Terror Roulette, An Intimate Horror Experience, Premiers in Chicagoland

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Terror Roulette, a new interactive horror
experience has debuted this fall in the Chicago

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area. That's coming up on today's
show from the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm

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Philip and this is our sixty one
day Hantedon where we're counting down to Halloween

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by celebrating Haunted houses daily, the
videos, podcasts, and thep in person

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experiences. Since this podcast is only
one part of the Hauntedthon, the best

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way to follow everything is by subscribing
to our newsletter or by going to our

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website at Haunted Attraction Network dot com
to see the list of all the new

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content we have posting. And remember
that the best way you can support us

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as Halloween season is by sharing our
Hauntedon with someone you think will enjoy it.

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Okay. Terror Roulette is a new
intimate, immersive horror experience that debuted

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this season in the Chicagoland area.
Groups of eight participants are thrust into an

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interactive story where they become the selecting
victims of a bloodthirsty secret society. At

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the heart of this bone chilling experience
is the enigmatic villain known as the Dealer,

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who literally holds all the cards.
The Dealer presides over a sinister realm

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filled with a host of maniacal slayers, each with their own killer specialty.

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Terror Roulette debuted at the Arboretom of
South Barrington and is a partnership between the

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Arboretum and IWG Entertainment. So today
we're going to sit down with Jeffrey from

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IWG to discuss what it was like
creating this event and working with a partner

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like the Arboretom. Enjoy. My
name is Jeffrey Holmes. I'm the creative

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principle for Iron Wooden Glitter, which
we sometimes go by IWG Productions, and

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we are a turnkey seasonal attraction developer, so we design, fabricate, install,

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operate. And you are developing a
new haunted attraction in Barrington this year,

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Yes, we are. We are
developing a brand new haunt concept.

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It's called terror Roulette and it's going
to be in South Barrington, Illinois,

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in the Arboretum of South Barrington.
So terror Roulette is a secret society of

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underground serial killers that have been cultivated
and brought together by the dealer and under

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the guise of going to a CD
bar, guests are going to be let's

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call it earmarked for a special intimate
serial killer interaction with a few of our

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collection. Let's call it. It's
a unique haunt in that your groupings are

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malleable. So we're going to start
you as a group of eight, but

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that doesn't mean you're going to end
as a group of eight, just depending

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on which serial killer found you most
enticing that you might find that your path

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diverges from your friends. Tell me
how you landed on that kind of mixing

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of immersive and regular traditional haunts.
You definitely use the right word immersive,

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right. We really wanted to find
that balance between immersive theater and traditional haunt.

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There are aspects of haunt that we
love, but there's aspects of haunt

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that we think can be improved upon. For me personally, I really wanted

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to find a way to create a
personal experience, something where the actor had

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a moment to really engage with you, and to be able to create terror

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that is more psychological and more practical. A lot of the directive that we

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received in starting the design was to
find a way to make it really terrifying

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and to find terror that is real. There are some people are afraid of

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ghosts, and some people are afraid
of zombies. But if I can find

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something that you could actually encounter in
the real world and magnify that in this

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haunt, there's no escaping that,
there's no suspension of disbelief because what we're

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showing you is genuine. Yes,
it's an act, it's fabricated, it

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could happen in real life, and
there's nothing more terrifying than that. Yeah,

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why is the reason you're focusing on
the individual interaction to elicit that that

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emotion from people? Is that what
we're trying? I think it's a combination.

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I think on one hand, we
wanted to bring something new and innovative

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because Chicago is a wonderful market,
but it's also a saturated market, so

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we wanted to find a way that
we could truly differentiate ourselves. But also,

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yes, our directive was create something
truly terrifying, and so we dug

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deep to say, Okay, what
is truly terrifying? And reality can be

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quite terrifying. I know that you
all didn't start doing auditions until back in

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June, and then you started building
shortly after that. That's a short window

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for this new experience. Tell me
about that. Tell me about that.

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Sure, when you actually start to
build the Haunt, you need to have

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a really good idea what you're doing
right. There's nothing worse than starting to

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build something and then suddenly it's changing. Yes, we definitely auditions were in

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June. We had amazing outcome,
some really incredibly talented people. You just

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wait till you see them. They
are so good. And yeah, the

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build. The audition process and the
build process are relatively simultaneous. But the

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actual development of the Haunt has been
going on for over a year now.

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There has been ideation and rewrite and
play testing of how could this actually work.

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Yes, we are We definitely had
a fast build, but it is

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it's a very focused build and so
what is really refined to what we want

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to achieve. You come from a
production company, basically, it's very different

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for a production company to become an
operator. Tell me about that decision.

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We had a really great partnership opportunity
here in Chicago, and part of that

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agreement was that we would also operate. And we have an amazing staff that's

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led by Jimmy Langa, who came
from some other operations, has done some

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incredible things. Everyone in our company
has years of experience in all aspects of

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the project. For us, it
really wasn't much different it is. You're

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right, it is unusual, but
we are very our talents are very wide.

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We can take a project from just
creative leadership all the way through turnkey

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install and operation and everything in between, from design to fabrication to any kind

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of IP development. For us,
it really wasn't that big of a deal.

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We're more excited about the uniqueness of
the project. It's something that frankly

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hasn't really been done before. When
did you make the decision? I understand

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we have a partner here and you
have all that kind of stuff, but

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like, how did you make the
decision? What was the moment where you

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were like, we're going to do
a haunt. We were invited to have

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a conversation probably a year and a
half ago, and so we flew out

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and we had a conversation about both
creative desires and business desires, and we

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use that conversation as an opportunity to
say, Okay, what is feasible?

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What is possible? Our company always
starts with what's called the concept and feasibility

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study. We always look at all, right, do you have a vision

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and if you do, what would
it take to create that vision and is

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it worth it to you or if
you don't. Sometimes I just want a

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thing we come and look at and
go all right, what is possible for

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a certain budget or a certain area. So we did a lot of early

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research to help show our now partner, is what they want feasible? Is

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it going to generate the attendance that
they want? Does the budget they want

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to spend match the outcome they're hoping
for? And so as we develop that,

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we get more excited about the project, they get more excited about the

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project. And then we ultimately presented
a concept and a feasibility of saying this

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is what it would take to do
it, and we got we were greenlit.

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From that point on, it was
all it was full steam ahead.

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We're working with the Arvorinum of South
Barrington and so it's their property they're building,

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and they are awesome. They are
some of the greatest partners to work

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with. They are so enthusiastic,
so helpful, and you mentioned the thing

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about Chicago, right, They know
Chicago and so working with them has been

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an absolute joy. Tarror Lette opens
on September twenty first, and this open

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Thursdays through Sundays. Get your tickets
online at tarrorulett dot com. In all

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serious is though tarror Let is an
exciting attraction and we really want people to

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come see it, but the by
design you really need to get your tickets

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early because it will sell out.
It is a find seven of your favorite

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friends and come on down because this
is unlike anything else in Chicago. We

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love the haunts in Chicago. We
are happy and joyful to be part of

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that community. Finally, and yeah, this is something else. If you

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have to pick something, come see
this. Today's episode was produced and edited

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by me Philip Hernandez, with post
production by David Swape and original music composed

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by Chris Thomas. We're counting down
to Halloween with daily podcasts, videos,

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and events in our sixty one day
Hauntathon. Follow along at the link in

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our show notes. Our Hantathon is
made possible through generous support from Gantum,

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Lighty and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions
worldwide with the world's smallest intelligent spotlights.

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See what you're missing with a free
demo. Sign up at dantum dot com

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slash demo that's Gantum dot com slash
Demo. Our Hauntathon team includes Daryl Plunky,

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Emily Luis Rua, Megan Spells,
Gavin Burns and Omni Adventures and Our

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content partners for this year include Attractions
Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Ajgen,

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hont Topic Radio, Kevin Heinbach News
TV On, The Adventures, Scare

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Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween
Podcast, The Horror of Being, Emily

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The Scare Factor, and This Weekend
with Nick Pegiocchini. The best way you

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can support us this hall Wed season
is by sharing our Haunted On with someone

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you think we'll enjoy it, and
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sign up for our weekly newsletter at
hant Attraction Network dot com. We'll catch

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you back here tomorrow and every day
until Halloween. Until next time, say

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Scary. This is a Haunted Attraction
Network production