Introduction: Welcome to Howling Hollow: The Forest of Fear!

     Some time ago, I decided that I needed to show off my strengths as a visual storyteller, but I didn't know where to start. Come three years later, and now I'm showing off the fruits of my labor, this project of mine titled Howling Hollow: The Forest of Fear. There's a lot to take in, and it seems like the most crucial elements only fell into place just a month ago. But what is this project all about? Why do this at all? What could you and I gain from this nearly year-long project?

What is Howling Hollow: The Forest of Fear?

    Howling Hollow: The Forest of Fear is an art project that reimagines the setting from a past animated project of mine titled Forest of Fear (more on that in a moment) as a fully-immersive theme park land. It takes the existing elements from the film and the in-universe spin-off book Cities That You MUST Absolutely, Positively, Stay Out of to Avoid Being Eaten Alive!!! and expands upon them to create the entire town and forest. With only a few exceptions, the entire town and forest are open to explore.

    The land takes place 11 years after the events of the film in question, when the aforementioned book turns the town into a tourist hot-spot. How this affects the residents of the town and forest is a major part of the story, and helped me in putting together the land's experiences.

What is Forest of Fear?

    If you're not familiar with what I've done in the past, I have also created several animated films in my spare time. One of these was a short film from 2011 titled Forest of Fear, which sends a married couple named Mary and Leo Rawlins on a misadventure through the namesake Forest of Fear. When choosing what to turn into a immersive environment, I had several ideas come into mind (including one that would have infused South Florida culture with Art Deco neon), but this one stuck out for two reasons: the film itself is very popular and out of all of the environments that I've created for all of these films, this was the only one that would realistically work as an immersive land. With that said, if curiosity has gotten the best of you, the first part of the film is embedded above for your viewing pleasure. If the video isn't displaying part 2 for you, you can find it HERE, and you can find many of the films and other projects that I've created or worked on HERE.

Why a Theme Park Land?

    Truth be told, in spite of the environment for this land technically already existing, this project was not an easy one to conceptualize. For starters, I had to invent most of the locations, since all that is ever seen in Forest of Fear is some close angles of the Scary Laboratory and Count Werdna's Funeral Home, as well as one intersection of the town. The only way to realize the missing elements was to go with a story-telling medium that would allow me to fill in the blanks.

    But there is another reason why I went this direction. The story that I'm telling is one that explores themes like exploration, tourism, secrets, identity, and change. By the very nature of the story that I'm telling, it has to be a theme park land, one where the very presence of the guests is a critical component of the narrative. The guests need to be given options on how to explore the town in order for the narrative to work. If the guests want to just explore and see what's going on, they are free to do so. However, if the guests want to dive in more deeply and uncover some of the darker secrets of the town's past, that is also an option.

The Journey Begins

    I hope that you're all excited to dive in and see each and every location that I've created for this land, some of the inspiration that I've had, and why I made the decisions that I did.

Up Next: History and Backstory