Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company

The Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company is an entertainment company based in New York City, United States. The company has created temporary and permanent scare attractions for amusement parks and traveling carnivals across the globe.

The Sudden Impact!
Entertainment Company

Industry	Theatrical attractions and shows
Founded	1991
Founder	Lynton V. Harris
Headquarters	New York City , United States
Key people	Lynton V. Harris (Chairman & CEO) Dominic McChesney (Assistant Director)[1][2][3]
Website	Official website

History

The Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company was founded in 1991 by Lynton V. Harris.^[4] Harris was born in Australia and began his career as a DJ at age 15.^[4][5] From there he worked up the ranks to be marketing director for 10 Australian radio stations.^[4] In 1991, he travelled to the United States and discovered the money that could be made in entertainment attractions. Harris started the Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company with an aim of operating attractions at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. In 1996, the company began a four-year season of Madison SCARE Gardens selling approximately 250,000 tickets.^[4][5]

In the early 2000s, the company was ready to open their attractions in Washington, however, due to the September 11 attacks and the Beltway sniper attacks (in 2001 and 2002 respectively), these plans were shelved costing the company and Harris millions.^[4][6][7] Sudden Impact began to focus on attractions in Australia with the opening of several temporary attractions at amusement parks and traveling carnivals.^{[4][8][9][10]} In 2009, the company began to deviate from the standard scare attractions with the opening of themed indoor laser skirmish games such as AVPX at Dreamworld.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Attractions

Name	Location		Opened	Closed	Notes
Angoscia	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	December 26, 2006 (2006-12-26)	July 7, 2007 (2007-07-07)	[8][9]
AVPX	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	April 10, 2009 (2009-04-10)	March 31, 2013 (2013-03-31)	[11][15]
Chamber Live: Serial Killers	Madame Tussauds London	Central London, England	Unknown	Unknown	[16][17]
Chamber of Horrors Live	Madame Tussauds London	Central London, England	Early 2003 (2003)	Unknown	[16]
Freakshow 3D	Thorpe Park	Surrey, England	October 2002 (2002-10)	August 2005 (2005-08)	[16]
Freddy's Nightmare maze	Warner Bros. Movie World	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	October 8, 2010 (2010-10-08)	October 31, 2010 (2010-10-31)	[18]
The Freezer	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	December 26, 2006 (2006-12-26)	July 7, 2007 (2007-07-07)	[8][9]
	Thorpe Park	Surrey, England	October 2002 (2002-10)	October 2004 (2004-10)	[16]
	Madison Square Garden	New York City, United States	Unknown	Unknown	[19][20]
The Fright House	Unknown	United States	Unknown	Unknown	[16]
Gotham Underground	Madison Square Garden	New York City, United States	1997 (1997)	1997 (1997)	[21]
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Enter the Tomb	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	December 26, 2003 (2003-12-26)	April 18, 2004 (2004-04-18)	[10]
	Luna Park Melbourne	St. Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria	2007 (2007)	Unknown	[22][23]
	Royal Adelaide Show	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia	September 3, 2010 (2010-09-03)	September 11, 2009 (2009-09-11)	[12]
The Mummy Live	Madison Square Garden	New York City, United States	Unknown	Unknown	[19]
The Mummy Returns	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	June 23, 2001 (2001-06-23)	July 8, 2001 (2001-07-08)	[4][20]
	Universal Studios Hollywood	Los Angeles County, California, United States	2002 (2002)	2004 (2004)	[20][24]
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Live	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	September 8, 2008 (2008-09-08)	January 2009 (2009-01)	[25]
	La Ronde	Montreal, Quebec, Canada	June 19, 2009 (2009-06-19)	September 7, 2009 (2009-09-07)	[24][26][27][28][29][30]
Night at the Museum Live	Sunway Lagoon	Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	Unknown	Still open	[2][24][31][32]
Pirate Jack's Halloween Adventure	Chessington World of Adventures	London, England	October 2002 (2002-10)	Unknown	[16]
Prison Break Live	Luna Park Melbourne	St. Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria	2006 (2006)	Unknown	[22]
	Luna Park Sydney	Sydney, New South Wales, Australia	2008 (2008)	Unknown	[33]
	Royal Adelaide Show	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia	September 5, 2009 (2009-09-05)	September 13, 2009 (2009-09-13)	[34]
	Sunway Lagoon	Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	Unknown	Unknown	[3]
Psycho 3D maze	Warner Bros. Movie World	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	October 8, 2010 (2010-10-08)	2010 (seasonal)	[18][35]
Rumah Hantu 3D	Sunway Lagoon	Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	Unknown	Unknown	[3]
SAW maze	Warner Bros. Movie World	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	October 8, 2010 (2010-10-08)	October 2011 (2011-10)	[18][35]
	Six Flags Great America	Gurnee, Illinois, United States	Unknown	Unknown	[36]
	The Scorpion King Live	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	[24]
Scream	Madame Tussauds Shanghai	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	[16]
	Amsterdam	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	[17]
Terminator Alive	Sunway Lagoon	Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	May 2010 (2010-05)	Still open	[13][14][32]
Terminator X: A Laser Battle for Salvation	Adventure World	Perth, Western Australia, Australia	December 26, 2009 (2009-12-26)	January 31, 2010 (2010-01-31)	[37]
	La Ronde	Montreal, Quebec, Canada	2010 (2010)	Still open	[24][28][29]
	Royal Adelaide Show	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia	September 4, 2009 (2009-09-04)	September 12, 2009 (2009-09-12)	[34]
	Six Flags Mexico	Mexico City, Mexico	2011 (2011)	Still open	[38]
	Sunway Lagoon	Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	May 2010 (2010-05)	2012	[13][14]
Terror in the Towers	Alton Towers	Staffordshire, England	October 2002 (2002-10)	Unknown	[16]
Terror Tunnel	Sunway Lagoon	Petaling Jaya, Malaysia	Unknown	Unknown	[3]
Tomb Raider Legend Live	Adventure World	Perth, Western Australia, Australia	December 26, 2006 (2006-12-26)	January 29, 2007 (2007-01-29)	[39]
Trolls Village	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	2018	2019
Universal Studios Monsters Alive	Unknown	Las Vegas, United States	Unknown	Unknown	[24]
Van Helsing	Universal Studios Hollywood	Los Angeles County, California, United States	2004 (2004)	2007 (2007)	[24]
Warwick Ghosts Alive	Warwick Castle	Warwickshire, England	2002 (2002)	2008 (2008)	[16][17]
Zombie Apocalypse maze	Warner Bros. Movie World	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	October 1, 2011 (2011-10-01)	October 2011 (2011-10)	[35]
	Wet'n'Wild Hawaii	Kapolei, Hawaii, United States	2010 (2010)	2010 (2010)
Zombie Evilution	Dreamworld	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	September 13, 2013 (2013-09-13)	March 2018	[40][41]

Shows

• Ice Age on Ice^[12]

Scare School

External videos
"Inside the dark mind of scaremaster Lynton Harris", ABC Lateline (March 2015)

Almost all of Sudden Impact! Entertainment Company's attractions feature live trained actors, commonly known as "scare actors". To be hired in this position, scare actors must complete the Scare School program. The Scare School is a 40-hour program where actors are trained to become the best "scarers" they can be. The Scare School has travelled the globe and has been featured in its own television series. The majority of the training is done in broad daylight with very little done indoors or at night-time.^{[1][2][4][5][9][19][27][36][42]}