Dead Acres!

[texaschainsaw]

anyone who thinks the shotgun scene is "over the top" is a puss. its one of the best ones we have and gets a reaction out of the vast majority of the crowd. nice job on the vid by the way.

[xxdeathmagikxx]

I worked in that skit. Very fast pacing music came on, along with strobes, and i came out with a chainsaw, i had fun in that skit. Now for people saying its a bit over the edge? I really dont think so, i got to watch alot of reactions to the skit, about 90 percent cheered along with my dude eric, saying "DO IT! BLOW UR HEAD OFF! DO IT!" Alot of people were like that, i dont think i seen anyone get sad over it, its FAKE people. I know where you people are coming from though. But if u do go to deadacres.com there is this little "parental advisory, explict contents" Now, if i was a parent and i seen that, i would get to thinking a little bit and be like, hmm? should i take my children to see this show? Oh, and when we say were the most extreme haunted house, were not playing around. So people should think about that. But to each their own. If u dont like our skit, then dont come through pretty plain and simple. We posted videos of the suicide skit months before we opened. Just dont come if u dont want to see a guy blow his brains out.



im bad on punctuation and shit like that. sorry.

[Tater]

anyone who thinks the shotgun scene is "over the top" is a puss. its one of the best ones we have and gets a reaction out of the vast majority of the crowd. nice job on the vid by the way.

Nice way to lump everyone together. Coming in a forum and saying that just because they don't agree with your scene makes them a puss. We all realize that it is a skit, but sometimes it hits closer to home then others. You wouldn't have a skit of someone getting raped would you? So before you think about coming back in here and calling everyone a puss again sit back and think about what others have gone threw and lived, because sometimes people go to haunted houses to escape reality.

[Jim Warfield]

If I had just a dollar for each person that I have met who had serious problems even thinking about entering a haunted attraction.........
The rest of us might laugh and say something like, "What do you mean?" and we can say this because of the level of confidence that we have compared to theirs, confidence and sometimes basic calmness.
People are different, some fears we are born with but other fears came via other not so normal or fun ways.
A much higher percentage of women express them and are victim to these fears but men have them too.
The child who was tortured physically or emotionally, not feeling enough love in this life has a much harder time achieving any level of confidence and calm.
I love those customers who can scream then laugh about it, not everyone can do this.
As children some were subjected to incredible fear by others draging them into a haunted house attraction. As adults they never got over it. Is this "funny"?
It doesn't matter what anyone thinks it is , it isn't pleasant or funny to them, the victim.
I first encountered this years ago when I was in the JCs doing their haunt, why would a 30 year old adult be afraid of any simple little mask?
They have their reasons whether they seem reasonable to the rest of us or not.
If you take the time (As I have done many times) and relate to them, talk to them, hear them, eventually they may share their storys with you. Most of these debillitaitng fears come from childhood from the hands of Dad, Step-Dad, older Brother, the JC chainsaw man, and guess what haunters? You will never see another ticket purchased by that person ever again.
Does this sound like a succesfull, viable business plan? Lose paying customers every year?
If you are reading this and you and your business are fine with that, then so be it, no problem.
Dealing with customers and potential customers every night of the year for going on 20 years now has educated me to these concerns as has also needing to make my living from getting the whole van full of family memebers buying a ticket and staying in the house for the tour, being pleased (and maybe impressed?) and coming back again someday.
Yes, it's a "Rush" an ego-thing to scare somebody, lots of fun..as long as it is recieved in the true spirit that it should be given, simply a thrill that can be enjoyed and laughed about later.

[bhays]

If you take the time (As I have done many times) and relate to them, talk to them, hear them, eventually they may share their stories with you. Most of these debilitating fears come from childhood from the hands of Dad, Step-Dad, older Brother, the JayCee chainsaw man, and guess what haunters? You will never see another ticket purchased by that person ever again.

You make an excellent point, Jim. And I agree with you. Every season we see clueless parents come through pushing their child out in front of monsters so they can be scared, and you can tell the child is being traumatized...same situation with girlfriends, etc.

The question is, how do we handle these situations? During the non-Halloween season, you have plenty of time to talk to these people. For most of us, there's no time to talk to these folks and single them out. And it never fails that the one person who is losing it is in the middle of a group of 5 or 6 other patrons who deserve the 'full show'. Do we cheat 5 other customers?

I have never been to your show in October, so I don't know how you change the tour during the busy times (I assume it has to be drastically different). However, for those of us with a less theatrical, high startle attraction it would seem we are relatively helpless to do anything about these folks.

And in the end, is it really a wash? Most of the people who would be impacted in this fashion would probably never be a customer again anyway...except for the kids who are just plain too young and we try to discourage that. But the same parents who will shove them through the haunt will raise hell with your staff for telling them their child is too young...so maybe it's better to get the money one time than never...tough situation.

[Jim Warfield]

Yes my tour is different in those busy October weekends, I only can do a 10 to a 15 minute front room routine then helpers take them the rest of the way through the house.
I always turn on the big 300 watt light in the middle of the ceiling and make eye-contact with everyone in the room as I tell them some more essential things they need to know concerning getting through the house.
As they file passed me into the next room and to the hands of my helpers I also make a point of saying "Thank you for coming here."
This way everyone should know who I am and that it is my house and any complaints (or compliments?) can be given to me, or my wife.
When real busy I do not have the time to talk to someone who is extremely afraid outside of the front door, if they end up too afraid inside the house rather than ruin the show for everyone else we will move that person to the next room where it is much more well-lit, while my wife trys to console them before their group hits the second room (kitchen)
Surprisingly, many times this terrified kid chooses to be taken ahead of the tour and allowed to scare the members of their own group! How About That!!?
Too terrified to go through the big old nasty "HAUNTED HOUSE!?"
Give them the opportunity to be a "Haunter" and everything often changes!!

AMAZING isn't it?

I know some people who were terrified of say, "Zombies" as a kid, had terrible nightmares about them..and now as an adult they dress up like a Zombie every October!
Maybe those formerly terrified kids that graduate from victim to haunter from our kitchen can overcome their fears and have some haunting fun? We can only hope for everyone's sake.

[damon carson]

Ya Ive done this before too Jim. Showing them the other side can help! Letting someone who is scared do the scaring actually lets them see there really isnt anything to be affraid of.
Damon

[Jim Warfield]

That is usually true, Damon but remember this house is "Haunted" and sometimes "someone" does the scary deed before my helper or Jessica can get to the location!
Several times when this happens the helper or Jessica simply retreats and go away from that place.(alittle scared)
They know the scare happened because they can hear the customers make remarks concerning what just happened...even though nobody (in a fleshed out body), was there!
This is a special house with some ocassionally "special" helpers.

..then there was the time a year ago when as I was talking to the group I was thinking what I should have been doing to scare one particulair person who was standing too far away from me too far to even begin to touch, when she jerked and exclaimed that someone had just touched her on her elbow! ...the spot I had been staring at for 90 seconds, thinking about touching but couldn't for numerous reasons.
I have some good help here.
The lights never shut off and nobody was near this woman, yet it happened.......Thanks, good work.

Or maybe I just have the power to think about something and make it happen?
I tried this experiment several times when the room would go completely dark, I quit trying it ..because the only person's pants that ever fell down were always mine!