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  • Haunted House Urban Legends

    While doing the tour of area Haunted Houses in Memphis, I talked a lot with other haunted house patrons. A lot of people seemed to love the idea of hitting all of the area haunted houses (and I know I gave directions for lots of groups to get to other haunted houses after they had finished one).

    During these discussions, I had three different variations of a story come up (at three different locations), and since Holloween a friend of a friend told the same story. The whole thing made no sense to me at all, but I found it interesting that the "legend" of this haunted house spread so wide. I don't believe it's real, as I wasn't able to confirm anything about it online and I even drove by places it was supposedly supposed to exist. Some of the "facts" from these stories, mixed and matched:

    - Multiple floors
    - Each floor supposed to be scarier as you go up
    - So scary, nobody EVER makes it to the top (and most people don't make it past a couple floors)
    - If anyone makes it all of the way through, they get their money back
    - One story priced it at $50, another at $100
    - One story said it was 13 floors
    - One story said it was in an old closed down hospital
    - One story said it was invitation only (same person who said it was $100)

    Of course none of this made sense to me.
    - Sounds like a big money loser all around.
    - I'd guarantee I'd make it through, so I'm sure others would too. Even if I found out they were really killing patrons on the 13th floor, I'd think it was fake up until the point they did the deed. (So I guess I wouldn't get my money back anyway.)
    - Why spend time on super scary upper floor nobody would see?
    - Haunts are really expensive...13 floors would need A LOT of people
    - Actors on floors nobody would ever get to? How boring would that get?

    So, I'm assuming it's all an urban legend, but it go me wondering if other cities besides Memphis had similar legends of local haunts?
    sigpic

    There are three rules to designing a haunt. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are.

    Website: www.HauntedMidsouth.com
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  • #2
    Heard the samething

    I heard the same thing in part on a Haunt in the Detroit area this year. Wondered, How can they do this as I to would make it all the way to the top floor.

    Maybe I'll try something new next year. Will give a select few $10,000. if they can spend a whole night in my Haunted House. Oh wait!! A guy by the name of Price already tried this.
    On a Haunted Hill .

    jim

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    • #3
      Yes it is an urban legend! We had many people ask at the box office "is this the 13 story haunted house where if you make it through you get your money back?"

      http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/haunted.asp
      Last edited by MindWerxKMG; 12-01-2008, 02:11 PM.
      Kevin
      MindWerxKMG, LLC

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      • #4
        Urban legend haunts

        Same here in Texas -- lots of our people talked about it, but when questioned no one had ever actually been to it. They only knew "friends of friends" who had attended. The rumor around here is that it's either in Dallas, San Antonio or Houston. In Dallas, it's an old wharehouse down town, in San Antonio it's supposed to be an old mental institution, and in Houston it's another office building downtown somewhere.

        We looked it up on snopes.com some time ago, since the whole story seemed to have a lot of seemingly impossible details to be factual. I remember hearing about it when I was a kid growing up in a very small town in Texas......
        "Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
        ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

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        • #5
          In my years of doing HauntedOhio.com I get that question at least once each year. I actually had someone tell me they had been to it but when pressed could not remember where it was at. lol

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          • #6
            Another recent thread on this subject:
            http://hauntworld.com/haunted_house_...searchid=73975

            Howie "Slobber" Erlich
            Deadly Intentions Haunted House
            www.deadlyintentionshaunt.com
            1986-1997 (Mutilation Mansion,) 1998 (Screamers Haunted House,) 1999 (Evil Intention Haunted House,) 2000-2001 Concept Creator/Business Partner (Urban Legends Haunted House,) 2002 Floor Plan Designer and Consultant for a (Haunted Barn) Owners had city challenges & were never able to open, 2002 Floor Plan Designer/Construction (Fright Nights Haunted House) 2003-2012 Now retired Owner (Deadly Intentions Haunted Attraction)

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            • #7
              legend

              W get emails constantly during the season about this legend, especially since we added the 13th Floor as a subtitle to our name.

              In 2007 we had a halloween store sponsor a promotion to "Try to Stay the Night at the Haunted Hotel" for $ 1000. Customers had to go to the store to sign up. They gave away weekely passes and on the 27th Oct, they drew ten names and called them to come get their keys, go to the Haunted Hotel on Sat night at 10 pm, nd have a sleeping bag, pillow, and pajamas ready to stay if their key opened the front door of the Haunted Hotel.

              Three picked up keys and showed up. One girl tried to have her boyfriend do it for her, but we wouldn't allow that. The other two tried their keys, and the one tha worked waited until we closed and we sent eveyone home. Then we took him to a room that was in the center of the haunt, gave him a casket to sleep in and a bucket.

              The crew was given the chance to try to be on the overnight scare crew. The sponsor also agreed that if the crew scared the person out, the crew would split $ 500. At one point in the long night, the kid cried uncle, but recovered himself to stay the rest of the night when we went to lead him out. At dawn, we let him out with a date and time to go to the haloween store for the check, and a picture. (thanks to Kelly Collins at Terror Park for the idea at a previous Midwest Haunters Convention seminar on promotion )




              We have a one hundred dollar reward for anyone giving us the location of said legend.

              And this year, one message almost got the reward. We checked out a report of one in kentucky that did in fact give the money back, but the patrons had to go through the regular haunt to get to the "PANIC ROOM" They have to sign a waiver that they know they could die from trying it.

              If they go through the haunt at $ 10, then they can try the panic room for $ 15. Making it through the panic room, they get the second fee of $ 15 back. And it sounded more like a fear factor event anyways. Rats, spiders and snakes in a coffin with the lid closed. Then eat and drink stuff they got from the nearest meat locker. (NASTY)

              Called the owner and he said in 2007 they had 350 + attempt is with 20 or s getting through. Not bad, 5200 - 150 = 5050 for one room.

              We didn't give the reward because it was not in the legend stroyline really.
              .
              .
              .
              Brett Molitor (aka ~ JamBam) Member of HAA

              Haunted Hotel-13th Floor (est by Huntington Jaycees in 1968 8) )
              Longest running Haunted House in the WORLD!!

              Hysterium Haunted Asylum (old Haunted Cave), Fort Wayne Indiana

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              www.HauntedHuntington.com

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