New Theme

[ResHallHaunter]

Hey guys,

Our Haunt has a new theme this year. We had several people throw out ideas of a hotel, a circus, a hospital all of which we have done in some way before. Then someone came up with the idea of a haunted cruise ship which can incorporate pieces of each theme previously suggested.

I'm looking for some prop ideas for a cruise ship haunt.

The first thing to note is that the haunt is actually in a very large basement at a local university every year so we will be turning a basement into a ship.

Has anyone ever done a cruise ship or boat theme before? If so how did it turn out?

I need some good scare ideas for such a haunt design.

[BruiseMuse]

I've seen haunted ships, but never a haunted cruise ship (I think it is such a fun theme).

These are some room ideas:
- Bar area (nasty rotting drinks on the bar, a bartender offering you something gruseome, etc)
- Restaurant (because gross food is easy and effective)
- Storage Hull (large crates, trunks, etc)
- The Bridge (Massive wheel, gear panels with flashing lights)
- Club (Stage with some sort of dead performers, ghoulish couples slow dancing)
- Quarters (small claustrophobic rooms with bunk beds)

[jakprintsHAUNT]

You also have some of these that could work:

• Ballroom
• Engine Room
• Portholes with water behind them
• Kitchen
• Maybe a kid's play area/nursery kind of room?
• Storage room with bodies of crew and/or passengers piled up (tie in with a theme of a killer on the ship)

Other than these and the stuff Katie mentioned, cant think of a lot of others...watch Titanic! That may be of some help? Maybe even have some rooms where everything is wet and post sunken looking...


Mike "Pogo" Hach

[soultrkr]

I suggest watching the movie ghost ship it may help get the creative juices flowing.

[Octoberalles]

Hey Pogo..remember the Titanic room??? haha Epic Fail +1

[Badger]

Watch episodes of "The Love Boat" and have zombie Gavin McLeod and Ted Baxter as staff...

[BruiseMuse]

Ugh, I remember the Titanic room. Proving that trying to tie a theme in with the latest cool movie can backfire terribly. The portholes from that scene were actually still up until last year.

[soultrkr]

Watch episodes of "The Love Boat" and have zombie Gavin McLeod and Ted Baxter as staff...

I love this idea just the thought of the entire love boat cast as zombies warms the cackles of my heart.

[Octoberalles]

to bruisemuse:
Ha! I voted against that idea from the second it became thought. I was with The Nightmare Society and got out voted, Pogo probably remembers. That started the decline of my participation actually...I never understood the rationale behind such an ill-conceived room ( the creator is a good guy, but the design, thought process etc was terrible).

I'm glad to hear its been gutted and potentially restored to something disturbing/easier to develop characters within.

The student actors were limited to....well, there wasnt much that could be done in that room lol.

+1 for it not being there anymore!

[jakprintsHAUNT]

Hey Pogo..remember the Titanic room??? haha Epic Fail +1

When Tilt became "Shipwreck"? And Cave became "Underwater Kingdom" when we went through 10 cans of neon spray paint in an enclosed room, no respirators....Im sure we all took 5 years off our life with that one! Two examples of how not to do such a theme....the follies of youth...lol.

But in retrospect had it been done correctly it could work if the whole thing was properly themed with a budget and time.

While it was actually a ship....did you get to see Nautical Nightmare while it was in Ohio? That was a pretty good setup for the space and size. I had a lot of fun acting there the couple nights I did.

Mike "Pogo" Hach

[BruiseMuse]

I remember going through the underwater kingdom room as a customer and seeing a sad out of place demon sitting amongst the neon glow.

I agree that the rooms could have worked (especially if there would have been nasty dead mermaids, rotting pirates, and other sea monsters with over the top costuming).

[Octoberalles]

I think I went to Nautical Nightmare before. I remember going to a steamship and also remember that it seemed very wide-open, almost like an empty ship with wisps of decayed cloth hanging everywhere. If its the same place, the atmosphere was amazing, we went on a slow night so we had it to ourselves. The actors were rather worn out or un-interested, but the atmosphere was enveloping and creepy.

Now Titanic gave more to a stage play than a haunt. I remember the creator of the room standing at the rails as we'd pass by, trying to think of some dialogue and nothing was ever really effective lol. So if the guy who brought the idea to the table couldn't work the room, it was just a matter of time before it was reduced to a startle effect area. which it really became...or a staging area for other exploits after coming in the front door. I remember the look on the face of the student actors when they were assigned to Titanic...it was like stunned perplexity.


And I 1000% agree that with funding, time, and execution that a ship theme would be amazing! I love the movie Ghost Ship (even though its basically Event Horizon on water, both excellent) and think that it would be awesome to walk through the feelings of desolation, claustrophobia and panic that it could create.


keeping the actors in your haunt in appropriate cruising attire would be a nice touch, captain, porters etc and all having various states of rot and decay would be cool to see. Buy a ton of the moss from a craftstore soak it and its fairly consistent with seaweed strands (at least nasty lake erie seaweed).

I think soundtrack would add alot to the illusion of being at sea too, seagulls/waves crashing on overhead speakers mixed with appropriately creepy effects.

Make them walk the plank in a section too!

[Octoberalles]

[QUOTE=BruiseMuse;99742]I remember going through the underwater kingdom room as a customer and seeing a sad out of place demon sitting amongst the neon glow.

haha, I guess everyone refused to give up on Darkness, even if it meant putting a demon in a disco!

[ResHallHaunter]

Thanks for all the great ideas. Now I can start developing my rooms. I know it seems like I'm late in planning my haunt but the way we do it we only have a week to set up each year and all my help doesn't arrive until the end of August so we can't start building props until right about now.

[Octoberalles]

good luck! post pics, i'd love to see the finished haunt!