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Tragedy ends the party in the 1980s

Image: Six Flags

Home and small commercial haunts continued to evolve during the 1980s. Knott’s expanded its event each year, and some other parks began jumping on the bandwagon. Permanent haunted attractions at amusement parks also began to proliferate, evolving from the simplistic dark rides of bygone eras to incorporate the latest technologies and scare tactics from the burgeoning Halloween industry. But a tragic fire at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1984 highlighted the need for stronger regulations and oversight.

Great Adventures’ Haunted Castle opened in 1979 as a temporary Halloween attraction housed in a series of connected semi-trailers. As such, it was exempted from the normal permitting and inspection processes. After the Halloween season, the attraction’s popularity convinced Six Flags to keep it permanently. Yet it was still considered a “temporary attraction” for permitting purposes. The walls were built of plywood, and many of the props and wall coverings were made of plastic, foam, and other flammable materials.

According to testimony, on the evening of May 11, 1984, a teenage boy using a lighter to find his way through accidentally ignited a piece of foam rubber. With air conditioners fanning the flames, the attraction was quickly engulfed in fire. Of 29 people in the attraction at the time, eight people, all teenagers, lost their lives.

Although Six Flags was found not guilty in criminal court, later lawsuits against the company, as well as the manufacturer and the builder of the attraction, were settled out of court. Most importantly, the tragedy brought about much-needed safety regulations for the haunted attraction industry as a whole.

The entire industry was sobered by the event, and some haunts closed altogether, whether out of respect for the victims’ families or because their budgets precluded following all of the new codes. The late 1980s still offered plenty of Halloween fun, but the wild times were over.

Terror on Church Street changes everything

From Terror on Church Street’s original website:

A ghoulish monk peers from a cobwebbed doorway, ushering visitors into a nightmare journey of fear. Down dark, winding passageways, you enter a terrifying world where hi-tech special effects, live actors and multiple sound tracks accompany your passage through 23 individual theatrical sets and scenes, creating the ultimate experience in horror. Beyond panic, beyond the limits of fear, there is Terror on Church Street.

For the first time on American soil, this European terror attraction that has thrilled millions is striking fear in the heart of Orlando. Dare to experience the most horrifying adventure of your life, adding a chilling new dimension to your evening downtown...enter the ghostly labyrinth that is Terror on Church Street!

Opened a few days after Halloween, on November 8, 1991, Terror on Church Street took Orlando by storm. Based on a European touring attraction called Pasaje del Terror, the haunt was unlike anything the United States had ever seen. With a huge budget, Terror on Church Street spared no expense in creating a truly immersive experience. It was one of the first haunts to blend fog, temperature extremes, lighting, and sound. At two stories and 23 separate rooms, it was one of the biggest. And at a time when haunts almost exclusively used volunteers or teenagers making minimum wage, it was the first to assemble a professional theatrical team, many of whom went on to television and film work. From the way individual props were distressed and aged to the elaborate makeup and prosthetic creations, Terror wrote the rules that now define the modern haunted house.

Terror’s reputation grew quickly, and it soon became known as the preeminent haunted attraction in the United States. Located inside an 1800s building that reportedly housed real ghosts, on a major thoroughfare in then-enormously popular Downtown Orlando, at the foot of the Church Street Station nightclub complex, Terror was ideally situated to welcome the world. From horror celebrities such as Anthony Perkins to local teenagers undergoing a rite of passage, Terror showed everyone what was possible.

Terror’s reign ended in 1999 due to rising property values and developers’ eagerness to get their hands on the land. The attraction moved to the top floor of the Church Street Exchange building, but lacking company support, it struggled mightily. Church Street Station’s glory days were also ending thanks to competition from Disney’s Pleasure Island and Universal’s CityWalk. Terror 2 finally met its demise in 2001. Still, to this day, Terror on Church Street is one of the most-cited inspirations for modern haunters. Not a bad legacy to leave behind.

Fright Nights

Fright Nights

Reeling from their disastrous June 7, 1990, opening day, which many predicted would close the park for good, Universal Studios Florida staff and management were working overtime. Two of the park’s signature attractions, Kongfrontation and Earthquake, were out of technical rehearsals and performing fairly reliably, but Jaws was still closed for a multi-year rebuild. The company needed something major to draw guests in, so it decided to roll the dice.

Drawing on a legacy of horror that stretched back to the early 1920s, Universal threw a three-night Halloween party in 1991, actually beating Terror on Church Street to the punch by a matter of less than two weeks. With one haunted house—the Dungeon of Terror— along with roving scare actors and several shows, Fright Nights was an immediate sensation.

The next year, Universal renamed the event Halloween Horror Nights and expanded its scope to two haunted houses and five event nights. Most of the park’s attractions were also “horrorfied,” adding scare actors and other ghoulish touches. This was the first year for the now-legendary Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, which is still going strong today.

Robosaurus Image in Public Domain

The 1993 event featured three brand-new haunted houses, beginning what is arguably Halloween Horror Nights’ strongest legacy—the fact that the event changes completely from one year to the next. While most theme park events change out a house every now and again, or tweak the scares a little, Universal builds a brand new storyline, complete with entirely new haunted houses, each and every year. That commitment has built a rabid fandom that spends the year speculating on what new thrills the next event will bring.

In the first few years, Halloween Horror Nights relied on roving scare actors to frighten guests on the streets. As the event grew larger and more popular, however, Universal soon realized the advantages of centralizing the frights. The first scare zone, Horrorwood, debuted in 1994.

The 1990s were a great time for horror fans, as each year’s Halloween Horror Nights brought another “first.” The much-loved Midway of the Bizarre scare zone first appeared in 1995, the same year that brought the first icon—the Crypt Keeper. The Festival of the Dead Parade made its first appearance in 1996, along with the first double-sided haunted house, Universal’s New House of Horrors. In 1997, the first related exhibit was seen in Soundstage 54’s House of Frankenstein display. Halloween Horror Nights 1998 brought a then unprecedented five haunted houses, including the separate first class and crew quarter mazes of the S.S. Frightanic. For 1999, Universal kicked off a new tradition with Universal’s Creature Features—the first 3-D haunted house in Florida. Every year, the event was open more and more nights, ending the 1990s with a stunning 19-night run.

 
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