of the car too.
‘It was a song that gave church music vibes so we thought it would fit.’
And dad Alan loved being part of the occasion. ‘I thought “It’s my daughter I’ve got to do it”‘, he said.
‘She had had quite a few issues at school and I didn’t even know if she was going to go to prom, so when she said she wanted to go and wanted to do this, I pulled out all the stops to make this happen.
‘I put [the coffin] on metal rollers so we could get it out smoothly so she could walk out when it reached the ground.
‘It went so fluid and looked so graceful when she came out at the end, it sent the crowd wild.’
Abi agrees that she received quite the reception.
‘Everyone was cheering and screaming and clapping,’ she said. ‘They were all gobsmacked.
‘I had a lot of people come up to me at prom and tell me it was amazing. Someone said if there was an award for best entrance I would have won.
‘The people that came up to me at the start of prom wanted photos with me.’
Alan adds: ‘As I opened the boot and started pulling the coffin out people were gobsmacked. Their jaws hit the flaw.
‘There was silence until she stepped out of the coffin and then the whole place erupted.
‘I thought she looked amazing, what a transformation.
‘She had gone from being my little girl to an adult. I was so proud to do it for her and it was an amazing thing to be part of.’
Since going to prom, Abi has shared photos of her entrance on TikTok, and the post has gone viral racking up 1.6million views and 166,000 likes.
Social media users flooded the video with comments.
One user wrote: ‘Stop this is the most incredible thing I have ever seen.’ While another wrote: ‘Love a supportive family.’
A third added: ‘You are too cool. I love how everyone is just watching. You ate queen.’
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