Quarantine on 17th

[Darkangel]

I hope to goodness it wasn't Wil. He's too good of people to endorse this joke.

This is the guy who sells a trash can and calls it a fog chiller right?

DA

[KaoTic Entertainment]

Nope it was put on by Digital sound and lighting out of ST Louis the same people who introduced the poppers and the boom stick , really nice folks first year they have tried that , prolly 10.00 tix would have been better but in all mmmmmmm well lock and load let's kill some zombies lol.

[Goblin Sis]

Like others, I am glad that we didn't waste our time with this one. It sounded interesting, from what tiny bit they have on their FB page, and on the postcard we found. I figured that I wasn't going to waste that much money on something when I don't even know what it is!

[xxxdirk]

Basically you walked around a camo net decorated area msybe 1500 sf with realistic looking guns that made a cracking noise like the poppers at their booth. When a zombie came out u shot him or her and they would pretend to die

[chuck weber]

What ? More problems with a st. Loluis vendor?

What did you expect ????

[digitalsoundandlighting]

Intially, I am curious as to how many of you commenting on this site actually did attend this haunt. I am representing this company and spoke to every person entering and exiting; and everyone who left, short of one group, had nothing but positive things to say. I will humbly admidt we had issues the first night with only 2 batteries, which delayed our start about thirty minutes. As to the person who commented on the actors being drunk, I did find a couple who were and asked them to leave. We do not run a haunt during the season, and thus do not have a solid actor repitaiore and took who we could find.
I was the person working the door, who was most defiantly NOT drunk, but merely had been on my feet for 3 days straight on little sleep. Stan, the owner of this company and I, were working the convention both friday and saturday and therefore could not oversee every aspect of this haunt as we would have liked. The majority of you, I assume are haunters, therefore you should have a slight understanding and empathy to the fact that A) this was our first and only time running a haunted house in our warehouse B) the time constraints we were under and C) how difficult it is to control your actors, especially when you can not be there during set up.
Again, I would love to speak personally to everyone who is commenting on here, because if you did attend our haunt you either lied directly to myself or Stan's face, or you are following the crowd and lying now. But, what I beielve is far more likely is we are playing an exaggerated game of "telephone" and people are exsagerating what they "heard" from "someone" who heard it from someone else.
We are a special effects company, and not haunters, we did this haunt to demonstrate to innovative ideas to assist other haunters in next years endevours and to provide entertainment for all those attending transworld. We at this company are entirely proud of what we accomplished. For those who came and were disappointed I appoligize sincerely, we did all that we could and if there is any furthur we can do please call and we can discuss matters furthur. However, for those of you who are spreading information that you do not know for yourself to be factual I ask of you please to refrain from such behavior.

[Capt.Chaos]

Quarantine on 17th

OK, I went through this attraction. Was it scary...not really. Was it amazing...no. Was it a waste of my time. Nope. I look at it this way. The darkness and Lemp are great. They make you think of things you can aspire to and try to achieve. Great attractions and worth your time. But what about the guy just starting? Or the young adult trying to do something for himself or family? Do they have a large budget to open a Unit 70 catalog and drop it on the credit card? Not this cat. Quarantine made me think of some things that I may be able to use in my attraction and stay in a budget. They built that thing in a few weeks. For that I say thanks. Next year take some more time and polish it up and get it a little more organized. If I can get a ride,walk through and get a couple ideas for my customers thats not gonna cost me $6500 and my left testicle....I will come back.

Buck

[drfrightner]

Let me say something ... people whine about the costs of haunt tours, but until you try to open just on a dime in the middle of the winter or start of the spring you shouldn't say a word. Secondly if you own a haunted house and you are out there charging $20 to $50 bucks a ticket, we all know some of you are ripping people off when you compare what you do and what you charge and then compare that to what others are doing for the same or less. The Darkness cost $20.00 and I see out there haunts that look horrible charging with speed passes TWICE what we charge... okay that is getting off the subject but lets get back on the subject. The point is you pay twice or three times more to enter a haunt in the off season which is what to some of you ONE TICKET at your haunt and you complain?

People bust their buts to do something, put themselves under a microscope and all we hear is about how this didn't work, that sucked, this wasn't good enough, or that wasn't safe, or whatever.

I look around at all these haunt tours and they are expensive and expensive for a reason... people are putting their savings into the haunt 6 months sooner than they would normally, and they have to work like a dog to get everything together. Okay so then you open and stuff doesn't go right who the HELL CARES... tell me one damn haunted house anywhere in the ENTIRE WORLD that doesn't have the SAME EXACT PROBLEMS the first night the first weekend the first week!

NAME ONE WHO DOESN"T JUST ONE!

IF you say your haunted house you are a LIAR! We all know it... so keep your comments to yourself if you dont' have something positive to say and or email the owner and tell him the problems you experienced.

I'll be the first one to admit opening drove me over the edge... why isn't this working, why is the cgi waterfall effects head cut off, hmmm what was I to expect its the first and only night. You make lists like everyone else and you go back and you figure out why you had these problems and you fix them.

End of story. Just like EVERYONE ELSE in this business!

We are ALL in the same boat here every single one of us who own and operate haunted houses. Those who open to the haunt industry I'm proud of you, and I hope when you tour another persons attraction you don't get on a forum and trash their place...resist the temptation.

That is all I can say. Only when you do it do you understand the stress, the expense and just how much its not worth the drama, or the idiots that have nothing better to do but slam you for doing what you think is a good thing.

I did not attend Quarantine and if they just simply made NO ATTEMPT to do anything like they said, and their staff was drunk, and there was basically nothing there to experience yeah I'd be pissed off too... I would. However do we all really hold everyone who opens to the same standards we hold ourselves to??? Do we really?

We all have the same exact problems doesn't matter which one it is we are all in the SAME BOAT... lets take these events and work together to figure out ways we can make them better not rip and tear them apart. Lets solve common problems not put everyone else under the microscope while ignoring you have the same problems or PROBABLY ... WORSE!

Larry

[Jolly Pumpkin]

Well, maybe it's different in other states, but in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana you'll have a hard time finding a single haunt that charges $20 a ticket unless you're paying for a VIP pass. I would say the average price is between 10-15 or just slightly higher. Most of the time it's higher than $15 when the ticket includes multiple attractions. As far as haunts charging twice as much for the off season, this isn't the case most of the time. There isn't a Hauntcon or Midwest Haunters Convention tour that is charging twice the admission price except for one and that includes snacks, food etc. There might be other conventions that charge a lot, but this isn't the case with all of them.

The tours that are charging a lot include tons and tons of attractions and hotel stay. Hell, MHC is even offering a free haunt tour, party and seminar the Friday of the convention. The Darkness is definitely worth the $20 ticket price during the haunt season and maybe a little higher since there are two quality haunts. I have my complaints about The Darkness during Transworld, but Larry knows all about it and I won't post about it here.

[Jordan24]

Whoa...
Larry, obviously based on your above response you did not attend this event.

I love attending haunts in the offseason, and I greatly appreciate the effort and expense the owners dish out to open up.
I've been to your all of your tours. This year alone I spent almost $600 on your tours between me and two others. I have no regrets, because I walk away from them with relevant ideas and information.

That's just not the case with this "Quarantine" deal. I can tell you there was little expense or time invested in this thing, no where near justifying a $45 ticket price. It was unfinished and consisted of black plastic, black walls, and drunk actors. I'll just leave it at that...

I just hope the intentions of putting on this event were good. Not just solely to bend haunters over to make a quick buck...

[Grimley]

Larry forgive if I am wrong but these forums are to talk about all things relating to the haunt industry. To inform and question and to learn everything we can. Sometimes things suck and constructive criticism is welcome. If everyone came on here and said everything was great and quarantine was the best event ever and I went next year and it sucked as bad as they say I would be pissed. Every year I have attended your haunts and every year I give you a fair review. The good and the bad. I know you don't like to hear the bad but that is part of growing. I like to hear the negative because that means I can learn from someone else s mistake and not my own. Let everyone write what they want.

[drfrightner]

Couple things...

1) No I did NOT attend, just pissed that everyone in this industry has a good thing going, haunt attendance is higher than ever, ticket prices higher than ever, more tours, bigger than ever tradeshows, more product to buy, tons of tour, great opportunities to promote your business, more people sharing information than ever before and all people did is bitch about vendors, haunts, now the city museum, what city the show should be, to what color a coffin should be painted. When does it end, I dont' know but lets stop bashing on our fellow haunts efforts especially in terms of these tours and events.

2) Again NO I did not attend this... however I did state that maybe they didn't do ANYTHING NOTHING like they claim and maybe their staff was drunk, and they put little to no effort into the project...if that is the case then by all means. I didn't say otherwise... I'm simply saying wow do we complain a lot about what others do without even taking into consideration the facts that NONE OF US are ever ready to go the first weekend much less in March. Maybe some slack needs to be cut for these March, April, May events.

Let me say I see TW is doing another Legendary Haunt Tour in November... let me go on the record there is little to no excuse for these haunts. You've been operating for two months, you should have things going full steam. You have NO additional expense to stay open, you will NOT change anything for the event, you are just open like normal. Its totally different when you try to open in March, April or May. Totally.

As for our events... we tear out stuff, we try new stuff, we install and build and create things we've never tried before trying to inspire the people who come... yeah we'll experience some problems it goes with the territory. I'm just tired of people ripping on everyone unless they put themselves in the same boat.

But when someone just tries to OUTRIGHT steal your money then yeah open up the flood gates... is that what happened here?

3) Yes it is a place to discuss things but NOT bash on other peoples haunts, and for God sakes hopefully people can work their problems out with a vendor long before they try to rip them apart on these forums. Both issues in my book are one in the same.

We as a haunt industry need to learn how to do a better job of acting like professional business owners and less like little kids. Its just not professional to ignore the owner of a business in other words try everything possible to work out differences prior to running to the net to complain. That is my beef. Lets not discuss each other personal problems, personal lives, rip a fellow haunted house, and do our best to work out our differences with vendors before a massive blow up discussion on a forum. Again just my opinion.

Larry

[RJ Productions]

So what was the purpose of Quarantine???
A) Was it a haunt set up to entertain?
B) Was it a showcase to show haunters something else to do, to sell them a concept, equipment???

If A it seems people maybe justified if there was no sets. no detail, no scares...
If B then what such a high price?? If the intention was to show you something you could add to your haunt
then as a sales pitch why the high price tag?? I have been to other conventions where a vendor showcases
outside the venue. There is normally no charge because the purpose is to sell you their system. Chargeing
would be like having someone at the entrance to the Dark Zone collecting an entry fee!!

Maybe digitalsoundandlighting could explain the actual purpose. As people seemed to be confused.