# Applying a Disneyland Concept to a Screampark? Open discussion...



## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

Hey all!

I've been doing a lot of conceptual thinking about haunt theory and how professional haunts could be made better. After some thinking, I came up with a hypothetical idea for a deeply immersive screampark following the model of a Disney park. Obviously, it has its pros and cons, so I'm really just looking to start up a discussion about it and how it could be improved!

*Key components of park:* 

*1) A full immersion experience.* Most of today's screamparks operate on a principle similar to that of the average Six Flags park: attractions plopped next to attraction with more focus on the attractions individually than on the experience as a whole. That is, a Six Flags may pay deep attention to the theming of a Wild West roller coaster, but will then ker-plop it in a space right next to a _Superman_ coaster; likewise, most scream parks consist of a series of walkthroughs lined up in a neat row with queue lines in front, with much less attention payed to the outside of the haunts than the insides.

This model would include both interior and exterior theming of the haunts, providing an experience that's just as deeply themed and scary in the queues and on the outside of any walkthrough as on the inside. From the time guests walk through the gates til they leave the property, they are transported to an entirely different thematic world.

*2) Multiple lands* (regions, areas, or whatever you want to call them) *each with multiple walthroughs.* Within each land, all walkthroughs would be able to tie into a single overarching theme, doing away with the issue of a slaughterhouse next to a haunted circus next to an old decrepit mansion. All the walkthroughs would fit in where they are built.

Some possible land ideas I've thought of, as well as haunts that could fit into those lands, are listed below.

A Louisiana themed land complete with all the rich folklore of the gulf coast. Potential walkthroughs would be a New Orleans Cemetery; a hillbilly-creole walkthrough set on the swamp; and a vampire, Voodoo, and otherwise folklore-inspired haunt.

An old London-style land, perhaps set up on a cobblestone street with building facades on either side masking the haunts housed behind them. Walkthroughs could be a plague-inspired trek through the poorer side of town at the height of Black Death, a Jack-the-Ripper themed haunt, a trek through ancient dungeons (no, the most infamous dungeons were not in London, but certain creative licence is always fair game ), or even a haunt inspired by Shakespeare and the globe theater.

A rural Midwestern land set in modern times, with the events of the last several centuries to make it a thousand times spookier. Haunts could include an old-school slaughterhouse, a prison built in the middle of nowhere to keep inmates away from the population centers, and a hundred-year-old farmhouse with more than its fair share of ghost stories.

Obviously, the land ideas are endless, but this should at least give a small snapshot of the idea. Lands could be created by thinking of any place, at any time in history, much the way Disneyland is made (Frontierland is set in the old American West; Critter Country is set in a more generic "place" in the wilderness where animals are in charge).

Of course, a park like this is highly ideal and slightly unpractical, so it naturally raises a few business concerns:

*1) How do you build up to a park of this size without the massive capital needed to build it all from the start?* Most likely, the park would have to be build one "land" at a time as it raises money to build on, while balancing the need to expand with the need to improve and change what is already there to prevent patrons from losing interest. Possible? Yes. Easy? Hell no!

*2) How big could this screampark realistically get?* If the park grew so large that patrons couldn't see it all in one night, interest would be lost as patrons would be less willing to pay full ticket price for less than a full experience. And even if admission was charged for each individual walkthrough, the park would lose money on actors if it had to pay to staff more walkthroughs than patrons were seeing. Thus, the park may be limited to 3 or so lands and 9-12 individual walkthroughs. Of course, perhaps every two or three years an entire land could be torn down and completely rebuilt with a new theme, and on the other years, individual attractions within the lands could be rethemed or just updated.

Whew! I've written a lot here! Thank you to those who read along to this point. At this point, I'm just wondering if any of you guys have any ideas, thoughts, concerns, or questions about this idea. It would be insanely cool to see one of you bring this idea to life! 

-Collin


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## Riff_JunkieSFR (Jul 11, 2011)

I think you're off to a hypothetical great start! A lot of good ideas. I'm sure there is a market for such a place, but I think that would highly depend on its location. I was in Gatlinburg, TN a few months ago, and they have a few haunted houses that operate year round. Of course those would be small scale compared to your idea, but Gatlinburg is a place where people vacation year round so they have foot traffic to sustain their business. Likewise Disney Parks located in Florida and California are in locations that people want to visit all year. They have their peak seasons, but people are vacationing there all 12 months. I think that would be a major key to success of such a business.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

I think, that following upon the Disney line of thinking, that you would need to include the themed restaurants and shops too. From the professional/themepark side of things, that is where the money*comes from to pay the actors, prop and sound people, etc. Having those things also makes it much more of an immersive environment, and makes it much easier to play with the guest's minds and get them into, and keep them in, the mood/proper mindset. For example, look at the Blue Bayou restaurant that is partially set into the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. The restaurant itself helps carry the mood and both it and the ride "feed" each other customers. Universal has also done this with it's Harry Potter village at it's Florida location. The theme for each individual attraction needs to reach it's demographic without driving or keeping the other patrons away from the park. As much as we'd all like to think that because it's a haunt that political correctness is off the table, the reality is it would play a very strong role in you building a fan-base/customer base. You'd also need to be flexible enough to change or tweak things to get and keep your local customer base. For Disneyland, 80% of it's annual business is from locals, not from tourists.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

Even Disney sometimes shuts things down during slow seasons. The fasade is very important, it must contribute even when closed.


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