Clown area or no clown area?

[WelchWitch]

Not trying to veer off topic, I am telling my age now, but another one that would be cool instead of normal clowns would be like in the 1978 movie "Magic" with Anthony Hopkins. The "dummy" he used while a ventriloquist freaked me out also. Something different.

[Raycliff Manor]

We had clowns in the past and they were very effective. We justified having clowns because our theme and storyline is "fear" based and people were either encountering their own fears or the fears of others that had been extracted by Dr. Raycliff's fear extracting experiments. We always confined the clowns to one area. When we moved the attraction and renovated we eliminated the clowns and went for a more hardcore Victorian theme throughout. Two things we eliminated that we realized we needed to bring back due to popular demand were the clowns and the chainsaw. This year we brought the clowns back in the new second "Carriage House" attraction. I'm trying to find inspiration pictures of old style and/or Victorian era clowns. If anyone can direct me to some really good sites, I'd appreciate it! Of course in the Carriage House, the patrons are entering into the "Fear Extractor" machine, which was discovered by Professor Widget and re-ignited, so the experiences inside are supposed to be the fears of the patrons, which allows us to have the scenes in this particular attraction represent any time period and offers far more flexibility.

Kel

[scarygoat]

Kel, maybe you could do a more victorian style child's bedroom scene with lots of vintage dolls which you could probably find at a thrift store or even maybe make your own custom one. You could have it filled with some dolls like that and as far as the clown they could maybe be like more doll style clowns. Something like this http://www.blogcdn.com/www.cinematic..._00037-(3).jpg ( best pick I can find so far, if I can find any better ones ill post them)

Jake

Here's a few more pics http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV...304_SY400_.jpg

http://www.legendsalternateuniverse....g.w300h336.jpg

Both the same character

[Jim Warfield]

Have an office setting, furniture, phone, swivel chair, official looking framed diplomas on the wall, an American flag on a stand or on the wall, then the clown sits at the desk.
Yes, a common thing in our country they couldn't ever get elected except some Other clowns keep voting for them, I guess?
I know, I crossed the line didn't I?
Nobody really wants this much realisim in their haunt.
hahahaah!

[Raycliff Manor]

Jake, We did actually do a Nursery this year with puppets in the room and we had Mary Annette shown here in the room http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/inde...ageID=22965193 The guests were really creeped out by her! I LOVE the Lon Chaney clown pic! That is an awesome inspiration picture! The costume shown in that picture is great for the direction we'd like to go with the vintage clown costume look! Thanks!

Jim, if I ever win the lottery I want to invest in you. You have such a creative and entertaining mind! At the top of my bucket list is still to visit Raven's Grin Inn! You always have me in stitches my friend!

Kel

[Allen H]

Kelly
I had a few images saved and I poked around for a few more for you. You may have some of these you may not, maybe something you can use. I made a photobucket Gallery for you. Anyone feel free to use them for inspiration. They are not "mine" but they are shared freely and should not be 100% reproduced but for inspiriation.
Allen H
http://s648.photobucket.com/albums/u...20for%20Kelly/

[drfrightner]

I would NOT do a Clown area in your haunted house unless the whole haunt was clowns or somehow you had a story line that involved clowns. I personally don't like mish mash haunted houses meaning one scene is a torture chamber and the next is clowns and the next if Freddy to Jason to a bloody kitchen to whatever...

That is just me... I'd stick to a story line as much as possible.

Larry

[Terrorknight]

I to hate haunted house that don't follow a story line. I think you should really try to build a haunt that gives the customers the feeling that they are really in the middle of the action/story. And like Allen said clowns just stuck in the middle of a haunt are a crutch. I feel the same way about THE CHAINSAW if it doesn't fit don't use it to get a cheap scare from the sound that it makes. And throw Jason, Freddy and michael Myers in there to, same thing.

I spent alot of time going to Disney and Universal when I was young and that is the reason I started building haunt houses not horror movies ( I do like them ) but it was the way these two place could put you in a building and totally make you believe you were somewhere else. For me it really was E.T. at Universal, your looking at a big metal building on the outside, you walk in the first door they ask you your name at what looks like a cash reg at a store then when you walk into the next room and your in a forest and it feels so real you forget your in just a big metal building. I think thats what every haunter should be trying to reach, ask your self would this scare me , would this make me believe something that I know can't be true, push the limit don't try to just get by. There's no fun in just getting by. And don't blame money for a bad haunt if we make money or go in the whole i'm always going to build something new and try to make it a better haunt because thats where the fun is for me, making people believe.

[TheGreatPhantasmo]

You also Have to realize that this is what we do so we look for themes and everything to make sense.

However, to the average customer, they have no idea what's going on. Thye don't pay attention or care what comes after what. As I posted earlier, I have seen reviews on our haunt mentioning rooms and things that have NEVER been in our haunt, which just goes to prove that the customers aren't very concerned with how the house is laid out.

[Raycliff Manor]

Thanks Allen! You're awesome my friend! I really do appreciate your consistent efforts to help your fellow haunters!

I agree with the others regarding the use of clowns. In Raycliff Manor we will not use clowns because they don't fit the theme and storyline; however, if you visit our website, www.RaycliffManor.com and you read the storyline for the Carriage House, you'll see that the guests are passing into the infamous Fear Extractor machine, once used by Dr. Raycliff, and the result is being confronted with their fears. Clowns, being at the top of the list of fears experienced by the public, are a natural fit for this attraction. Of course this is my opinion and I'm not trying to defend or pursuade. We got rid of the clowns that were once inside the Raycliff Manor attraction. This was my call. For the next two years people complained about missing the clowns. Now we give them the best of both worlds, two completely different attractions and all the variety they could ask for.

Kel