Having a (scary) Moment in the Dells
Wisconsin’s Ghost Boat gets a multimedia makeover
Haunts: They’re not just for Halloween anymore.
Sure, just about every theme park and amusement park features haunted houses and other spooky stuff in the fall. What used to be the shoulder season has now become a vital part of their operating calendars. As summer wanes and the days grow shorter, folks just can’t seem to get enough of the crazed clowns, chainsaw-wielding weirdos, and brainthirsty zombies that take over midways. But, folks are showing they have an appetite for gore no matter the season. Witness Universal, which will unleash Universal Horror Unleashed, a year-round haunt in Las Vegas, in a few weeks. The company is so bullish on the concept, it recently announced that it will be opening its second year-round horror experience in Chicago (even though the first one has yet to debut).
Scaring the bejesus out of folks beyond the fall season is nothing new in Wisconsin Dells. For over a decade, guests visiting the popular vacation getaway have been boarding and braving the Ghost Boat from late May through October. What is new is that Dells Boat Tours, the company that operates the haunted attraction (and also runs the famous Original Wisconsin Ducks tours), has partnered with Moment Factory, a Montreal-based design and production studio, to bring its distinct style to Ghost Boat. The revamped experienced launched in May with a fresh look and feel.
The nighttime experience begins, aptly enough, aboard a boat, which transports guests down the Wisconsin River. Passengers learn that a previous tour boat and its guests suffered a horrible fate at Cold Water Canyon. So, of course, the captain sets sail for the mysterious canyon. What could possibly go wrong? The relatively benign ride sets the stage for the perilous journey that follows.
Passengers disembark and walk, in small groups, through the canyon. This is where blood-curdling business picks up. The tropes of haunted mazes–dark, foreboding spaces, scare actors that emerge out of nowhere, misdirection, loud noises, and more–are all here. Moment Factory embellishes the proceedings by weaving a multimedia tapestry that ties everything together in a captivating fashion.
“I think what is really powerful about this experience is the orchestration of the lights, video, and sound to generate surprise,” says Gabriel Pontbriand, Moment Factory’s creative director for the Ghost Boat makeover. “We integrate the multimedia in a seamless way. We want [guests to] feel like the technology is absent. It’s just like you feel the magic.”
“Lights” doesn’t begin to describe the way that the Canadian design studio has harnessed LED technology to paint natural environments and transform them into startling, immersive landscapes. I first discovered Moment Factory’s work when I experienced Astra Lumina at Anakeesta in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I was slack-jawed as I walked through the forest high in the Smoky Mountains and encountered otherworldly scenes that the shop’s creative gurus had conjured. It is one of a series of Lumina-branded night walks that Moment Factory has developed, including Aquavia Lumina at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
For a studio that has built its reputation creating spaces that are bathed in lustrous, rich tones however, it had to shift gears and embrace the darkness for Ghost Boat.
“The negative space was really important,” Pontbriand says. “The more dark it is, the more we can create suspense.”
But, he notes, the darkness enabled him and his team to create illusions, including apparitions, to freak guests out–the prime directive for haunt designers. If the Lumina walks are about inspiring wonder and pondering the cosmos as folks linger to take in the majesty of the scenes, the mission with Ghost Boat is to evoke fear and get folks to hightail it through the canyon.
The long and narrow canyon walls, fashioned out of the Dells’ signature sandstone, provides a canvas onto which the designers have been able to display projected content. While much of the experience is dark or dimly lit, the Moment Factory folks also take advantage of the canyon corridors to momentarily flood the space with dramatic lighting. The cavernous canyon gives them a chamber to fill with creepy sounds as well.
As much as Astra Lumina is a highly visual experience, I was also struck by its sound design. Crystal-clear audio punctuates many of the scenes with pleasing sounds of nature and other more ethereal notes, many of which are synchronized with visual media. For Ghost Boat, the soundtrack is more ominous with muffled screams, disconcerting, bass-heavy music, and other noises that help inspire dread.
Melding all of the components together–the sound, the lights, the media–is Moment Factory’s specialty, according to Pontbriand.
“How can we bring this to another level?” he says he and his team ask one another to drive them creatively. “In French, we say mise-en-scène,” Pontbriand adds, describing the careful arrangement of scenic elements to best engage audiences and effectively tell stories. In this case, audiences walk through and are immersed in the dimensional scenes. “We play with illusion,” notes the Moment Factory director.
The walking part of the tour lasts about 35 minutes, which is considerably longer than most haunted mazes. The entire experience, including the boat excursion, takes around one hour to complete.
Now that the studio has tried its hand with horror, Pontbriand says it is ready for more.
“It is really new for us, but we see its potential,” he notes. “It was so, so fun to do,” he gleefully adds.
What do you think makes for a good haunt experience? Have you been on any haunted mazes that take place outdoors?
This sounds so cool. I hope they open more of these around. And this makes me want to go back the the Dells again!