Non-Disney: SpookHouse (Haunted Interactive Attraction)

[darthspielberg]

This an idea for a Non-Disney Park Attraction. It could be a standalone attraction in an area like Orlando, or it could be an attraction inside a resort, such as the hotels in Las Vegas.

A little backstory. Back in 2007, I worked for a company called 5Wits. The owner of this company is a graduate of both MIT and Harvard Business School. He decided he wanted to take theme park attractions to a more interactive level. He's even worked for Disney, helping consult on the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The first attraction he built was in Boston, and I worked there. It was Tomb, based on Ancient Egypt. Three rooms with several puzzles to be solved to "escape" the pharaoh's wrath.

I presented a rough idea to him at the time for a similar attraction, using a classically haunted house as the setting. he liked the idea, but said I should flesh it out more. I ended up leaving the company eventually due to a move, but I still have the idea kicking around, and I have spent a few years improving it.

I present: SpookHouse (working title since I started this back in 07)

A creepy old haunted house. It's well known in the area,
and an urban legend of the ghosts that haunt it has spread like wildfire. The current owner of the hotel is sick and dying and wishes the ghosts to be exised so the house can be sold. It is on his behalf that guests are invited to the house, as members of a crack "ghost hunting" squad. Once inside guests will be locked in by the ghost of a long dead sea Admiral who demands they play along with his games to be set free. If they can prove they aren't afraid, he will let them go. However, as the guests explore, they will learn of a dark secret that haunts the walls even more than the Admiral, and discover that perhaps he isn't what they should be afraid of.

 

[darthspielberg]

Guests enter the building through an elaborately themed facade. It appears to be a rotting old three story house with candles flickering in the windows. Inside they meet the basic lobby, where they can purchase tickets or check in for a reservation. Some seats are set up for waiting. Shows leave ever 15 mins and can hold up 20 guests (25 on peak days)

Once their show begins, they are led into the foyer of the old house. Inside they find a dusty old foyer with a staircase leading to four rooms on the (slightly raised) second floor (Only one is a real door, another leads to a backstage area, the rest are fake) as well as a fireplace with a picture of a rather ghostly looking fellow above it. The fire crackles as the person from the estate (the show guide) wheels out a small TV with a dusty old VHS player. Pressing play a snowy video plays of an old man. He tells the guests he hasn't much time left in this world and has invited them, world renowned ghost hunters, to his house to rid the grounds of the supernatural goings on. Guests are then led up the stairs (with a wheelchair accessible ramp) to the farthest door on their right. Inside they find a library. As they enter, the guide stars to speak, but is cut off by a ghostly booming voice that is none too amused at their arrival. A bookcase shoots in front of the door, enclosing them in the room.

The ghost, going by the name of Admiral Spectre, then informs them they will play his game in order to make it out alive. Failure is not an option. The first task is to find a way out of the library by finding the Admiral's autobiography. Using projection technology, the book can appear in up to six different spots, and the location is randomized each show. Once the book is pulled, the farthest wall spins open halfway, revealing a passage into the next room, the Admiral's Study.

 

[darthspielberg]

Once in the study, the bookcase closes, sealing them in again. The ghost appears in paintings hanging on the wall. He informs the guests that their are 13 switches hidden in the room, in marble busts, lamps, books, and other areas, that once pushed, will open the door. However, there are also 11 false switches that do nothing. Only once the 13 correct switches are pushed (the switches are also randomized. One switch may not work, then the next show it will) the door will open, leading them to the basement.As the guests do this challenge, we see him speak of his true love, a countess, whose painting hangs in the room.

Before heading into the dungeon, we spy a room that looks like it belongs to one of the maids the house used to have when it was in it's glory days. As we enter, the door closes behind us, and a ghostly form appears out of the wall. A maid. She looks sad, and upon seeing the guests, is frightened and hides. The Admiral tells the guests to move along as the door to the basement creaks open. They descend down a ramp into the basement (actually ground level, same as the foyer and lobby) and find a bit of a maze, eight old empty picture frames, each with a small gold disc at the bottom. The Admiral says they are supposed to be paintings of his family and his true love that he never got to finish. He asks the guests to re-arrange the discs at the bottom, finding the correct painting for them. (Each disc has two paintings it belongs to. Every other show, it switches between the two, so no physical resetting of the gag is required) Once the correct disc is matched with the painting, the painting reveals itself. The painting of his "true love" turns out be the maid we saw in the previous room. She can be heard crying, and thunder cracks as a noose drops from the ceiling with lightning effects crashing around the room. The ghost demands to know whose idea of a joke this was, but decided to move onwards rather than punish the guest responsible.

Up another ramp leads into The Dining Room.

 

[darthspielberg]

In the dining room, the guests are instructed by the Admiral to sit at his table. Two benches that can hold 12 each line either side, with a smaller bench at one end of the table with room for two, and a space for a wheelchair. A lap bar hidden under the table descends to keep them in place. (A separate locking mechanism is in place for wheelchairs. Once locked in place, the Admiral tells them they will be shown true horrors and they must not scream, lest the face a horrible fate. The room goes dark. Compressed air is shot at guests, as well as brief flashes of light and loud sounds filling the room. If a guest screams, the guide can trigger the effect, which causes the floor to lower quickly, giving a quick drop. Projections of ghosts crawl the walls as the Admiral laughs. A few moments later, the floor raises to it's position and the lapbars raise. The ghost tells them to move onward.

They head out into a hall of the house, filled with statues of armor. The Admiral appears in another painting, telling guests to simply through the hall to the main ballroom to face their final challenge. As he says this, he laughs and points out that they will have to make it past "security." the statues shudder and bob their heads as colorful beams of light shoot from their chest plates. A laser hallway (aided by a thin layer of fog) that guests will have to maneuver through. Here is where the show's one "bad ending" comes into play. If enough of the lasers are tripped (a number that is randomized), the show can end. If this happens, the lights will go out in the hallway and the Admiral will laugh loudly as the wall across from the door where you entered slides open and a large elevator is revealed, glowing red. a Hell-evator. If the show ends, guests are put into the elevator and lowered into the final show scene, which we will discuss in a moment, but instead of the show being a happy ending, the ghost banishes guests (to the land of the dead) If guests receive the bad exit, they may attempt the show again for a much lower ticket price.The show failing will depend on the randomization and how close the group behind them is to finishing the dining room scene. If no group were behind them and they tripped all the lasers, they could still proceed to the finale.

After finishing the hallway, guests enter the ballroom of the house. It's large, the biggest room in the entire attraction, with huge mural sized paintings on either side of the wall. Here the Admiral introduces us to the Countess, who appears in another mural. Here it is revealed that he wants to show us the large pipe organ close to the entrance of the room. He plays a song for the guests on it, the keys used lighting up. He then asks the guests to try and play it back. Once played correctly, he will then ask them to play it backwards. Doing this causes a platform to raise into the center of the room with an old gramophone on it. It begins to play a recording of the countess describing her desire to own the house and it's great wealth, and her discovery of the love affair between the Admiral and one of his maids. She sends the maid a forged letter from the admiral, saying he did not love her. She hangs herself (as this unfolds, we see select moments on the murals) and she cursed the Admiral into loving her, but the curse was too strong, and she poisoned him to get rid of him. The Admiral demands an explanation and the countess laughs. She points out that it is no longer revelant as they are stuck in the house, cursed to live with eachother forever. The maid appears and the countess tries to harm her, which invokes the wrath of the Admiral. Their battle goes back and forth between the murals until the end when they send lighting at each other.

The Countess then appears from the celinging as an animatronic ghost with flowing robes, screaching and the Admiral tells the guests to hold hands and surround her in a circle. He then invokes a spell that causes the room to go dark and screaming is heard. When the lights return, the ghost is gone, and in place of the gramophone is a small box that rattles about before lowering into the ground. The Admiral and the Maid thank the guests and the Admiral agrees to let them go.

The door opens leading to the original foyer (which is actually a duplicate of the original) but now the painting has both the Admiral and the Maid, looking happy, and the dust has cleared up some. Descending the stairs/ramp, the guests head out into a gift shop that sells ghostly trinkets and souvenirs.

IF a group gets the bad ending, the painting is of a skeletal version of the Admiral with glowing red eyes, and the fire in the fireplace is far more evil looking.

All of the paintings the ghost appears in (except the first painting in the original foyer) are digital screens that feature filmed segments with an actor. The actor also narrates as the voice of the Admiral, which in the case of a show stall (when a group is faster than the group in front of it) will entertain guests with amusing anecdotes and spooky tales.

The show lasts about an hour. Unlike most Disney attractions, it isn't made with a high daily customer capacity, instead being a premium experience, like theater.

It's a little bit Haunted Mansion, a little bit Halloween Horror Nights. What do you all think?