The House at Haunted Hill
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The House at Haunted Hill is a high-tech haunted attraction at a home in Woodland Hills, California. The attraction, technically a yard haunt, showcases a mixture of age-old tricks such as Pepper's ghost, and advanced special effects and multi-channel audio.


History

The show began as a simple yard display of tombstones and a few yard lights. Beginning in 2001, effects similar to
The Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displaye ...
ride from Disney appeared in the display along with many Haunted Mansion soundtrack elements. As the attraction proved popular, the show's producers decided to create a unique story. Lori Merkle Ford created the basic story line in the spring of 2007, which revolved around a young Hollywood starlet of the 1930s who had just married a shady Hollywood screenwriter. Ed Valentine, a prominent television screenwriter, was contracted to develop the script, and pre-production began in full earnest in June 2007. Christopher Hoag, an
Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
-nominated composer, joined the production team shortly thereafter, and about a month later the fully developed score and story were finished. Corey Burton, famous for his rendition of Paul Frees at The Disney Haunted Mansion, came on board to provide the voice of "Jack", the show's narrator, whose character is manifested as a giant talking pumpkin. The show was created and produced by Matt Ford, an Emmy-winning lighting designer, and Lori Merkle Ford, a singer, actor and dancer, both based in Los Angeles.


Attraction

The House at Haunted Hill has run yearly since 2000, usually the last three days of October. Unlike most other seasonal haunted attractions, it is a "walk-by" show viewed from along the fence-line of the street. (The city began closing the street to vehicular traffic in 2009 to facilitate the large crowds.) Although it is scripted, it does not use live actors, instead relying on video projections and
animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
. In style, it is a "ghost show" with no shock, blood or gore.


Technology

The recorded show repeats every 15 minutes, similarly to many amusement park rides. Instead of live actors, it uses high-definition projections of the characters to tell the story, using stage illusions such as the Pepper's ghost effect, and high-tech projection and lighting methods. It is controlled by an
Alcorn McBride Alcorn McBride is an American manufacturer of show control, audio and video equipment for the themed entertainment industry. Their equipment is used in theme parks, museums, restaurants, visitor centers, retail stores, kiosks, cruise ships, and t ...
show control system synchronized to SMPTE timecode. The control system coordinates the motion control subsystems, animatronics, lighting, and special effects. The show also makes extensive use of
projection mapping Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into display surfaces for video projection. The objects may be complex industrial landscapes, s ...
provided by the company Spectral Illusions. The 24-channel sound track utilizes speakers strategically placed along the attraction. The lighting system is controlled by a
Vari Lite Vari-Lite is a brand of automated, variable-colour stage lighting systems. Their intelligent lighting fixtures are commonly used in theatre, concerts, television, film and corporate events. History Pre-history The origins of Vari-Lite date t ...
Virtuoso and makes extensive use of LED and ultraviolet lighting technology.


Characters

*Jack, the narrator (played by Corey Burton) *Julietta LaRue, a young Hollywood starlet (played by Heather Marie Marsden) *Billy Valentine, her new husband (played by Todd Fournier) *Lily, Billy's deceased ex-wife (played by Lori Merkle Ford) *Moira, Billy's deceased daughter (played Alexendra Vicich) *Snapper Bixby, a Hollywood paparazzo (played by Neil Patrick Harris)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:House At Haunted Hill Dark rides Ghosts in popular culture Haunted attractions (simulated) Animatronic attractions