How do I get my foot in the door?

[Mr. Haunt]

Thanks Greg for your wisdom!!!

I'm not sure if it stuck out to you or not, but a "Mans Old Junk is a Haunters new Treassure".

To help keep cost down, do a lot yourself if at all possible. Build your own props and costumes as this will help a bunch.

Have you seen this web site???

http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/

Great stuff here, remember creativity can go a long way!!!

Brian

[No_Regret]

Yeah, I am obviously going to have to start small.

I am just racking my brains at the moment on how I want to turn the concept I have, into a cheap, doable first year haunt.

But I am also contemplating on if I want to wait on this concept...and use a different one for a few years to try to build up enough money to do the concept I really want to pull off.

I'm just not sure if I can effectively pull off the concept that I REALLY want to pull off, on a cheap budget. So I have some dilemmas that I am trying to mull over.

It is going to be a year or two down the line before I open up one anyways. But I really cannot wait.

[hauntedkimmy]

Not sure if this might work for you, but our area does a haunted hayride every year and basically what they do is offer a space to do a skit to anyone who wants to. I'm sure they have guidelines and such, but whoever takes a skit area is essentially in charge of everything for it...the skit, furnishing actors, etc. A few companies and even people like Relay for Life do skits....its a hodge podge of groups and even families.

Customers vote and the winners get cash prizes.

I've been to it a few times and some of the skits RAWKS while others are ho-hum, but the place is always packed with several hour long lines. It might be a way to cheaply start up since they would be responsible for furnishing their skit stop.

Also, high school and college art students and drama majors might help out for free. We had interest from a sorority once because they could use the time for community service hours. Lots of fresh talent for free!

Good luck to you! This certainly is a fun industry!

[Mr. Haunt]

Kimmy,

Can you explain more about this skit thing???

Brian
Mr. Haunt

[hauntedkimmy]

Sure! I think a lions club organizes the haunt which runs on unusable ground at the end of a tiny airport runway strip. Mid summer they advertise for anyone interested in hosting a skit. The land has electricity run to each clearing in the woods and it's the responsibility of the organization that signs up for the skit to do all of the planning, decorating, and supplies the needed actors for their skit. They run the hayride three nights. Customers that ridethe hayride get a ticket to vote for their favorite skit at the end of the hayride. They then offer cash prizes to the top three skits. Some skits go all out and others are just a static display, but it seems like it would be a fairly low cost idea to start. One year a group did a wizard of oz skit and melted the wicked witch right into the ground with a smoke screen. It was absolutely awesome!
I'm sure there's a commitee that skit ideas have to be run thru, but it might work!

[Mr. Haunt]

Never heard of that here in MN, I have tried I think once to contact a local Lions Club to do a haunt with but they showed no interest. They might not have had the money, or at least this as been the issue for everyone I have contacted to partner with.

Brian

Mr. Haunt

[No_Regret]

I got my copy of Kelly Allen's book yesterday, and began reading it last night. I have to say it is pretty motivating, just seeing and reading that someone that has been successful in the industry felt/feels and does/says/acts the same way I do about it.

There are definitely alot more aspects behind opening a haunt than I thought there were, and I am glad that this book has opened my eyes to those things. It is going to be a lot of hard work, and I realize this. I hope that a year or two down the line, I can have my business plan finished, and get up to a bank to try to convince a loan officer to give me a helping hand in making my dream come true.



- I really want to do a haunted hayride to an indoor haunt. Now, while that isnt guaranteed that im going to do the hayride...I do have an idea for the hayride that i've never heard of anyone doing, and think would scare EVERYONE...thats the only reason i'm kinda hung on trying to pull that off.

Also, trying to come up with a theme/storyline that I can do for a hayride/indoor haunt is kind of hard for me to pull off. There are definitely alot of variables to consider, and while exciting...its also alot of pondering haha.

Thank you for all the support and help guys, I do appreciate it greatly....and if anyone else would like to chime in, please feel free to do so.

[hauntedghost]

Dear No_Regret,

I am like you, i have a dream to start a haunt, but right now what is holding me back is the money to start. i have read all the books talked with my friends about it. Friends are ok but not all of them will go for it. Family is good but in my case.. my dad for one, doesn't like the idea that his son wants to start something cool. in other words he just wants the best for me. he would want to see me as a worker vs a owner. I can too talk all day about haunted house stuff. sometimes i think i drive my wife crazy about it. I do have plans on paper, i can see it in my mind. how it's going to be all built.

Now, i am seen it. it can't happen now but in the next year or two yes. this is all on my end, i have to put it all on paper. it's hard for me to get it from my mind to seeing it on paper. so far i have only 60% done on paper. i know what i want to call it. i know what type of price I want. I know what kind of props etc etc etc.. I just need it to get done. it's been hard for me to do that.

i know that i will lose friends over this and i will make more. . but it's something i that i am willing to face. everyone will have to face something like that in there life time. YOU need to know that being a haunt owner can be good or bad, some times you have put your foot down on things that you don't like to do but that's being a boss, owner, etc etc..

as far as running a haunt, you will get a lot people wanting to helping you or give you ideas like there no tomorrow. becarefull of who you want to hang with or be with. i have seen people get hurt over the littlest things. i have seen hubby's and wife's spit so fast over something that they want to do in life. you make shure that you know what you are getting in too. look all in too what can happen, all ways look for the best way to get out of some thing.

when building a haunt, think about the little things too aka nails, papers, actors, light bulbs, etc etc. before the opening night, go off some where and think back to the day that you wanted to start a haunt, think back to the every day that idea came in to mind and see how far you came. you will be happy. I know you will. because you got there. in joy that beer that you are going to have at the end of the first night of being open. and say to your self that you did it. you got some where that few have gotten.

hope this helps in any way

HG

[No_Regret]

Thank you for the kind words of wisdom HG. Yeah, its been stressing me out pretty bad lately. I know that I need to put off some things til the end of this year. I am going to try to schedule a week straight of vacation in October, so that I can go see how some of the bigger haunts are operating/are set up.

Right now I am planning on visiting these haunts this October:

Dead Acres
Randy Bates Haunted Hotel/Hayride
Erebus



After that its a tossup- I live near Akron, Ohio, and I am willing to drive a good distance lol seeing as how I am going to have to drive 7.5 hours to see Randy's haunt. I'm going to pick a couple more, and hope that these haunts can help me figure things out a little better.

[piercemanor]

Welcome!

First of all, congrats on entering the industry! For the most part everyone gets along and we're all good friends. First, let me tell you a bit about myself. I, myself am wanting to open my own attraction in the near future. However, i'm not sure you have this advantage. I already work, for the time being, at a professional attraction and have become close friends with it's owner. I work there throughout the summer and during spring and fall. I help with construction, some design, and distressing. During the season I do makeup, act, and I do other things on nights when extra help is needed outside. But my advice to you, is that you make as many friends as possible. Everyone on this website has some sort of information to give. I read over the repliers to your post and each reply has some very valuable information. I too made a post similar to this and many repliers gave me much information, I copied each post and pasted it on word. I would reccomend the same thing to you. But once again, many, many people on this website has much valuable information they they would be willing to give, you just have to ask.

[No_Regret]

Thanks Pierce, and believe me if I didnt have a conflicting work schedule, I would most definitely still be doing my acting at the Haunted Schoolhouse in Akron, but sometimes life happens. Working there definitely sparked a love for the horror/haunt genre that I didnt even know I had.

I always liked going to haunted houses as a kid lol, but I didnt really realize how much I loved scaring the hell out of people until actually acting at a haunt. Its one of the greatest feelings in the world lol and if I couldnt get a scare on em, I would change it up and harras em just to get a laugh. Entertainment is key in my opinion.

Its hard not to stress about opening my own haunted house. It should be something that I should be excited about, which I am. But trying to put together ideas for a theme/storyline as well as what kind of scenes I would want to do, while also trying to be original...its a pretty tough task lol.

[No_Regret]

Adding ScareHouse in Pittsburgh to my list of haunts that I am going to go see this year. It is going to be a lot of driving, but I think it will be a good learning experience.

[BruiseMuse]

Some other haunts you may want to check out (each has a different style):

Spookyworld/Nightmare New England (New Hampshire)
Castle Blood (Pennsylvania)
Dream Reapers (Chicago, IL)
Fear Fair (Indiana)

[spookjj]

Haunted trail and hayride?

Good thread ... keeps the inspiration and excitment going for me! We're planning on doing a Hayride and having issues of finding good location and considering asking some locals folks with land for the opportunity as many have suggested here on the forums. My question is what about doing a trail/hayride combo haunt where it's 50/50 vs a full hayride. I think this gives some variety and saves money on hayride equipment, half mile trail with half mile hayride, just like some feedback on what yas think?

I crunched the numbers and you definitely have a greater potential with throughput on a hayride than inside haunt it appears. I think just adding another hay wagon of say 30 capacity equivicates to like 10-15 new rooms for a inside haunt, and can always build hayride trail extensions if need to squeeze that addtional wagon if timing is too close between wagon departures, if that makes sense.

For such a haunt if you wanted to compress it all into a smaller area so you don't have 8-10 acres to lease but say only 3-4 acres, what do you think about using the land scaping fabric 8ft width(high) to separate your paths and/or trails vs. building structures. Has anybody done this? I know it's a mesh material but as long as blocks customer's view of future scenes....

[No_Regret]

Good thread ... keeps the inspiration and excitment going for me! We're planning on doing a Hayride and having issues of finding good location and considering asking some locals folks with land for the opportunity as many have suggested here on the forums. My question is what about doing a trail/hayride combo haunt where it's 50/50 vs a full hayride. I think this gives some variety and saves money on hayride equipment, half mile trail with half mile hayride, just like some feedback on what yas think?

I crunched the numbers and you definitely have a greater potential with throughput on a hayride than inside haunt it appears. I think just adding another hay wagon of say 30 capacity equivicates to like 10-15 new rooms for a inside haunt, and can always build hayride trail extensions if need to squeeze that addtional wagon if timing is too close between wagon departures, if that makes sense.

For such a haunt if you wanted to compress it all into a smaller area so you don't have 8-10 acres to lease but say only 3-4 acres, what do you think about using the land scaping fabric 8ft width(high) to separate your paths and/or trails vs. building structures. Has anybody done this? I know it's a mesh material but as long as blocks customer's view of future scenes....

Hey Spookjj...where are you located? I was thinking about doing a hayride/outdoor haunt as a start-up, and then adding an indoor haunt to the attraction years on down the line after opening, once I had earned enough revenue/profits to do so.