Haunted House ideas? Biggest/Best scares welcomed

[HauntedDeadEnd]

I am trying to think of some other ideas that are relatively inexpensive to do but produce the biggest/best scares. So far I have bug room, dot room, clown room, black out room, drop panel with portraits room, butcher room. ANy other ideas greatly appreciated.

[soultrkr]

You can put drop panels almost anywhere. I like them in hall ways where people are not expecting a scare they think they are just going to the next room.

[HauntedDeadEnd]

yes I agree drop panels give the best scare. I am thinking of other ideas that are simple and provide good thrills. This is the first year we are going BIG so we are trying to make it bone chilling. Drop panels we will def be adding.
Thanks

[shawnc]

Along the same lines as drop panels, think about different places actors can pop out of at different levels. Putting them up high and down low can be very effective since everyone naturally expects things to come at them in the three to six foot range.

[BruiseMuse]

Along the same lines as drop panels, think about different places actors can pop out of at different levels. Putting them up high and down low can be very effective since everyone naturally expects things to come at them in the three to six foot range.

Agreed, people never expect people to pop out from above or below. One of my favorite uses of this is at Darksyde Acres, where a clown actor drops upside down from a panel in the ceiling.

[Jim Warfield]

Oh, Come On!

"A clown dropping upside down from the ceiling!?"
How about something really different, like a ceiling popping up out of a clown?
Who would expect that? Besides the X-ray tech. who had just had the clown for his patient?
Maybe if I semi-retire someday I'll travel around in October being the haunt guest who has my own personal "room", the scariest room ever! This is the room where this guy Jim sits and thinks up room ideas!
Of course I'm not telling here exactly what sort of things I will be doing when they peek in the room to inspire me.

I sometimes miss my ceiling popping display I used to have here.
The room looked like a normal bedroom, the guests walked in, I remained in the hallway so I could pull on the old galvenized half-inch radiator pipe that went from floor to ceiling next to the bedroom door that made the ceiling open up, lights went off, sound track of Cheetah-Woman growling, as her eyes lit up from her hidden perch above them would all happen quickly, then I let go of the pipe and everything snapped back to normal, sometimes so quick I'm pretty sure the customers weren't quite sure if it had all really happened or not.
I would ask:"Have you ever been in bed with someone before and you suddenly realise that they don't consider you to be more to them than just a piece of meat?"
"GGRRRR!" Cheetah woman answers from above them. Cheetahs are always looking for the meat.
I quit using that line when one night a girl broke down and cried as her girlfriend,and the two boyfriends stood there pretending they didn't know why she was crying.
A little TOO Personal, but how was I to know?
All humor is "Risk", you risk not being funny or offending someone.

[spong8]

I love reading Jim's posts heh.


Other then the startle scares, I think the best and most inexpensive scares are the ones that follow the initial BOO! Meaning, the boo once over is followed through by some actor doing something. That is of course if the entire physical body of the actor can initiate and interact with the guests. Boo doors, drop panels and what not are probably just pure startle scares.