She really rose to the occasion.
A British teenager has gone viral after she arrived at her school’s prom in a coffin carried by both her brother and father — before “coming back to life” on the red carpet.
Abi Ricketts, 16, caused quite a stir at Trinity Academy when she rolled up in a black Volvo XC90, looking drop-dead gorgeous dressed head-to-toe in a black lace corset dress, lace tights and boots.
After propping the coffin up at the edge of the carpet, the family blasted the song “Year Zero” by the Swedish rock group called Ghost, Ricketts opened her eyes and rose from her coffin to much applause from the stunned crowd.
“Everyone was cheering and screaming and clapping,” Ricketts told Kennedy News. “They were all gobsmacked.”
The teen said she always wanted to stand out and never “follow the crowd.”
“My teachers said that it was amazing, they had never seen anything like it and it would go down in history,” added Ricketts. “I’ve never wanted to fit in. I’ve always wanted to be outside of the box and outside of the norm.”
“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,” gushed the teen. “The people that came up to me at the start of prom wanted photos with me.”
The out-of-the-box entrance reportedly had been a long time coming.
“It’s always something I’ve liked the idea of,” Ricketts told the outlet. “I’ve been into goth metalhead 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,” remarked the girl. “I knew I had to do it to honor her. We’re a family of goth metal-heads so my family thought it was great, too.”
Despite trying to book an actual hearse for the occasion, Ricketts said that no one would let her borrow one for the evening.
Instead, the girl’s father modified a coffin they found on Facebook by adding paint and a bedsheet. Rickett’s dad then added metal rods to the bottom of the box to make the transition from car to shoulders easier.
Alan Ricketts claimed the whole idea made him “proud” of his daughter and was more than happy to help.
“I thought ‘It’s my daughter I’ve got to do it,’” the elder Ricketts 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 thought she looked amazing, what a transformation,” continued the father. “She had gone from being my little girl to an adult and what a fantastic transition to be part of especially on her prom night.”
Ricketts repeated his daughter’s story about people’s reactions to the amazing entrance.
“I was so proud to do it for her and it was an amazing thing to be part of,” gushed the proud father. “We didn’t think we would get that reaction at all on social media.”
The younger Ricketts posted her now-viral entrance on TikTok where it has exploded with 1.9 million views.
Several fans also echoed how excited they were over the drop-dead entrance.
“Okay this is iconic lol,” commented one user.
“I wish I had the guts to do this as a teenager. Iconic,” said a second person.
“You are more cool than I have ever been in my 32 years and ever hope to be,” replied a third person.
“Dad and bro absolutely understood the assignment,” laughed a fourth person.
