io9.com: Universal Orlando transforms itself into a murderous, terrifying gothic wonderland every fall. This year is the 25th anniversary of Halloween Horror Nights, and it’s filled with iconic scenes from horror history that make the guests victims in their personal horror movies. Here’s how they build their elaborate horror houses.
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Halloween Horror Nights is the #1 Halloween ticketed experience in the world, and for good reason. I attended in 2013, and was sufficiently blown away, as a horror fan and as a theatre technician. From a horror perspective, simply walking down corridors had never been so unnerving. HHN is a strictly guided horror experience when you're in the houses: You wait in line, are let in in groups, and shuttled down the most terrifying hallways you will go down. Hands, faces, and syringes poke and prod at you through unassuming cracks in the wall, and the shapes of rooms transform before you thanks to lighting tricks. A personal favorite of mine are rooms in which light strobes and things appear and move before you, causing you to question everything you see all the while being pushed forward by people just as scared as you are. This year seems to be no different, with the Freddy v. Jason exhibit upping the scare factor by catching us in the middle of a duel between the two greatest horror characters ever created. The walking dead, which has been a house for the past 5 years, is also sure to be another standout, as this past season of the show was more horrific than many seasons before it (unless you count boring character drama as horror, of a different kind). The set, prop, and lighting design all go a long way towards reinforcing the idea that haunted houses are really no different than something like sleep no more. You walk along, watch performers, and are enticed by the location to feel a certain way. If that isn't theatre, I don't know what is.
I love horror films and haunted houses and everything related to horror. I finally realized this summer that I want to work in the horror business, and now I question if I should’ve gone to technical theater school and not Sfx School but I digress. The concept of things being creepy vs scary is really intriguing. Creepy objects are seen as items which are humanoid yet the mind tells us something is not quite right about the item. Scary items are a reflection of typical fears. The most effective fear is death. All humans fear death in the moment, no matter what. It is a genetic fear instilled in all animals which allows for evolution to continue. Horror often plays off of that fear by using suspense and surprise to its advantage. Lack of light, unrecognizable sounds and disgusting props are the most basic techniques used in horror. In more extreme haunted house, people must sign a waiver because physical contact is done as well as visual stimulation. Some haunted houses physically torture people through waterboarding, peeing on people, and even doing a pretend murder chase. Although I don’t quite understand why people subject themselves to these things willingly, I enjoy making horror themed props and costumes.
I’ve heard of Halloween Horror Nights before, but prior to reading this article I didn’t even close to grasp the extent of them. I love that the Creative Director focuses so much on telling the story of each world. I’m not usually a big fan of haunted houses because in my experience they tend to be a standard assortment of creepy objects around the room with people in spooky costumes jumping out from around corners, but by the sound of the description in the article, this is an immersive horror world. The way Aiello describes how they consider the music and the smell of each maze to draw in the audience through every sense cements my mental image of these mazes being functionally like walking into the world of a movie. Plus, based off the photos, the rooms/mazes they create are incredible. I will definitely be looking out for an opportunity to go now that I understand how much effort goes into building the world and telling the story of each area at Halloween Horror Nights.
So I am the most freaked out, and jumpy person ever. I am overly cautious and I freak myself out from the slightest scary thing. But for some insane reason, I would absolutely love to work in the haunted house business. Especially as a (possible) sound designer, the challenges of a haunted house seem so inviting. Every aspect of design has to be even more pristine and precise than in a regular theater production. Audience members are up close and possibly touching and interacting with many aspects of the set and costumes.
The coverage of the scenic design has to be 360 degree coverage of perfect and detailed scenery. But the challenges of sound design have interested me greatly. Any soundscape requires the designers to create a world and an atmosphere for the scenes that allows the participants to feel completely immersed in the scene. But if that isn't tough enough, designers also have to create the sounds for jump-scares which are such an important part of anything in the horror genre. For something like that, timing is everything. One second too early or too late completely ruins the scare and takes the audience member completely out of the world. I love the idea of working in a haunted house because of the challenges it presents. That would be so much fun to tackle.
I think that the idea to capitalize on Halloween by theme parks and other industries is genius. It makes so much sense to extend your season as long as you can and I don’t think that it’s that hard to blend the end of the summer season in late August to the early fall season in September. One of the things that blew me away about this attraction was learning how much design, detail, and drafting goes into it, that it is pretty much treated like a full show or production. I think some of us in school should be keeping things like this in the back of minds as something to explore as a career option. There are so many other industries, typically within entertainment that are similar or reflective of theater. The things that we learn as theater artists and technicians is directly translated to so many other fields which is what I love about what we learn and do.
As someone who is very easily scared, I’ve never been a huge fan of horror movies or attractions. However, I’ve always been interested in the technical/ artistic aspects of horror special effects (in regards to costumes and makeup), and how one designs/ creates scenery to portray a certain kind of atmosphere. The beautiful renderings pictured in this article alone show how much work goes into the visual aspects of an event like this. I like how they base the ideas for the horror adventure around commonly known horror movie stories/ tropes. The idea of creating scenery for an immersive haunted house experience is fascinating to me, because it deals so much with how space affects how people feel, and I would love to work on something like this someday. I also really love how they mentioned the sound design that goes into a project like this, and even the smells which transport the participants directly into the world of the space. The idea of designing for a production that people are totally and completely immersed in, that people pay for and walk into knowing it isn’t real, yet still end up being totally encapsulated and terrified by is super interesting to me, and it’s something I think a lot of us strive for in the theater productions we work on. I think this is a prime example of designers and technicians being entirely committed to making something authentic and believable.
I've never been to Halloween Horror Nights but seems to be genuinely creepy, gory and all things delightfully scary. I love horror movies but in the past years, there has yet to be a good (or dare I say, great) horror movie to come out of the big screen. The Babadook was decent and well filmed, but I felt like it left some things waiting to be tied up at the end. It didn't feel complete enough to me. However, going back to this horror house of sorts, it brings me back to my childhood when every Halloween an infamous house in my neighborhood would completely transform their driveway and house into a spook. It would rake in children and adults from all over the town and provided a space where you could meet new friends, get freaked out, and collect free candy! I would love to work on designing Halloween Horror Nights some day or even something within that realm of aesthetic. It's thrilling and exciting and in my opinion, much more fun than designing a Cinderella movie.
I’m really not into horror things, I read this article hoping that seeing the behind the scenes would actually put me at ease. What kept me interested was their focus on the senses. Most of the theatre’s I’ve been involved with used sound only for effects. The occasional clap of thunder, a gust of wind here and there. It was never used for an extended period of time, and never geared toward creating an ambience. But when you think about it, especially when it comes to fear, sound is the sense that works the hardest at creating it. You typically can’t really see, so your ears become your alert system, telling you about the chain saw a few feet away or the breathing right behind your neck. As someone interested in sound design, hearing the role audio plays in a true immersive production is very intriguing. I think in order to really transport an audience all sense must be acknowledge, and like this article said some of their mazes even rely on smells. It’s all very interesting an shows you just how far you can go as a designer or director.
I've never actually visited a amusement park fear-fest or Halloween attractions before, but after reading this article I definitely feel more inclined to. I guess I've always dismissed such events as Halloween decorating rather than a worthwhile event, but after seeing some of the renderings and hearing about the thought process of laying out certain attractions in specific areas to prevent distraction between one narrative to the next I can see how these events are much more like interactive theater productions than simple holiday decor. After seeing the renderings I'd really like to attend one of these events just to see how the practitioners use the space to create the creepy iconic atmospheres we see in the Halloween and Nightmare on Elm street movies. I'm sure designing the scenery is a challenge because you have to take a iconic locales that fans will recognize and translate them into real physical space that audiences can travel through and relive their favorite moments without them seeming too fake or cheesy, a large task that no doubt is easier said than done.
I’m a touch confused as to why this is even a big deal, or why this even called for an article. Of corse Universal would have a scary and amazing halloween horror haunted house, they have millions of dollars to spend on the state of the art FX, Id be a lot more interested in the best haunted house that isn’t done by a HUGE corporation and still was amazing and scary and depicted old iconic horror scenes. It is a really creepy well designed Haunted house, but its produced by universal, if they failed making it good with their budgets it would be both sad and pathetic. With that being said, I’m not allowed to go to Haunted houses anymore. The second to last one i went to, someone jumped out of a bush and went for me, with out thinking i kicked him in the head. Years later I went to a fight fest, and someone else jumped out for me and with out thinking, i slapped them. For the safety of myself and others, I decided that I couldn’t go anymore.
Haunted Houses to me have always seemed so excited and more of a challenge with every generation. The haunted house concept still always hold the magic of theater of being able to keep a person’s attention and immerse them in the scary world that has been created. It seems to be far easier to get people immersed in the world because I think on some level everyone likes being scared and surprised and being taken out of reality. And there has been such a wide collection of idea of new concepts that creep the average person out over the years, but some aspects like Jack the clown are iconic and will continue to creep us out. But the fact can’t be denied that as with each generation of technology improving and the expectations of visuals to be more realistic and attention grabbing at a younger age we as a whole society are becoming desensitized to it all. In retrospect it just creates a bigger puzzle for those brave enough to try to solve of what will be the next big idea to really freak everyone out.
I’ve always thought it intriguing to go through the process of building sets for haunted houses and whatnot. With places like these around, the production value of everything has to be spot on, even if it is only for a few minutes per group that passes by. You’ve got to make it look as realistic as if you were getting a close-up shot in a movie. You see all of these fantastic designs with different approaches, but to take iconic films such as Freddy and Jason, to make those two worlds combine; that in itself is a big undertaking. The expectations for something like that are a bit higher than just your standard haunted house. It looks like this is a type of company that brings back the cult horror classics of the day, and instills a look and ambience of thrill and excitement. The good thing about these houses, you aren’t going to die like in the movies. The bad thing, hopefully you don’t end up having a number with yourself due to the jumping out and scaring that would be involved.
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