Help Please

[DeadManWalking]

Got a call today from an old friend who is now the business manager for a church and private school. They do a fall festival each year and have been struggling with attendance over the last few years. They currently do a hay ride through a 5 acre farm and he wants to spice it up this year. I haven't seen the place yet so I have no idea how much is wooded or field or if there are any buildings on the property. I'm meeting him Monday to walk around. The problem is that it needs to be family friendly. I've never done anything close to what would be considered family friendly. I need ideas. Things that would keep the attention of the older kids but not freak out the little ones. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Nightmaretony]

mind games and humor and eye candy and good storyline.

[Jim Warfield]

If you can create startles that will be laughed at immeadiatly after the twitch or jump/jerk/scream, things should go well for this project but of course you can't please everybody and some will be too afraid no matter what you say or do to affect the outcome otherwise.
Use no make up, no masks just real quickly changable human faces to rescue the possible too scary situations.

[Medusa53]

How about a pretty witch at a cauldron serving "Dragonaide"
A crashed UFO might make them start to wander where the aliens might be.
A few ghost flying from tree to tree via zip lines.
A bunch of carved or plastic pumkins on a table but just as the wagon goes by,the real cute or frienly looking pumpkin in the back of the table suddenly stands up and starts waving at the group...or follows.
A cage with broken bars and nothing inside ( make the bars out of old garden hose spray painted silver).Your wagon guide could say something like"I wonder what kind of wild beast was in there" then a few second further down the road have someone dressed up like a cat or dog jump out holding a piece of the silver bar.
Clowns!!
Maybe have a few friendly ghost standing along the road handing out suckers here and there.
Let us know what the place looks like and maybe you'll get more ideas.Hope these help....good luck.

[howco]

I really dont know all that much about haunts. So as far as an orginal idea sorry cant help you there.

However Larry does send me his mag as a courtesy, and because he does I take the time to look through it. Seems to me you need to get your hands on the one he just put out because it is all about outdoor events and such. It is issue #16 and Im pretty sure you can order it here.

[Motograter]

Try this, I've seen it done before and it works!

Build 2 creepy looking outhouses and put one on each side of the pathway facing eachother. Now inside put a full size skeleton sitting on the pot, looking like, you know lol. Add a cheap toilet paper roll dispenser for added detail. Now what happens is, once the tractor goes by and the weagon is lined up with the outhouses, the skeletons start peeing on the people. Remind you the outhouses had no doors on them. You use a small hose and is placed down in that area of the skeleton. Which is hooked up to a small water pump and a 5 gallon water bucket which is located behind the outhouse and out of view of the guests. You will also need a good battery to power the pump. I believe you can also use a car windsheild washer pump/motor too. You will need 2 actors hiding to activate the water pump. An then afterwards they could jump out and do a BOO scare. 2 scares in one scene.

It's funny and not to scary!!

[Nightmaretony]

Good idea. Already got my 2 country outhouses planned for the cornfield, but that WILL work for the hayride bit of fun. Thankee there

[Debbie]

Help Please

Because Terror on 12's Castle Dread is a family oriented haunt, we have struggled with this problem for years. We discovered that if you consider the heighth of small children, and create funny (casper the ghost-type) things for them to look at and more menacing things at eye level for teenagers and adults, you can pull off a good scare, have the little kids laughing (usually at their mom and dads for screaming) and make 99% of your patrons have an enjoyable experience. The 1% you can't reach, just can't be reached anyway.