Home Haunting and the visitors

[Oli_sleven]

I have to say, you guys seem to have very little trouble with your Home Haunts. But I feel a few questions need to be raised.

- Do you ever deny entry
- Do you ever have rowdy teenagers / visitors
- How do you deal with them

See, I want to set up a home haunt, but the Northwest of the United Kingdom isn't exactly renowned for it's pleasantries, so I just need to know how you would deal with these people and maybe offer some advice.

[Mr. Haunt]

New Haunter,

It's hard to answer your question. Safety is TOP Priority over anything, if it is not your top priority DONT OPEN. You can have a couple non costumed staff members be security persons, but you have to remember that anyone can get hurt and you still have to follow local laws. If your city is ok with your haunt talk about how to deal with some of your concerns and ask the local police how they might want you to handle things if you feel this is best for you to keep safe. Your actors NEED to also act as security, they need to be told to "break charictor" if a person going through your haunt gets to scared, for a medical emergency, and if you actor feels unsafe.

I operate a mostly yard display with live actors to just make the heart skip a beat a bit. Nothing to scary and this way I'm in control of how people act or should I say react when you scare them. Things can turn ugly fast when people react to scares the wrong way by your actors getting punched or kicked. It does happen even to the prohaunts!!!!

Most important do your best to be clean and not to graphic and DONT scare the little kids as this could be their first time going through a haunt.

REMEMBER IT"S JUST FOR FUN!!!

Mr. Haunt

[Oli_sleven]

Thanks for the advice. Here we have a lot of "Chavs" Who are usually quite aggressive. I was going to primarily aim my haunt at young-teenagers to adults so I feel I will have to be a lot more careful. Are there any different rules for a maze?

[Oli_sleven]

Thanks for the advice. Here we have a lot of "Chavs" Who are usually quite aggressive. I was going to primarily aim my haunt at young-teenagers to adults so I feel I will have to be a lot more careful. Are there any different rules for a maze?

[fright]

One time we had a "rowdy teen" and somehow managed to get the main plug and unplugged the whole show.

[Jim Warfield]

I have a home haunt but it is professional and full year-round, we live in the haunt. I've owned this house for 25 years now.
You can never anticipate every goofy,clumbsie, criminal, idiotic thing that a human being will do. Add to this what some people will do if they get suddenly very scared! Rational people can lose all their smarts in a quick second (or fraction of a second)
We don't go for the extreme scares here just quick, small ones that hopefully ellict a laugh right afterwards, but still some people will swing, try to punch, although some of those people enter a haunt looking for someone to punch!
First piece of advice:Keep the staggering, screaming drunks OUT! A happy, sociable , calm drunk is usually all right. No pukers though..
Quick scares from a spooky dressed character should be done keeping at least an arm's length distance away from their potential swing or punch. If they swing and miss yet keep on advancing, back up, shine a bright flashlight in their eyes and get well away from them, call for assistance (witnesses) eject them from the property and use Police for this actual task, some places physically laying on of the hands can result in a ton of trouble even though you are right.
Surveilence cameras are cheap "insurance"in such cases. Rewind, prove them wrong, end of your problems could be the beginning of theirs if a crime or assault was their "fun".
One time two idiots found the totally hidden door to my electrical box and began switching my breakers off & on for sport!?
The door is no longer hidden but it is locked.
I once had some loser take down and set off a fire extinguisher, choking yellow dust all over a large room til we cleaned it up 25 minutes..he ran away but his sister was still here so we got him, he paid restitution since he was already in court for some of his other fun things he did somewhere else.
I tell people here and have numerous signs everywhere:"No Running!"
People run, they fall down. No "Scare-Forward"=No Running=No injurys. Anyone any age can become seriously hurt when they fall running, even the very young,and fit can impact one another bone on bone, elbow in eye socket...
Well ,numerous tapes, books have been written that you can also look into and yet nobody can know it all or be absolutely 100% ready for all potential problems.
Good Luck, still try to have fun.

Jim Warfield--The Ravens Grin Inn-- Mount Carroll, Ill.
www.hauntedravensgrin.com