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Halloween Horror Nights Orlando attraction | |
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    Image from the Halloween Horror Nights: Sweet 16 website page.   The entrance sign for Run. Image from the Halloween Horror Nights: Sweet 16 website page. | |
| Run | |
| Attraction type | Haunted House |
| Event | Halloween Horror Nights XI |
| Park | Universal Studios Florida |
| Area | San Francisco |
| Year | 2001 |
| Housed in | Earthquake Queue |
| Based on | Original |
| Followed by | Run: Hostile Territory (2006) |
Run was one of the five haunted houses that were featured during Halloween Horror Nights XI. Due to the 9/11/2001 terror attacks, much like the rest of the event, Run underwent significant edits, including the removal of its main Icon character, Eddie Schmidt. It was located in the Earthquake Queue along with The Mummy Returns: The Curse Continues.
History and Location[]
Originally, the icon of the 2001 Halloween Horror Nights event (Eddie Schmidt) was going to have his own icon house. The house would be called Run and would feature an evil game show where he and his chainsaw-wielding goons would chase "contestants" and brutally slaughter them. The prize would be survival. The house was planned to be one of the most intense haunted houses to ever exist.
Sadly, the house was severely toned down due to the 9/11 terror attacks. Eddie was completely removed from the house (and the event as a whole), and many chainsaw maniacs and gory rooms were also removed. Otherwise, the house would be the same, with chainsaw-wielding maniacs chasing guests through chain-link fences and padded wall mazes. The house would be one of two haunted houses located in the large extended queue for the Earthquake attraction, the other being The Mummy Returns: The Curse Continues.
In 2006, the house would get a sequel called Run: Hostile Territory featuring the return of Eddie and his chainsaw goons. The house would have relatively the same idea as this one (with many chainlink fences and chainsaw wielding villains), but would also be loosely based on the 2005 movie, Hostel.
Description[]
Become a guest contestant in a diabolical new game where there are no questions, no prizes, and only one rule - try to escape without losing your mind.
Story[]
Run took place within a sinister and haphazard "game show", an intricate labyrinth made from junkyard refuse, designed and built by Eddie himself. The contestants? The guests. The grand prize? Getting out alive. The rule? Only one...Run!
Concept[]
According to this: https://twitter.com/RonIsAJerk/status/1664068522979258369/photo/1
Considered the most extreme haunted maze in its ten year history. Guests will be thrown into an environment that has no rhyme or reason, only the most diabolical combination of unsettling imagery and dark, winding corridors. This maze includes a chain link fence and sliding doors to confuse and cause guest to be separated from their party. The gigantic games keeper will use an assortment of chainsaws, baseball bats, garden tools and nail guns. Optical illusions of baseballs and nails will be directed at the guest.
Experience[]
Queue and Facade[]
The map seemingly shows the entrance of this house being to the left of the entrance for Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue. The queue would most likely go to a backstage area behind the Earthquake building, where the line would loop around multiple times before entering the Earthquake building from the back. The facade was a giant sign that said "RUN" with a few skeletons impaled on spikes above it.
Haunted House[]
Run was apparently a literal maze, with many dead ends. Guests would be heckled by goons if they hit a dead end. The walls of the maze were made of mattresses and chain-link fences, and would constantly change throughout the house. This meant that guests could continuously go in circles due to the changing walls.
The house featured many chainsaw wielding goons chasing guests through dark, winding corridors filled with various freaks, disheveled halls padded with dirty mattresses, and chain link barricades that served as poor protection against the crazed psychos that lay on the other side. A voiceover at the beginning can be heard introducing guests to the house. According to this, there were also cages and a chain-link fence maze with splitting paths, making many parties split up (sometimes forcefully). Reportedly, the scareactors would stop and lead/point guests through different paths. The paths would eventually merge at the end and guests would be reunited with their family.
There were also lights on the ceiling set for flash or trash mode and a rough, metallic, and electronic soundtrack. A change of elevation also seemed to be present, as in the beginning guests could be seen behind a chainlink fence at a lower elevation. There was also a room featuring many hanging sacks (possibly containing bodies) and one with a noise indicating it may hold a feral dog behind a cage. One room would also feature a man holding a nail gun that would spray guests with water. One maniac would rub something against one of the fences to create sparks. The house was also reportedly very hot, and guests would repeatedly go in circles.
Walkthrough from Here[]
Along with Scary Tales, this had to be the best, and most unusual Haunted House in the park. First, an annoucer would tell you to start when the bell rings. As soon as it did, a gate would open, and you would enter a maze made out of beds... this part was very dark and very short, with only one employee showing you where to go, then you entered into the lit section of the maze, made entirely out of chain link fence. In a few places throughout the maze, employees would change the gates every so often, you with the strobe lights on, and the fog going, and the "construction workers" shooting "nails" at you, it was very easy to get seperated with the people you were with, and you could be going around in circles for a long time, because the gates would keep on changing. Like it said in the Halloween Horror Nights brochure, you would have to "try to escape, without losing your mind." I was disoriented after the maze all through Jaws and Bill and Ted!
Another description from the now defunct HauntFreaks.com:
Run- The whole maze is chain link fence and you can see all the way to the exit from the entrance. One problem though, the cast members who constructed the Maze says its so confuson that they even got lost in it when they were building it. And thats in Brod Day Light. This maze is full of Dead Ends, and it wont help wen the maze is pumped with smoke. The Scaracters will be armed with water guns, Baseball Bats, Garbage can lids, psi air blowers, and a cattle prod. The cattle prod will be scraped across the fence to make sparks. While the baseball bats and Trash lids will be wacked and draged across the fence to make loud startling sounds.
Treatment (From Here)[]
Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights presents the most extreme Haunted maze in its ten-year history. As our Guest Contestant, you will be thrown into an environment that has no rhyme or reason, only the most diabolical combination of unsettling imagery and dark, winding corridors. Your challenge is simple: Get out as quickly as you can. Through chain-link barricades and padded walls, you must make choices to survive. Think you know the way out? Good Luck. Remember to keep moving. Don’t stop, not even to Scream!
OVERALL TECHNICAL APPROACH: Lighting should be designed to create confusion and chaos. Audio is a cacophony of high end disturbing sounds. All of the interior of the Exterior walls for this run will be mirrored to help create visual disorientation and scale
EXTERIOR: - ENTRYWAY Welcome to the future of entertainment as Game Show meets Gladiator spectacle. The only difference is that there is no score and the prize is that you’ve survived. You ramp upward on wooden scaffolding into the experience, hearing the chaotic sounds of terror filling the air. A crude sign built from the used and abandoned parts of junk spells out the name of this twisted game: RUN. Christmas lights combined with Tivoli chase lights create a weird and surreal advertisement and entry statement.
SCENE: 1 – LET THE GAMES BEGIN As you enter the dark cave-like structure, you are met with the sight of a rusted metal archway. Lights surround the word “RUN”. As you move underneath the archway, a gaunt GAME SHOW HOST slams a steel door shut behind you triggering a blinding green light. A loud air-horn shrieks the beginning of the game followed by an ominous voice that screams a single command at you. “RUN!!!!!!”
SCENE: 2 - FIRST QUARTER We move into the darkness of a claustrophobic cave. Our presence triggers sirens and beacon lights. Disoriented by the blinding flash and the shriek of the siren, we struggle forward.
We move cautiously into the disturbing darkness of the hellish environment, not knowing what to expect. Padded pieces of dirty mattress cover the walls.
From unseen openings throughout the space, Maniacal FREAKS hurl themselves towards us.
One of the freaks is chained to the floor. He hurls a piece of broken chain towards our group, smashing into a discarded aluminum barrel.
Another chases us through the twisting space with the remains of a bloody, disemboweled torso.
The exterior walls are lined with mirrors, giving the disorienting illusion of depth. Along the floor, lining our path, are the remains of crushed bones.
SCENE: 3 - THE BASEMENT We continue forward, ramping down, into the chaos. We move forward into the remains of a rotted wooden porch. Broken latticework surrounds us on each side as we continue downward. Without warning, hideous appendages thrust from underneath the porch, grasping at us.
Moving quickly away from the attack, we come face to face with a GIANT JUNKYARD DOG. The furry beast lunges at us, snarling, chasing us from the room.
SCENE: 4 - DE-COMPOST HEAP A maniacal GATEKEEPER corrals us into one of two tunnels of chain link. The lights continue to assault
We move further into the madness of the maze and are confronted by the grisly sight of several decomposing bodies wrapped in bloody gauze. Stepping out across grated steel floor, We hear the sound of buzzing flies, as mono-filament creates the illusion of the insects. We smell the sickly sweet stench of rotting flesh. The decomposing bodies ooze a greenish fluid that covers the bandages. The bodies are covered with methycyl creating the tactile illusion of decomposing flesh. Winding through the grisly hanging barriers, the disgusting feel of warm water drips down upon us.
SCENE: 5 - NAILED We enter a corridor of makeshift wood barricades. 2 x 4 planks are haphazardly placed at odd angles creating weird wood structures above us. More padded pieces of mattress cover the walls.
We hear the sound of a pneumatic nail-gun. We turn the corner and find a rotund CARPENTER. He is nailing boards up, creating a barricade. As we cautiously move past the intimidating woodsman, he turns, pointing his nail gun at us. His face is riddled with nails, the tips protruding from his flesh. He fires. We feel the air of the powerful tool, followed by the feel of something wet on our skin. Did we actually just get nailed? The Rotund madman forces us deeper into the darkness, yelling after us to “keep running!”
SCENE: 6 - BATTER UP! The intensity builds as we move past a batting cage. A baseball-pitching machine spits out bloodied baseballs, lobbing the hard implements towards us. They come within inches of us, stopped only by the metal of the cage.
SCENE: 7 - TWO CHAINSAWS ARE BETTER THAN ONE We rush through the twisting cavern, the pathway forcing us from right to left. As we move through the chaotic maze, we find what remains of several bodies. These decapitated torsos fill the ceiling and floors. Bursting from the wall of bloody torsos and intestines is a huge GAMESKEEPER. He triggers a blinding strobe. The muscular monster towers above us brandishing two small chainsaws, one in each hand. He roars at us, swinging wildly as we race forward.
SCENE: 8 – HOME RUN Hanging panels of fabric obstruct our path. We are forced to move them aside as we come face to face with a panel of fence. Suddenly two mutated FREAKS jumps out, brandishing a baseball bat. He swings wildly, smashing against the chain link. The barrage of violence continues as we rush forward. Turning right we think we find safety only to find a ripped open portion of chain-link fence. One of the Freaks bounds into our space chasing us with his bat.
SCENE: 9 - SHOCK TREATMENT We move through a confined area of more chain-link fence. To our right, a CRAZY CONTESTANT maniacally runs an electrical cable across the fence, sending a shower of sparks towards us. We cower away from the lunatic when another CRAZY jumps up from the other side. Through a hole in the chain link, he shoves a cable towards us, making contact. The vibrating wand tip simulates the coursing electricity chasing us from the space.
SCENE: 10 - THE RUNWAY We are forced into a long winding corridor filled with doors of every shape and size. Hanging above us, suspended from the darkness are bloody mannequins. We move through the hallway as freakish MANGLERS, adrenaline-charged game masters attack us at every opportunity. They blast at us with hand held air nozzles. They have the ability to appear behind several different doors on each side, increasing the scare potential.
(NOTE: The back of the actor space is line with mirror to help create disorientation)
SCENE: 11 - GET OUT! We turn a corner, and see another winding corridor stretching out before us. Above us is a series of red Christmas tree lights that line the upper wall, and cast an eerie glow into the chamber. A fog blast fills the area as we try to make our way through. The walls are covered with wet, latex strips simulating the stripped skins of victims.
As we move through we feel intense heat from an unseen source. Out of nowhere, a large MANIAC jumps towards us. The masked psycho thrusts his bloody chainsaw towards us. The chainsaw is enormous, the blade twice the normal size and covered with chunks of shredded flesh. He chases our group forward and out of the tunnel. As more contestants/victims enter the area, they are wary of the attack, only to be startled as another MANIAC enters to chase them from the opposite side.
We exit the Tunnel, bursting through sheets of wet fabric and torn clothing, surviving the madness, but will we ever be the same?
Pictures[]
Website Pictures[]
Videos[]
- Home Video (55:20-1:00:50)
| Halloween Horror Nights XI |
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| Characters: Jack the Clown (Event Icon) • Eddie Schmidt (Scrapped Icon) |
| Haunted Houses: The Mummy Returns: The Curse Continues • Pitch Black • Run • Scary Tales • Superstitions |
| Scarezones: Midway of the Bizarre • Nightmare Alley • The Unknown |
| Shows: Boogeymen • Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure • Dangerous D'Illusions • Nightmares on Parade |
| Other Entertainment: The Ooze Zone |