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Halloween Horror Nights Orlando attraction
HHNRFTSS The Usher

A poster for the attraction. (Note: This was outside of the actual house.)

Silver Screams Entrance
Silver Screams
Attraction type Haunted House
Event Halloween Horror Nights: Ripped from the Silver Screen
Park Universal Studios Florida
Area Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone
Year 2009
Housed in Parade Warehouse
Based on

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

My Bloody Valentine 3-D (2009)

The Thing (1982)

Army of Darkness (1992)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

The Strangers (2008)

Silver Screams was one of the eight haunted houses that was featured during Halloween Horror Nights: Ripped from the Silver Screen, and was considered to be the house for the icon of the event, Julian Browning, aka The Usher. It was located in the Parade Warehouse.

History and Location[]

In 2009, Universal decided to give the icon for their 2009 Halloween event, The Usher, his own haunted house at the event. The house would be called Silver Screams, and would tie-in to the Usher's backstory, showing his death. Along with this, the house would also feature a compilation of scenes from various horror movies.

2009 was the first year Universal decided to give codenames to all of their haunted houses. Some people say the codename was "Usher", while others said it was "Flashlight" as the Usher holds a flashlight.

The house tied in to a story on the Halloween Horror Nights website, Strangled. In it, the Usher's death was revealed. After a fight with a rude theater-goer, his neck accidentally got caught on a rope which strangled him to death. The house would be located in a building called The Parade Warehouse. The Parade Warehouse was a very large warehouse built to hold the various parade floats used at Universal.

Description[]

Julian Browning has been the usher at the Universal Palace since it opened in 1922; of course, he’s been dead since 1940, but he still commands respect for his most beloved films from every patron. Buy a ticket to the Universal Palace, and let Julian usher you into a realm where the horror on the screen is ripped away to reveal a world that is truly terrifying. Features “Shaun of the Dead”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “My Bloody Valentine 3D” and other popular horror films.

Enter the Universal Palace Theater, a realm where the horror on the screen is ripped away to reveal a world that is truly terrifying.

Mystery Tie-in[]

Whether it was a prank or an act of vandalism, the tossing of a stolen flashlight would start a chain of events that would curse the Universal Palace Theater.

It all began when usher Julian Browning got into a confrontation with an unruly patron during a 1940 re-screening of The Phantom of the Opera. The fight became physical and during the struggle, the patron stole Browning's flashlight and tossed it through the projector screen, tearing it. Outraged and furious, Browning tried to retrieve the flashlight, only to be caught in a dangling sandbag drop line rope that was leftover from the theater’s days as a legitimate opera house and slowly strangled to death.

Until the day the theater closed for good, the ghost of the usher was reported to have been seen stalking the lobby, aisles and catwalks, usually whenever a tragedy occurred.

Settings[]

Experience[]

Queue and Facade[]

Guests would enter the queue to the left of the E.T. ride. The queue would go through the exterior queue of the E.T. ride, before going to the Parade Warehouse. After reaching the end of the queue, guests would enter the house through the front of the Universal Palace Theater, now in a closed-down and dilapidated state. 

Suddenly, as if by magic, the lights all come on, the song begins playing, and bright red letters appear in the marquee, claiming to show the world premiere of Lon Chaney Sr.'s famous film, The Phantom of the Opera.  Entering the Lobby, Julian Browning stands at a ticket-taker podium at the end of the hall, which is covered in "vintage style" posters for several different cult horror films. Browning ushers guests into the theater to the right, and "into an experience they will never, ever forget". 

Haunted House[]

The transition between each movie is a lobby setting with a poster next to the door for the next film.  There is also a chair next to each door with key props from the respective films. 

Phantom of the Opera, Pt. 1

Guests enter into a dimly-lit stone tunnel, and can hear organ music echoing from further ahead.  Guests emerge into the underground lair of Erik, the Phantom of the Opera.  The masked fiend alternates between scowling at guests and playing his organ, which activates air jets and a burst of noise from the organ pipes behind the guests. As guests attempt to flee through the crypt, they are attacked by Erik, now without his mask.  The grey stone of the tomb morphs to red fabric wallpaper as guests enter the hallway in front of the next theater.

My Bloody Valentine

Prop: Pickaxe and a heart-shaped box of chocolates.

Guests enter into a hospital corridor with blood painted on the walls declaring "Happy Valentine's Day". Harry Warden, The Miner from the film My Bloody Valentine 3-D, pops out of a closed door in front of the guests and attacks with his pickaxe. Around the corner is a hospital room with a dead body, which serves as a distraction for Warden to once again attack guests as they pass by. Guests finally reach the end of the corridor past more blood-painted walls and move through into another theater hallway.

The Thing

Prop: Box of dynamite and a petri dish of blood.

Guests enter the Antarctic base from The Thing, now thrown into chaos from the alien invasion. Lights flash and a loud scream is heard as a Thing, the trademark creature of the film, is seen at the end of the hallway behind a barrier. Turning the corner, a now insane MacReady and a heavily-mutated member of the base bang on oil drums and attack guests from behind a wall.

Mid-Evil Dead (a.k.a. Army of Darkness)

Prop: The Necronomicon Ex Mortis.

Guests enter the Pit scene from the movie, and immediately hear the roar of a chainsaw as Ash Williams runs around attempting to fight off a horrifying Deadite as it tries to attack guests.

Phantom of the Opera Pt. 2

Prop: Erik's mask and a flashlight.

Guests enter behind the screen of the theater during the dramatic "Unmasking Scene" from Phantom of the Opera. Looking above, Guests see a number of dummies and mannequins hanging from ropes. Except one of the "dummies" is twitching.  Upon closer examination, it is revealed that the dummy is in fact the body of Julian Browning during his gruesome death by strangulation in 1940.  The ghost of the Usher then attacks the guests with his flashlight from behind crates and props as they pass.

Shaun of the Dead

Prop: Cricket Bat and a bouquet of flowers.

Guests enter the Winchester Tavern as Queens's "Don't Stop Me Now" plays uncontrollably from the jukebox.  Shaun stands on the billiards table fighting off zombies. He either has a rag tied around his head or has a dart sticking out of his head.  Zombies will pop out of the dark corners of the bar to scare guests.  Before exiting the pub, guests are attacked by Shaun's zombified buddy, Ed.

The Strangers

Prop: Pin-up mask and knife.

Guests enter the living room of a darkened house. The smoke alarm is blaring thanks to a blocked off fireplace, which has made the room smoky. Through the open patio door, we can see the Pin-up Girl watching us from outside.  The Man in the Mask stands silently in the center of the room, pretending to be a mannequin before lunging at you.  Before the guests leave the house, Dollface leaps out of a closet at guests.

Finale

In the final part of the house, various scareactors playing Julian can be seen walking back and fourth across the exit to the maze, and at times, come up to and attack guests to give them a final scare.

Scareactors[]

Pictures[]

Soundtrack[]

Trivia[]

  • Posters for the unused films are used in the marquee, which is strange considering the house takes place in the 1940's.
  • Posters for Leave it to Cleaver, and the Spawning are seen in the queue.
  • According to this, most of the sets in the Shaun of the Dead scene were reused from Creatures!.
  • The hanging Usher, is a prop used in many other houses, first appearing in Project Evilution.
  • Army of Darkness was renamed "Medieval Dead" in the haunted house, most likely to avoid legal issues. The poster of the "movie" showed Evil Ash and his army.
  • According to Michael Roddy, the house was filled with amazing properties that he and the team felt didn't constitute as entire houses. Films like Shaun of the Dead & My Bloody Valentine were great films that they wanted to use, but they didn't think they could create entire houses for both.

External links[]

Halloween Horror Nights: Ripped from the Silver Screen
Characters: The Usher (Event Icon)  • Billy  • Chucky  • The Wolfman (Sub Icons)  • Sam Meetz  • Count Dracula • Frankenstein's Monster • Sculders
Haunted Houses: The Wolfman  • Dracula: Legacy in Blood  • Frankenstein: Creation of the Damned  • Leave it to Cleaver  • SAW  • The Spawning  • Chucky: Friends til the End  • Silver Screams
Scarezones: Containment  • War of the Living Dead  • Apocalypse: City of Cannibals  • Cirque Du Freak  • Horrorwood Die-In  • Lights Camera Hacktion!
Unofficial Scarezone: Shadows from the Past
Shows: The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Tribute  • Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure
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