How big are your haunt rooms?

[Dark Scares]

Due to the fact that they leased out our building at the last minute we are relocating to a new location, which actually is a better location but the building itself is a bit smaller causing us to reduce the size of some of the rooms. The question is what size do you all think is the ideal size for a average haunt room?

[Allen H]

20x20 or 25x25-Is the ideal size for a haunt set- thats enough room to have them enter, then slow down to absorb the set, then be impacted by the actor. It also gives the actor room to move and work and enough space to hide before he attacks and to leave when he is done.
but really your group size is a big determining factor on that. The average person has a 3ft personal space bubble thats about 36 (3ft out in all directions from the guest) square feet so a group of six entering a room will take up 24 linear feet (the bubbles overlap, the front three feet of one guest is the rear three feet of the guest in front- their bodis take up one ft). If they are against one wall of the room (not ideal) then a group of six will only be in the room altogether for one second Making a difficult timing choice for the actor.
To fix that you can put a set element in the room that they must walk around increasing the linear feet traveled in a small space. That puts them all in the same room for a longer period of time.
...thats a bit complicated but I hope it helped- I suppose thats why Im doing a haunted house design DVD lol.
Allen H

[Mad Wax Sculptor]

I too am limited to space my rooms are about the actual size of rooms in a house as thats what they are. I used to love to do large rooms with a lot of layering but you work with what you got. I try and mix it up with a hall big room hall small room and so on . You have to at least get 1 or 2 big rooms for wow appeal

[Haunted Prints (EOM)]

Room size all depends on your haunt. What's the room theme, how much space do you have, how close do you want the customers to the action. Some room themes need open space to be scary and others need to be tight and close.

[jakprintsHAUNT]

When needed, you can still make effective scares in small spaces. I have had the challenge of fitting haunts into mid sized picnic pavilions, and to really get the most out of it we had to utilize a lot of pop style scares and 180 hallways to give built in scares for a roaming actor. We made sure to have a couple decent sized rooms but kept enough tight spaces to lengthen the attraction without cheating on the scares. As stated it really depends on what you have going on, and the overall style of your haunt. If you are high detail with major themes and set elements it is more challenging in a small space than if you have a more oldschool dark hallway with pop scares type of approach.

If you are just condensing, it shouldnt be too tough, trim off a few feet here and there, dont be afraid to cut one room or hall to keep all the others. Or replace a room with a hall and gain some extra space that way. Be creative with it, and as long as you keep your length and general amount of scares, you have succeeded.

Mike "Pogo" Hach

[Dark Scares]

Thanks for the input guys. We are still not small, small at 12,000 sf but we were at 15,000 last year and it is hard to take step back. I keep telling myself we can detail a lot better.

[Spookyfinder]

Our haunt generally has rooms in the 10x10 size. Anything bigger than that, the patrons can move away from the scare. Plus, it adds that much more to decorate. Remember, 10x10 is 100 sq ft. I noticed above that it was suggested to go with 20x20 (400 sq ft) or 25x25 (625 sq ft). That seems huge to me, considering an average apartment or small home is around 900 sq ft. A medium sized bedroom is around 12x12 to put it into perspective.

I personally would rather have a smaller room and make the scare up-close and personal. I've noticed that the details that I put in my rooms, thinking it will be awesome, often don't get noticed - especially if the scare works well!