"People!!" Argh!

[Jim Warfield]

So a house tour I gave a month ago concluded with gracious, numerous compliments from all 3 or 4 of the patrons, later I was told they were still impressed as they ate at a local restaurant...then last night the one person (who is local) told my Wife that the one person in their group's "Real" problem in the first room came from me flashing a flashlight repeatedly in his eyes and he can't handle "Strobe Lights!"
I never point a flashlight into any customer's face.( Unless they would be in the middle of physically attacking me.)
We knew this person has a strange ability to create negative situations among almost everyone she comes into contact with(I do feel sorry for her on this) but..Come On!
Do I have to record every front room routine so I can play it back for some of these attention-seeking types? See? You were laughing, having a good time. See? That never happened now did it? No, the film has not been edited!!
All I know is all of them were having a great and fun time, laughing and reacting during my presentation....

Some just HAVE to deal in the negative and I think it becomes addictive, the power they feel as they inflict it upon others.
This is a real and sometimes serious sickness that should be cut out of a person's usual mind-set for Everyone's benefit.

[bcghosthunters]

Jim,

This is very true in most haunts, We have security cameras set up in almost every room not only for safety of our actors and customers but also for that very reason if someone complains we will check to see "what went wrong". In almost every case the complaint never occurred the way it was told.

Its sad to say there are several people out there who just want to nag and complain after the fact to as you said get attention.

[soultrkr]

Some pople Jim just can not enjoy anything. Makes you want to install trap doors with a gator filled pit but these people at least seem to be the minority.
Besides if you can not handle strobe lights one of the most commonly used items in haunts why would you go in one.

[Jim Warfield]

I was once actually considering a holding cell inside my house made all padded and tough to contain any roudy possibly drunkie obnoxious person.
I would let them out when I felt like it and explain that was just a special tour experience that I forgot to up-charge them for.."So you got a real bargain!" (And so would the rest of us by your absence!)
In this fantasy the entrance would be a trap door, a quickly developing free-fall entrance!

[damon carson]

Just install some doorways that lead straight outside from the second floor. Watch that first step its a doosie! LOL! Just like the Winchester Mystery Mansion or whatever its called now. What the hell was goin on in her head?! LOL!
Damon

[Jim Warfield]

Were in Sarah Winchester's head.
Her dead Husband made the rifle, the rifle made killing alot easier, many ghosts killed from his technology were hitching rides to come see her, box cars were full of them! She just knew it!
Indians, cowboys, buffalo, small children caught as spies and executed....
"Why are you going to shoot me with those rifles?"
"Because you are an ugly kid, but we are about to make you "cute", execute."
"OK,"

[xtremecreator]

Jim,

I was thinking the same thing for our haunt but the idea was based on the show

"Scare Tactics" Put them in a room with a real life situation and scare the crap out of them...........

Xtreme

[Jim Warfield]

The house has a long reputation for being haunted. Many more things have happened here since I have owned it (23 yrs.)
I can tell alot of this haunted history in 25 minutes or more and some people do become genuinely upset and scared, some seem as if they never even thought about the possibilty of there really being anything supernatural possible til they hear me speak about it.
This type of fear is deep, basic and possibly non-ending and unfixable as far as calming someone with any disclaimers or counter claims, logic.
I try to be very carefull handling people as far as this type of thing goes.
None of the history I tell here is fiction. Maybe after awhile this fact makes itself apparent?
I remind them that I am not trying to "sell" them any quasi-religious belief system, I am just telling them what has happened in this house, make of it what you will.
I'm just trying to figure it out.

[LivingTheHauntedHouseLife]

We don't have security cameras set up all around every room.
But one time this guy kept bringing in his friends and telling them what was going to happen in each room with each actor. It got me and all my co-actors really mad.

~LivingTheHauntedHouseLife

[Jim Warfield]

I refer to such "Warners" as having the "Good Scout" complex. They really need to "Help" people by warning them beforehand.
I will tell a person not to do this a few times but still the best way to handle this is to have alternate scare plans in effect just for these "Scouts".
Possibly just having an extra scary actor roaming around could ruin the Scout's plans too.
The newbie seeing the "Scout" scream and jump would probably diminish the value of his information and predictions in the mind of the ones he was trying to "Help".
When the "Scout" is giving pre-scare information to a bunch of your customers he doesn't even know, a stern warning should be given because very possibly those ticket-buying strangers WANT the full effects-Scares they paid for?
How unpoular would someone be sitting in a movie loudly telling everyone what was going to happen next up on the screen?
Same Thing.