I am planing

[Mr. Haunt]

I do not want any animated props, do haunts need allot of live actors?

[gadget-evilusions]

WELL.....if you don't have any sort of automated scares, you need someone to do it. The number depends on your haunt, the layout of it, the volume of customers you have and such.

[Mr. Haunt]

What would you say 15-20

[PumpkinHead]

it all depends on your haunt and its layout.
-PH

[ClusterOne]

I would say for most haunts, the perfect combo is a 50/50 split, ya need them both. Different strokes for different folks.

[Jim Warfield]

Fishline or Weed Eater line strung through pvc pipe can make many things seem to move by themselves from many feet away if done right.
Grease, garage door pulleys and pvc and steel cable might have given me the record? I pull this cable from 70 feet away, around one 90 degree corner and then several lesser angles to make a full-sized Zombie slink out from his dark corner.
Run your house in the method that you are the most comfortable doing, or in the method that flows with your talents and abilitys. This might require several seasons of trying to determine this.
If you can act and make it interesting or scary,make it a theatrical story-driven product or if you are a mechanically-minded tinkerer build all your stuff, have fun doing it and running it.
Maybe you are a "General" ? Able to recruit helpers, keep them motivated and happy?
There are numerous ways to flourish if you work at it.

[Duke of Darkness]

You can have a great haunt without animatronics, but the are useful. I am a believer that it is actors who make a good haunt. The more and the better that actors, the better the haunt will be. I really think that you could run a haunt with black walls and no props (NOT what I am recommending, by the way) and if you had a large number of great actors, all your guests would get a great show.

That said, there is no way to answer your question as written. How big is your haunt going to be? What kind of theme will it have? What style of scare? There is no right or wrong answer, except that if your guests find themselves walking through large stretches of your haunt and nothing is happening, they are likely to be less than entertained.

Dave

[Mr. Haunt]

I have 12 staff member's lined up. They all work with me. I am not sure if they will stck around once I decied to become profit.

[Greg Chrise]

From going the other way, doing highly detailed scenes to a black plywood habitrail I couldn't believe just how better recived the simple black walls were. No animatronics, some sound effects, strobes and other lighting, lots of actors and a few dummies to fill in the spots. Something to contend with every 12 linear feet or so. Lots of good props, perhaps a bridge through a cemetery that is larger. Its almost like customer expectations also change from location to location. Some may actually not appreciate big toys with just plain not every day experienced black mazes being better. It may have been more well recieved as it was not visually overwhelming, their minds made it entertaining wondering what is next with adrenalin rather than forced perspective.

On the same token there is a fine line to customers entertaining themselves. What are they paying for if it is self serve.

I would expect this to be a starter haunt. I have been through 30,000 SF of black plywood with characters pointing the way every 100 feet or so, not really interacting with two really poorly decorated scenes. That was a pro haunt. I felt like for $18.99 patrons should be able to take a piece of plywood home on the roofs of their car.

In comparison, 3,000 SF plywood habitrail with lots of interaction and 12 to 17 scenes is better than 30,000 SF of nothing. 3,000 SF with lots of actors and not much detail is better than a haunt of the same size with painted walls to look like a mansion and no actors and few props inside. The price must be lower as well to be a success. Bigger is not always better.

It seems somewhere a memo went out that $18.99 is the new $5 and no one told me. It has been done, but I would not open with a "what the market will bear" price. I would work the detail and realtive price up over years of development.

If I had 8,000 SF to start out with, it would be two haunts one at 5,000 and one at 3,000 or two 4,000 SF units with different themes. Then yu can bump the price up a bit to $12 or $13. Maybe 3 or 4 haunts and lots of side activities qualifies for $18.99

Although we try to come up with a formula, there are too many variables. You may have really large hollywood level sets that each take up 3,000 SF each and several of these comprise a 24,000 SF haunt. Or it is a mix and match of sized experiences. Really tight mazes and huge scenes. Little scenes and still high interaction. Huge scenes with anticipation. Having to walk through the woods or even an indoor wooded scene knowing the monsters are assembling for some reason along both sides is kind of freaky.

I personally have not seen a "theatrical" style scene work well or when the manner of operating maybe 1 in 10 little plays is actually captivating. So I am expecting good acting pertains to just being creepy and staying in character.

[Duke of Darkness]

I disagree with Greg about theatrical haunts. I love theatrical haunts. In fact, for a start up haunt, if you have good actors, making the haunt more theatrical can make up for a lack of square footage. In other words, if there are several places during the haunt where guests are held up for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute, you can relatively few square feet and still have a show that lasts 15 or 20 minutes. I think many people think about whether they got their money's worth in terms of time per dollar.

That said, you have to find a style that works for you, your props, and most of all your actors.

Dave