Lights, Camera, Chucky
'Lights, Camera, Chucky' is one of several new mazes for Universal's Horror Nights event. The maze, centered around the beloved killer doll, is located near the entrance to Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls in Toon Lagoon. This, of course, is one of the more unique elements of this maze—it looks and feels like a children's attraction, at least at first. The true nature of the maze is hidden behind a bright and colorful exterior: Pals Studios, the home of Chucky himself, along with his gang of 'Good Guys.' Due to the misleading nature of the exterior, cast members will be make a concerted effort to inform parents that while this maze may seem like good, clean fun for the whole family, it's not appropriate for children under the age of 13.
Maze Narrative:
The loose story of the maze is that the 'Play Pals' company, well-known for its popular children's cartoon series and line of interactive dolls, is open to the public for an exclusive taping of its new live action show: "The New Adventures of the Good Guys." Guests effectively play the role of studio audience attendees, completely oblivious to the dangers that await them inside.
Entrance, Exterior, & Queue:
The maze begins after guests pass under the familiar entrance to 'Ripsaw Falls.' It is here that guests can choose to either ride the attraction or visit the maze. The queue splits in two, and maze-goers are sent down the path toward a preexisting gate that ordinarily leads to the backstage area of 'Ripsaw Falls.' Just beyond the gate, guests catch a glimpse at the maze's well-themed exterior, which is themed after a traditional movie studio, complete with a soundstage entrance and yellow 'Good Guys' water tower. There's no shortage of queue space here; the exterior queue can handle even the largest of crowds on busy days. As far as theme is concerned, the exterior will fit seamlessly with that of the Toon Lagoon aesthetic. The bright, saturated colors of the maze's exterior blends seamlessly with its 'Dudley Do-Right' neighbor, ensuring cohesion between two attractions that are fundamentally different from each other in terms of realism and content. Guests listen to cheery, upbeat, whimsical tunes as they wait, having some guests become confused as to why the queue is so lighthearted.
Maze Preshow
After waiting in the exterior queue, guests are led by 'studio members' into the soundstage, where they come across a gallery of various posters and artwork from the original 'Good Guys' cartoon show. The rest of the room is adorned by large television monitors showing hand-drawn footage of the cartoon show. Guests look overhead to see a 'studio member' on a platform above. The studio member, a young man with a director's hat and microphone clipped to his shirt, smiles at guests as the doors in the back close off. "How's everyone doing tonight? Awesome, awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Play Pals Studios. My name is Rick and I'm a studio member. Now, tonight's an important night for us because, in just a few moments, we'll be filming the pilot of our new live action show: 'The New Adventures of the Good Guys,' and you, that's right…you folks are lucky enough to be our first studio audience. Now, if you take a look at the television monitor to my left, you'll notice that—" His voice is cut off by a child-like figure who emerges from the curtains behind him. The figure pulls a sharp knife from his overalls and drags Rick by his collar, stabbing him repeatedly. Guests watch as Rick falls on the platform above, lifeless. Chucky himself (actor in costume) then hops on his body and laughs, eyeing guests. "What the hell is up with these people and their god**mn screens?" he says, palm to his forehead. He examines the motionless body next to him and shakes his head. "Sorry I had to
cut your performance there, Rick, but the studio is
officially under new management. You folks are in for a real treat, I got a great show for everyone tonight, but see, not everyone's in on the surprise. That's right, the crew doesn't know I'm here, so [he raises the knife in the air for everyone to see] I would appreciate it if everyone kept my performance a secret, you know, that way, we don't have any more than, say…25 or 40 casualties. Alright, enough chitchat. Everybody come on through, don't be shy. Don't bother turning back—the doors are shut tight. I made sure [he laughs]. Oh and remember, folks…it's a soundstage; no one outside can hear you scream. Sayonara."
Main Maze:
Guests are then led into the main maze, beginning with a path through a room of oversized toy blocks. Blood is splattered on the dark walls; the room altogether is lit by black light. Guests proceed through the room, which is one of the more tame scenes in the maze. To exit the room, guests pass under a massive, dismembered Chucky cutout head, its eyes looking down at guests, shuffling from left to right. After passing through Chucky's mouth, guests are led into one of the show's many "filming sets," which tie into the theme of the maze taking place inside a movie studio overrun by Chucky. After walking through a short corridor, guests find themselves in the "Good Guys Hospital" set, which is designed to look like an emergency room. An operation bed is at the center of the room. The walls are adorned with various medical tools and machinery. A live actor is strapped to the bed, a spotlight shining on him from above. The actor is supposed to be one of the cast members of the show, a "patient." He struggles to escape from the restraints, his legs stained with blood. He screams in terror. "Help! Someone help me! God! Help me!" Suddenly, Chucky emerges from behind a curtain, a chainsaw in hand. "This may sting! Sorry, I'm all out of anesthesia! Hah hah hah hah" He waves the chainsaw in the air, then proceeds to "cut" the actor's legs further, splattering the room with "blood." Chucky then circles around the room, waving the chainsaw at guests. "Hey, I'm trying to work here! Why don't we give the good doctor some…f**ing space?!"
Guests continue through the hospital set and into the "sky" set, which features a mechanical 'Good Guys' blimp suspended on an obvious overhead track. Chucky stands inside the blimp, laughing at the misery of another actor, who is retrained on a wooden rig at the edge of a large sky backdrop. This Chucky is presented as an animatronic. As the animatronic giggles to himself, occasionally waving at guests, the blimp moves inward and outward in a horizontal motion, its propellers thrusting straight into the face of the restrained actor, who yells in pain as a splatter of "blood" stains the bright blue background behind him. Using prosthetics and makeup, the actor's head appears to be split in two; parts of his brain are visible, and one of his eyes dangles from out of its socket.
A passageway near some of the studio equipment leads guests into a "kitchen" set, complete with oversized, rotten vegetables, fruits, and rancid meat, complete with a pungent odor that guests can actually smell. Guests find that Chucky is walking on top of the table, chopping up limbs, legs, and various body parts. "You're all just in time for dinner! Who wants the arm, heh? Who wants the leg? You want the leg or the wing, eh?" He waves the knife at guests, who proceed through the kitchen and into the "freezer," where guests find that a great deal of the studio members have frozen to death inside. These are not live actors, of course, and are instead dummies made to look like frozen bodies.
After proceeding through the freezer, guests find that the rest of the maze becomes tighter and more claustrophobic. Guests proceed into a dressing room, complete with a single "mirror" and tabletop dedicated to Chucky. Guests are then led "inside" the mirror and into another realm. 15 foot mirrors make it difficult to navigate through the maze. Fog fills the air. To add to the misery of being unable to find a way out of this section of the maze, guests are constantly terrorized by multiple Chucky actors, who seem to multiply in number, emerging from trapdoors in the walls, knives raised in the air in a stabbing motion.
After reaching the end of the mirror room, guests proceed down a hallway of various doors, all of which are labeled with various studio titles such as "Assistant Director," "Producer," and "Production Artist." This area features a number of office spaces, each pertaining to a specific murder of a studio executive on Chucky's end. In one room, guests find that a man was beaten to a pulp and then impaled by a desk chair. The actor raises his arm at guests. "H-h-help…me," he whispers. Another room reveals that Chucky stapled a man's entire body and then poured ink on his wounds. Another room, one of the more gruesome incidents, has a man hanging from the ceiling fan, a corded phone wrapped tightly around his neck. His body appears bloody and chewed on. Yet another door reveals a man who is wrapped by a number of wires connected to the ceiling lights. When the lights go on, the man is electrocuted. He screams in pain as a Chucky actor laughs from one of the air vents above. After proceeding through the hallway, guests are led into the "Studio Gift Shop."
The gift shop features walls adorned with dozens upon dozens of 'Good Guys' dolls, each of them appearing in their wholesome form. Suddenly, guests hear a disembodied chant emitting from the hidden speakers. Chucky is performing a voodoo spell! Guests watch as the dolls suddenly come to life, their heads turning slowly; eyes glowing like fire. They laugh as their boxes shake violently. A large box on one of the of the wall opens outward, revealing a pile of lifeless studio member bodies (dummies). It soon becomes clear that Chucky performed a spell in which the dolls were brought to life by means of live human sacrifice. The studio members' bodies were apparently thoroughly sliced and grazed by knife; their nails were pulled off, along with their hair and teeth. Their bodies were also badly burned by the look of it. Guests watch in horror as the dolls continue looking around the room, their expressions visibly bright and happy. From behind one of the boxes, Chucky (actor) waves his knife at guests and screams. "You're next, motherfu**ers!" Guests scream as they proceed out of the "gift shop" and "outside" to an alleyway behind the studio.
The grimy alleyway doesn't get any more pleasant for guests, who find that the area is frequented by studio members who have apparently gone insane after their experiences inside. The foggy alleyway features a brick wall stained with blood letters reading "Chucky did this." The fire escape above features several bodies swinging back and forth, hanging from apparent suicides. Several traumatized studio members approach guests, their bodies bleeding profusely. "Hey…hey…HEY! Get the f**k outta here! He's gonna…kill me. He's gonna kill me, I know it…HEY! Are you listening to him!? He says get the f**k outta here! The doll! He's…he's alive. And…he said he'll kill me…I know he will, but…GET OUT!" The man mutters in between sporadic yells. Guests proceed along the alleyway, the studio members walking aimlessly through the area, muttering and screaming to themselves in madness. Suddenly, Chucky emerges from a window above, stepping out of it and raising his knife in the air. The studio members who are still alive don't react to Chucky, but instead begin to laugh and howl as Chucky runs through the alley, "stabbing" them to "death." After turning a corner, guests near the end of the maze. A large plywood backdrop sits beside a number of other studio props. The backdrop features Chucky at the center of orange swirls, an obvious parody of the Looney Tunes ending title. The backdrop reads: "That's all, mother***ers" in cursive letters. Guests proceed through a tunnel and back at the familiar entrance to the maze.
