Project Description
Halloween Horror Nights, Haunted House Productions
Europa-Park, 2012 – 2016
For five continuous years, Europa-Park has teamed up with Leisure Expert Group to design and produce haunted houses as central pieces for their Halloween Horror Nights. Based on Europa-Parks concepts, we design the houses into detail and create production guides with details about decor, technology and construction. These production guides make the building phase efficient and make sure the result looks as designed on forehand. To enhance the experience of the haunted houses, we design the perfect AV solutions and implement these into the houses with an overall show control which is easy to operate for operators.
Throughout the years, we designed a variety of new houses which all differed in theme and guest experience. While designing every new house, we kept in mind the age group it was targeting and the budget that was available for the production phase. Besides developing new houses, we also refurbished existing houses into more immersive experiences with the implementation of new techniques or the adaption to a new overall theme.
Services
Concept Design
Experience design
Artist impressions
Storyline
Schematic Design
Elevations
Dimensioning
Floorplan
Materialization & Color Coding
AV Design
Content Design
Soundtrack
Art Direction
Off-site art direction
The Take Away haunted house
One of the houses we developed over time was The Take Away in 2012. This house was themed with the preconceptions of everything happening at a Chinese restaurant, such as the butchers in the back and questionable waitresses. The Take Away haunted house was awarded as world’s best haunted house in 2012.
The Villa haunted house
The Villa was designed as multifunctional house in 2012. Throughout the day, this house was perfect for guests form 6 up to 12 years old with an experience that way mildly scary. And as soon as the darkness fell, the house changed into a gruesome horror experience for adults with literally only one press on the button of the AV operation system.
Nightmare haunted house
In 2014 we designed and produced 4 complete new haunted houses for the Halloween Horror Nights. One of these houses was Nightmare where guests walk through an ordinary house where all kinds of nightmares become a reality. By using this storyline, we were able to implement different themes within one house so it will scare all different fears.
The Mansion haunted house
To go beyond a basic haunted house walk thought, we developed The Mansion as VIP house in 2015. Throughout this experience, guests are invited into a billionaire’s home where they have to play phycological games in order to escape. The interactive elements are guided by video content or with the use of actors.
Code Name 10 haunted house
In 2016 Europa-Park celebrated their 10th anniversary of Halloween Horror Nights. As memorial, we designed and produced the haunted house Code Name 10, in which guests went through different portals that took them back to previous haunted houses. Previous houses that were for example added to the Code Name 10 haunted house were Big Shoe Casino and The Mansion
OTHER PROJECTS
Park Entrance redesign
Leisure Expert Group was responsible for masterplanning and designing the 2020 upgrade of the entrance area of Djurs Sommerland.
Speed Zone
To continue the Festivalization rebranding after the Main Street and Wilderness, Walibi Holland created the Speed Zone area as third to transform. We created many festival experiences as official design partner of Insomniac Events, making us the perfect supplier to create a festival like atmosphere in the theme park.
Sonar Station
Leisure Expert Group has been assigned by Wildland Adventure Zoo Emmen to redesign the Terra Explorer experience located in the Nortica area of the park, into the Sonar Station.
Tornado Springs
For their 2020 season Paultons Park will introduce the new "Tornado Springs" themed land.
Haunted Houses
After working for Chimelong Paradise on "The Drain" in 2017, we were asked to redesign 2 of their other existing Haunted Houses into new experiences for their guests to enjoy. The results are Master Puppeteer and Cursed House which are our 2nd and 3rd Halloween Houses in mainland China.
IAAPA Theatre
Leisure Expert Group was asked to design the IAAPA theatre for the annual IAAPA Expo Europe in 2019 and produce all events taking place there. Next to the time coded opening ceremony we worked on the stage design and provided front of house staff during all events.
Land of Legends
Land of Legends is a unique new themed area at Bobbejaanland with a completely new coaster, yet it is also an upgrade of some existing rides to the current thematic standards within the European theme park industry. The area shows the potential of taking a birdseye view and think outside the scope of the new ride itself and then explore the possibility to upgrade other rides in the park as well, in order to create a brand new themed area. Having worked with Movie Park before on ‘Walking Dead®: Breakout’ and ‘Excalibur: Secrets of the Dark Forest’, we were asked to help with the redevelopment of a distant corner in Nickland.
Wilderness
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Wild Asia
Throughout different stages Leisure Expert Group developed the Wild Asia Area at Djurs Sommerland where guests can be immersed into a place full of myths and legends hidden deep down in the wild Jungle of Asia.
Time Machine Restaurant
Aboard the AIDAnova, passengers can indulge themselves in a dinner show of magical proportions as Professor Tempus will take them on a time traveling adventure into the depths off the Ocean. Leisure Expert Group was closely involved with this project from the very start. Together with the talented team of AIDA, we were responsible for the storyline, the conceptual design of the restaurant and the production of the full content for the dinner show. As all designs were completed and the content was produced, we also took the responsibility of the art direction for all scenic elements and we show-directed the live performance together with the live entertainment crew of AIDA.
EDC: Kinetic Energy
As Leisure Expert Group celebrated their 6th edition as Insomniac's official design partner, they created a masterplan and designed the experience that guaranteed the perfect guest journey at world’s biggest pop-up theme park.
PAW Patrol: Adventure Bay
The famous cartoon dogs’ hometown of Adventure Bay has been brought to Movie Park Germany for their 2019 season. We have worked closely with ‘Nickelodeon Creative’ to bring this popular IP (Intellectual Property) to life in a playful and child-friendly themed environment. Having worked with Movie Park before on ‘Walking Dead®: Breakout’ and ‘Excalibur: Secrets of the Dark Forest’, we were asked to help with the redevelopment of a distant corner in Nickland.
Traumatica
Since 2012 Europa-park had been teaming up with Leisure Expert Group for the development of the haunted houses for their Halloween event. In the initial years this event was called Halloween Horror Night, but continued as "Traumatica" in 2017.
Escape: The Grimm
In 2019 Leisure Expert Group celebrated their 6th edition as Insomniac’s official design partner with the development of the Escape Festival in Southern California. For this Halloween themed event, a new masterplan was produced based on a newly written story line and from there the festival was made into a successful reality.