Organization: Indianapolis Zoo
Role: Writer & Producer
Years: 2001-2007
Status: Implemented / Retired
Key Contributions: Experience Development | Story Development | Script Writing | Audio & Video Production | Scenic Development
The Opportunity
When I first experienced the ZooBoo haunted train in 2000, the seasonal overlay was fairly simple, relying primarily on background music and a few costumed characters positioned along the route. As someone with a longtime interest in haunted attractions, I saw an opportunity to use the train ride to create a more complete Halloween experience.
Although I wasn’t working in ride operations at the time, I asked for the opportunity to develop the audio for the following year’s haunted train and was given the chance to do so. That first production in 2001 began what would become seven years of writing and producing different versions of the attraction, with each year providing an opportunity to experiment with new approaches to storytelling and the guest experience.
My Role & Approach
My involvement began in 2001 with writing, recording, editing, and mixing the onboard audio. I worked with the Attractions Manager to determine where characters would be positioned along the route so that the narration and other audio cues aligned with what guests encountered from the train.
In 2002, the Attractions Manager role became available, and I requested the opportunity to step into the position. With that move, I assumed full responsibility for the haunted train experience. Over the next six years, I wrote and produced each version of the attraction, developing the stories, designing and building scenes, determining character placement, procuring costumes and props, and producing the audio and video content.
Rather than repeating the same experience each year, I used the train as an opportunity to try different approaches to storytelling. Over time, the productions grew from relatively simple narration and Halloween scenes to stories that unfolded around the guests, live performers, recurring characters, and eventually queue experiences that began setting up the story before guests boarded the train.
Early Experiments | 2001-2003
The first three versions of the haunted train followed a fairly traditional format, with guests traveling past a series of Halloween scenes accompanied by music and, in the first two years, recorded narration. Each year gave me an opportunity to experiment with different approaches to the audio and storytelling.
The 2001 version was my first attempt at creating a story for the ride, including a reveal at the end that the narrator guiding guests through the experience had actually been a ghost. In 2002, I took a different approach and wrote the entire narration in rhyming couplets. For 2003, I removed the narration altogether and let the music and scenes carry the experience.
These early versions were relatively simple, but they gave me a chance to learn what worked along the train route and laid the groundwork for a much different approach in 2004.
A New Approach | 2004
For 2004, I wanted to move beyond narration and make the story happen around the guests. The ride began much like the versions that had come before it, even reusing the rhyming narration from 2002. Partway through the route, however, the train appeared to make an unexpected stop because something was blocking the tracks.
What initially appeared to be a real interruption was actually the beginning of the story. The driver was pulled from the train, and a masked creature took control, carrying guests through a series of new scenes before the original driver eventually returned, defeated the creature, and regained control of the train.
As the train approached the station, the original narration appeared to reset and resume as though nothing had happened. Guests waiting to board heard the same familiar narration they would hear at the beginning of their own ride, giving them no indication of what had just happened to the group before them.
Gene & Ellie Go Halloween | 2005
Following some guest feedback about the intensity of the 2004 ride, I was asked to create a less frightening experience for 2005. That same year, the regular train ride had been reimagined around Gene Giraffe and Ellie Elephant, two fictional zoo characters who hosted their own radio show. For ZooBoo, I used those characters as the starting point for a lighter Halloween experience while retaining the idea of a story that unfolded throughout the ride.
“Gene and Ellie’s Spooktacular Halloween Haunted Train Ride” introduced Gary Gorilla and sent guests on a mystery to discover who was responsible for the scares occurring along the route. The story concluded with the reveal that Gary had been behind them all.
WBOO Television Studio Tour | 2006
For 2006, I developed WBOO, a fictional television network in the monster world. Drawing on the popularity of reality television at the time, the train became a behind-the-scenes studio tour featuring monster-world spoofs of four popular reality shows: ExScream Makeover: Haunted House Edition, The Original Fear Factor, Ascareican Idol, and Boovivor.
For the first time, the experience began before guests boarded the train. I produced a roughly 20-minute video loop that played on monitors in the queue, introducing WBOO and featuring commercials and promotions for its fictional programming. By the time guests boarded, they had already been introduced to the television network and several of the shows they would encounter along the route.
The queue video, onboard audio, characters, and physical scenes all became parts of the same fictional world, allowing the experience to extend beyond the train ride itself.
Full Queue Video
Featured Show Logos
Howlywood Studios Backlot Tour | 2007
Following the success of WBOO, I built on the studio tour concept for the 2007 haunted train. This time, guests visited Howlywood Pictures, a movie studio in the monster world, and traveled through the backlot to see four films in production: High S’Ghoul Musical, Pirates of the Scareibbean, Hairy Potter, and Scar Wars.
The story also created an in-world connection to the previous year. Howlywood Pictures had purchased WBOO Television Studios, allowing some of the existing fictional world, along with graphic and video assets created for WBOO, to carry over into the new experience.
As with WBOO, the experience began in the queue. Monitors played previews and other video content introducing Howlywood and the movies being produced on the backlot. By the time guests boarded the train, they understood that they were taking a studio tour and were already familiar with the films they would encounter along the route.
Full Queue Video
Featured Movie Logos
The Result
What began as an opportunity to improve the audio for a relatively simple seasonal attraction became seven years of developing a new haunted train experience for ZooBoo. Each version built on what I had learned from the previous year, with guest response and new creative ideas helping shape how the experience evolved.
The biggest change over those seven years was the move toward a more story-based approach. The original haunted train was largely a collection of unrelated Halloween scenes along the route. Over time, those individual scenes became parts of a larger story, with the train, characters, audio, and eventually the queue all working together as one experience.
WBOO was particularly well received and led directly to the development of Howlywood the following year. By 2007, the experience began before guests boarded the train and carried a single fictional world through the video, audio, characters, and scenes they encountered along the ride.