For those that don't know, one of my side business is haunt consulting. I design haunted houses and train their actors. Last month, I landed the contract for the halloween haunted attraction on the
USS North Carolina.Well, this week I traveled down to Wilmington NC to start working on the battleship. I can see it's going to be one helluva big job.
We are developing a backstory that is pure fiction and therefore will hopefully not offend family members of those who served aboard the ship. The story is that during a horrific storm in 2009, the
USS North Carolina disappeared from it's moorings. No one knows where or when it vanished, but 24 hours later it reappeared. Ever since then, very strange and terrifying things have been happening and visitors to the boat have been vanishing.
Since the cast of
Ghost Hunters has been asked back this fall to re-visit the ship and conduct another investigation, we are inviting the public to come 'investigate' during the haunt season and see if they're brave enough to survive "The Ghost Ship."
The tagline they came up with is
"Ghosts don't care how loud you scream."We're planning to have most of the actors dressed in navy khakis and dungarees and will be 'assaulting' visitors with a variety of shipboard items and large amounts of strobes, klaxons, mechanical terrors, and other things that I won't mention so as to not give anything away.
One of the staff members claims to have seen a blue and purple mist near one of the officer's quarters just 2 weeks ago and the route will go along that corridor.
And yes, there will be a disclaimer at the beginning stating that the battleship was NOT built for comfort, it was built for war and therefore not accessible for everyone. The regular tours are not wheelchair-accessible and there are sharp edges, rivits, and steel everywhere. They will be doing their best to cover up anything that has the potential to injure but I know they won't be able to get it all.
Here are a few pics of some of the areas that will be transformed...
Visitors enter the ship through this hatch:
Entering the first room of the haunt:
Starboard berthing area:
Officer's staterooms:
More challenges await when I go back in a couple weeks. If anyone is in the area, go check it out.