The Challenge...
The Battleship New Jersey came to us with an exciting project...turn their historic battleship, which first sailed in 1942, into an immersive haunted house experience. The challenge: all of the installation had to be removed and reinstalled every night, so nothing could be permanently built and all effects had to be able to be broken down and stored. We also needed to create a design that was mindful of the historical aspects of the ship, incorporating as much of that into the event as possible. We also had to design the event in such a way that groups would always have an actor guide with them, as they were not permitted to traverse the ship without a guide.
Our Solution...
We developed a story that would allow us to incorporate several different haunt elements, while also providing flexibility in how we could set up and store the build. By putting the focus on the actors and the story, the need for special effects that could not be easily removed was diminished (although we still built a Pepper's Ghost.) Our team produced:
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A scripted horror house event that spanned different floors and several different rooms throughout the ship.
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Twenty professional actors in custom designed costumes.
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Twelve differently themed rooms tied into an overall storyline, all completely built out but still able to be broken down and stored.
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Sound and lighting design for every part of the ship the guests were guided through.
The Result...
Excitement was high on a late September evening as the ship was decked out for its first haunted event. As the guests gathered outside the entryway to the ship, they were greeted by costumed actors whose performance was geared toward hinting as to what was to come. Music drifted in the air above, as the sun began to set. Once the doors opened, the guests were immediately immersed in a terrifying spectacle of a scientific experiment gone wrong...the former residents of the ship hidden among the ship's various rooms and byways, ready to jump out at any moment. The guides wove the story of Dr. Jamison, a mad scientist whose experiments on human subjects had created an army of undead that were contained on the ship. The 45 minute tour featured every scare imaginable, from gore to clowns to dolls to jump scares, all explained as part of the overall story.