Halloween Horror Writes - 10 Spooky Armchair Imagineer Concepts

[spacemt354]

In the spirit of Halloween - this thread will be an ongoing dedication to some of the spookiest and most haunting armchair imagineering concepts over the past several decades of this forum. The list is in no particular order of significance, but is intended to highlight some of the attractions from this evolving horror genre.

Let the frights begin!​

 

[spacemt354]

Originally a part of the American Mystery land designed by @Disney Dad 3000 @D Hulk @TheDesignPirate and myself for Universal Studios Sydney - a conceptual park designed in late 2017 , The Shining was an E-ticket trackless dark ride attraction inspired by the 1980 Stanley Kubrick classic film of the same name. Situated inside The Overlook Hotel, you venture through the haunted halls, never knowing what spirits or other surprises lie around the next corner.

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Approaching The Overlook Hotel, guests walk along a winding, hillside road up towards the ominous and overbearing structure set upon the mountainside. The foreboding trek towards the hotel creates an inauspicious atmosphere of uncertainty and genuine mystery, as in the background you can hear an off-pitch trombone playing the same notes over and over, as baleful screeches pierce your ears louder and louder as you approach the exterior of the hotel. Tall trees isolate you from the rest of the park, and the feeling of dreadful solitude creeps over the guests as they continue up the queue line towards the entrance to the attraction.​

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Passing a mystifying green hedge maze, you note the title of the maze reveals the name of the hotel you are entering - The Overlook Hotel in Sidewinder, Colorado.​

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With the hotel in forced perspective view, the scale of the hotel is overwhelming as it feels almost like a living presence you are about to encounter. Walking through the main gates of the hotel after rounding around the outdoor queue section, you walk over towards the main entrance of the hotel.​

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As you enter into the main lobby, an eerie silence encompasses the beautiful native american wilderness inspired hotel. Sprawling felt pieces drape the sides of the walls, and meticulously hand crafted chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The lights are on throughout the hotel lobby, welcoming you into its humble abode. You get a sense of your surroundings when mysteriously, a Ray Noble song, Midnight, The Stars, And You, begins to play throughout the empty lobby.​

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Nobody is visible and no stereo or music box is present, which makes you wonder...where is the music coming from? The sense of comfort that the music played in another setting would bring, in actuality brings a sense of fear and concern for what will happen next.​

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As guests continue to file into the main lobby entrance, a hotel staff worker closes the main door to the outside and suddenly, the windows peering out into the landscape go dark with a blizzard window special effect, and the guest's perspective is 'corrected' to view the red elevator doors at the end of the lobby entrance. This is done by having the sound effect of the song, slowly moving towards the elevator doors, before eventually fading away. At first guests may wonder why they are being addressed to seemingly commonplace elevator doors, however they are soon shook with horror at the red river of blood seeping through the elevator doors. (This effect is accomplished by projection mapping on the elevator doors to give the impression of flowing liquid - or in this case, blood)​

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Silence can be heard through the lobby, as a river of blood comes flowing towards the main entrance. Once the flow gets close to the main entrance, the lights go dark. And when the lights turn back on, the river of blood is gone, and it's like nothing ever happened, except for one aspect. Standing behind the guests at this point is a hotel staff employee, with a ghastly stare and an unnatural sense of calm as he says:​

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"Would you like to view the rest of the Overlook?" the man says.​

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You walk through towards the foyer where the attraction load area is. The creepy sound effects from the outdoor queue section return as you approach the ride vehicles.​

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The attraction will use the complex and perplexing set designs from the Stanley Kubrick film. With this being a trackless ride, guests might enter and re-enter the same set pieces, but from different and inordinate perspectives that throw the rider off of their sense of direction, consuming them in The Overlook Hotel. The disorienting set design could be simply a mistake on the part of Kubrick's, but given the director's attention to detail in his other films and the multitude of errors, it has come into question whether or not those errors were intentional to throw off the audience. We'll be assuming they were intentional and adapt similar mysterious layout techniques here in the attraction.​

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The attraction has several scenes that take place on two separate floors, The Colorado Lounge, Gold Room, and Maze which take place on the first floor, Room 237, twins encounter, and the residential quarters on the second (even though in the film there are 3 floors)​

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To give a sense of scale and impending vulnerability, the ride vehicles will be themed after Danny's tricycle from the film.​

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The decision to go with the tricycle as the trackless vehicle throughout the attraction is because while the singular trike will be modified to fit four guests (two rows) The dimensions of the trike give the audience a sense of magnitude for the size of The Overlook. Being closer to the ground, everything around you seems bigger, and more menacing, and thus, you feel more vulnerable. Using forced perspective throughout the attraction - you'll view The Overlook from the perspective of Danny on the trike, heightening the sense of doom and suspense that lies around every corner of the hotel.​

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After boarding in the foyer, you take your tricycle on a lap around the Colorado Lounge, as Danny does in the film. The trackless vehicles ride in a series of four cars. In the wrap around scene, each of the four trikes follows each other in a steady motion at a decent speed for a dark ride (around 5mph) to give the breezy feeling of freedom riding around the brim of the lounge.​

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The eerie effect is compounded when you are one of the trailing trikes, following the trike in front of you, giving the sense that something is always following you around the hotel!​

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As you are about to complete your lap around the Colorado Lounge, you can hear the thud of a tennis ball being thrown up against the wall, and the sound of Jack Torrance violently yelling for Danny. The trike makes a turn towards a ramp (not in film) that head towards the upstairs balcony. Before leaving the Colorado Lounge, it makes a quick spin around Jack's work station, which has hundreds of pages that, in all different formats, are scattered around saying "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"​

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This shift towards the next scene and set piece then sends in the next set of vehicles into the lounge area for their lap around the Colorado Lounge.​

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On the second floor, you ride past Room no: 237, where the door is crept open to view the interior. Your trikes stop in front of it, and the lights go dark. When the lights come back on, you see an animatronic of a creepy, decrepit old lady peering out at you as she laughs. Your trikes then continue down the long, carpeted hallway towards the residence. Your trike takes a turn, but into a dead end. All four vehicles line up side by side, in a wider hallway than in the film in order to accommodate everyone for the view. Two animatronic twins stare out at you saying "Come play with us. Forever, and ever, and ever"​

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Your trikes back away and turn back towards the hallway you just came from, before making a left into the caretaker residence room, and allowing the next trailing cars of trackless vehicles to enter into the twins scene.​

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In the residence, you enter another dead end, but this time it's of a bed, with the voiceover of someone (Danny) whispering 'Redrum'. His voice gets increasingly louder and louder as you observe lipstick written on the door with the word 'Redrum' however, screeching bells are heard as the trikes turn towards a mirror where Murder is spelled out in the reflection. The door to the residence is heard opening with Jack saying 'Wendy, I'm home'​

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Your trike backs away again, spins around, where you see Jack's face in the doorway that he just knocked down with an ax. In order to get back down to the first floor and make your escape down the residential ramp. Haunting chanting and loud foreboding sounds echo through the halls. On the way down the ramp, there are several doorways, with one of them open, and a man in a bizarre animal costume creeps his head out as you make your way back down to the first floor. Seemingly out of the horror, yet the horror is just beginning.​

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As you approach the first floor, you enter what appears to be the foyer you started with, and the elevator shaft you saw in the introductory pre-show scene, however you're not home free.​

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Your trike then travels through deflated balloons and decorations down what seems like an endless hallway, before glancing past the Gold Room and travel inside. As you go into the Gold Room, your trike begins to slowly spin, and as it spins, the scenery around you goes from ominous silence to a decadent July 4th party. A British butler comes out as an animatronic and says "I hope you won't need to be, corrected" as your trike veers away from the party and back out towards the foyer. The screeching returns and is as loud as ever as the trike makes it back into a mirrored room of the entrance, yet instead of the brightly lit, charming entrance you started with, it's dark, full of cobwebs and skeletons sitting around in the lounge chairs.​

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*These effects are accomplished by building duplicate, identical foyers and entrances, back to back, in the set design, giving the illusion you are home free, when in reality, it's a different set. - hopefully later I will be able to draw a blueprint of the entire show building and its layout*​

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Some of the skeletons begin to move and you race out of the entrance and into a snow covered maze (this is in a show building similar to the graveyard 'outdoor' scene in the Haunted Mansion). You hear footsteps of Jack behind you and yelling as he waves the ax around behind you as you make it out of the entrance gateway and into the maze. In the maze your trike rounds through towards the center of the maze, before backtracking out of it and towards the entrance once again. This scene is tense and suspenseful as you'll never know what will be around the corner or if Jack will find you. Projections of Jack appear sporadically on the bushes, dark and silhouetted, with his ax ready to chop. Danny! You can hear as he calls out. However the horrors in this scene are all psychological, as there are no cheap jumpscares in the maze. It's only the looming threat of danger that causes the horror.​

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As an homage to the novel, two animatronic maze animals move towards you and stare at you as you exit the maze. Eventually you make it back inside and into the foyer, which is part of the loading/unloading area. As you exit the vehicle, you walk past pictures of past celebrations at The Overlook, and can see Jack's face front and center at the July 4th Ball in 1921 - leading to more questions than answers about The Overlook Hotel, as Midnight, The Stars, And You - plays you out as you exit back out of the attraction and down towards the rest of the American Mystery land.​

 

[MickeyMouse10]

Very nice spacey, there's so much that can be done with horror.

The Shining's maze would be a great attraction queue. I wouldn't make it an attraction on it's own though. Because it takes up way too much space like Alice's Maze, Speedway, Finding Nemo Submarines and every play area (Jurassic Park, Dig Site, Wilderness playground) ever created.

 

[spacemt354]

Next on our tour of holiday frights is a project from 2016's So, You Want To Be An Imagineer Season 13 competition. The task as hand was to design Disney's version of 'scare mazes' around the Magic Kingdom, with several PG and PG-13 mazes that wouldn't have the same level of gore that Universal can muster, but would give horror fans something more than Not So Scary.

With that - we have The Wormhole - a psychological thrill maze based in Tomorrowland. Enjoy!

The Wormhole
Location - Galaxy Palace Theater

The Wormhole will be a thrilling Halloween seasonal maze located at the old Galaxy Palace Theater between Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and the Carousel of Progress.

The maze will be inside a new all-purpose building in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom, which will be home to special events throughout the year and easily accessible to an eclectic variety of overlays depending on the season.

Premise
In the Mickey Monitor and on the Disney website in anticipation for the Halloween season, WDI unveils a list of walk-through mazes throughout the parks, and in this section, it delves into a new kind of psychological thriller maze in Tomorrowland, called Deep Space.

Bringing a bit of spice to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, this more intense walk-through attraction harkons back to the days of the Magic Kingdom that saw attractions such as Alien Encounter. A science fiction psychological horror set in the land of Tomorrow, venturing out into something that mankind fears the most, the unknown of deep space.

Tomorrowland is a land of the future, and in the future, we have inter-dimensional travel, abilities to extract through wormholes in deep space, and teleportation methods. This liberal ability to travel the universe has peaked the interest of some of Tomorrowland's most accomplished astronauts and scientists, who have set up the XX Dark Voyage...a space station with the capacity to venture through a wormhole, through a connection in space, and out onto another portion of our universe. This knowledge has taken years to accomplish, and in 2168, you will be among the first to venture into the unknown.

Robotic teams have established a base camp hub on various planets through the wormhole, and the job of the Dark Voyage is to visit these planets in search for more life in the universe.

Nevertheless, while these missions can sound exciting for the avid traveler, they are not all success stories. Some robotic teams have been destroyed either in the wormhole itself or in route. Planets have been too dangerous for humans to travel onto. And most recently, the first mission through the wormhole resulted in a catastrophic calamity, where an astronaut lost his life.

However, the Dark Voyager Space Station has re-built from previous loses, and had some successful missions, now seeking to bring in new opportunity for avid explorers to venture to deep space.

Health and Warning Sign
Due to the claustrophobic nature of walk-through mazes, a warning sign will be placed out in front of the queue, emphasizing the nature of the attraction, and that parents should take caution, as some of the elements could frighten young children.

Some elements may also be seizure inducing, so if you are prone to those, or don't do well in tight, dark spaces, you should skip this adventure.

If you accept the terms, you may enter into Deep Space...

Queue

Join the XX Dark Voyage in Tomorrowland as a team of explorers trek through a Wormhole on the outer rim of the Milky Way to explore worlds beyond. The year is 2168, and you're on a space station traveling through a wormhole into another pocket of outer space. You see out the window as colors and jet streams of light roar by you.

While presenting as a calm and scenic walk-through in deep space on another planet, you will soon be trapped in a horror story as your space station bursts in hyperspeed inside the wormhole as you are queued in the hallways. The blast sets off emergency alarms throughout the vessel as computerized voices encourage the crew to eject...into deep space.

With no reasonable alternative, as you approach a large hole in the station (the entrance to the maze), the vacuum of space sucks a group of 20 guests into the maze and the adventure begins.

You walk into a room with black light walls and projections of colorful lights all around you in a mesmerizing fashion.

An eerie chorus begins to play as you walk towards a beam of light in the distance.
Bright flashes. Blue and green streaks of color wiz by on all sides. Bam. A large eyeball flashes on to the wall and blinks. Then disappears. The ominous chorus begins to rise, as goosebumps begin to rise on your arms.

Where are you? What is this place? Who is with you?

As you continue to walk forward, the light turns into a shadowy figure...as you approach the figure, that looks like a man...the shadow's face lights up and it's an astronaut with a shattered helmet, floating through the wormhole.

How is this happening? Is this all a dream?

You realize you are walking through the wormhole. The answer to how can wait...you just want to escape this nightmare. You hear a voice call out to you and it points the flashing lights on the projection walls in a guiding direction. You follow its lead and the music suddenly stops. You walk into a pitch black room in dead silence.

Suddenly, the walls are illuminated...you are on an alien moon, looking at the back-end of a blackhole. The picturesque backdrop of deep space is almost surreal. And you hear communications come online. The Deep Space team back on earth informs you that you need to get to a teleportation hub, located on the moon, at base camp. On the projection screen as you walk forward, you can see it off in the distance.

As you turn the corner...you see a black, shadowy figure waiting for you on the horizon. You hesitate to move forward...then you hear the communications from earth demand that you get to the teleportation hub as quickly as possible, as other beings may inhabit this territory.

A short cut through a maze hallway leads you into a canyon on the alien world, and it is soon illuminated with a variety of colors. A blast of cold air hits you and you press forward, until...

You feel hot air breathing on your necks..the sudden change in temperature is noticeable, and then the lights go black in the canyon momentarily.

When they are turned back on a black shadowy figure is standing right in front of you (a static animatronic) and growls! You shriek, and chase off to find the exit of the canyon. You hear more grumbling and the music escalates and swells where your heart is pounding very fast.

You hear the creature move around the canyon and another breath of hot air, this time right above you, but now you can feel the drooling saliva of the creature from above.

The sensation freaks you out as you exit the canyon, and see the teleportation hub in the distance. Again in a picturesque landscape, the stars shine on the walls and the black-hole is seen off in the distance. You venture towards the teleportation hub...as you enter into a tunnel that will bring you to the teleportation chamber.

Lighting and sonic booms crash all around you as you enter the chamber, the door slams shut and you are trapped in a vortex of flashing lights, synchronizing your beam back to earth.

Dark shadowy figures now totally surround you, and multiply, almost as if you're hallucinating. Cackles are heard around you as well. Roars are shouted and the music swelling to a high pitch as suddenly the lights go black and everything is silent.

The walls around, in the dark close in towards the center where the guests are standing in the chamber. A mechanical pulley brings them closer together.

Suddenly, the walls that were once the walls of the chamber are now distorted mirrors right on top of you. Naturally, your instincts tell you to turn towards the mirror and bam

You see yourself in a distorted view, which freaks you out. Now your mind is confused. Something is distorting space time, distorting you. Maybe you're hallucinating, maybe not. The lights go black again and then...a light in front of you...you walk towards the light.

Now the room is bright white, surreal, and cubical in shape. You hear the Tomorrowland area music, a more uplifting soundtrack, thinking that...perhaps is it over? Is the deep space nightmare over?

However this music is a false sense of security and another illusion...yet you still walk towards the music...and it gets louder.

Louder and louder as you walk down the white tunnel then it stops. No radio communication is heard. Have you been beamed to another planet? Another dimension?

The silence is deafening, but you trek forward, until...

The lights go dark

They turn back on you again see flashes of a dark shadow for a split second. As you walk further through the tunnel the shadow gets larger and larger and the tunnel begins to rattle and the rattling becomes louder and louder. Music peaks again. The lights flicker and you hear communications telling you, you're almost there...you're almost there. As you reach the end, a large, winged like creature pops out of the ceiling.

You freak out and scream, hear a loud bang almost like you broke a space barrier or something, and then.....

You walk back onto the Dark Voyage Space Station...but this time it doesn't looks as realistic as the queue...Monitors of people working at the command center, and everything going as if nothing went wrong.

So you're left to ask yourself...what was this? Was this all a dream? Was this just a simulation test?

As you ponder the question a man on the teleprompter, congratulates you on a job well done..you passed the test and are ready for another mission. You can exit to Tomorrowland now.

Ah...you think to yourself...so this was all just a drill. However when the man in the telepromptor turns away...you can see the shadowy figure looming in the Command Center, staring at you...

As you exit into Tomorrowland...are you still dreaming? Will this inter-dimensional figure travel with you throughout the day? What really happened? A mystery of deep space travel and an experience you'll never forget.​

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Interesting. Wonder what Disney horror ip you plan to do next?

 

[MickeyMouse10]

Geez, I wouldn't want to be on drugs while in that maze.

 

[DisneyFan32]

Here's mine for a Roger Rabbit attraction in Disney's Hollywood Studios:
It's called....

JUDGE DOOM'S REVENGE (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

There was many Toon cameos in the queue, preshow and ride through,
Here is ride scenes:
Scene 1: ACME Warehouse
Scene 2: The Alley
Scene 3: The Ink and Paint Club
Scene 4: Sunset Blvd / Terminal Bar & Grill
Scene 5: Hollywood Blvd / Chinese Theater
Scene 6: Sometin Cookin' short (Roger Rabbit short)
Scene 7: Maroon Studios
Scene 8: Toontown
Scene 9: Toon Hotel
Scene 10: DIP Process Factory
Scene 11: Judge Doom's Final Revenge
Scene 12 & 13: Good Ending & Bad Ending
Scene 14: Unloading Area

but I got couple scenes I forgot added we can crashed into the Ink and Paint Club as we shooting dip at one of weasels as Donald and Daffy are dueling piano each other with run over the penguin waiters with Betty Boop told them Judge Doom and his Toon Patrol weasels are aheading to Maroon Studios for planning to destory Toontown.
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As we enter Terminal Bar & Grill as Dolores told them Judge Doom stoled a will to own Toontown for demolishing into a freeway,
In Toontown scene, I can see crashing into Toon Hotel as we are enter the escalator, as we will see Judge Doom with his two anvils but getting squashed by escalator with Droopy Dog as bell hopper as we are enter the DIP process area building near by Toon Hotel.
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as we will enter the movie theater aka Chinese Theater we will see Greasy and Wheezy hold Roger's feet as he will fall into the floor as the weasels are enjoying a Roger Rabbit short playing on the screen as Greasy and Wheezy escape with Roger as we crashed into the projector as we are in middle of Roger Rabbit short, as the kitchen got destroyed thanks to Stupid setting a TNT as Mrs. Herman mads at him. As Psycho and Smart Guy was throwing knifes at Roger like a circus act.
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I thinking a good ending and bad ending:
Good Ending:
Judge Doom and the weasels are being dipped as DIP machine truck makes dipped on them as it got destroyed by one of TNTs which Roger accidently step on TNTs, the dipped is gone as Roger and Eddie sprays a water from fire hydent. As Toons, Roger, Jessica, Eddie and Dolores are cheering for you for saving Toontown and defeated Judge Doom and the weasels for good:
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Bad Ending:
Judge Doom and the weasels are evil laughing as Eddie, Roger, and Jessica are being killed by weasels. Toons are being dipped, and Toontown is dipped as transformed into a freeway as Judge Doom as wanted for his dream come true, as the weasels saying "HAHAHAHAHAHA! You lose suckers! No more Roger Rabbit or stupid dumb police guy whatever he was...." Judge Doom says "No more Toons. Toontown is history, now I can build my dream come true, freeway. Try again, losers. Also here is a dip for you....HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
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So guys what your scene ideas for Judge Doom's Revenge?