Boo! Seasoned theme park professionals are teaming up to build The Haunted Road, a drive-thru haunted house experience in Orlando. The timing couldn’t be better, since Universal Orlando just cancelled its popular Halloween Horror Nights for 2020. Orlandoans love their eerie autumn experiences, so a socially distant Halloween experience is bound to be popular.
A rendering of The Haunted Road, an Orlando drive-thru haunted house attraction that will be open for several weeks of Fall 2020
What the Orlando Drive-Thru Haunted House Will Be Like
The creators are still a little secretive with the details, but the picture they’ve painted for The Haunted Road so far sounds solid.
The theme will be the untold story of storybook character Rapunzel, says Jessica Mariko, one-time creator of DRIP and one of three key players in this new Orlando attraction. “Guests will see Rapunzel in a tower, and they’ll set off into this unknown world of disarray,” Mariko explains. “They’ll meet with all kinds of interesting, scary characters and experiences.”
Guests will do this by driving their car to a series of sets. Cars will park at a set, then sit within the scene and meet the characters—some of whom will speak, which will help spell out the storyline. They’ll also have “horror and unexpected scare” bits. So let’s assume cleverly costumed scary people will seemingly jump up out of nowhere and frighten the bejeezus out of the passengers.
Will the Orlando Drive-Thru Haunted House Be Good for Kids?
These folks are pros, as I said. So yes. There will actually be two The Haunted Road experiences. The signature evening Haunted Road will be filled with gore and scares and all those glorious Halloween horrors. During the day, the costumes and story will be a little bit different. So will the music, and the frights. In other words, daytimes will be The Haunted Road Lite. And thank goodness, because families want to get out of the house safely just like everyone else. I know when the Wild Florida Drive-Thru Safari opened, it filled up so fast that weekend tickets often sold out in advance.
How Big a Deal is the Orlando Drive-Thru Haunted House?
Big, and not-so-big. Because of Orlando’s huge theme park component, the metro area is loaded with businesses and consultants specializing in creating the stories, ride technology, lighting features and other elements that seem to magically come together to comprise a single ride or walk-through area. The Haunted Road is being created by several such pros.
These are the primary three:
Jessica Mariko, who freely “pulled from my theatrical and immersive theater backgrounds”;
Nick Graves, a Walt Disney Entertainment writer and producer for 20 years who most recently worked as Live Entertainment Director for B Morrow Productions; and,
Jeremy Crawford, a Universal veteran who now consults on conceptual design, art direction and graphics for rides, shows and attractions.
In terms of budget, that’s another story. When the press release about The Haunted Road went out on July 28, 2020, it said a Kickstarter fundraising plan was in the works. By the next day, the response had been so huge that the team decided to pre-sell tickets instead. So the budget isn’t as enormous as the talent behind the project, but I would not discount what these folks can do from their home offices.
The ABCs of the Orlando Drive-Thru Haunted House
The Haunted Road will be located in a “pretty convenient location,” Mariko promises, within the Orlando area. The attraction will operate from late September through the end of October, 2020. Tickets will start at $15 per person. For more information, visit the website and the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds.
Guests will buy tickets online, and staffers will use guest license plates to confirm reservations. Bottom line: no touch.
Ready?
“We have a solid team of local Orlando people who are very creative and talented, and they came together to put this together,” added Juliette Gebken-Mayi, a spokesperson. “We wanted to figure out a way to save Halloween.”
Fill up the car. This is going to be fun.
P.S. Try out to work there during the August 13-16, 2020 casting call. Click here for details.