Interstellar Terror

Halloween Horror Nights Orlando attraction
Interstellar Terror
Attraction type	Haunted House
Event	Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear
Park	Universal Studios Florida
Area	Production Central
Year	2008
Housed in	Soundstage 20
Based on	Event Horizon (Unofficially)

Interstellar Terror was one of the eight haunted houses that were featured during Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear. Based loosely on the film Event Horizon, the house brought guests through the NSO Columbus 1492, a spaceship whose crew went crazy on a mission in deep space. It was located in Soundstage 20 along with Body Collectors: Collections of the Past.

History and Location

In 2008, Universal decided to tie in all eight of their haunted houses to patients of Bloody Mary. This haunted house would tie in to Lt. Von Stebler. He had a fear of mysterious symbols that he had visions of. Bloody Mary showed him pictures of these symbols and he stabbed himself repeatedly with a pen.

The house would be loosely based on the movie Event Horizon. The story is that a spaceship discovered a strange artifact that made the crew go insane. The house would be the first house to actually take place in space. The rooms would be designed to resemble the different rooms of a fictional space ship.

The house would be one of two located in Soundstage 20, the other one being Body Collectors: Collections of the Past. Soundstage 20 is one of the larger soundstage facilities designed to be used as filming locations for movies and television shows.

Description

It can only be attributable to human error.

Prided among the scientific community as the greatest achievement in the history of Mankind, the NSO Columbus 1492 is the first manned spacecraft to leave the relative safety of our solar system. When the ship disappears for several years, and then reappears just outside the orbit of our moon, your rescue team is sent to investigate, only to find that an artifact the crew brought on board will exact its destructive nature, and will force you all to witness Interstellar Terror!

The first manned spacecraft to ever leave our solar system has returned... but with an alien artifact on-board with devastating effects

Mystery Tie-in

This house is connected to the case of Lt. Von Stebler, the son of German-American Admiral George Von Stebler, one of the children responsible for Mary Worthington's disappearance. The lieutenant was already living in constant fear due to his father's actions during World War II; he especially was afraid of the urban legend of Bloody Mary. Von Stebler wanted to be an astronaut, but due to his irrational fears, he was unable to pass the mental tests that were required for the job. Going against his friend Dr. Kubsh, Admiral Von Stebler sent his son to Dr. Agana to cure him of a particular fear of strange alien symbols he believed were to cause the end of the world. Dr. Agana strapped him to a chair and used eye clamps to force his eyes open. Then she unbound one hand, gave him a fountain pen and told him he was free to write or draw anything as she showed him a slideshow of Dr. Kubsch’s fishing trip in the summer of 1946, during which time Von Stebler first saw these symbols. Von Stebler broke down upon seeing the images of the symbols and began to thrash about in an attempt to break free and began carving the symbols into his flesh with the pen. He was sent to be hospitalized while Dr. Agana was amazed by how a man can break down at the mere sight of an image of something he fears. She decided to keep the pen as a memento and discovered something about her sessions: she believed audio feedback was too distracting and merely liked watching them instead. Especially through a one-way mirror.

Backstory

The National Space Organization began construction on the first manned space vessel capable of exploration through our Solar System and beyond and the vessel was given a name, COLUMBUS 1492. In 2036 the construction of the Columbus 1492 was complete and the inaugaral crew was going to be lead by Captain James Michaels. By 2037, the first mission of the crew was established as the crew would journey to Mars for a future base settlement. In 2038, the crew would arrive back from Mars as the mission was a success and a settlement was found. In 2040, the crew was ordered to take COLUMBUS 1492 just outside of the Solar System, they would begin their mission in 2041 as the contact with the vessel was kept for 1 year and 8 months. In 2042, Contact was lost with COLUMBUS 1492. Final Captain's log suggested that crew had found an object that would lead to their disappearance. In 2045, The COLUMBUS 1492 was declared lost. The event was marked as the single worst event the NSO had experienced to date until 2047 when the COLUMBUS 1492 was found drifting just beyond Earth's moon, there was no means of contact established until a rescue team was sent to investigate the remains of the ship and rescue any crew members left.

Settings

• NSO Columbus 1492
• Ship's Hallway
• Engine Room
• Access Hallway
• Ship's Bridge
• Turbo Shaft
• Elevated Gantry
• Ship's Core
• Upside Corridor
• Hallway Corridor
• Artifact Room

Experience

Queue and Facade

The entrance facade of the house. Guests walked through the red steel gantry toward the ship.

The queue would go through the line for the Twister ride and towards Soundstage 20, where guests entered the house. Once they entered the soundstage, they were immediately confronted by the gantry of the NSO Columbus 1492. Walking towards the entrance of the ship, they could see that its engines were running, which pumped smoke to obscure the view.

Haunted House

Entering the ship, overhead monitors told the captain's story of the crew's descent into madness. Their mission was in deep space where they had found a strange "Artifact" and had taken it aboard the ship. Since that time the Artifact seemed to be making the crew kill and torture themselves. As the captain talked, alarms blared, ushering guests into the next room of the ship.

That next room was a small hallway with crew members lurking and torturing themselves. Directly in front of guests a man took dangling electrical cables and pushed them against his body. The lights above him strobed and the smell of burnt flesh entered the room as he was electrocuted. Moving on, guests entered the engine room. The engineering crew lurked here on high platforms and blocking the path. Each were burned or maimed and yelled at guests to leave before the Artifact took them over as well.

Guests began walking closer to the bridge. In the access room before the bridge crew members hid behind holes in the wall and movable bookshelves, popping out to scare guests who were occupied by dangling wires, dripping water, and other distractions. In the bridge, monitors showed more of the captain's story and blinked warnings as guests walked around the captain's chair. The captain was, however, tied to the wall by wires and chopped in half. His closest assistants walked around guests with burns and warning them to leave before a similar fate befell them.

Walking off the bridge guests entered into a long shaft. Surrounded by fences, a hundred foot drop was on either side of the path leading to the engines. Near the bottom of the drop was a dead astronaut, spinning in the low gravity. Leaving there, a spinning hallway awaited. With lights coming in from small holes, the hallway looked to spin faster, disorienting guests. Walking out of the hallway, guests were now walking on the ceiling of the ship.

With everything upside down to the guests' perspectives, more things went wrong with the ship with many explosive decompressions. The biggest one dragged a crew member to the hole it created. As he reached for help from guests walking past, he was pulled into space and air rushed out of the ship toward hole. Passing through a narrow hallway, there was a loud crash and a shockwave pulsed along two hallways off to the side until it reached the line, where the floor suddenly jumped. Guests entered the final room of the ship where the Artifact was stored above the path. Crew members walked around looking up at the Artifact and chasing guests from the ship.

Scareactors

• Captain James Michaels (Screen)
• NSO Columbus Crew x Various

Website Pictures

Pictures

[Image From Theme Park Review]

Image from Jeremy Walton.

Image from Peter Collebert's Myspace.

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

[Image From Theme Park Review]

Image from Jared Clemons on Facebook.

[Image From Theme Park Review]

Scene from the house featured in the 30 Years, 30 Fears montage during Halloween Horror Nights 30 Image from HorrorUnearthed

Image from RexandtheBeast on Flickr

Videos

News 13- HHN 18 - Interstellar Terror Maze

Trivia

• Interstellar Terror, like many of the other houses at Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear, included a brief appearance by Bloody Mary in the static following one of the captain's messages on the bridge.
• The captain was played by Michael Roddy, the long-time manager of show development in Orlando.
• Additionally Roddy's name and other designers appeared on a view screen map of the ship in the bridge.
• The Artifact was a small scale version of the ship from the film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

• For the Bloody Mary mystery story, Interstellar Terror is foretold through the mind of Lt. Von Stebler, who began to go mad from the symbols he began seeing in visions, the same symbols found on the Artifact.
• According to this, the Terra Cruentus Rune was in some of the panels of this house.
• The name of the ship, Columbus 1492, is a nod to the name of the ship in Event Horizon, the Lewis and Clark.
• There was a panel that showed all of the scareactor locations in the haunted house in the Engine Room.
• Many sets from the Halloween Horror Nights: Carnival of Carnage house, The Thing: Assimilation, were used in this house. One of these includes the freezing chamber door which was used near the beginning of Interstellar Terror.
• The Revolving Tunnel (a spinning and disorientating tunnel that guests would walk through) appeared in this house. The effect would later be used in a several more haunted houses, with the next one being Chucky: Friends til the End during Halloween Horror Nights: Ripped From the Silver Screen.
• If guests looked down on the right-hand side of the bridge, a spaceman could be seen spinning around.

External links

• Behind the Scenes Walkthrough of the house