The Wall

 

Simple, yet complex, The Wall allows our victims imagination to take control, fill in the blanks and scare themselves with nothing but a light change, a bit of movement and sound effect.  I usually back the wall up to my double sided bar units.  The wall actor can now scare each group twice on slow nights.  The Wall can be a left or right entry scene, but the revolving wall unit must open away from the victim’s path.  This keeps the opening door between the victims and the actor and allows the victims imaginations to come to play.

 

The Wall has three dedicated panel units.  Two are identical.  They support the revolving center unit.  Each support panel is open at top and bottom to accept a twelve-foot 2x4 to tie both units together while locking the space open for the revolving wall unit.  It is important to level and square the entire unit before installing the revolving wall.  The third unit has many parts.  First the floor platform.  It is a four-foot by four foot raised platform, the back is square and the front is a half circle.  I screw carpet to the front edge to make the curve.  The hole in the center of the platform receives the shaft that the wall revolves around.  A removable 2x6 holds the top of the shaft and is locked in place with matching panels front and back.  The paint design should have black vertical lines to mask the door cracks.  Brick or rock decoration is not advised.

 

I use a 12vac lighting system.  The Wall is illuminated with six eleven watt amber lamps.  They receive their power through a relay.  A magnetic reed switch is attached to the top of the doorframe and a magnet directly beneath it attached to the door.  When the door moves the magnet release the reed switch, powers the relay and the other side of the relay receives power for the strobe aimed at the wall.  The change in room illumination is controlled by the actor and he determines the exact moment to initiate the sequence to scare the group.  I use a standard 110vac strobe converted to 12vac for the scene.

 

The Wall is an intense experience.  The surrounding panels must be secured to the floor and the panel tops attached to 1x4s spanning the entrance and exit opening.  Victims over reacting to the scare will run into or back into anyone of the panels creating the space in front of the wall.  The floor should be kept especially clean and free of debris.

 

My actor is in black street clothes, no mask or costume.  His only prop is a large rubber hammer.  The actor listens for approaching victims.  When someone in the group makes a comment related to the “Creature on Break” sign the actor begins revolving the wall.  The brightly illuminated room goes black illuminated only by a strobe aimed at the wall.  To this the actor adds the sound of his scream, a scream of pain, not terror, although I am not sure that there is much difference.  Once he is seen by the victims he can add to the sequence by shaking his hand, referring to the hammer and saying something like “That hurt” in reference to his thumb.  Using an enlarged thumb, comic type, adds little to the scene, but that depends on the actor.  The actor resets quickly, allowing the victims to exit the scene.

 

The wall can be effective during ‘crank through’ by adding another actor.  Actors on both sides can entertain.  Actor number one is visible when the victims enter the scene.  This may be played any number of ways, he may pretend to be a dummy or interact with the second actor.  Flying this actor in and out of the scene works well also.  Use a double-wired harness, counter weight, boom and air ram with lever for activation.  This completed design will be included in book five to be released March 2001.

Copyright 2000, JBCorn, All rights reserved

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