Written by Eve Katz, Photos courtesy of Lindsey Phillips (right) and Ryan Scanlon (left)
Orlando is usually a hot spot for horror-themed experiences during the fall season, but Halloween 2020 saw a halt in such festivities. In-person experiences were no longer safe due to COVID-19, causing the cancellation of popular holiday events such as Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights and Disney World’s Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. With usual traditions like large gatherings, trick-or-treating or walkthrough attractions no longer available for those looking to celebrate Halloween, the team at Kissimmee, Fla. Scream n’ Stream found another way to keep the holiday’s spirit alive: a drive-through haunt.
SCAD’s own Lindsey Phillips and Ryan Scanlon, fourth and third-year production design students, were crucial to the creation of Scream n’ Stream’s Night at the Die-In. The experience placed guests in an abandoned drive-in movie theater in 1997, where a group of teenagers had broken in that night on a dare. The location is rumored to have been the site of many sinister happenings, which the teenagers, and in turn the guests, soon discover the source of. Phillips acted as the lead scenic designer for the experience, while Scanlon was a scenic artist intern.
“I love the wide ranges of topics, lessons and stories that can be told through [themed entertainment],” Scanlon said. “It really does feel like the only limitations within [this industry] are that of technology and one’s own creativity, and those barriers are consistently broken more and more each year.” Themed entertainment is all about innovation, so it’s no surprise that new kinds of experiences began to pop up that fit within COVID-19 safety regulations. When barriers arose, designers found ways to break them down.
With new experiences come new obstacles, meaning Phillips and Scanlon had to get creative with their work. “The hardest part about working for a drive through experience was making sure everything was readable from inside a car,” Phillips said. “It’s so different from working on a walkthrough or stage environment. It was hard, but we figured it out from a lot of trial and error.”
Along with working around the fact that guests had to stay in their vehicles for the entire experience, the isolated location where they were working also served as a bit of a challenge to the designers at Scream n’ Stream. Scanlon however, still found positives about the environment. “While working in the swamp wasn’t always the easiest, it actually allowed each member of the team to be extremely spread out from each other while working most of the time, which definitely helped us maintain safety by keeping our distance,” Scanlon said. “Overall, it felt great to be a part of an event that was working so hard to employ lots of people who had recently experienced layoffs within the entertainment industry.”
Drive through experiences aren’t just a work-around for a world in a pandemic, in fact Phillips predicts that we’ll be seeing more of them. “The beauty of a drive through experience is that it is the ultimate accessible experience,” Phillips said. “Also, when it comes to haunted experiences, it’s a great foray into the haunt world where you can always separate yourself from what’s happening if it’s too much.”
COVID-19 not only caused stress within the themed entertainment community, but also among students. Finding jobs and internships has been an increasingly difficult task during a time when there is so much uncertainty. Scream n’ Stream’s Night at the Die-In served as a way for people to safely celebrate Halloween, but was also an opportunity for Phillips, Scanlon and the rest of the team behind it to come together, celebrate themed entertainment and show off their skills as talented designers. “Going into this project as an intern working on my first ever project in the industry, [I wanted] to learn as much as I could,” Scanlon said. “I was a bit nervous because I had only completed two years at SCAD so far and felt that I still had a lot more to learn. However, I was so lucky to have such an incredible team working with me that helped me figure out certain things as I went along. By the end of it, I felt that I had gained such valuable skills, but also a lot of insight into how the industry works from the inside when creating a project like this. It ended up being the best experience of my life so far, and I’m more excited than ever to work and learn more about the industry.”
They provided an escape in a time when it was so desperately needed by finding a way to immerse guests in a story without them even needing to leave their cars. As an artist, it can be difficult to see your own work as impressive, but this experience was certainly no small feat. “My biggest goal going into this project was to prove to myself that I deserved to be in this industry,” Phillips said. “Imposter syndrome is something so many designers and artists suffer from, and I am one of them! I do think I achieved my goal because I was able to prove that my team and I could create something so unique and special in a short amount of time. I’m so proud of what we created.”
Although Night at the Die-In was exclusive to Halloween 2020, Scream n’ Stream isn’t stopping there. Their website claims that an all-new experience will be coming this September.
