Today we’ll continue our look behind the scenes of HHN 2019 with House of 1000 Corpses, a maze we’d previously featured at the event in 2010 and 2011 (and once as Rob Zombie’s American Nightmare in the era before we brought HHN back in 2006). So let’s step inside...
Obviously Chris and I have had a long history working with Mr. Zombie (he even performed in the maze that predates my time with HHN). Hard to believe this pic on the red carpet from 2011 is 10 years old now...and that Sid Haig (far right) is no longer with us. RIP Good sir!
The two previous HOTC mazes were built in the then T2 attraction’s exterior queue line, which is a much taller/larger space. They were also 3D mazes so this time we decided to do it non-3D. The approach was still Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen...
Spaulding’s museum/gas station/fried chicken stand is always a fun set to revisit. It also starts the maze off with a bang with a double scare of Captain Spaulding and his big-headed accomplice Ravelli! This big guy with an even bigger head coming at you is always unnerving!
We decided to resculpt the Captain Spaulding mask for the 2019 maze and I think Magee FX really nailed it. It ended up being a fitting tribute to Sid Haig who passed away shortly after we opened. I only met Sid a couple of times but he was always a gent.
And as a strange coincidence, Chris and I decided to feature Sid’s character much more in the 2019 maze that we did in the past. We just felt he was such a great character we ought to see him more...he was everywhere in the Murder Ride section.
Another change we made in the Murder Ride was to animate the figures of Ed Gein and Lizzie Borden (who wasn’t featured in the previous mazes) and have their names appear via invisible UV when the performer trigger was activated. My daughter Izzy sang the Lizzie Borden rhyme!
Probably my favorite performance in HHN 2019 was Dr Satan in the Murder Ride scene. It was written for him to act as if he was an animated figure and then spring to life with the trigger...but these guys exceeded my expectations with their performance!
Leaving The Murder Ride, we approach the Firefly house. Again, we had to change things up due to the height/space restrictions from our previous HOTC mazes by coming at it from the side...and stepping on to the porch...
But by approaching the house from the side via the porch, it created a unique opportunity for Tiny (played by a stilt walker) to scare you (since he could be totally hidden on the other side of the house). This was another change from the previous mazes.
Inside the Firefly house we meet Baby...and Otis. In the previous maze at T2, we spent more time in the Firefly house but in this version we needed to get back outside again as we still had a lot of ground to cover before we meet up with the real Dr. Satan.
Still he had to do both iterations of Otis in the maze since Bill Mosley (who also played Chop Top in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) is one of my favorite actors in horror. Plus this iteration of Otis in the graveyard burning the poor girl in the bunny suit is freaky as Hell!
The final section of the maze takes you down into the tunnels underneath the Firefly house where you are attacked by the tunnel ghouls. FYI - The weird voice you hear in this scene is actually a slowed down recording of famous occultist Aliester Crowley...spooky
The finale scene is Dr. Satan’s Lair where the good doctor is doing unnecessary brain surgery on Jerry (played by Chris Hardwick in his pre-Talking Dead days). Dr. Satan was the distraction in the scene, the main scare came from The Professor on the opposite side!
The final, final scare was a new twist we came up with to end the 2019 maze that was different from the previous mazes. You exit past 3 film posters for Ron’s “Firefly Trilogy”...Dr Satan pops through the last poster for one final scare!
HOTC Trivia - many of the props in this maze were actual props from the film, including Ed Gein and Lizzie Borden. Dr Satan’s torture chair is from the movie “Mystery Men,” it’s the chair Greg Kinnear’s character dies in!
HOTC trivia - my daughter Izzy sang the Lizzie Borden song for the maze. Here she is with her sister Addison goofing with Chucky at our production facility. For a treat, I took them both to Halloween Town, which coincidentally is owned by Rob Zombie’s make up artist Wayne Toth!
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