Developmental History of
“The Wall” also known as
“Creature on Break”
One of the scenes that I have developed over the years came to be by accident. The ‘Wall’, as I call it now (or ‘Creature on Break’), was once the Throne Room. It was dark and had additional set pieces. I took my Checkerboard panels and rebuilt them. The two panels with square cut holes became curtained windows on either side of the platform. The original design called for duplicate throne style chairs to be attached to the revolving wall. And during a strobe flash into the eyes of the victims the wall would revolve. The scene would open with a Kingly creature on the throne, the flash, the revolve and the kingly smoldering corpse would be in its place. The live actor now on the back side of the revolving wall would animate the corpse viewed by the victims by moving the arm rests (they came through the wall) to move the arms and the head by pushing on a spring loaded lever with the actors head. While the victims watched the show another actor would provide a scare with a prop or their head stuck out of one of the holes. Math has never been my strong point and I failed to take note, until I sat in the chair, that the four-foot opening in the wall would not let my knees pass. Oh well.
The room had other problems as well. The chair was removed and the actor would spin the wall leading into the customer path. Good scare, but (for whatever reason) victims would walk into the raised floor platform. During opening season I added two white poles on either side of the platform, but all this did was give the victims something to grab onto when they walked into the platform. I operated the room this way for two seasons. Halloween night of the second season I discovered (accidentally) that the best way for the wall to revolve was away from the victims. This kept whatever was behind the wall out of sight as the wall revolved. The wall had stops to keep it from going all the way around and to allow the actor to lock the wall in the proper position quickly. The stops I used allowed for the wall to rotate into the victims revealing the actor immediately. A better analogy would be doors in a hallway opening. I have noticed that most doors open revealing the door opening, the best way would be to open blind to the opening. The actor could open the door, remain behind the door and keep the victim in anticipation. Halloween night for the wall was especially terrifying for our victims. The stops on the door broke off. I was attempting to fix it when a group came through, being in position I played the actor part, but spun the door the wrong way. The victim response was so strong that I locked the door to spin opposite of my intended design. The actors took turns nailing one group after another. I was lucky it was the last night; the room was not designed to take the abuse victims heaped upon it trying to escape whatever was coming for them.
Season three found the raised platform modified. The four-foot square stage front was now a half circle and no posts. I raised the illumination level, added a strobe triggered by the doors movement and created an effective scene. The victims would enter, see an empty room (make some crude comment about paying for actors not there) and walk past the platform. At that moment the actor would spin the door, theatrical lighting would go off, strobe come on and zap, a great scare. The victims’ comments got me to thinking. Not everyone said something, maybe ten percent, but the scare was better when someone in the group made a comment. The path was clear; I had to create the environment that would encourage the comment. I increased light levels again, all amber illumination, you could read the paper it was so bright (by my standards, my average room had 28 to 35 watts of colored illumination) six 11 watt bulbs bathed the scene and on the revolving wall itself a sign “Creature on Break”.
The results were devastating, er, for the victims. Like Ivory soap, 99.9% of all groups made a comment. I had created a scene that in seconds produced three distinct emotions. One, disappointment; no actor, no scare, no worry, the room looked like the lights were on. Two, the scare; the lights went off, the strobe came on, the wall revolved, the actor screamed in pain. Three, comic relief; the reason the actor was screaming was he had hit his finger with the hammer in his hand. The effectiveness of the room was amazing. So effective that we had to tone it down. The first full-blown season of operation caused major damage. New methods of wall support had to be devise, and then, there was the floor. Yes, I said floor. I am on a raised deck. Four teens, two female two male, fell so hard from shock that they split one floor joist completely in two and another split almost in two. We had to shut down for a few minutes to reinforce the floor and reattach the walls.
Scene design is as much by accident as by design. The beauty of the sixty-degree system is its flexibility. Panels can be removed, added repositioned and modified while open or before the next day of operation. This flexibility allows the designer an experimental environment, one that allows him or her many opportunities to play with the victims before deciding on a final scene design. Final? Actually my scenes are never final, oh I have favorites, but I am always improving and experimenting, for me that is more fun than operating a haunt.