What single scare in your haunt are you most proud of?

[JackoWcko]

After many, many years of visiting haunted attractions, I'll be trying my hand at helping organize a haunt for the upcoming Halloween season. I'm incredibly excited to be on the other side of the scaring for once.

I'm curious, what is the one scene/single scare of your haunt that you are most proud of?

I have ideas of my own of what to include, but I'm also looking for inspiration from what works the best for other haunts.

Any feedback or suggestions you have for a first timer would be very much appreciated!

[Satan Scare]

Well i would have to say my fav part of my haunts are the cemeteries. i work so hard to get them so right. There are also lots of potential for cemeteries. From ghostly scenes to zombies to satanic killers. You can do so much with, just let you mind run wild.
I carve my own headstones from 4x8x 6 sheets of foam and cover them with a hardener that also makes them fire proof So much easier and cheaper. You can get 4 headstones out of one sheet. You can add coffins and trees lighting effects the possibilities are great.
hope you have a great haunt.....

[Badger]

My first year at Scarowinds, I was moved as a greeter along the outdoor path to under the vortex light halfway through the first night because they felt my talents were being wasted at the beginning of the maze. After a couple weeks, I would have crowds sitting on the benches behind me waiting for me to pop and scare folks. Vortex lights quickly became my favorite scares.

At that time (2002) the park was owned by Paramount and the VP came in from California or wherever to tour the park one night. He spent 30 minutes on the bench watching me and told me that I had the best scare of any theme park he had visited. (talk about an ego boost) That 30 minutes of scaring folks ranks as one of my favorite moments ever...

They didn't have that maze the next year as they were building a new ride and bulldozed the area.

I highly recommend a good vortex light. This one was outside about 10 feet up a tree and with enough fog that I could get within 5 feet of patrons before they saw me...

[Jim Warfield]

Was a white sheet of 4 by 8 with an image of a life-sized figure of how I used to dress, just a black cape/shroud. This billboard image had an oval blank white face.
I took a piece of posterboard and made myself an oval blank white "mask" with pin holes for "eyes".
So many people had seen this billboard that customers would show up, their headlights would shine across the billboard as I stood infront of the image and they wouldn't notice I was real...until they parked were walking toward the house, gauking , and I would be Right Behind THEM!
It was often a long walk, thankfully the exteriror of the house kept their attention that long.
Often times this would be late at night, empty parking lot, no other distractions, all to help intensify their experience!!
All an advantage of being open every night of the year and having no neighbors to scream:"Look behind you!"

[Don_OfThe_Dead]

We had a custom built Tree costume made last year that was a hit. In broad daylight you would still be somewhat fooled by it- but at night it was a tree just like any other. Customers found it so realistic that on our trail some tried to use it as a bathroom...only to be scared away and refuse to pee anywhere near the woods afterwards! Terribly boring, confining, and exhausting for an actor to stand still for 5 hours a night, but the payoff was worth it. Even better was putting the tree in a slow section of the trail where customers would find a little time to start chatting and we'd get some real time insight on what was most terrifying to our guest! Other costumes are fine and well, but our Ent could stand right next to the path in clear view and never be noticed until they felt the time was right.

[cheeseboy33]

Badger I had a very similar job I would scare people in the parking lot, as they were waiting in line and as they came out of the house. I would really like to know more about your vortex light thing. What is it? how does it work? what effect does it add to the scare?
I must say getting people as soon as they open their car doors is the best scare you will ever see. just make sure to keep a hand on the door so it dosent ding the car next to it and so they dont slam it shut on your head!

[Nightmare_Trance]

I think Badger was referring to something like this.

[Badger]

Very similar. I don't know all the technical specs, but if was a set of 3 rotating lights set about 10 feet off the ground focusing a fairly narrow beam. Add a lot of fog and you could stand underneath it and be invisible. Only when you stepped in front of it could you be seen and then only as a big black shadow. Mine was outdoors but it's even more effective at the end of a long corridor...

[Jim Warfield]

Just a night or two ago my Wife "invented" a new fun thing. Without giving it away, I will just describe what happens as basically fooling the customers into thinking they are at the mercy of an automatic device when actually she is controlling it to the utmost good advantage for confusing them and even scaring them after it continues for awhile. She came up with this all by her little self too! Full credit given gladly and proudly! (Now if only I could be in that location to try my hand at it sometime, but this won't be happening anytime soon.)

[IndyHaunter]

We had a custom built Tree costume made last year that was a hit. In broad daylight you would still be somewhat fooled by it- but at night it was a tree just like any other. Customers found it so realistic that on our trail some tried to use it as a bathroom...only to be scared away and refuse to pee anywhere near the woods afterwards! Terribly boring, confining, and exhausting for an actor to stand still for 5 hours a night, but the payoff was worth it. Even better was putting the tree in a slow section of the trail where customers would find a little time to start chatting and we'd get some real time insight on what was most terrifying to our guest! Other costumes are fine and well, but our Ent could stand right next to the path in clear view and never be noticed until they felt the time was right.

If you don't mind me asking where did you get your tree costume from?