What do you consider to be in BAD TASTE?

[Reverend Colt]

Gore doesn't bother me to do. One of the things that prompted me to start this discussion was a haunt I heard about when i was in college. It was during the Jeffrey Dohmer trial and somebody opened up a haunt around Greenville, SC (I think) call Jeffrey Dohmer's Kitchen. I just remember them getting thwacked pretty hard by the media and me thinking it was a great name for a haunt. I don't know... maybe that was in bad taste for the current time but I thought it was brilliant.

I was on the House of Shock website the other day and saw a lady's costume with a presumably dead baby still attached to it's embiblical cord coming from her. I remeber thinking that it wasa great costume but I wouldn't do it in my place. I guess it was just one step over the line for me. It did look good though... in that twisted sort of way.

[Greg Chrise]

I'll bet all the "bad" Press did them some good. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was called Jeffery Dohmer's COUNTRY Kitchen or Cafe. I'm sure like anything else the story got twisted and expanded upon beyond belief and this stuck sick chords in so many. It is all still sick to be identifying with directly. Maybe J.D.'s Halloween Country Cafe and only the really intent on knowing get the full name. Ya wanna know a secret?

[Jim Warfield]

Instead of a carry-out food part of such a J.D. Country Kitchen, it would be a walk-in, since the "food" would be walking in , under their own power.
Very suspicious when no meat delivery trucks ever pull up to the back door.
Maybe 20 years ago a Super Valu refrigerated semi full of meat was found to have a human carcass swing with the beef ones. I guess he had been a foreman in the place they had made their last pick up?
(He hadn't been too popular of a guy , I guess?)

[Reverend Colt]

Ya wanna know a secret?

I'll bite. Whatcha got?

[Greg Chrise]

Ya wanna know a secret is the line directed at the customers and they will perhaps be just as intrigued and want to know more. Enter the story line the details that begin the word of mouth spreading of the secret.

[Jim Warfield]

"Pssst! Wanna know a secret? I'm quickly approaching the serial-killer all-time record for bodys hidden in an attic, wish me luck! Guiness Records?"

[drfrightner]

Anything to do with real life murders such as a Jeff Dalhmer kitchen, blah, blah.

Larry

[Davey J]

My issue with real-world themes such as Dahmer, et al, is twofold:

First, as others have stated before, such an approach can hit too "close to home" for a lot of your guests. I'd say it takes a generation or two before such a thing becomes "safe"--for example, the Titanic and Jack the Ripper have sort of morphed from being real tragedies into folklore.

My second issue with using modern, real-world themes is that it can be viewed as taking the easy way out. My question to those using Dahmer and similar imagery would be, "could you not have come up with something equally as sinister, yet fully original, on your own?" Picking your storyline directly from the headlines strikes me, quite frankly, as a bit lazy.

Just my thoughts...

[Jim Warfield]

"Lazy"?
So if my character creation was Alfred E. Neuman, centerfold of MAD Magazine , recently found to be a secret serial-killer AND the son of actor Paul Neuman, this wouldn't rate as creative enough?
(He hid the body parts in his Dad's salad dressings!)

[Davey J]

Hey, I like that... I'm always up for some good parody, sounds good to me!

And I admit that "lazy" may have been a bit of a strong choice of words in my post above.

How about "lacking in creativity" instead?