Best prop response I got this year

[ravensmoon]

So this was our first year doing this professionally. I had an idea for something completely different from anything I had seen before (I live in the LA are and have been to Knott's, Universal and the QM several times in the last 30 years so I have seen a lot) and came up with something that freaked out those who have height phobia's. I designed a bottomless pit that you have to walk over. To make it worse I added a laser switch that turned on the effect just as you were taking your first step into space (I was also going to add about a 3" drop in elevation at the beginning edge as part of the effect but thought it might be too much for some to handle after testing it out on a few people)

While I was building it, I even had an "oh Sh*t" moment when I leaned over it the first time (yeah I'm one of those people who HATES heights) My stomach actually dropped.

pit.jpg

So it worked... It was the biggest response I got and many people even refused to walk across it. We had to end up stationing a live monster behind them to get people to walk across the damn thing... the whole time they were freaking out screaming. my security people would just stand there watching and laugh all night long.

I placed 2 of them in a row(with about 5 feet of "normal" walkway between them) and the on the second one I fabricated a way for a live monster to spring out underneath your feet while you were walking across, nothing like getting people a second time with the same effect!

So my question for the off season is whether or not anyone on here would want one built for their haunt? Obviously price is a factor in anything we do but I wanted to get an idea of what people thought and I could look into what it would cost to make one that is transportable for shipping/storage etc.

thanks for the input
Brandon

[BrotherMysterio]

We did something like that this last October, and it worked out great! Definitely want to do more like that.

C.

[tonguesandwich]

I think about 1 n 3 haunts I've been to have one. My fav was one that you had to crawl out a window and then you were on the ledge of a building looking down .. Which was a bottomless pit. People tried to slide on the ledge but eventually fell.

[BrotherMysterio]

I think about 1 n 3 haunts I've been to have one. My fav was one that you had to crawl out a window and then you were on the ledge of a building looking down .. Which was a bottomless pit. People tried to slide on the ledge but eventually fell.

And where did you see this?

C.

[captpete]

Did you use plexi glass for the top and actually walk on it? How do you keep it clean?
Thanks, Pete

[BrotherMysterio]

Did you use plexi glass for the top and actually walk on it? How do you keep it clean?
Thanks, Pete

Probably not an issue in dim lighting.

C.

[ravensmoon]

Did you use plexi glass for the top and actually walk on it? How do you keep it clean?
Thanks, Pete

Yes I used 3/4 inch plexiglass as the floor.

dust and scratches were a huge concern I had at the beginning. There was a dark, pitch black in fact, hallway you were walking down when approaching it which adds anticipation to what might happen. We put indoor/outdoor carpeting on the floor (which we had to fire proof) but that cleaned most of the dust and crap off of their feet. We would then just use one of those large dust mops every night before we opened.

The change in light from pitch black to bright light in your face and the fact of where their eyes were focusing on (the bottom of the pit) really made it irrelevant how dirty it got. I was amazed at the end of the night how dusty it would look when all the lights were turned on, but you really didn't notice it when the effect was working. I was half expecting to have to polish the thing once a week to get scratches out from high heels, but it never presented any problems either.