House of Anubis

Plot

Anubis House is a residence at an English boarding school dating from the early 1900s, and currently serving as a home for nine kids under the watch of the boarding school's strict caretaker, Victor Rodenmaar Jr (Francis Magee). As an American girl named Nina Martin (Nathalia Ramos) moves into Anubis House, another resident, Joy Mercer (Klariza Clayton), suddenly disappears without a warning and the school staff eliminate all traces of Joy's existence. Joy's best friend, Patricia Williamson (Jade Ramsey), is dismayed to learn this and accuses Nina of being involved with her disappearance. Forced to spend a night in the attic, Nina makes a bizarre discovery: the recorded diary of a young girl whom she met earlier as an old woman, Sarah Frobisher-Smythe (Rita Davies), who had lived in the house long ago. On the tapes, it is revealed the house has a secret history, a mystery that nobody knows anything about. Sarah has given Nina an Eye of Horus-shaped necklace with mysterious powers revealed to Nina when she decides to investigate the house's mystery, alongside her new friend Fabian Rutter (Brad Kavanagh) and new roommate Amber Millington (Ana Mulvoy Ten). They form a secret group called "Sibuna" (Anubis backwards) whose popularity expands to include Patricia, once she makes peace with Nina after learning that Joy's disappearance is connected to the house, and Alfie Lewis (Alex Sawyer), another classmate and prankster. Eventually, Jerome Clarke (Eugene Simon) joins in the mystery as well. Mara Jaffray (Tasie Lawrence), Mick Campbell (Bobby Lockwood), and Trudy Rehmann (Mina Anwar), the house mother, are oblivious to the mystery.

In the second season, an evil ghost from ancient Egypt threatens Nina saying that she will die if she doesn't find the Mask of Anubis. With the help of Sibuna, Nina finds a chain of tunnels containing deadly tasks that they must go through in order to find the mask. Meanwhile, Victor is after that mask so that he could obtain the tears of gold, the missing ingredient in the elixir of life. Jerome wants to find his father, who tells him that in order to reverse his bad luck, Jerome must find the Frobisher gem and put it into the Frobisher shield. A new boy Eddie (Burkely Duffield) who becomes rivals with Patricia, even though they are just hiding the fact that they are attracted to each other.

In the third season, a new teacher, Miss Denby (Susy Kane), comes to the school and seems to hang out with Victor and Mr. Sweet often. New American student K.T. Rush (Alexandra Shipp) comes to the school. Eddie has a vision of K.T.'s dying grandfather giving her a key and telling her to go to Anubis House. Eddie and K.T. do some snooping around the house while Fabian tries to decipher a series of codes mistakenly given to Amber. When Amber leaves for fashion school, Sibuna is revived with Eddie as a leader and Fabian, K.T., Patricia, and Alfie as members. They find out that the adults are trying to reawaken a sleeping Robert Frobisher-Smythe, with Denby being the "Keeper" [she keeps Frobisher in the tank room in the gatehouse (her home on the school property)], Victor being the "Enabler", and Mr. Sweet being the "Seeker". The Sibunas discover that Miss Harriet Denby's name is actually Caroline. Her sister is actually Harriet – and the original Keeper. However, she is locked in a mental hospital because of her sister. It turns out that K.T. is the great-granddaughter of Frobisher. Jerome, Joy, Alfie, and Patricia are the descendants of Frobisher's friends and are needed for the ceremony, but because of Caroline Denby lying about her identity, Frobisher is reawakened evil.

Everybody thinks that the ceremony didn't work out since Sibuna intervened just in time, but when Caroline goes to the gatehouse to pack her bags, she meets Frobisher, who is reawakened and evil. Caroline does not tell Eric Sweet or Victor about this. Robert explains to Caroline that he needs to capture five sinning people for Ammut at midnight or noon, so that they could become evil. The sinners captured are Victor, Patricia, Mr. Sweet, Fabian, and Alfie. Ammut rises, but needs more souls. She gives Frobisher a book that easily captures people's souls. A fake assembly is organized as an attempt to capture more souls. Willow (Louisa Connolly-Burnham) is the only person who didn't become a sinner. Willow, Eddie, and K.T. are chased by Frobisher and the soul-less students but Harriet comes to the rescue with a stolen ambulance. She explains that Willow didn't become a sinner because she had K.T.'s moon key, and that Ammut can be sent back with Caroline's sun key and K.T.'s moon key. Willow becomes a sinner when she and K.T. try to steal the sun key because Harriet slipped the moon key into K.T.'s pocket. In the end, Ammut is sent back, devouring Caroline. Frobisher is not evil again and old. All the sinners are back to normal and don't remember what happened during the time they were sinners. Willow doesn't even remember the short time that she was good, so she forgot about the whole mystery. The Sibunas, of course, are told by Eddie and K.T. about what happened. Frobisher and Harriet set off for Egypt, and Jerome and Joy finally get together after a lot of drama, involving Jerome cheating on Mara and Willow. Mara and Fabian flirt. The group enjoys a fireworks display.

In the finale special Touchstone of Ra, the Anubis House residents are preparing for their graduation; however, their joyous celebration plans are cut short with the arrival of four [freshmen] fourth years who move in early – Cassie, Erin, Dexter, and Sophia. Patricia instantly antagonizes Sophia because she spotted her flirting with Eddie. On their trip to an Egyptian museum, Eddie, Dexter, and Sophia discover a special artifact known as the Touchstone of Ra. Back at the house, Victor announces that an artifact from the museum was stolen, and the Touchstone suddenly appears to be in Eddie's possession. Victor confiscates the Touchstone but has no intentions of returning it. Later, the Sibunas (along with Sophia and Mara) overhear Victor speaking to Mr. Sweet about what happens when the Pyramid of Ra is built. They plan to prevent him from building the Pyramid, retrieving the Touchstone for good measure. Eventually, Eddie discovers that Sophia has betrayed them when she plans to complete the Pyramid of Ra herself. At the graduation ceremony, Mara is manipulated by an unknown force when she wears the valedictorian medal (which is actually an artifact discovered by Alfie). At the house, the Sibunas team up with Victor to find the remaining pillars of the Pyramid to stop Sophia from accomplishing her goal. In the final showdown, the Pyramid is incomplete and the students are saved. Since Sophia fails, she is transformed into stone as a punishment from Ra. Eddie loses his Osirian powers in the process. Since Victor's "destiny" was to prevent the pyramid from ever being built, he decides to leave the house for good that evening as the students celebrate their graduation party.

Anubis Unlocked

Anubis Unlocked is a behind the scenes show of the House of Anubis which is aired in and produced by Nickelodeon UK. 10 episodes were commissioned for Series 1 which featured cast interviews, behind the scenes clips, tour of the set and exclusive previews. There was no series commissioned for Series 2 of House of Anubis however a short segment aired at the end of the series. The series was re-commissioned for Series 3. The show was presented by Anna Williamson and Jamie Rickers in Series 1 only.

Production and development

Production began in August 2009, but in March 2010 Studio 100 announced that the series was sold to Nickelodeon in the United States. The series was filmed in the summer of 2010 in Liverpool and was first broadcast in the United States on 1 January 2011.

The series is the first original series produced for the flagship U.S. Nickelodeon channel to be produced outside of North America, and is Nickelodeon's first original drama series since the 2000–2002 series Caitlin's Way. The series is structured in a different manner from other live-action television series in that each episode consists of two eleven-minute segments, a format commonly used in half-hour animated series (although the events of each subsequent segment pick up from the events of the previous segment); and the series' episodes are formatted to be broadcast in the five-day-a-week format that is typically common with soap operas.

On 10 March 2011, Nickelodeon confirmed that they will make a new season of House of Anubis at its annual Upfront presentation to advertisers and media. On 29 June, Entertainment Weekly reported that Nickelodeon had confirmed a second season of House of Anubis and that production would begin on 21 July 2011. A total of 45 half-hour episodes (90, 15-minute episodes) were aired in 2012.

On 16 April 2012, a third season was confirmed by Nickelodeon and Lime Pictures. Nathalia Ramos (who plays Nina Martin) will not be returning for the third season so she can focus on finishing college. Eugene Simon (who plays Jerome Clarke) confirmed that filming of the third season will begin in the summer of 2012.

On 16 July 2012, Nickelodeon (UK & Ireland) announced on their Twitter page and the website's blog that filming of season 3 would begin that month. Bobby Lockwood (who played Mick Campbell) announced on his Twitter page he would not be returning for the third season but, announced he had a new show coming out called Wolfblood on CBBC. It was announced on the House of Anubis Facebook page that there would be a new character named KT Rush, who was played by Alexandra Shipp.

On 26 July 2012, it was also announced on the Facebook page that there will be another new character named Willow, who would be played by Louisa Connolly-Burnham.

After the finale of the third season and the movie special, as of January 2017 Nickelodeon has not announced a fourth season. But on 18 December 2013, director Tim Hopewell hinted towards a possible fourth season in the making via Twitter.

The series was filmed in Liverpool with Ye Priory Court standing in for Anubis House, and Peckforton Castle Lodge, located in Chester, standing in for the gatehouse.

Critical reception

Youth Television News praised the series, commending Nickelodeon's attempt at a drama series, saying "a good story always outdoes a repetitive sitcom."

Audience reception

The hour-long series premiere on 1 January 2011 was watched by an average of 2.9 million viewers for the first two episodes. The series scored a 4.0 share (846,000 viewers) among teens 11–17, a 4.4 share (952,000 viewers) among kids 11–15 and a 3.5 share (1.2 million) among kids 11–18, ranking #1 amongst all broadcast and basic cable programs in its timeslot in all pre-teen and teen demographics.