Halloween is fast approaching, bringing with it costumes, candy, and the macabre. If you live in Orlando, it appears as though Universal Studios is bringing one final “treat” to your homes with the launch of its horror-themed alternate reality game Evelyn Offscreen, a new “interactive Halloween adventure” that is being run to promote Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Evelyn Crane is a classic horror movie actress who has been in seclusion for the past 37 years, after an incident where a movie critic called her “too old”. Ever since then, Evelyn has been searching for the secret of eternal youth so that she can reclaim her old glory as an actress. Based on her facination with Elizabeth Bathory (the Hungarian countess who, as legend has it, bathed in the blood of hundreds of murdered young girls in order to retain her youth), it would appear as if Evelyn might just go to any sort of lengths in order to reclaim her beauty, youth and position. A perfect sort of story for Halloween.
If that wasn’t enough, there is also the mystery surrounding a series of deaths at the Universal Palace Theater, where many of Evelyn Crane’s movies have been shown. Julian Browning was the usher at the Palace Theater from 1922 until 1940, when he was found hanged behind the screen at the theater. Ever since then, he has been reported to be “present” at many of the other tragedies that have befallen workers and patrons of the Palace Theater.
Visitors to Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights will be able to visit the Universal Palace Theater via the Silver Screams haunted house in the theme park. The Evelyn Offscreen website promises that live scenes will be playing in Orlando, Florida, but whether this means just in the Silver Screams haunted house or possibly elsewhere remains to be seen. However the online campaign will be available to everyone, so even if you can’t get scared half to death at the Halloween Horror Nights, you can still get scared in your own living room.
Click Here for the Evelyn Offscreen website
Click Here for Evelyn Crane’s twitter
Click Here for Evelyn Crane’s blog
Click Here for information on the Universal Palace Hotel
postcurious
generation loss
lorefi
meow wolf
simulacra
subtext game
The fact that you guys gladly accept such obvious and idiotic corporate-sponsored fare into your fold while ignoring anything interesting (Bathory? Can we not find any other scary woman in history?)and actually popular or galvanizing in this genre (you know which game I’m talking about) makes me wonder how much they’re paying you. I hope your aspirations for starting this site include becoming a bunch of fanboys taking handouts.
Wow. I, for one, would love to know what awesome, interesting game you guys are ignoring. It must be a surefire winner to both be popular and galvanizing!
Also, what did you guys do to poor Dave up there? He sounds rather irate! Did you not pay enough attention to a subtle, non-idiotic self-financed campaign he’s running? I imagine there’s a five — no, wait, possible a ten in it for you if you did! He sounds dreamy.
Love the site!
Damn, you caught me out. How did you know I was getting paid by Universal to sneak that onto this site? You must have caught the hidden clue that said “This is a paid article,” huh? Knew I should have made it sneakier. Or it should have said “No one paid me to write this.” That would have been better, right?
I would like to point out, however, that any money I may have been paid by Universal to write this story was not shared with ARGN because, well, I’m greedy and I kept it all for myself. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an
obligationdesire to go to Pennsylvania to check out the IHC events. And not because I just happened to be given a lot of money by Sony to go and make up some positive press. Nope. Not at all. I just do it for the, damn, what’s that phrase? Oh yeah, “love of the game.”I think that sounds pretty sincere, don’t you?
Carie
PS: The hidden message in this response is in no way shape or form “I am a corporate shill.” I learned my lesson the first time!