Scare or Detail

[drfrightner]

Let me off another point here...

First off I will say yet again...ANYONE CAN MAKE A SCARY HAUNTED HOUSE. If you can scare your mother, your wife, your brother, in your house for example...they don't know you're there you jump out, or you sneak up on someone, blah, blah you can scare anyone, anytime. Scaring people is nothing new...we've all done at one time or another, be it in our home, in the movies, or where ever.

I will say that is is getting harder and harder to scare people. As haunts have become more popular and haunts copy each others idea's the customer has become more keen than ever before about such things as drop pictures, etc.

Still a good actor is 90% of the game...that actor can either do it or he can't. You could have a haunted house with NO drop pictures, no secret doors, nothing and that actor would still scare people.

With that being said, let me make my last point.

If you have one of those haunted houses that lack detail, thats filled to the brim with black mazes and cheesy scenes you're haunted house is truely lacking scare potentional and I'll tell you why.

Wihtout DETAIL your haunt will NEVER live up to the scare because you have no distractions. If your customers are walking through cheesy black hallways, or no solid eye candy then you have no distractions.

If you customers are walking through a highly detailed haunt, checking out all the cool scenes, and detail, and scares are cleverly hidden away within that detail you'll be more effective at the scare.

If an actor jumps out of a trunk, and that trunk is part of an attic scene, so that trunk just looks like an old trunk amoung a bunch of other old jumk tucked away and cobwebbed up attic your customers are scanning the entire room because everything in that room looks like it should...nothing out of place.

You'll get a more effective scare...period.

If you have one of those haunts that lack the detail, lack the right atmophere you're missing the key ingrediant to scare people.

I will say yet again...if your haunted house lacks the detail you're probably not doing the business that another haunt is doing that does.

No one can dispute that the best looking haunts do most of the business. So again without that detail you're doing the haunt with no real potential of doing big business. Unless you do big business you can't have more fun...meaning build cooler stuff, by more animations, or whatever.

See a lot of people are starting to confuse me with someone who just wants to make money.

RIGHT AND WRONG.

Right: I have a retire someday, I have to support my kids, pay my bills like everyone else. I want to buy certain things to make life better.

WRONG: I'm the biggest kid in this industry, I love toys, I love creating new things. I love to spend money and making cool things in our haunt...for me thats the most fun aspect of this business.

When you do a good business you can afford yourself more money to create yourself a better attraction...period.

Take it from me without a high level of detail you will NOT get the customers period.

Imagine this...play Resident Evil video game with only scares, no cool rooms or monsters? Woudl anyone buy that video game HELL NO!!!

One thing for sure about this thread I really have found the debate entertaining, hearing everyones opinions.

Larry[/code]

[frightwire.com]

I'd say both Scare and Detail are equally important. I've been to attractions that have lots of great scares and no eye candy at all, I've also been to attractions where every square inch of the place was covered down to the smallest detail, but no scares were present.

Most of the time the smaller haunts who don't have a large budget will be the places with lots of scares, but not much in the way of props or special effects. These are also the places who over use the easy scares. Drop windows are ok every now and then, but after 2 or 3 they just get annoying.

On the other side is the Haunts who have a huge budget, but absolutely no idea how to scare. I was recently in Orlando on business and had the chance to attend a haunt called Skull Kingdom. I had drove by the place dozens of times but never had the chance to stop until now. I figured since it was literally within a mile or so of Universal Studios that it had to be pretty good to still be in business. This place was covered in detailed work, from floor to ceiling. But the trip through the attraction proved to be more like a walk through a museum than a haunted attraction. It was all glorious to look at, but there wasn't anything there to scare anyone. I think there was one or maybe two people inside the entire attraction. To me this just proves that detail isn't everything. You can put as much detail in a haunt as your wallet or bank will allow, but if its not scary then its not fun.

To pick between Scare and Detail is to settle mediocre. While mediocre is better than nothing, its not very impressive by definition.

[HauntedWebby]

I'd say both Scare and Detail are equally important. I've been to attractions that have lots of great scares and no eye candy at all, I've also been to attractions where every square inch of the place was covered down to the smallest detail, but no scares were present.

The haunts with lots of detail and no scares ... I call them Museum haunts. It's like walking a guided tour because most of the time they are trying to push so many people through that the groups are almost literally walking on top of each other

I think a good balance of both is needed.

[Vascul]

50/50

I'd say that eye candy can set up an actor for a good scare. On the other hand an actor can scare someone into a set with lots of eye candy. Then the set or theme of the set can take over. Now another actor at the end of the set can be set up to scare again. See a patern. I think that you need both, but your show is only as good as your actors. :twisted:

David "Vascul" Duarte
Haunted Houes Actor
Make-up Artist

[Jim Warfield]

Over all the many years that I've had my house open for tours, I have heard many say that my house is similar to "a museum".
I have also heard many of them scream.
I think maybe some of them are afraid that THEY might be becoming a part of a display in "My Museum!"
Remember those words of wisdom from that car commercial:"Parts is Parts!"
"Jim, I'll come over and lend you a hand doing something, sometime."
No need, look in that big drawer, I've got so many spare hands now that I spend four hours a week just trimming nails."
Last night on another forum a guy admitted that even though he'd been to maybe as many as 15 professional haunts before he saw mine, he was still unnerved and actually scared when he toured through here!
He said something like the house and "Me" worked well together to make him very unsettled. He was glad to get out alive!
I took this as a terrific compliment! I'll have to thank him next time by killing him! hahahah! S L O W L Y, of course!

[John Coen]

I think I'll sell Eye Candy in my concession stand this year.

[Jim Warfield]

Don't forget the eye-napkins for those tears running down the cheeks when some glutton hogs everything down too fast.
"The Eyes have it, the vote is in favor of darker sunglasses for all of us Vampires."
Cyclops says, "What about me?"
"Here, a pirate-patch is the best that I can do right now."
"It is real dark trying to see through it too!"
"So "Cy" what was your score on you S.A.T. test?"
"Shucks, I've known how to sit for years, I didn't even have to study nuthing!"

[John Coen]

I'll make sure I have lots of eye candy so I can mention it in my advertising!

[drfrightner]

John,

We're coming out with a new product that you might be interested...

GLOW EYE CANDY. You just snap them and you have instant glowing eye candy to sell to your customers.

I'll let you know when it's ready!!!!

Thanks
Larry

[Jim Warfield]

But does this product cause impotency in sterile rats?
Will the product's final destination be all -aglow after it hits the water?
Who needs the lights on in the bathroom anymore?
What's the trade secret? Mashed up lightning bugs or radioactive waste?
Gotta be one or the other, right? hahahah!

[John Coen]

And should your food really glow?

[Speculo]

A few thoughts -

First - Some guests will always tell you how much better/scarier your haunt is than other local haunts. Face it, you all hear how bad/lame the other haunts are from your guests, and other haunts hear the same about you. You screw up when you start believing it.

Second - Polite haunters will aways praise your haunt to your face, no matter what they may think or say later. Haunters with a bit of ego they have difficulty restraining, will often say that guests think thier haunt is scarier than yours (see #1) and they will tell this to anyone who will listen.

Third - It is always easier to scare small groups/small crowds than big ones. Likewise It is easier to impress people with all the cool stuff you can buy/build once you have the revenue from big crowds.

Fourth - If you think you are the best you need to get a clue. You can always learn from other haunts, large or small, and only hearing the good or bad about your event will make you blind to reality.

Fifth - Really dangerous is scarier, but not worth it!

Sixth - Every individual, on every trip through a haunt has a different experience. No matter what you do, some people will love it and some will hate it. (Too scared/Not Scared enough/ Actor was funny/actor was rude/ lost cell phone/found new girlfriend etc.)

Scare or Detail it is not always really a choice. We all want our haunt to have as much fear and spectacle as we can get into it (unless we don't care about the product) The only thing that limits any of us is the time the money, the size of the crowds, the limits of our space and the skill of our crew.

If you really want to know what haunts are doing it right, find the ones that grow every year, that many people attend, that strive to improve/change the guest experience, that stand the test of time. We all have our critics and supporters, but in life as well as haunting, success may depend on how you define it, but the vote of the masses is pretty easy to measure.


Ben Armstrong
NETHERWORLD

[Jim Warfield]

I am in total agreement with you , Ben.

My haunt must have an excellant reputation as a good place to cruise for chicks, at least this is what many of my former October employees seemed to think ("former")
The limits of my work crew here is only limited by the 90 degree positive square bend in Mr. Tuxedo's measuring tail! (He can lay out a level line with too that beats any laser!)
Of course getting him to actually work and do anything, except cruise for chicks, is another impossibility in and of itself!
So for all of these years I am sweating and working here while Mr. Tuxedo and his advisor, some guy named I.M. satan Jr. just sit there telling one another stories and smoking cigars!
Catnip cigars for Tuxedo.

[Frank Weidman]

well put

Very good advice Ben, Thanks!

Frank

[HauntedWebby]

Over all the many years that I've had my house open for tours, I have heard many say that my house is similar to "a museum".

Does that make you the Cillator or your museum? :wink:

I think your haunt is one of the more unique ones Jim ... it's a little of every discipline when it comes to haunting. :twisted:

Second - Polite haunters will aways praise your haunt to your face, no matter what they may think or say later. Haunters with a bit of ego they have difficulty restraining, will often say that guests think thier haunt is scarier than yours (see #1) and they will tell this to anyone who will listen.

If a "haunter" (not guest) came to my haunt and started in on the praise.. I'd be looking around and think to myself 'what haunt did they just go through?' ... lol. I love to haunt I'm just not very good at it I just updated my site with a picture gallery (lazarusmaze.com) and I have to admit I don't have a lot to show after 12 years of doing this ... how sad ... but at least I know and I don't delude myself :wink: