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The Walking Dead Attraction at USH & MPG (page 2)

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
It looks like Universal Studios Hollywood have purchased The Walking Dead attraction and it will be opening this summer.
Source

[youtubevid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR1t9H5QRtg[/youtubevid]
 

Bat Fastard

Hyper Poster
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead dark ride at IAAPA

This looks really cool and interesting! Wonder how "gory" they will go with this attraction, since the TV show itself is quite gory and violent. Makes me wonder whether this will have adults or families in mind for the target audience.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

What a load of **** ****. Guessing it's going to be using the House of Horrors building? (this is obviously speculation).

I hate The Walking Dead, the two Universal Walking Dead attractions I've done were the weakest ones of the whole HHN lineup for those years - mainly because the IP has **** characters that can't be used for an interactive experience. Zombies groan, moan and grab towards you and that's it - there's no form of interactivity with them in terms of speech or dynamic characterisation. It can **** off.
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

Not convinced that this is the Sally ride at USH?

More like a all-year haunt walk-thru (with some animatronics) - unless I'm missing something?
[tweet]https://twitter.com/HorrorNights/status/709411602521456640[/tweet]
[tweet]https://twitter.com/HorrorNights/status/709412019410079744[/tweet]
(tweets from John Murdy the guy who runs HHN)
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

Yeah, I have my doubts too. However John Wood said in the interview that in their agreement with AMC Sally Corp. owned the licensing rights, so I can't imagine that this will be done without them. I tried to reach John or Lauren Wood to confirm, but today they're traveling back from Mexico City following the opening of the new Justice League Battle For Metropolis opening at Six Flags Mexico. I should be able to get in touch with one of them tomorrow.
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

Sally Corp. also do walk through attractions - they did The House of Nightmares at Gröna Lund, so I'm betting they're involved in delivering the licensed product with their animatronics.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk.
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

Maybe just rights for a ride perhaps? (Universal have after all been doing Walking Dead walk-thrus for a few years at both HHN events) He was describing it as basically Justice League with zombies I think, whereas nothing else in the USH noise has suggested a ride.

Actually a shame I think, dark-ride/shooter would work there I think - bit different to the walk-thru. But fair-enough USH have a long history of horrorish walk-thrus (not just at HHN).
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

I spoke with Lauren today and she confirmed that although they spoke with Universal about doing animatronics for the walk-through, Sally Corp. will not be involved. So this will be basically the same as their Walking Dead HHN haunt, only now it will be a year-round attraction and located in the former House Of Horrors. Didn't Thorpe Park do a similar year-round attraction when Saw opened? How long did that last and how did the live actors handle doing their shtick all-day, everyday, year-round?
At least this could be a good thing as far as seeing a Sally Corp. Walking Dead dark shooter. John said that they have interested parties and having Universal make their Walking Dead haunt into a year-round attraction will only solidify the IP in the minds of those potential buyers.
 

peep

CF Legend
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

^I don't think we can really compare the operations between Universal Studios Hollywood and Thorpe Park. Two totally different types of audiences too imo.

This attraction this is taking over from was a horror walk-through right? Maybe this will be something similar? Still not entirely happy about this decision though, Walking Dead is lame - they have plenty of decent IPs to choose from.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

Haven't Universal Studios Hollywood had that House of Horrors walkthrough for ages anyway? It's not as intense as I imagine this will be, but, they made that work.

But yeah, Walking Dead sucks but it's the most watched scripted TV show so, it's hardly a terrible choice for IP. People love it. Basic people. But.
 

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

^That horror walkthrough closed the week after I went, which was in August 2014, so it's been sitting empty for a while.

It was really good though, with a decent length to it, so if they use the same layout then at least it won't be a quick in-and-out attraction.
 

Ben

CF Legend
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

Didn't realise it was closed that long ago but yeah point still stands, they know how to run one long term we don't need to worry if Saw worked or not xD
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: Sally Corp. to announce Walking Dead attraction at IAAPA

ECG said:
I spoke with Lauren today and she confirmed that although they spoke with Universal about doing animatronics for the walk-through, Sally Corp. will not be involved. So this will be basically the same as their Walking Dead HHN haunt, only now it will be a year-round attraction and located in the former House Of Horrors. Didn't Thorpe Park do a similar year-round attraction when Saw opened? How long did that last and how did the live actors handle doing their shtick all-day, everyday, year-round?
At least this could be a good thing as far as seeing a Sally Corp. Walking Dead dark shooter. John said that they have interested parties and having Universal make their Walking Dead haunt into a year-round attraction will only solidify the IP in the minds of those potential buyers.
The same as any other permanent haunted attraction in the world... just fine.

Just because this is at a Universal park doesn't make it different to any other year-round haunted attraction that's located as a self contained unit, or at another theme park. For example, in Europe it's very common to see permanent scare attractions inside the theme parks as they're extremely popular, somewhat cheap to produce and entertain a vast sector of the market.

As I mentioned before, The Walking Dead has been used by Parque de Atracciones as a permanent year-round scare attraction and it opens it's doors soon. This had nothing to do with Sally Corp., so I don't understand how the Universal one is going to solidify the construction of dark rides for them? At the end of the day, if parks want a Walking Dead themed IP attraction, why bother spending millions on a dark ride when you can spend only tens to thousands on a walk through attraction whilst still gaining international recognition through using the IP? I honestly think that, as much as I love Sally Corp., they're a bit late to the party in terms of licensing a dark ride themed to The Walking Dead as the IP has been licensed out for quite some time at a relatively affordable cost.
 

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
Re: The Walking Dead attraction at USH

USH just released this video with Greg Nicotero talking about The Walking Dead Attraction's animated effects.

[youtubevid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFhBEqqL6Mw[/youtubevid]
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Re: The Walking Dead attraction at USH

Not really deserving of its own thread, but to echo all this "its just a license", I noticed the other day that Movie Park DE has some WD (upcharge) opening this year too ;

twd_clean_2016_900.jpg


http://movieparkgermany.de/de/im-park/a ... d-breakout

Edited to add image. - ECG
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Re: The Walking Dead attraction at USH

david morton said:
Not really deserving of its own thread, but to echo all this "its just a license", I noticed the other day that Movie Park DE has some WD (upcharge) opening this year too ;

twd_clean_2016_900.jpg


http://movieparkgermany.de/de/im-park/a ... d-breakout

Edited to add image. - ECG
It's not the same attraction though,the only thing they have in common is the same IP, that's it. There's also one in Parque de Atracciones.

It seems AMC are literally giving any **** the license to use it now, which is ridiculous as the quality of the attractions between PdA, MPG & USH are going to be incredibly vast.
 

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
Here's the attraction's front facade
Ck3JbbfVEAADESQ.jpg

source

After The Mummy, I've always wanted Universal to do another permanent scary attraction. Though not a walkthrough and certainly not this IP. Imagine an IoA-style land dedicated to the Classic Universal monsters <3
 

peep

CF Legend
Loads of peeps want to see a classic Universal monster land, I agree it'd be awesome. It should be noted they are re-doing a lot of those films over the next few years and I reckon if something like that was to happen they'd rather use the modern versions. I feel like anything could happen at Universal though so *shrug*

I really don't get the love for the walking dead and even though I enjoyed the maze at horror nights I can just see a permanent one get old quick. The whole thing isn't something I can get excited about but it'll be popular and that means more investment in the future.

Oh and there's a big video announcement later this week, or next week. It's either for the Secret life of pets dark ride already under construction, the resort's first hotel or something else. Probably start a new topic when that launches though.

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Ok, here's where I stand on The Walking Dead scare attractions (and any other zombie one for that matter).

They're ****. They're passive experiences for the guests, the same as why Saw Alive just fundamentally doesn't work. You go passed scenes of people being killed/zombies eating someone, there's no malice, threat or interactivity put on to the guests whatsoever. When you're in an attraction that has a different narrative, such as a haunted house for example - this rule doesn't matter, it's about the visual aspect and your brain understands that you'll be witnessing scenes of paranormal intent, there is little to no malice towards guests and that's intentional.

Zombies as character have threat to the audience, their primary aim is to damage, kill and eat human beings (well, modern zombies are, not actual 'zombies' but that's a whole different argument). So, when you're going around the attraction, through it's many passageways and scenes, all the characters do is lunge towards you, grabbing out and groaning - with the first one, your brain knows that it's not real, it won't happen and there's nothing to be scared of. Obviously, there are jump scares throughout these attractions and that's the only part of the experience that keeps the momentum moving forwards, if it was just characters moaning and groaning, you'd soon become desensitised and bored straight away.

The only way to make this genre of attraction work is by making the experience completely interactive for the guests. Having them 'hide' from the characters, crawl, climb, taste, move objects and 'escape' from a horrible scenario - this won't happen because it's Universal and that type of attraction has incredibly low throughput in comparison, plus, you alienate a vast majority of your audience with these interactive techniques. The other possibility is to add guns to it, so the guests shoot the zombies, this has been done at several large parks in the USA and Europe (Knotts and Busch to name a couple), but there are two massive issues with this: 1) It becomes a game, the guests aren't interested in being immersed in a narrative or experience, they just care about shooting the zombies, 2) The zombies have massive sensors on them with big flashing lights and it looks absolutely **** STUPID.

Example:
maxresdefault.jpg


So yeah sorry for being pessimistic, but it's gonna be **** - the general public will love it because "OMGZ IT'S DA WALKIN' DEAD N ZOMBIES N STUFF", but in reality, it'll be an excessively mediocre experience for any fans, or anyone with little knowledge of scare attractions/haunted houses.
 

megasonic

Roller Poster
The attraction at MPG is going to open on Sunday. There was already a press opening, some pictures and video (source):

the-walking-dead-breakout-von-innen-620x350.jpg

the-walking-dead-breakout-gouvernor-koepfe-620x350.jpg

the-walking-dead-breakout-terminus-kettensaege-620x350.jpg


[youtubevid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oacIdaUotk[/youtubevid]
 
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