Working with Tishman Speyer—the real estate company that licenses space at 30 Rock—the Tonightmares crew initially looked into setting up shop in a former basement post office before settling on an empty space below the Lego Store on Fifth Ave. But when Miller first entered his soon-to-be haunted home away from home, he wasn’t sure how it would fit one scary scenario, let alone ten.
“It’s not that big a space, but we’ve really made the best of every square inch,” he marvels. The Tonightmares transformation also allowed for some welcome upgrades to the existing room, including a newly installed HVAC system and ADA-compliant exits.
“When we first saw the space, it was nothing but concrete and wires,” O’Connor recalls. “It was impressive to see it come to life in its finished form with lightning, practical effects, and actors.”
Miller says that accommodating a full ensemble of “scareactors” is one of the other tricks of the haunted maze trade he most enjoyed discovering.
“They’re the ones that have to hit the button or the foot pedal that create the scares,” he says. “And depending on the group, they’ll know which person to go after and get to scream so everyone else will scream. This isn’t an animated ride at Disneyland—it’s a haunted house! So real people doing the scaring is key.”
Wake in fright
Halloween’s evolution from a one-night candy run for children into a month-long all-ages celebration of the macabre has certainly benefitted theme parks and other live event arenas. And Tonightmares is doing its part to increase 30 Rock foot traffic; when ADWEEK visited the maze on a recent Sunday, the admission line wrapped around the building’s underground hallways.
“People are like, ‘I can’t believe this is a temporary thing—it looks like a movie set,’” Miller says of the overall reaction. It helps that The Tonight Show has also kept up a steady promotional drumbeat, with Fallon escorting celebrities like Prince Harry, Savanah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Demi Lovato through his demonic brainchild.
The Tonight Show/Halloween Horror Nights crossover is the kind of in-company synergy that O’Connor likes to see, especially when it pops up outside of a Universal Studios park.