Screamhouse (2002) Scene Details -
Façade – The burnt shell of a two-story Victorian manor stands in front of us, framed by trees. Projected on a screen to our left, headlines and photos detailing the grisly findings detail the horrors that took place here. We pass a wagon filled with shrouded bodies on way onto the porch and into the house (turning right)
Parlor – The first room is a small Parlor, lit by a window along the opposite wall. From behind a room partition in the shadowed corner, comes a well-dressed member of Caine’s family. He holds measuring tape, extending it to us to ensure we fit coffins. It spins us, and we take a slight U-turn to the left, then another right and down a photo-lined hall with a stained-glass window at the end.
Viewing Room – We U-turn left at the window then (after a shorter hallway) turn right into the Viewing Room. A closed coffin, covered in decaying flowers, lies in the center of the room. Two other closed coffins sit in the far corners to our left. Suddenly, the coffin in the opposite corner starts to bounce. The chains wrapped around it rattle loud, and draw the attention of an unseen Zombie from behind the piano to your immediate right. The Zombie lunges at you (e-prom scream IIRC), pushing you out of the room into another hall.
Short Hall – To your immediate left after exiting the Viewing Room, the lower extremities of a dead woman hangs from an unseen noose. One of Caine’s Cousins, burst out from the curtain behind the corpse, forcing you to turn right down the hall. (Depending on the cast, this Cousin would actually caress the corpse’s legs like he was in love with her).
Operating/Autopsy Room – The hall leads you straight into the blood caked Autopsy room. A meat slicer sits to your right amid the gore, viscera, and other body parts strewn throughout. Blood-stained curtains obstruct your view. You move forward into a U-turn (left) where another Cousin in a lab coat jerks open a curtain to your right to startle you (depending on the cast, this Cousin would be drinking blood. Spinning from him, you approach a mutilated body on a gurney straight ahead of you. It’s missing an arm and everything below the waist. Nearing him, he jerks his head at you, reaching and thrashing what little remains of his body at you for help. You turn right, avoiding him, but a curtain behind you is ripped away revealing a blood-soaked Nurse. You step past her and turn right, into the freezer.
Freezer – On the wall opposite your entrance to the Freezer hang shelves of body parts: heads, arms, and legs, for safe keeping. As you turn left past them, a Puppeteer reaches one of the arms out to touch you. You complete your U-turn left out of the Freezer. (That was it. But yeah, this house had everything).
Kitchen – You exit the Freezer into the Kitchen, a hellish scene that makes Texas Chainsaw Massacre look Rated-G. Blood, body parts, trash, roaches, rotten food, all sorts of nauseating stuff cover the cabinets, appliances, and floor. To your immediate right as you enter, Papa Caine (Albert’s dad), works on a sausage grinder, using any body parts he can find. You turn right around him, moving between him and the open refrigerator (lined with poorly preserved organs). From behind the refrigerator, Mama Caine lunches at you with a meat cleaver. You turn right to avoid her, and head in to the pantry.
(This was an oddly-shaped room
You entered the bottom left and exited bottom right. Mama Caine came from the boo-hole up top)
Pantry – The Pantry is a short hall, shelves of canned food to your right. Suddenly, the shelves slide open. Behind them is “Baby Pewey” (actual character name), a grown man wearing a overalls, a bib, and covered in vomit. He belches loudly (e-prom) at you, before slamming the wall closed. You then U-turn to the left, past a pile of garbage bags and into the darkness.
(Fun fact – One night, they were filming the first Grinchmas commercial next to our soundstage, and we ran into a fully-costumed, in character Grinch during our set change. He ran onto the soundstage with us, followed our Baby Pewey, and did a quick scare before leaving. God, I wish I knew the guests who got that one).
Basement/Red Room – Alright, he is where things get difficult. The basement was big and, essentially, pitch black. The diagram below is the best way to describe it. You would enter the bottom left, then essentially have to navigate this who space blind, to exit in the top right. The Red Room (RR) was a torture chamber with strobing red lights that was designed as an “optional path.” There was a guy in bondage gear in here (no really). There was another scareactor at the “U-Turn” at the top who managed a “face wall” (a wall of sewn together faces; the only lit part of the basement proper) on the left and had some oil drums to bang on the right.
The openness and darkness was a problem. Guests would enter and start doing circles, either around the support beam in the center of the room, or they’d turn left instead of right after exiting the RR. Some guests spent nearly five minutes in this room alone, repeatedly going through the Red Room. They eventually just closed the Red Room completely, and hid the bondage guy in the basement.
You’d take an immediate left as you exited.
Greenhouse – The turn left puts in to the green house, a rectangular shaped room. A (HEAVY) body, wrapped in cloth hangs to your left and row of plants sits to your right. One zombie hides behind the plants (e-prom), while the other chases you from behind the body. You exit the greenhouse straight ahead, then turn right through a narrow corridor.
Graveyard – Thunder rolls as the storm nears at your exit. The Graveyard features high, mausoleum walls, covered with ivy. Various statues and wrought-iron fencing guide you along a wide curve (to the right) through the space. Shortly after you enter, a Vampire appears from a grave to your left. Then a Living Statue. Then a Zombie (IIRC). Completing the curl, you turn left between a mausoleum and the graveyard wall. A second Zombie burst from the door to the mausoleum. You U-turn to the left around a foreboding statue of a reaper, and through a curtain of ivy. You turn to the right once through the ivy, where the actual Grim Reaper appears beside you (ME!). You rush past, escaping your death, and turn right again, beneath the dangling arms of a Zombie reaching at you from a broken casket. You dodge them, and descend into darkness.
(Midway through the run, a piece of the set across from the Grim Reaper boo-hole broke, forcing me to move into the room with the Grim Reaper. I actually preferred that spot.
Mausoleum – You enter the mausoleum, and a Zombie appears from behind the door to your right, turning you to the left. You complete the U-turn and finally see him – Albert Caine. He beckons you from the end of the corridor. You’re too close before you realize you’re looking at a mirror. The Caretaker lunges at you from you back right, sending you sprinting forward. From above, a loud bang startles you (a pneumatic door slamming shut because… *shrug*). Amid your panic, a final Zombie appears to your left and chases you back into the park.