Does the Order Your Rooms are in Matter?

[cheeseboy33]

Hello everyone, I was wondering this because in the house where I work every room is its own theme mostly and I was just wondering if anyone else out there thinks that the order of the rooms is one of if not the most important things overall.

[Kelly Anderson]

order of rooms

My general though on this whether using a house wide theme or random themed rooms, you need to know what your most intense scares will be (The Highs) and what the less intense scares will be (The Lows).

You dont want all the best scares in the first part of the haunt and I would say you dont want them all in the last part either. In a perfect world I would try and find a balance to the scare intensity just to keep them guessin. Plus if you have a "LOW" followed by a "HIGH", it will make the intense scare seem that much better. The last few rooms of the haunt I would try and built the entensity of the scare so that the last room will be one that your guests remember as a great scare. As ultimately your guest will judge your haunt by the last few rooms.

[Allen H]

As usual Kelly is right on track. It does matter what order the rooms are in, not theme wise, but intensity wise.
I like to think of my shows like they are movies, they normally start with an intense scene that acts as a hook to get you involved in what is going on. Then there is rising action (gets scarier as you go) after an action peak it is a good idea to give them a bit of a lull (could be a section of hallway) this allows them to process what happened and allows them to let their guard down.
To much constant action and the audience gets numb to it (and they get harder to scare).
At the end of the movie is the climax where all hell breaks loose. Thats a good spot for it in your haunt also. The end of the show is the easiest for them to remember, the resolution of the movie comes after the climax and ties up loose ends. That happens just after the exit when the guests take a breath, laugh at each other and wind down.
Allen H

[Kelly Anderson]

best scare

Heres one for ya allen, or any one, where do you like to see YOUR BEST SCARE? The most intense of all!! To me...my initial thought would be right at the end...the grand finale.

Although sometimes its hard to because of the layout or something that made it so you had to put your best scare in a certain spot other than the last room. Or sometimes your best scare ends up being a room you didnt expect.

But where does everyone try and put their best scare?

[cheeseboy33]

See to me I think it matters more than where your big and small scares are. For example the house I was in last year I had no control over the order of the rooms. So the order went like this.
rules room
coffin room
cemetery
dark maze
hanging skeletons
mummy hallway
outside maze
spider hallway
rage cage
executioner/ electric chair
another cemetery type thing
slam door hallway
wrong coffin door room
hanging body/ freezer room
medical lab
torture room
kitchen
nursery
chainsaw hallway.

To me a lot of the other actors and most of the planners this did not make much sense with how spread out some of the rooms were even though they looked and felt extremely similar. It just didnt feel right to jump back and forth all the time.

[Allen H]

I like to have the best scare at the end also, If that does not work out then I like to have a great memorable visual , like a stilt walker or spark fence.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

Last fall I almost got a good scare operating at the very end of my tour but the weather nixed the compleation, there's alway next spring!
I like to see the look of amazement on so many of my customer's faces at the end of the tour when they can't believe so much time has just slipped by them!
Going through my house is very much like being in a time warp for many, leaving them so entertained and/or distracted they think their watch is fibbing.
Reading that list of "rooms" from a previous post...I can't see it making any sense or a possible storyline, just "Me", I guess?
Flip through 80 tv channels hearing a word spoken on each channel and make it into a book. I think that could make as much sense. I know , probably many people can't fathom my place either, but I can and that makes me comfortable with it.

[The Nightmare Factory]

I understand what Jim is saying and I too would have to say, storyline?

We have a story, we do our best to use parts of it each year, play off the charatcers that have developed of the past 21 years.

Right from the pre-show to the transition hall to the enterance to the factory, and so forth. Dr Linderhall is out there.

[wickedfarmer]

Order

I am a outside event with a few shacks. We start everyone in vortex tunnel, then elevator floor, small scare, followed by a couple cool animatronics like Scarefactory Impaler size. Then we have a huge bat creacher reacher costume witha girl in it beside the trail and another large prop on opposite side of trail. People think they are both just more props till the girl with her high pitched scream gets them. Everyone is "this is cool" & fun mode. Then we step it up.

[hauntedghost]

i too have a storyline in my haunt. as you walk in the haunt itself you will be apart of the story.

just to give you an idea..

the group(as in you) will be walking in a "cave" then poping out from a crypt in to a grave yard. Then it will go from there to other sets. it will have a flow.

[drfrightner]

Funny you should bring this up because that is part of my seminar on detailing your haunted house... its very important to a detailed haunt that things follow an order that seem natural and realistic.

For example in a mansion you might start off with a facade yes... you wouldn't put that at the end would you? That is an easy one but from there maybe a lobby, study, onto a library maybe... those all make sense then onto the kitchen then the dinning room, then maybe a haunted hallway to a bed room, then maybe you get under the house into the boiler room and all through the basement and maybe you exit the house into the green house, then maybe into a family cemetery.

All of this makes sense... pick and choose what makes the most sense.

Larry

[thrilltainment]

Heres one for ya allen, or any one, where do you like to see YOUR BEST SCARE? The most intense of all!! To me...my initial thought would be right at the end...the grand finale.

Although sometimes its hard to because of the layout or something that made it so you had to put your best scare in a certain spot other than the last room. Or sometimes your best scare ends up being a room you didnt expect.

But where does everyone try and put their best scare?

We actually put our best scare FIRST, the good part about that is most people who chicken out will do so in the first scene, which increases your throughput LOL
our ended was a lowpoint, HOWEVER, right outside the exit, we have ONE MORE GUY who's hiding in the corner ---- just when the customers thought it was over, he GETS THEM! that works about 95% of the time. so i guess in a sense, the best scare is put last =)