Entertainment Project Services (EPS), a full-service design development company specialising in mechanical design and project management within the entertainment industry, was tasked with creating the invisible infrastructure for Universal Horror Unleashed. This involved supporting lighting, sound, and effects across all mazes.
The Universal Horror Unleashed attraction features multiple haunted experiences in one venue, each with intricate hallways, layered atmospherics, and surprises, reimagining the haunted house on an unprecedented scale.
Creating these productions involved more than just innovative scenic design; it needed a hidden structural and technical framework that seamlessly supported lighting, sound, and effects across the entire venue.
The scale of this infrastructure was vast, requiring 7,892 feet of piping, 701 sections, and numerous custom connections to keep everything secure.
EPS delivers an invisible framework
Unlike traditional haunted houses, where equipment is often installed piecemeal, this project demanded a continuous solution that covered each maze and room while remaining adaptable to different creative visions.
The grid needed to match each designer's specific production needs, be robust enough to support heavy loads, and remain invisible to guests. Any visible hardware could break the illusion, so the system had to appear as if it were never there.
EPS’s engineering ensured the grid integrated smoothly with the maze architecture while maintaining the necessary structural support for extensive rigging. The outcome is a technical framework capable of supporting a variety of lighting, atmospheric machines, audio, and scenic elements, all while remaining invisible to the thousands of guests below.
Behind the scenes, EPS’s fabrication team assembled 952 intersection brackets, 285 hanging lines and turnbuckles, and 597 welded standoffs and assemblies, all tailored to fit the unique geometry of the mazes and themed environments.
Each component worked together seamlessly to support the haunted houses, the surrounding cityscape, and the showcase bar, while preserving the illusion that there was no mechanical infrastructure visible above the guests.
Audiences experience a fully immersive environment where effects come from all directions, with no distractions or dead spots. In Universal Horror Unleashed, the pipe grid acts as the silent stagehand, enabling the magic.
For EPS, it is among the largest and most ambitious venue-wide rigging systems the company has built, reaffirming its expertise in engineering top-tier entertainment infrastructure.
See also: Building a powerhouse team: EPS and Stage One join forces
Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.
