Early last week Universal invited us to come behind the construction walls and look at the progress inside The Walking Dead walk-through attraction. The project, over two years in development, is an unprecedented all-new immersive walk-through that aims to put guests in the dead center of the hit cable show, making them the survivors in a world of walkers. The project had the full involvement of the show’s executive producer, Greg Nicotero, using molds from the actual show to create make up effects and even new animatronics that will pursue the guests in their fight for survival. That, coupled with John Murdy’s uncanny ability to bring horror to life and Chris Williams’ meticulous art direction, and you have the makings of something truly terrifying.

The only caveat was that we were only allowed to report on what we saw. No photos inside (aside from what were supplied to press) and no video recording. Audio recording was only allowed for transcription purposes. The interview was conducted days before these exterior shots were taken as we were waiting on approved imagery from inside. The walls were still up at that time and Murdy referred to a crashed helicopter that was set to be installed on Monday night.

Before I begin I want to warn everyone that this article is filled with spoilers.  Lots of them. While I still don’t give everything away I do give an overview of what’s inside the attraction and what to expect.  If you don’t want to know anything going in, you might just want to click the back button on your browser. Otherwise, here we go!

With iPhone in hand recording every bit of audio we trekked forward.

These pics, taken on Thursday, show the construction walls down and the aforementioned helicopter installed.

Scorched paint and tattered blinds indicate the chaos that has unfolded.

The Helicopter itself will be lit up and smoking as if it had just crashed moments before.

Donning a hard hat and orange vest we go behind the walls and walk past workers who are busy setting the chain link queue outside.  We arrive at the entrance into the show building. The façade is the Harrison Memorial Hospital where Rick woke up from a coma only to find that the dead are walking the earth. Entering the main corridor we feel as if we are in an abandoned hospital. “Everything is an easter egg, There are hundreds and hundreds of easter eggs,” said Murdy. “In fact, even the trash that we will have laying around on the floor is an easter egg.”

Passing a hidden sensor we round a corner and, at the far end of the hallway are the iconic Dead Inside doors. Safety barriers  laced with yellow tape block us from getting too close as Murdy and team are still in the middle of programming the animated prop. When finished the door will push and give, while a total of twelve decaying hands reach through the open crevice as visitors pass by. “This right here is the perfect example of the difference between what we are doing now and what we normally did for Halloween Horror Nights.” said Murdy. “When we did this scene in 2012, it was a door with static hands. We had a performer on the other side with a monitor and he could see people coming. He would just step on a foot pedal and that would trigger the door to move and the sound to go off.” Murdy turns to the project behind the barriers and said, “This is a highly complicated piece of show action with twelve separate hands that just in and out. We can program them in any which way we want.”

Image Courtesy Universal Studios Hollywood

From here we followed the queue into a large room to our left. While the Dead Inside Doors were supposed to have lead to a cafeteria, the queue takes us into another large space where the queue switches back and forth. Around the perimeter of the room trash and furniture act as barricades, indicating that the staff of the hospital held their final battle here. From two way radios perched in and around the queue we are given our call to action. A survivor is reaching out to any others that may hear him. He is offering safety from the Walkers. All we have to do is get there. With that bit of information we are let loose out the back door of the hospital and on our way.

As we toured the new, custom built facility a few things struck me. First, the ceiling is easily 25 feet high. This allows Murdy and his team to stretch the highly detailed sets as far as they want to take them. It also allows for very precise lighting to be installed and hidden, allowing guests to simply get lost in the action. This was typified by the next scene where we meet the iconic Bicycle Girl animatronic.  Dispatched in small groups of around 10 to 12 people, guests will encounter this monster, nestled in a far corner embankment. “This is a pretty sophisticated animated figure. It will crawl toward the audience, growl, hiss.” said Murdy, “And aesthetically this was overseen by Greg Nicotero at KNB effects who does the show, so she’s right off the molds of the show.”

Through the woods we escape more walkers and come across one of the more intricate scenes. A moonshine cabin that has been set on fire. This scene will be a full sensory experience featuring heat effects, smoke, the smell of burning wood, and smoking walkers. “We are burning this cabin with an effect called faux fire,” said Murdy. “So its steam and lighting effects that look exactly like fire.” As visitors pass this scene a smoldering walker will make its way to guests. “We have a special make up effect that we’ve R&D’d where the smoke will actually follow him, it will be coming off of him. It’s pretty cool stuff.”

We next retrace Tyrese’s steps and enter through the back door of the prison. This of course takes us into the melee and chaos inside. Riot gear walkers are running amok and nasty surprises await for us here including video projections.  “You realize at this point that the guy on the radio was telling you to get to the prison for safety, only when you get here,” said Murdy, “the Walkers beat you to it.” pointing to the two story set around him, Murdy pointed out that this was something that they could never have done at Horror Nights. “This is a very real scene” Murdy said.” Here we have a steel set, actors can go up and walk around on the second level. It’s going to be a pretty amazing scene.” Here a survivor urges you out of the prison and forward.

Image Courtesy Universal Studios Hollywood

While we will never see the main characters throughout the attraction, we will see evidence of their presence. “Daryl’s crossbow will be here, Michonne’s sword will be over here” said Murdy, “There will be things everywhere that tell you that you are in that world with the characters.”

Still another difference in the permanent attraction as opposed to the former HHN versions will be the make up.  Before there were latex appliances blended with make up. They had to avoid using things like contact lenses as the actors had a very hard time seeing in low or extreme lighting. For The Walking Dead attraction they will be breaking new ground again by taking advantage of new, molded, silicone masks that show a much greater detail and will feature articulated mouths. They have also figured out how to get that dead eye look by creating the dead eyes on the mask and creating eye holes to see through elsewhere. This will be some highly detailed stuff.

After leaving the Prison we make our way to Del Arno Foods in the last major set piece of the attraction. Two full-size shipping trucks face a delivery dock. Their doors are open revealing more articulated figures that are attacking yet another victim. Standing on top of one of the trucks will be the actor portraying the voice you have been hearing the whole way through the attraction. “He’ll tell people, ‘Great you made it!’ and he’ll be firing at the walkers, telling you to get inside. This is where the attraction ends.

The exit of the attraction.

The attraction went through 12 different versions until settling on this particular one. Despite being involved in creating an attraction with the team from The Walking Dead, Greg Nicotero and his staff were incredibly protective of any plot points or spoilers. “It’s funny,” said Murdy, “one of the versions of this attraction had the W Walkers as the bad guys and you running from them. Then during last season, Greg said, ‘oh, hey when you see tonight’s episode let me know what you think.’ and that is when I saw that the W Walkers had been wiped out at Alexandria.” Murdy laughs and says, Yeah we had to completely redo a lot of stuff.”

The attraction is a compilation of seasons and as with any adaptation you have to wonder why certain things don’t make the cut. Murdy explained saying, “Yeah there were a lot of things that we wanted to do, but had to cut. Ultimately it was about the efficiency of the experience. We wanted to show the Mayor and his office but, in order for that to make sense, we would have had to show everything that happened before and led up to that point just to get to that one moment.” Murdy sighed and said, “Sometimes, things just had to be cut.” Thankfully they have left pockets in the design so as to have the flexibility of changing the attraction to reflect the changes in the show.

Now, as we anticipate the opening of this terrifying walkthrough we are more and more excited. This attraction is going to be unlike anything we have seen from the park. John Murdy and Chris Williams have been given a huge budget to do what they could never attempt at Halloween Horror Nights.

Now, enjoy a behind the scenes video from the Universal team that covers the recent Walker Boot Camp and then some.