Haunt theme... need opinions

[Frightener]

OK! So my home haunts and parties have been deemed "Night Terrors". I'll try to show some pics of my icon prop that people have gotten use to. My brother named him "Capt Howdy"

Capt Howdy.jpgGatekeeper2.jpg


I think those pics will load..
Keep in mind, this party was the first in 3 years and I only had 3 weeks to build props and put something together.
Anyways...

Edited for content.

Thanks,

Dewayne

[Frightener]

So far here's the line up I have down on paper.

Jungle Room w/ Demon (sneak n creepy past a demon)
Jungle turns to swamp room with a facade of a witch house and witch (creep factor)
Tunnel room with a spider (poison props and hanging victims)
Dark cave (2 drop panels)
Sewer Room (1 drop panel, 1-3 zombie actors)
Sewer to Broiler room (statue scare, 1-3 actors, drop panel upon leaving?)
Broiler to Abandoned building which houses more creatures (poison props zombie looking electcution guy)
Dark tunnel. Demon dogs at the beginning. Then at end having actors grab at ankles (ppl's brains will think of the dogs biting them)
Torture Room (actor elec chair, Static looking statue: actor based)
Demon Incubator room. Nasty stuff with pods of baby demonic creatures being hatched (scare factor unsure)
Waking Room.

What you think? Most budget will be spent on the sets. Want to make it VERY believable.
Broiler room will have pipes and such, with steam coming out of the vents, a fog curtain that they leave through, the spider tunnel will be made of foam and stuff, should look killer. The abandoned building will be fake conc. blocks etc.

Any ideas, shoot em out. Opinions appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Dewayne

[screamforadream]

Grabbing at people's ankles cou'd get you in a lot of trouble, especially if someone trips and falls.maybe try and use ankle ticklers?

[Frightener]

Well, we've thought about that, it's going to be at the end of the hallway, when they're not moving! We won't GRAB, it's going to be a pretend "bite" And probably up above the actual ankles. The bites will be done only by trusted adults and only on specific targets, like no kids or anyone that doesn't look like they can take it! And this isn't a SET IN STONE thing either. We particularly don't want to touch, but I think it'd be a good psychological thing. Every haunt around here has touching, but we won't be so loose with it like them. It's very weird how so many do it now days, and in the ways that they do it! Grabbing arms, pulling on people etc. It's cool, but too risky. not everyone's going to like it.

[HauntedPaws]

Still not wise idea. As Bobby said use air ticklers or a prop hand. Around our area touching doesn't happen. If it did there would probably be some broken jawed actors.

[Duke of Darkness]

I too would give serious thought to the idea of "biting" people's legs. Not only would it be easy for someone to be tripped, it leaves the actor in a very vulnerable position if a startled person decides to kick at them.

I have to wonder also, if four drop panels is not an awful lot for a 10 room haunt. They can be a great scare, but become anticipated after a bit and cease to startle. Just a thought.

I like the theme. While your haunt will bear virtually no resemblance to mine, our underlying premise (nightmares made real) is more or less the same. In our version, the sleeping test subject in on a table in lab and wired up to a monitor. You can see the patient's dreams in the monitor, and only after entering the portal (pod in your case) do the images on the monitor start turning much darker. I really like the idea of communicating that they have to wake up the sleeper to escape. Should make it sound really good from outside.

Dave

[Frightener]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, as far as the biting goes, the panels are already built The actor room is padded very nicely so all the actor has to do is lay down. They reach through a foam bottom board with an elongated hole. The haunt I heard about this from, they were using fake arms and stuff, but it would get caught sometimes and would end up being out there by the feet, which in deed causes a trip hazard. So they went to the hands. THey've done that 2 different years and they've never had an incident. Basically you wait till they reach the end of the hall, then nip at them quickly and pull back. It's not a grab and I think it sounds more dangerous to most of the guys here, but it's not going to be as drastic as it sounds.

It's cool that you have the same idea, makes me feel "smart" :P Yeah, we were thinking of how to make it sound great while in the que line. Instead of typical "BRRUURRRRRRMMMM" from a chainsaw, we'll have actual screaming going on, with no other noises it'll make ppl think "WTF are they screaming at?" lol.


Happy Holidays guys.

Dewayne

[Jim Warfield]

Protect your Helpers.

Always place them behind a solid wall,plywood, not plasterboard, cut a vision hole or two, in the wall, mount thick plexiglass in the vision ports to protect against poking and spitting customers.
Have a small hole for any touching instrument to arrive from and retreat back in too.
Have the touching tool padded with very slight reinforcements for it's internal structure, like a 1/4 inch steel rod,or even a 1/16 gauge wire doubled over on itself, buried deeply inside foam rubber, covered with vynl, Goop-glued covering.
Leave the helper-end of the rod straight with just a slight ball or padding on the end incase someone grabs this and yanks it toward them your helper shouldn't get a finger damaged as they would if a round loop was on the end to stick a finger or two into.
I would put all four of the drop pictures in one hallway, then alternate which ones are manned on different nights, or have all four of them go down at the same time!
Drop pictures always looked to me to be a real good place to get punched....sort of like sticking your face around a corner. I would slip a mask over my hand, put it around the corner, preferably coming from the customer's right side since most are right-handed and would be swinging with their right hand more accurately and then may not even attempt a swing with the left hand.

[Frightener]

Thanks Jim,

Yeah, the main focus of mine is keeping the actors safe.

Those are all great ideas Jim. My main concern is having "stick" things through a wall, if it was to get dropped, hung on or something like that, it'll trip someone. You can't FEEL what the stick feels! So it's risky. I'll build some of those Jim, but I don't like the idea of sticking them through holes, maybe beyond a fencing, ya know.

When I say drop panels, I'm not necessarily wanting that many, just options so we can change up, and have a spot for someone else that REALLY wants to act. You can have too few, but never too many, you just don't have to use them all. Which I won't. Also, they'll be different, I may choose not to put certain ones up, and if so, I won't / shouldn't have to build more.

I don't like drop panels as much as I do typical startles. Some are actually going to be props, and not human anyways. I usually have Bob Zombie, a zombie screaming "BRAAINSS" at a drop panel. Bob Zombie was my first ever, free standing prop without structure. I built him out of chicken wire and spray foam, and used short pieces of pvc pipe for leg bones and a back bone. I proud of him :P

Here's my short video of Bob. I named him after I made the video, if I remember. Sorry about the darkness of the video, it's my shotty camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCzfenC262w