Check out this story... Pretty Cool Concept

[drfrightner]

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/offb...geles-20111028

[zombietoxin]

High drama vs high startle... hmm, not many take that road. It takes all kinds, I suppose, to set all the haunts apart.

I can only imagine the nightmare reality of orchestrating accurate and repetative dramatic speech for a large group of actors in a haunt setting...

I do respect the fact that he's pursuing a vision!

[Jim Warfield]

How About This?

Narrating the actual haunted history of the house they are now sitting in, while interjecting ocassional attempted humor?
From serious to scary to funny and back again.. backwards!?
I have been doing this for years.. and years. Probably the road least traveled in the haunt field would be attempting to use humor?

[Duke of Darkness]

I take a similar approach. My philosophy on haunting, for what it is worth, is to take your guest through a range of emotions. Make them laugh, creep them out, make them scream, rinse and repeat. This approach is rife with problems. Note in the article it says that the haunt did about 1600 people. We did about 1500. Throughput is limited with this approach. It also requires talented actors to pull it off without boring your audience. And if you have a key actor missing on any given night, it is very difficult to replace them.

That said, I love this approach. We did a very small haunt this year. It was only 1200 square feet, but contained 13 - 17 actors and took 10 - 15 minutes to get through. There were a couple of rooms in which people were entertained for three or four minutes. We got great reviews and people rated us highly on a local haunted house directory. This type of haunt is not for everybody. As I said, it has its frustrations. We won't ever get rich doing it, as we simply can't put 20K plus patrons through in a season. We do, however raise a decent amount for our charity and create more screams and laughs than you can shake a stick at. Viva la difference .

Dave

[xtremecreator]

I liked the acting for sure and some of the stunts were definately cool.

It was different and I was entertained.

For me who has been in this industry for 15 years for once was not bored with the same old stuff.

However, for a "Haunt Goer" I can see where this would cause complaints because alot of haunt goers truly want to be scared or terrified.

John
XtremeCreators LLC

[Darkangel]

Too much talking, not enough scaring!

[thrilltainment]

they do a similar thing at Busch Gardens

Robbi at Busch Gardens was kind enough to give us a tour of Howl-O-Scream, one of their haunts was a story line based theatrical experience where the guests become immersed into the story like the one in this video. the throughput is VERY slow --- 1 group every 3 minutes. Busch Garden charges $40 for the group (can be 1 to 4 guests) and these timed slots are sold out on a nightly bases. Robbi tells us that this haunt doesn't make a profit, in fact, the 50 slots they sell per night (50x$40=$2000) isn't even enough to cover actor costs. but that's not the point of the haunt, it's one of their most talked about haunts and is GREAT for promotion and brings more people into the park.

with this type of low throughout theatrical experience, you open the door to so many MORE possible ways to play with your audience. your scares and special effects don't need to reset in a few seconds, they can get more elaborate and creative. one of the best effects I've seen that can only be done with this low throughput style haunt is an elongating hallway. As the group enters, the actors outside push the walls of the hallway forward to make the room physically STRETCH as the group walks forward, making it feel like you can't reach the end of the path! you can't do that with a high throughput haunt because when the hallway needs to reset and go back to being short, the next group will see the reset.

i find this type of haunt fascinating and only financially feasible if it's used for promo purposes instead of a money maker. it's still awesome!

[HauntedMemphis]

I liked the acting for sure and some of the stunts were definately cool.

It was different and I was entertained.

For me who has been in this industry for 15 years for once was not bored with the same old stuff.

However, for a "Haunt Goer" I can see where this would cause complaints because alot of haunt goers truly want to be scared or terrified.

John
XtremeCreators LLC

This was my experience running my "haunt" this year.

I tried to be very different this year. There were already two haunted trails at my location, so I was trying a concept for a third attraction to compliment them, giving a different experience for entertainment instead of just adding a third walkthrough.

My solution: an 1800 sqaure foot tent "theater". The actual theater portion was 1200 sq ft, with the remainer being entrance and queue lines. In the theater was basically a one man show supported by effects and props. It was interactive with the audience, really making them be part of the show. It did provide some scares, but focused more on general "entertainment" whether it was some "wow" factor with effects/props, some startles, comedy, or just acting and storytelling.

The number 1 complaint: We want more scares! Their expectation was that it would be more like a walk through haunt with people popping out to scare them.

I do believe that the format was successful with a large portion of the audience, but it wasn't successful with everyone (mostly those looking for lots of scares). I think setting expectations is going to be the biggest thing, so that the right audience is coming to enjoy the event.

[Jim Warfield]

Next Year Start The Rumours Early..

"This is a special tent, magically hand-woven by Ninjas in the 12 th centuary from the garments of 40,000 of their victims in the Box Cutter Rebellion= A very haunted TENT!
Get them "looking", up, over their shoulder, down at their feet. (Must be time to haunt via massive excavation?)
Popping up trap doors in the sod below their feet.?
Pre-influence the audience's thinking by dressing all the parking lot attendants like Ninjas, just don't explain.
Have a" Roar"-sound device relayed up to a massive tent-billowing fan, placed far away enough so nobody sees or hears it run.(Test run it numerous times first of course)
Now many of your Ninja actors can speak Faux/Japanese/jibberish and diction and other finite details can be handled by the unskilled.
Several Cub Scout troops could be hired, half of them dressed Ninja, the rest in cub Scout uniforms, doing "Battle", maybe bribe the Scout leader by offering hima free subscription to a girlie magazine?