Awesome New Idea's and Concepts 2009...Read On!

[Slain]

Mr .Galore

Slain,

How it is a bad idea to get thousands of people's attention at a single moment in time. That is what I call maximizing your investment. Maximum exposure for minimal effort.

You have something that is bigger than life demanding people pay attention to what you are doing and it is a bad idea? I just don't understand.

It is only a teaser to your event. When people see this teaser, they just want to know what else to have to offer. How is that not peeking their interest in your event? How is that NOT good marketing.

thanks

Have you ever been to our haunt? Do you own a haunt?
We do entertain all of our guest although we don't put together floats and shut down state highways to let people know we are open for business..
If your don't have a place with plenty of acres to do such a show (which most haunts don't) this will never work...
This would cost thousands to do.. Just the labor would cost a bloody fortune.. I suppose I'll just keep our patrons guessing and let Disney and Universal do their thing...

[robos99]

Secondly what if people sat around waiting to see it and didn't free up parking spaces...

If you only have a haunt and nothing else (no side attractions or merchandise/concessions) then people waiting around could be a major concern. But whenever you have something else for them to spend money on the idea is to keep the guests inside. This is what Disney did that was so revolutionary. Rather than people spending a few hours inside a park, Disney got them to spend entire days there. Now a full day at a haunt might be a stretch if you only have 1 or 2 actual attractions, but getting people to stick around and watch a parade just might result in them craving some food or drink. Or if you have a parade at multiple times during the night people coming out of the haunt might stick around longer knowing the parade is coming up, and then they need to do something to pass the time, like browse through the merch shop.

Slain I know you think Disney is just for the kids but you do need to remember that Disney created the theme park industry, and haunts today I think are closer to theme parks than the haunted houses of years ago. Disney knows how to make money, and they've been doing it for a long time. Being kid friendly isn't a business strategy, it's just their audience. You can still apply the same principles to any other entertainment venture.

[Gore Galore]

Slain,

I understand your perspective. I don't understand the anger in your tone though (Large font and BOLD).
Since you asked,
I have been involved in designing and building haunts and props and costumes for haunts for OVER 25 years. I have been in business as Gore Galore for 11 years and I have been hired to wear our costumes and puppets at others events throughout the course of that history in addition to making thousands of oversized costumes for Haunted Attractions and Theme Parks. So, I not only understand how to use them, but I use them regularly. We would not be doing this had it not been for my being a part of running a haunted house for over 20 years. Gore Galore stems from my experience at that Haunted Attraction.

But I get it. It might not work for you or your haunt.

That doesn't mean it isn't a good idea.
Our (Gore Galore) perspective isn't exactly about doing a parade on your own grounds but attending events hosted elsewhere to promote your event.
This just fits into that idea.
Again, I can understand why it wouldn't work for you.
And thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[spookhaven]

Kevin is correct! We purchased three large costumes last year from him. We actually used two of them in our haunt last year. This year we had to take a look at where to put our advertising monies. I listened to everyone here and went back to grass root advertising and internet for the most part. Guess what got us the most attention at the events and fairs? The Gore Galore Giant Costumes and our Spookywoods Skeleton Costumes. I even have people emailing me wanting to know if they are going to appear outside so the kids can see them.

Just because some of these folks like Larry are big haunts and his ideas are larger than life ideas (LOL) because his haunt is one of the biggest, doesn't mean that us smaller/newer haunts can't take their ideas and scale them down to work for us.

[Allen H]

Absolutely Spook,
Im director of a Scream Park, we have five haunts and several other attractions. We could do a parade no problem , If I timed it right it might help me alleviate some line issues. I have 11 roaming actors, and If I pulled two from each house thats 10 more, plus two more from the pumpkin patch, thats 23 people to do a small parade or procession, universal throws halloween beads, hmmm just thinking out loud here. with a float or two and our hearse that could be kinda neat. If the parade happened at the right time it could really help the lines (which are my biggest problem). If I try it next season I will let you know how it goes.
Allen H

[FablesStudios]

Good Idea to work from..

I think parades are great ways to entertain lots of people. Me as a newer smaller haunt I don’t know if it is possible but def something to think about in the future.

This is my opinion but I believe people do not get scared at haunts. People come to haunts for entertainment!! Startled yes, grossed out defiantly, but truly “Like my life is coming to an end” NO. I have read many books on Walt and how he wanted his parks to bring people into another world. It really opens your eyes to some new ideas. “How can you plus it” he always said. So I guess this is a way of +plusing+ your outside entertainment. I agree Disney is on the tamer side and yes I very much dislike all the high school musical stuff and Montana stuff but they are defiantly banking on it.

I think Larry was just shooting an idea out there to see if anyone else has done it. Thanks for the idea, Ill keep it on the back burned.

Peter T
FS

[Slain]

costumes

Slain,

I understand your perspective. I don't understand the anger in your tone though (Large font and BOLD).
Since you asked,
I have been involved in designing and building haunts and props and costumes for haunts for OVER 25 years. I have been in business as Gore Galore for 11 years and I have been hired to wear our costumes and puppets at others events throughout the course of that history in addition to making thousands of oversized costumes for Haunted Attractions and Theme Parks. So, I not only understand how to use them, but I use them regularly. We would not be doing this had it not been for my being a part of running a haunted house for over 20 years. Gore Galore stems from my experience at that Haunted Attraction.

But I get it. It might not work for you or your haunt.

That doesn't mean it isn't a good idea.
Our (Gore Galore) perspective isn't exactly about doing a parade on your own grounds but attending events hosted elsewhere to promote your event.
This just fits into that idea.
Again, I can understand why it wouldn't work for you.
And thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Yes I have two (2) of your creatures about $8000 dollars worth. So yes I am also a customer. If were talking about years I been doing this since the early 80's and have seen it all. I also have four (4) stalk arounds. Most of the people thought hey looked cool but agreed that they are not for a haunted attraction. Maybe it's just the market we are in.

[Evilution Unlimited]

I think there are a lot of crappy haunts out there that are put on by people that are just looking to make a quick buck. These (IMO) hurt the industry. I have long thought that a group like the HHA or IAHA should have a set of standards and market it like crazy. The public should know about these standards and haunts should display something that they are a member of this group and lives up to those standards and include it in their advertising. People that go through the attraction and see that they fail to meet those standards should have a place to report them and have their membership revoked.

This is how they treated the meat industry long ago before the FDA. People began to only buy meat that had this logo that they allowed the facility to be inspected.

Local haunt reviewers could play a HUGE roll in this.

[Gore Galore]

Slain,
I am sorry to say but I don't know who you are. I haven't connected the screen name with the customer.
I would be very interested in talking off the board sometime. Maybe we can figure something out.
Investments like that are NOT to be wasted especially when they have so much potential to make a profitable impact on the surrounding market.

Or if you are not happy to have them maybe Gore Galore can post a used costume section on our website for our customers.

[mindtumor]

I think there are a lot of crappy haunts out there that are put on by people that are just looking to make a quick buck. These (IMO) hurt the industry. I have long thought that a group like the HHA or IAHA should have a set of standards and market it like crazy. The public should know about these standards and haunts should display something that they are a member of this group and lives up to those standards and include it in their advertising. People that go through the attraction and see that they fail to meet those standards should have a place to report them and have their membership revoked.

This is how they treated the meat industry long ago before the FDA. People began to only buy meat that had this logo that they allowed the facility to be inspected.

Local haunt reviewers could play a HUGE roll in this.

So are you saying haunted houses should be forced to join an organization that tells them what to do? And exactly how will this work with local inspectors and the licenses and requirements our own cities put on us? Do you own a haunt? Are you willing to be subjected to the standards of a special interest group? I see a difference between meat standards and how good a haunted house is. I will fight this sort of thing to the end as I would expect most other haunted house owners would as well. We already work with our state and city officials and do what they consider necessary to open and operate, now we need to take it to some sort of national level in your opinion? Is this what you are saying or am I getting the wrong idea here? The moment HHA or IAHA tries to become some sort of a controlling organization that forces haunts to do what they say is when these groups will fail.

[robos99]

I think there are a lot of crappy haunts out there that are put on by people that are just looking to make a quick buck. These (IMO) hurt the industry. I have long thought that a group like the HHA or IAHA should have a set of standards and market it like crazy.

I think you have the right goal, but it's just impractical. Quality in a haunt is rather subjective. How would you write up these standards? All haunts must spend X number of dollars on scenery and X number of dollars on props? It's just too hard to accurately define a set of quality standards. meat quality is not subjective. There is actual science involved in determining the quality of a cut of meat. Whether a haunt is "good" is really just the opinion of those in it. What you could do is come up with a set of safety standards that all haunts in an association must follow (if it isn't already that way). A crappy haunt I don't think hurts the overall industry much, because people know there are also good ones out there. But a dangerous haunt does. A tragic story spreads like wildfire. I think most of the professional haunts would already be in compliance with any set of safety standards, since I'm sure most of these people know that safety is #1, so the real challenge would be marketing this to the public so they'd know that a haunt without this "seal of approval" either didn't meet those standards, or just didn't want to join the organization.


Peter I could not agree with you more about haunts being about entertainment. When you look at the people being scared, they tend to laugh at themselves (or their friends). They're enjoying being startled. While I'm sure there's still some people who really do get truly terrified (sometimes to the point of pissing themselves), these people are not the majority and would probably not go bragging to their friends that your haunt is so scary they pissed themselves. But on the other hand, us haunters sure do enjoy scaring the crap out of people. haha.

By the way, slightly off topic, if you haven't already read it, Vinyl Leaves is a great great "Disney" book to read. One of my favorites and should really be a must read for anyone in the themed entertainment business.

[Slain]

I love a parade!

When us normal haunts start doing parades that's when I figure I will get out of this business

[Allen H]

Slain,
I have never once had a desire to run a normal haunt!
Allen H

[Slain]

great for you

I am so happy for you...Do you also go trick or treating?

[Allen H]

I hope you catch the gnome that pisses in your cheerios each morning.