The Last of Us, we can confidently claim, is the most successful video game adaptation ever. Not only is the game accepted as one of the greatest ever made, but this year’s big-budget HBO TV adaptation, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, has been decorated with awards. It was HBO’s second-biggest premiere since 2010, going on to average 32 million viewers an episode.
Its latest adaptation achievement? A live-action haunted house for Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights. Now in the event’s 32nd year of scares, and arguably the world’s premier event for horror fans, spooky season sees Universal theme parks transform into horror shows after dark – with experiences based on recognisable franchises, such as Stranger Things and The Exorcist: Believer, as well as original concepts.
For me, The Last of Us haunted house – in Orlando – is the most exciting of all 10 haunted houses this year. It drops fans directly into the game. “It reminded me of when I first walked on set for the HBO show,” says Neil Druckmann, co-creator of The Last of Us and co-president of the studio behind it, Naughty Dog. He’s also been heavily involved in the creation of this latest adaptation of his fungal-zombie brainchild. “I was just like, oh my god, I’m in the game.”
Druckmann is giving the Guardian a private “lights-on” tour of the horror maze at Universal Studios Florida, which guests can now experience under darker, less wordy and more scream-y conditions. Being transported into the game means being physically chased by skin-crawlingly horrible runner, clicker and bloater creatures, as well as being saved by lead characters Joel and Ellie, played by amazingly lookalike actors. The game’s original voice actors, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, recorded all-new dialogue for the house. Guests walk (or cower) through various detailed sets drawn from the Pittsburgh chapter of the first game, beginning where Joel’s truck crashes into a building in the quarantined city.
It all started, as many moments of horror have done, with a tweet. A longtime fan of the annual event, Druckmann tweeted in 2021: “I’d love a TLoU Halloween Horror Nights attraction! Who do I need to talk to?!” Meetings swiftly followed, and now, we’re standing against a wall of infected human remains, a few metres removed from the Orlando heat, admiring a faithfully recreated body of ill-fated Kyle, whom fans will recognise from the first game.
Human “scare-actors” perform their roles within the house, timed specifically to create the perfect jumpscares. The actors watch monitors to time the action exactly when guests are in the perfect spot to be spooked, working foot pedals to trigger sound and lighting. Special clicker costumes have been developed with lighting to look as if they’ve been doused in Molotov cocktails, while actors had to attend bootcamp to learn to act authentically as each stage of the Cordyceps-infected, we’re told.
Universal’s senior director of entertainment creative development, Mike Aiello, explains: “This is live, immersive theatre. The guests are on a path and they’re experiencing show scenes, just like a ride. This is a ride attraction, but without the vehicle.”
That means including horror tricks of the trade not afforded to video games or TV. “We build these vast environments, but as you walk through, you’ll notice there is a focus paid to how we’re lighting things, so that we can draw attention to areas of a room, knowing that you’re in it for a specific number of seconds,” says Aiello. “We want to make sure those guests are immediately attached to certain things in that space. Some because we want them to really notice it, and others because we want you to look somewhere so that we can distract you and scare you from an angle that you’re not expecting.”
For Druckmann, that has also meant adding to The Last of Us-verse in ways which screen media simply couldn’t. “You can argue that players are already in the game – they’re playing as Joel, they’re turning the camera, they’re deciding where they’re going, yes, but they’re seeing it through a 2D frame on their wall. What if you break that frame, and now you’re surrounded by it, and you can touch it, feel it, smell it?”
The award-winning HBO series has bestowed on The Last of Us a new audience beyond the legions of fans who played the original game when it was released 10 years ago, but this experience is based directly on the video game. “It’s an emotional experience – so much of this is the jumpscares, but then add in Joel and Ellie, and you really feel like you’re on a journey with them,” explains Druckmann, “I love that it’s here for this limited time. People get this special experience, and then it disappears.”
The Last of Us III game currently exists only in rumour, though we can safely assume it will come in some distant future, and a second season of the HBO television series is on the cards. After this haunted house, what’s the next adaptation going to be? “Interpretive dance,” reveals Druckmann in faux-seriousness, before clarifying: “I honestly don’t know, but when it comes up again, our approach at Naughty Dog will always be: is it a fresh experience? Is it excellent? And will our fans enjoy it? And if the answer is yes to all those, we’ll do it.”
• Universal Orlando Resort’s Halloween Horror Nights 2023 is open now until 4 November
