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A Question about Building a Maze

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  • A Question about Building a Maze

    I am new to the world of haunting. I did not realize there was such a following. I am organizing a haunted house this year for the first time. I would like to have a maze in one section of the haunted house. How effective are they and does anyone have any suggestions on how to build one?

  • #2
    This is my second year to run a haunt, so I'm kinda new too. We do an outdoor trail and are doing a clown maze as one of our stations this year. I can't tell you how effective it will be, but I'll try to explain how we're building it.

    I found a simple maze to copy and am scaling it to size - we are recycling one of our "building" fronts from last year - 16 feet wide. We're dropping our landscape timbers (great to recycle these - a million uses) a foot or so in the ground and connecting with 2x4's. We'll cover this with a black cloth that was donated. The cloth walls won't extend all the way to the ground to allow the fog to circulate. I've collected four interior doors from Lowe's salvage that will also go in the maze. We'll have the clowns behind the doors and in the dead-ends.

    Here's the plans for the fog chiller, though I haven't tried it yet:
    http://www.geocities.com/liemavick/Fogchiller.html

    Don't know if any of this will help, but I wish you luck.

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    • #3
      we do a "maze" but its not like the type with dead ends. we have a high flow of traffic so having dead ends would back up traffic too much. We have a maze with one path with lots of twists and turns. Last year it was pitch black with creppy sounds coming from speakers throughout the maze. this year we are doing a black light maze with a circus theme to it. Mazes work well.

      Sean
      Sean De Wane
      ----------------------------------------------
      The De Wane Asylum
      www.dewaneasylum.com

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      • #4
        Thanks for the help. We are using an old school house that has a gymnasium in the center with stage areas on each side at an elevated height. We are having the maze on one side of the gym. The people who have the old building have turned the gym floor into a skate park. The maze will end at one of the skateboard ramps which will require people sliding down the ramps into the next "room" of the haunted house. Some of you seem to have years of experience doing this. Does anyone have any feedback as to possible hazards?

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        • #5
          Maze's work well if you use them correctly!! You need to have an idea of your traffic flow. If your going to be pushing large groups through back to back, you don't need to have dead ends! You will cause more harm than good, you don't want your patrons stumbling over each other. I use the maze for disorentation "spelling ?", the ability to take a person who is familiar with a particular place and twisting and turning them, so they don't know which way is up! It's a key way to start touching on peoples fears, by making them uncomfortable! make the hallways tight, but not to tight with our large society, you dont want to have to cut a wall out to rescue someone!! also use flame retardant materials or spray your material with a fire retardant!! "DO NOT USE BLACK PLASTIC!!!" black plastic is an easy way out for a lot of home haunters however in the case of the worst happening, the forbidden word "fire" black plastic causes a heavy black smoke which can keep people from getting out!! We have also installed hidden doors throughout our maze which allows for a straight path out in case of an emergency.

          the skateboard ramp is risky, not knowing your lighting situation or your design. I would have to say probably not a good idea!! You could make it work if you slope the ceiling down and force people onto their hands and knee's. You don't want someone to get startled before the ramp and take off running and miss the ramp hitting the ground hard!

          Key to a haunt is good safety measure's!!! keep everyone as safe as you can. This will help keep the Haunt industry booming!! And there are ways to do it and still get the scare of a lifetime!!

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          • #6
            I've worked for multiple haunts in the past that made mazes. I can tell you this, the mazes with dead ends in them caused a lot of back ups and made 2 or 3 separate groups now one large group. Then that large group would continue the rest of the house like that. The people in the back of the group "15-20 people" not enjoying them selfs anymore people the people in the front of the line ruined the surprise.
            I would suggest making a dark dark maze with a lot of twists and turns. Add in a couple actors here and there and some music if you want too.
            ~Bill Mlinac
            The Deadland Haunted House
            www.facebook.com/Deadlandhauntedhouse
            www.Thedeadland.comsigpic

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