"Give Them A Real Scare This Halloween"

Joseph Pfeiffer

Haunted House Ideas

This chapter is dedicated to both the curious and to anyone ambitious enough to develop a haunted attraction at their home or a school. As with the chapters for trick-or-treaters and the chapter on parties, this chapter is divided into two sections. The first section describes various illusions used in haunted attractions. The second section discusses a variety of layout scene ideas.

We realize that most of the tricks in this section are more advanced than the average person will attempt. However, we hope that as you learn the techniques behind these tricks, you call upon your imagination, and design a simpler version that better fits your resources. Consider what kinds of things frighten people? Maybe a piece of large machinery that could be designed to look like it was about to crush the patrons. Possibly a large bird swooping down, hands crawling by themselves, large insects creeping down a wall, a person on a rotisserie stake over an oven, an old woman in a wheelchair elevator flying down a flight of stairs at you, or many others. The secret is to learn to use your creativity from two perspectives. What scares people or catches them by surprise, and how can that sensation be built into an illusion? It certainly gets easier with experience, but the greatest reward is the benefit you'll reap by learning how to routinely use your creativity in finding solutions to new challenges.

This chapter should give you plenty of ideas to get started. The tricks and illusions require far less preparation than do complete layout scenes, so if you just want to have a little fun, skip the scenes, and just set your favorite tricks. As you gain experience in constructing these tricks, learn more about the special effects, and discover the tricks available for purchase, you'll be designing hybrid tricks of your own. It's like working a crossword puzzle, you start to develop a talent for it.