Morris Costumes Haunted House

David Escher

Fast Facts

Size: 5,800 square feet
Number of Rooms
Area 51: 7
Asylum: 12
Number of props: Unknown
Number of Actors/Ticket Takers
Area 51: 6-12
Asylum: 11-17
Black Hole: 1
Ticket Price: All 3 elements for $13
Days of Operation: 21
Location: Behind the Morris Costume Store
4300 Monroe Rd.
Charlotte, North Carolina

Ever since 1985 when Philip Morris, of Morris Costumes, wrote the first book on the subject, How To Operate a Financially Successful Haunted House, everyone asked him why he did not have a Haunted House of his own. “The problem was time,” explains Philip, owner of the world’s largest distribution company for Haunted Attraction props. “We are so busy during October that we do not have the time to put into a show.” Philip had always wanted to do a Haunted House in conjunction with the Morris Costumes retail store in Charlotte, North Carolina. He even had a second floor added to the building to use someday as a Haunt (This was deemed unfeasible when the ADA restrictions came into effect). It became obvious that the only way Philip could do an event was to hire someone who could come in and take full control of the whole project from design through operation.

During 1999, several elements came into play that made a Halloween event possible. For one, Morris Costumes was building a new warehouse with some retail space in the front of it. This provided a more visible location for Budget Signs, a tenant that was leasing 6,000 square feet at the rear of the Morris Costumes retail building. By moving the sign company to the new warehouse, Philip now had the ground floor space he needed to locate his Haunted Attraction. The next decision was who should take charge of the project. After a brief November meeting in Charlotte, Philip offered the project to publisher and Haunted House designer/operator, Leonard Pickel. “I was flattered that Philip chose me out of the whole industry to design and build his first Haunt,” boasts the 43-year-old editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine. “It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.” Leonard and his wife Jeanne Escher-Pickel had been operating Mayhem Manor, a summer seasonal show in Myrtle Beach, for seven years, and they “were ready for new challenges.” The lease was up on the Haunted House space in Myrtle Beach, and negotiations with the landlord on repairs that needed to be done to the building were going nowhere. “With what I have learned about summer seasonal attractions, I would do the whole thing differently anyway,” explains Pickel. By the end of January Leonard and Jeanne had packed up their house, three dogs, Mayhem Manor, their other businesses and this magazine for a move to North Carolina.

A Display Case

One problem that Morris Costumes has had for some time is the lack of display space for their product line. The Morris Catalog is larger than the phone book of a large city, and from time to time, buyers from around the world come to Charlotte to see the products before they buy. However, unless the particular item happened to be for sale in the retail store (which in the off season has more dancewear in it than Halloween props), all they could see was a warehouse full of crates. Philip’s concept for the Haunted House was for the space to double as a display case for the Morris product line for 11 months out of the year, yet be set up to operate as a walk-through Haunted Attraction for the Halloween season. He wanted the height of the 20-foot ceiling to be put to good use and to have a Black Hole in the show. As if that were not complicated enough, he also wanted part of the attraction to be in 3D, using the ChromaDepth glasses, which he was now selling.

“The space I was given to work with is not one of those you would drive by and say ‘Hey, that would make a great Haunted House!’ There was no visibility from the street, parking was limited, traffic was tight, and the facade was just a large brick face.” explains Pickel. “I was afraid that no matter what we did out front, people driving by would just think that the Morris Costumes store was having a sale!” Undaunted by his concerns, Pickel started the arduous task of themeing an attraction / showroom for all of the props in the Morris Catalog. “All of the designs that I had done in the past were low budget and portable, and therefore very prop light,” Pickel explains. “But this attraction would have to have props, and lots of them.” The attraction still needed to be effective as a scary walk-through, however, and that would mean live actors would be needed to augment the animated props.

“I always design an attraction the way I was taught in Architecture classes in college,” remarks Leonard, who graduated from Texas A&M University in 1980 with a Bachelor degree in design. “That is from the inside out.” The first step in the design process was to flip through the Morris catalog and pick out the props to use for the attraction. When the list of props was completed, the prop themes were a vast hodgepodge of everything from Aliens to Zombies. It was obvious that the theme of the attraction would have to be quite loose to cover that much ground. “It always bothered me that in many Haunts, you might see the Alien creature right next to the Frankenstein Monster.” explains Pickel, “I needed to make the flow of the Morris show fit better than that.” Although the available area of the Morris show would only be about 5,800 square feet, separating the Sci-Fi props into their own attraction made total sense. Adding the 3D aspect of the ChromaDepth glasses to an all-Alien show added a surreal feel to the element and created a first-ever opportunity for the event. The rest of the props on the list, with a few oddities, would work in more traditional gothic-themed surroundings. Originally the thought was to put the Black Hole inside one of the Haunts, but Leonard decided to use it as a third element and place it outside in a trailer. The parking problem was solved by talking the owner of the property next door into allowing Philip to use his lot as overflow, and with the design criteria in place, it was time to develop the room designs.

Design Phase

Searching long and hard through old notes from past projects and a pile of emails collected from the Halloween-l and Howl2000 list serves, Leonard chose some room designs that he had always wanted to do, but had never had the budget for. Using as many of the props from the catalog as he could, he added these new design concepts to a base of tried and true designs that he had been using for years. “I took some time to sketch out how the scares in each room would work,” recalls Leonard. “What the walls of each space would look like, and how they would be built.” Leonard then sat down with Philip and Scott Morris to make sure he was on the right track. To his surprise, no one said a word during the whole presentation. When he was through, Philip asked, “Can we get any more product in there?” So back to the drawing board he went. One by one Leonard eliminated the room designs that he had been using for years, because none of them provided for the use of “product.” These rooms were replaced with new, untested room designs, some of which were developed around a certain group of props in the Morris line. In a few weeks, Leonard had a new set of full-color design drawings ready for review, and this time he knew he had hit the mark by the compliments from Scott< and Philip.

Now that he had the room designs approved, it was time to try and fit everything into the available space. “I prefer to design a pitch dark hallway in between each lit room,” explains Leonard. “This helps control the flow of the patrons and makes the show scarier.” In this case, however, the client wanted every square inch of available space used for props, and that meant there was no room for dark, prop-less hallways. The rooms would have to butt up to each other, and light bleed would be a problem to deal with. The number of props designed into each room meant they were much larger than Leonard was used to working with. To control the sight line and block the light, he built large set pieces, such as a tall crypt in the graveyard and shelving in the toy room. This limited the patrons’ view of what was around the next corner. Using his now-famous “Triangular Grid System,” Leonard began to organize and fit together the room designs so that they made logical sense in the show. “With very few exceptions, every Haunted House I have designed since 1982, either temporary or permanent install, has been built in panels,” explains Leonard. “Using panels makes the entire show easy to change around or even remove completely.” The Morris show would also be built in a panelized form. To take advantage of the high ceiling space, Leonard decided to go with mostly 12' and even some 16'-tall wall panels. “I had used panels that were taller than 8' before, but never to this extent.” muses Leonard. “I was not even sure it would work.” The added panel height allowed the positioning of additional props and scenic elements above the typical eight-foot wall. It also helped remove the theatrical lighting fixtures from the line of sight and gave the spaces a more realistic feel.

The Triangular Grid System is a form of field theory used for centuries by Architects to develop interesting spaces for museums and the like. The typical Haunted House is designed with a square grid with the walls at 90 degrees to each other. Using triangles instead of squares means that two walls connect at 120 degrees making the pathway more confusing to the patron who is used to making right angle turns. Used properly, a House designed on triangles maximizes the patrons’ walking distance, and minimizes the square footage of the attraction.

“Actor-patron separation is an important part of my design theory,” explains Leonard, but there were a few rooms on the final list that required the actor to be exposed in the room with the patron. Backstage actor areas became an important part of the floor plan, making sure that the actors could get to the rooms that they needed to without roaming the hallways with the patrons. Special attention was made to provide a place for the actor to get away from the patron if the need arose. “It took a few weeks, and several rolls of tracing paper, but I was quite pleased with the plan I ended up with.” states Pickel. The Alien themed 3D attraction, known as Area 51, ended up using about 40% of the floor area, and the more traditional side, Asylum of Horrors, took up the remaining 60%. After several more weeks, Leonard completed the working drawings and first submitted them to the building department in May. Philip could not be deterred from resurrecting his Horror Movie Host alter ego as the lead character for the Morris attraction, and Dr. Evil’s Haunted Houses was chosen as the name for the event.

In the early 1960's, Philip Morris toured the United States and Canada with a “Ghost Show” called Dr. Evil's Terrors of the Unknown. Little more than a standard Magic Show in a more interactive package, the Ghost Show was a sometimes gruesome, always haunting stage performance. It started with a lecture on the spirit world and was followed by a fast-paced Magical routine, filled with bloody dismembering illusions. The finale was the “Black Out,” during which each and every light in the auditorium was turned out. Much of the experience during this part of the show was in the patrons’ imagination, helped along by other scared patrons and a few glow in the dark effects from the stage. When the lights were brought back up a “B” Horror Film was started to settle down the crowd. By the mid 1960's, Philip had developed his character into the “ghost host” of a television program, Dr. Evil's Horror Theater. Every Friday night for 8 years, Philip, as Dr. Evil, did an introduction for that evening’s feature film and provided eerie segments during commercial breaks.

From the first conversations of the project, there was an underlying fear by Scott and Philip that the Haunt would not open on time. Construction delays and problems with the building department had delayed the completion of their new warehouse for several months. If the city could do this to a vacant shell, then they could tie up a Haunted House well past October. The push was on early to complete the design and working drawings as quickly as possible, providing a buffer for any city problems that might arise. “I have designed attractions from New York City to Los Angels, and from Toronto to San Juan, and I have never had as much trouble getting a permit as in Charlotte, North Carolina,” recalls Leonard. In every other city the process is the same. Drawings are submitted, reviewed and returned with red stamps and notes on them remarking on how the plans must meet this code or that. The city of Charlotte kicks the drawings back to the designer for corrections if something is deemed t o be not up to code or missing from the drawings. For each submittal, the review process can take 3 weeks or more. “They wanted drawings for the project that had nothing to do with what we were doing in the building,” explains Leonard. Five rejections and four months after the drawings were first submitted, the Morris project finally had a building permit. “Luckily I had decided to build the show as panels,” exclaims Leonard. “And we were able to start construction of the walls and set pieces without a permit.” Doug Lipsky, a local woodworker and artist, was hired as the construction manager, and he and his crew played a substantial role in getting the building phase of the project completed on time and under (at least that part of) the budget.

Separating the space into two walk-through attractions was not as easy as it sounds. For one thing, a second entrance way would have to be cut into the brick building and steps added. While they were at it, the decision was made to also cut an opening for a three-cashier ticket window in the same wall. The logistics of providing egress for two shows through a common exit area (the old showroom for the sign company) required several new doors to be installed, and the different requirements for toilet fixtures required some “creative” problem solving as well. Demolition of some non load-bearing walls, one toilet and a lay-in ceiling was completed in April. Wall panel and set piece construction began on May 7th. “For the next month, I was glued to my computer, pumping out dimensioned drawings of the set pieces and wall panels,” recalls Leonard, “trying to stay ahead of the construction crews who were driving screws and ripping plywood in the next room. When the dust cleared, over 200 panels and 30 set pieces were designed, detailed, built and painted with primer, ready for assembly. Normally I would do a finished paint job on the walls and set pieces before they are stood up, but the desire to see what the spaces were going to look like was tremendous. Once the panels were built, the pressure to go ahead and put up the walls was too great to refuse. The walls and set pieces would have to be painted in place. Panel installation went very fast, and while the taller panels were a little harder to handle, the added weight helped hold them in place.”

Once again, Leonard’s standard methods took a different route due to the differing design criteria of the client. This show needed to be built to a higher level of detail, due to the display-case aspect of the project. In the typical Haunt, the patrons blow through the rooms so fast that they do not notice intricate detail. Buyers, on the other hand, would be walking through the space slowly and in full light. This meant the chair rails and door trim needed to be dimensional rather than painted on. There would be no dark corners to hide lack of detail because every inch of the attraction would be in clear view. Says Pickel: “I usually stick with a monotone paint scheme. By using only varying shades of grays and whites on a black wall, the experience is like walking through an old black and white movie, and it is much easier on the budget!” Not so in the Morris show; these sets would be painted in full scenic color. Artists with scenic experience were brought in to bring Leonard’s art direction to life from the full color renderings that he had made during the design phase. Pat Lehman and Elliot Glick and Morris employee Amber King worked long and hard on the beautiful scenic detail of the show. “We were lucky to find some very talented people to work on the project,” boasts Leonard. “They did a great job!”

From the beginning, this project was a showroom first and a Haunted Attraction second. Philip felt that the budget should be spent on the interior of the space. With the entrance to both attractions on the back of the building, elaborate facades were deemed not necessary to bring in the crowds; they would already be there by then. After several sketches of what the entrances to the houses might look like, Philip hired Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios to build a fiberglass face for the Asylum of Horrors. Design drawings of a crashed spaceship as the entrance to the Area 51 was downsized to using a Morris product in the form of a flying saucer embedded in the side of the building over the newly cut metal doors.

The Asylum of Horrors was nearly complete before much progress could be seen in the 3D Area 51. The Spaceship Interior Panels specified for the walls of this section were not delivered until the end of July, and the examination table and Tesla Coil stand were the last of the set pieces to be built. ChromaDepth 3D technology has been around for several years, but using the glasses in a walk-through Haunt is just now becoming common. The 3D attraction is not to the level of a cliché yet, and it had never been done in Charlotte. “I had never done a 3D or an Alien-themed Haunted Attraction before,” confesses Pickel. “But I had been through enough of them to know what I did and did not like about them.” One thing that Pickel did not like was that the props were painted. “There would be a dead guy lying there with the body painted blue and the blood painted red,” Pickel describes. “With the glasses on, the blood looks like it is hovering over the body and not even attached.” In his first 3D haunt, this juxtaposition would not occur. Instead, Leonard would emulate some of the cutting-edge work of John Burton and Jeffrey Hillinger, taking 3D to the next level by using lighting instead of paint as the source for the three-dimensional jump. Morris is also a distributor for various lighting companies, and Philip wanted to showcase some of their products as well. This gave Leonard the opportunity to use some fairly expensive lighting equipment in the show. Lasers, plasma plates, and fiber optic fixtures were used in Area 51 to bring the walls into three-dimensional motion. Rather than painting the props with UV paint, the props were bathed in red or blue light. “We still did two more traditional 3D rooms,” admits Pickel. “One had pipes painted on the walls shaded to look like they were rounded, and the other was our own version of the dots room.” The 3D artwork on the pipe room was done by Jim Confer of Jim-N-I Studios.

Patented in 1992 by Richard Steanblik, the ChromaDepthä lens was originally created for printed materials. When the viewer wears the lenses, the wavelength of light reflecting off of a colored surface creates the illusion of three-dimensional depth on a flat two-dimensional surface. Red areas appear to lift off of the surface, and blue sections seem to recede below the face. Yellow looks like it remains on the surface and any combination appears somewhere in between (i.e. orange between yellow and red, green between yellow and blue). The more vibrant the colors, the more the appeared displacement from the surface, which is why the standard approach is to use florescent paints under Ultra Violet light.

Having two separate attractions fitting so tightly together in the same space meant that sound bleed-over would be inevitable. If two different sound tracks were used, the resulting clash would diminish both experiences. “One of the things I had always wanted to try in a Haunt, but never had the budget for, was a soundtrack that changed as the patron moved through the attraction,” explains Leonard. “When the patrons were in the organ room, the organ would be playing the sound track. When they were in the toy room, a jack-in-the box would be playing the same tune.” To do this correctly, the two systems would have to be playing the same song at the same time, and as the patrons got closer or moved further away from the speaker in each of the rooms, the song would morph from one to the other. This effect was accomplished in the Morris show with a multi-track digital recorder and a mixing board. A separate amp and speakers in each room played the 16 different sound tracks, all synchronized with an overall base track playing over the whole space from 4 large speakers in the corners of the building. “I was lucky enough to find a Morris employee who moonlighted as a working musician,” admits Pickel, “and he was able to pull off this custom recording feat with pure genius.” The musician was Greg James, who composed and recorded each custom segment for the soundtrack. When the patrons are in Area 51, it is alien and industrial noises that provide the background music, and when the patrons are in the Asylum, an organ or an old static-filled radio plays the same tune. “None of the paying customers noticed the amount of trouble that we went to on the sound (the hallmark of a good movie soundtrack),” claims Leonard. “But if we had played two opposing tunes in that small of a space, everyone would have noticed the conflict.”

The last stage of the installation was setting the vast array props into the attraction. The props were brought in from the two Morris warehouses by the truckloads, with more being delivered directly from manufacturers every day. Over 30 big props were installed in the attractions that needed electricity, compressed air, some sort of triggering, or some combination of all three. This was a daunting task. A ten-horse compressor was installed to provide the air needed to handle hundreds of people tripping all of the animations for hours at a time. Running air lines to each of the pneumatic props was one of the many pieces of the project carried out by Kathy Letto, a long time employee of Morris Costumes. Wiring the power and trigger legs took several weeks and was handled nicely by Ryan Fisher, recently employed by Amy Morris for the retail store. Ryan was also in charge of the crew that installed the large assortment of lighting equipment into the space, and he did some airbrush make-up during operations as well. Getting the more than 20 fog machines that came with the props working at the same time and tweaking the animations to trigger at the right time to affect the scares was a never-ending job that continued all the way through October. Then the static props were unwrapped and the hunt was on for a place to put them all. “You can go through this show several times and not see all the props that are in there,” muses Pickel. “The place is just crammed full of rubber critters.”

“As all of us in the industry know, a Haunted Attraction is never finished, you just have to know when to quit,” explains Leonard. “There is always more that can be done to make the attraction better, cooler, or scarier. You have to run out of both time and money before you will stop.” Actor try-outs were conducted in September, while the lighting and prop installation was being completed. By opening night Leonard had a core of good people ready to scare the wits out of the people who paid for the experience. Each night, long-time Morris employee Jim Lawrence made up the faces of 10 to 15 costumed actors with the Fantasy Face air brush system. An incredible artist, Jim also had helped with sprucing up some of the props, scenic painting and set dressing during the construction phase.

Some very vocal competitors were envious that Leonard had gotten the job over them, and he knew that the whole industry would be looking at what he built for Morris. Philip Morris placed a great deal of trust in Leonard’s ability to pull off the project. After all, Morris’s reputation was on the line if the project did not open on time or had bad reviews. Luckily, in this case, pressure does make diamonds. As the opening date for the Morris show approached, Leonard could not help but be pleased by what he saw. Each of the design criteria had been met in grand scale. It was not the scariest Haunt Leonard had ever designed, but scares had not been the prime directive. The attractions had plenty of scares to operate as an October seasonal attraction, and it was a beautiful showcase for as much of the Morris product line product as was humanly possible. The completed floor plan used every inch of floor space as well as raising some props over the actor areas to make additional displays. Leonard tried out several new innovations to great success. The egress corridor surrounding the houses was opened up and used as backdrops to give more depth to the Graveyard and Death Row areas. The taller panels gave a much greater feeling of claustrophobia, and helped to hide the industrial ceiling of the space. The project flows logically from room to room and the lighting effects in the 3D area were amazing to see.

“I cannot take all of the credit for this incredible show,” states Leonard. “Like any project of this size, it takes lots of different people to pull it off. During the design phase I conferred numerous times with my dear friend and colleague John Burton, and there were numerous other talented people working on the attraction who were invaluable during the project. To each of them I owe my undying gratitude.” When the dust cleared and the last patron had gone home, the exit polling showed an astounding 98% approval rating. What more could a Haunter ask for?

David Escher is a Haunt construction hired gun and actor with eight years in the industry. He can be reached at davidescher@hotmail.com