Today were going to look at “The Curse of Pandora’s Box.” Chris & I both had ideas for an original maze. Chris had the basic idea for Pandora while I was developing a Latino themed maze (like La Llorona & El Cucuy). We decided to go for Pandora so I shelved my idea for later. Image
Chris’ idea was to have guests enter Pandora’s Box and then transition the environment to UV with black light sets and characters (which we hadn’t really done since Clowns in 2014). So I set about doing what I always do at the start of a maze...tons of research. Image
I started with the obvious...the story of Pandora which first appears with the poet Hesoid in 700 BC. I learned that Pandora wasn’t given a box in Hesoid’s tale...it was a jar. Someone improperly translated the story from Greek and the box stuck, which is good. A jar isn’t scary Image
I liked the idea of a gift from the Gods you weren’t allowed to open...that when opened unleashes all the evil into the world. The problem was Chris envisioned a box big enough for everyone to enter it. I needed to come up with a setting that made sense for that... Image
I’ve always been fascinated by “cabinets of curiosity,” usually rooms in the manor houses of aristocrats that housed collections of natural wonders and other oddities. In the 16th century, these were kind of like the earliest versions of museums for the rich and famous. ImageImage
Eventually they spread to the masses and become attractions in Europe and The New World.” There are some that still exist today so this gave inspiration for the facade, “Pandora’s Cabinet of Curiosity.” A place where you might find a mysterious box... ImageImageImage
But then there was the problem of what to do once you’ve stepped through the box? Since Pandora originated in Greek mythology, I decided to tie the maze into the idea of The Netherworld or Hades from Greek mythology... Image
Greek mythology is full of all kinds of crazy monsters...the further I researched, the longer my list became as I compiled tons of reference images. Ultimately there was too many for the maze so we had to pick and choose. Image
Medusa the Gorgon was an obvious choice. Originally we were going to do her with a live performer using the giant snail coils we made for Alice Cooper Goes to Hell...that is until we discovered someone had “decommissioned” them...which is a fancy word for destroyed! Image
Cerberus the hound of Hell that guards the gate for Hades was another obvious choice. We were going to take you into that realm so made sense. Image
A little less known is Arachne, a mortal woman who is turned into a spider by The Gods. Again, originally we were going to repurpose the body of the black widow we created for Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare till we learned that too was decommissioned! ImageImage
One of the scenes I wrote but we didn’t end up doing is The Harpies, bird-like women which are originally from Greek mythology and later show up in “The Wood of Suicides” in Dante’s Inferno. Space was an issue so it got cut. Image
Some of the characters were visually inspired by unusual sources. The look of the skeletal figures in The Damned were inspired by an old Aurora model I used to have called “The Forgotten Prisoner.” Image
And the look of The Lord of the Dead stilt walker was inspired by this scene from Conan the Barbarian. ImageImage
And the entrance to Hades was inspired by this set piece that Chris and I created for the first project we ever worked on together...The Creature Factory from Special Effects Stages in 2001. Image
As for the look of Pandora...that was Chris’ idea and his original sketch was given to our concept illustrator Lucas and ultimately sculpted by Magee FX. ImageImage
In addition to her look, she needed a voice. I wanted her to narrate the experience and do it in the style of the original source material...so I decided to write a series of rhyming couplets for the maze that would tell the story...not many mazes involve poetry! This one did. Image
So for the next thread. I’m going to attempt to take you through the maze with pics but only using the text of the poem I wrote...we’ll see if it makes sense. You can chime in whenever you recognize an HHN Easter Egg (hint...there’s a bunch in the first scene). Should be fun. Image

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More from @john_murdy

30 Apr
Today we’ll finish up with 2019’s “Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man,” when we left off we were down in the catacombs, working our way back to the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle... Image
One of my favorite scenes in the maze was Dr. Frankenstein’s ruined library with its scores of books that hold the secret to life. Once again, we drew inspiration for this scene from the 1943 film and Bernie Wrightson’s amazing illustrations for the 1983 graphic novel ImageImage
In our version, Dr Frankenstein’s library has been ravaged by fire after his monster threw the switch that caused that massive explosion at the end of Bride of Frankenstein. Here’s a pic I took when our props and dressing team had started work in that scene... Image
Read 13 tweets
29 Apr
We’re going to close out the week with a look back at “Universal Monsters: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” from 2019. I always envisioned The Universal Monsters maze from 2018 as being like “The Avengers” movie that we would spin-off if it worked. This was the first spin off... Image
This maze was loosely based on the 1943 Universal film “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.” We also combined elements from 1939’s Son of Frankenstein and 1944’s House of Frankenstein. I’ll show examples of that inspiration as we go along Image
The facade statement for the maze was the gypsy camp which was something we designed but didn’t use for the 2018 maze. Slash created an original score for the maze including a gypsy theme for this section. Image
Read 12 tweets
28 Apr
Today we’re gonna take a look at Stranger Things from HHN 2019, this was the second maze we created for the Netflix series and like the previous one it was housed inside Stage 29. The original idea was to do a maze based solely on season 2 but it ended up with a tease of Season 3 Image
The maze began where season 1 ended, with Will in his bathroom vomiting up that strange parasite that would eventually become the Demo Dogs. This scene utilised our “disappearing room” effect, changing from a normal bathroom to a Upside Down version... ImageImageImage
From there we took you back through the Byers house that we visited in 2018, only now you’re doing it in reverse and the walls are covered with Will’s tunnel maps that he drew after encountering The Mind Flayer. All of these drawings (and there were a ton) were created by hand... Image
Read 25 tweets
26 Apr
Greetings Boils and Ghouls. Today we’re going to take look back at HHN 2019’s “Creepshow.” I’ve always been a big fan of this film since I first saw it back in 1982. When our good friend Greg Nicotero told us he was producing a new series...we jumped at the chance to be involved! Image
From the beginning, we new this maze was going to be a mash up of segments from the original film and episodes of the new series. We eventually settled on 5 stories. “Father’s Day,” “The Crate,” “They’re Creeping Up on You,” “Grey Matter” & “Bad Wolf Down.” Image
We also know we wanted to pay homage to the EC comic book style of the film/series, both with the set design and the exaggerated blue and red lighting. We also knew we wanted The Creep to be the “connective tissue” of the maze, just as he was in the movie/series... Image
Read 29 tweets
22 Apr
OK...let’s see if I can take you through “The Curse of Pandora’s Box” by only using the text from the poem I wrote for Pandora to narrate in the maze. This is either going to be cool or a complete disaster! So let’s do this... Image
“Come inside...come inside
Anything can be acquired...
Anything your heart desires...” ImageImageImageImage
“Come inside...come inside...
Anything can be acquired...
Anything your heart desires...” ImageImageImage
Read 17 tweets
20 Apr
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... Image
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! Image
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... ImageImage
Read 17 tweets

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