Darkness Tour / Thanks

[drfrightner]

I wanted to thank everyone who came to the tour, everyone who thanks us for opening for this Haunt Show. We had over 1,300 people walk through last night. Sorry we opened 40 minutes late, but the last group did in fact go through just 2 mintes to midnight. That timed ticketing thing was confusing for the people who bought the pre-tour event. That is really what caused some confusion. Live and learn.

The reason we opened 40 minutes late was because we never had the time to hire and train actors. We were still building the haunted house right up to Saturday night as you could see our new building wasn't even done. Most of those actors had never acted in the Darkness before. Those are not our normal actors, and trying to get them into place when they didn't even know where they are suppose to go was tough.

The actors kept telling me that most of the customers would just stand there and look at stuff. Oh well I hope you enjoyed the haunted house, I hope you loved all the hard work we put into building the haunted house.

It was tough building a new bulding, two new attractions, renovating the existing haunt, and producing two Hauntworld magazines, and installing a bunch of attractions all in four month. Next year we won't have all those problems. The building itself will be done within a month or so, and we'll finish The Darkness and then we'll turn our attention to operations. Next year without all these issues we will be able to focus on operations.

The focus of the tour was the HAUNT ITSELF... I hope you liked it! On the Thursday night tour we had a lot of issues with electric going out, that is why some of it was DARK, eventually we had to have someone stand over there and keep flipping back on breakers. All the electric was new in both buildings... it was still be installing as of Thursday. The following day our electrian came by and fixed the problem, the electrician hooked up more breakers and we didn't have the problem on Saturday.

As we finish it I will update you with more photos as promised weeks ago!

Agan thanks for coming out, and sorry for opening a bit late, I'm sure you've all been through it before.

Thanks
Larry

[SteveR]

Hi Larry -

No worries, I thought it was great and really appreciated you opening up your haunt like you did. We all understand tech problems and actor problems and whatnot, it comes with the territory. Who among us hasn't had those issues!

So tell me when you're next out of town so I can back up a trailer and haul off a few of your completed rooms It would take me decades to even come close to what you've created!

[SomeThingInTheIce]

larry, great haunt! That thing is huge!!!!!

[Grimley]

I have only been to a handful of haunts but here is my take.

First Larry you promised great weather so I want my money back on that one. It felt like Vegas all over again. Freezing my ass off in the wind and rain. Obviously you prayed to the wrong gods so you may want to switch them up.

I am not at all convinced that time ticketing works. It was unanimous that everyone in earshot was in agreement that first come first serve may have worked better. We had 8Pm tickets got there early and still did not get in until after 9pm.

There was no que line entertainment which is something I really wanted to see. There was the one guy out there for a few minutes but even he was smart enough to get out of the cold. The crowd was left to entertain themselves.(Lots of drunk people helped you out there)

My partner was trying to figure out if there was a story or theme to the haunt but we failed to find anything. Maybe the animated character at the beginning was supposed to tell the story but I was not sure as he was out of order.

On the positive side the haunt was the most detailed I have ever seen with the exception of the 13th gate. The crew was professional and did there job very well. The scares were there and we had a very good time. The guys running around in the silicone masks were especially entertaining and were fun to interact with. The little person that was standing in the doll room nearly made me hurt myself as I was flying in the opposite direction. I was walking up to him and pointing out how real looking he was and grabbed for me. I ran all the way back one room. I don't scare easy but that made me loose my shit. He stayed perfectly motionless. If I had the chance I would go again and would recommend the haunt to anyone in the area.

The auction at the end would have been better had it been set from like 6-7pm were everyone could attend. I think you guys would have raised more funds with everyone there. When we got out there was no one there and I didn't even know Rich was auctioning something off.

Thanks to Larry and the cast of the darkness. I hope constructive criticism is allowed.

[Jim Warfield]

Delete the "D",from delete does that leave you elete?
False promotions never fool anyone except the chronically simple.

[Nicole]

We weren't disappointed... and we've been to several big budget haunts such as Netherworld, DreamReapers, Terror on the Fox, etc., and this was on the level and then some (in certain aspects). The only thing that sucked was the wait outside and wishing there was a beer or hot cider/rum salesperson - it was damn cold, the weather of Wisconsin followed us.

Amazing detail, and LOTS of... everything. Starting with the queue line - I've never seen such a detailed queue and it continued to the very end. You can tell a lot of time, detail, money, thought and hard work has gone into the haunt. Placement of scares were great and got the non-haunt spouses in our group. Actors... not on the level of some other haunts as mentioned above, but Larry admits these were actors that were untrained/new and not used to the new layout. We enjoyed actors such as the guy who worked the line, the girl in the playground room, the little actor who said "daddy" got our guys in our group to jump back 10 feet, and the awesome interactive/improv actor in the "plant room" - otherwise, you can tell some of the actors where thrown off by all of us being clinical throughout the entire thing. If this was the first time for some of their actors, they were literally thrown into the fire - would you want to be a first-time haunt actor playing to the toughest crowd ever - seasoned haunters? Had to cut them a break here. The length of the haunt was great - we were expecting less time inside and it seemed to go on and on.

The talk on our ride back was - are we glad we went? Consensus was YES.

[actiondeath]

Larry, this thread sounds like an apology. I wasn't there, but I'm sure you and your crew did your best. Don't be so hard on yerself, man! Stuff happens.

Reviewers should spend less money on web hosting and design, travel, and admission costs and start saving for that AMAZING haunt that they're going to build. One that is flawless in every way with only the most elaborate sets and costuming. One with only the best, most expensive props and only adult actors who have been haunting for 10+ years.

Do the work. Make your unbiased opinions mean something. Otherwise it's just a bunch of words strung together.

[Kevin Dells]

It really is too bad myself and Svenpuss couldn't have made it to TW this year sounds like Larry could have used some seasoned actors to rock the place!

I do want to also add that as an actor thats worked 3 TW open haunts(1 at Rockford Screamfest & 2 at dreamreapers) it is next to impossible to scare owners it's a fact, you entertain them if at all possible. I even recall Ken Spriggs sharing how many times people of the haunt community have let his staff down by how drunk and unruly they can be. Im pretty sure i just read a mention of drunk people in line.

Im very curious as to where the Darkness's haunt crew was?
If they are one of the Top Haunts in America you would think they would be there to represent!

I know for a fact that Screamfest brought in extra's to add to our already 100+(Thank you 11th hour crew)

And i also know every year Dream Reapers held it we fought over spots because there were so many of us,not literally fought!

Don't know Larry maybe this is a lesson learned? Maybe don't invest so much into decor and props and more into your people or at least try to hit a midway blend of the two.

Bottom line is haunts are great because people within in them scare the daylights out of you, if you don't have that all you have is a place that looks pretty with no scare. Thats not one of the nations topped ranked haunts in my book no matter what time of year it is, Crew is Crew is Family and you all have each others backs all year long!

That explains all the people in costume walking the TW aisles, their CREWS! Should have offered them some pizza thats all we ever asked for to help out.

God Love the Haunt family!

[Jim Warfield]

The more money you pay for something, the more you expect from it.

Over the years I have terrorised the livid crap out of some haunt owners, I am always embarrassed for them when this happens. What got them? Usually very simple things that cost under $1.oo.
One of them flew backwards about 15 feet across the room when he went to open a coffin and I put my hand on top of his at the edge of the lid!
Seeing grown adult haunters fall flat on their butts because I scared them by making a face and they think I'm a hideous mannquin really takes the old "cake".
I will never forget the owner of a very large haunt saying," Nobody can scare me." Then the cardboard cut-out doll made him dance and spin, arms and elbows elevated looking for ...something?
"Oh, you got me, you got me!" He freely admitted.

[Kevin Dells]

The more money you pay for something, the more you expect from it.

Over the years I have terrorised the livid crap out of some haunt owners, I am always embarrassed for them when this happens. What got them? Usually very simple things that cost under $1.oo.
One of them flew backwards about 15 feet across the room when he went to open a coffin and I put my hand on top of his at the edge of the lid!
Seeing grown adult haunters fall flat on their butts because I scared them by making a face and they think I'm a hideous mannquin really takes the old "cake".
I will never forget the owner of a very large haunt saying," Nobody can scare me." Then the cardboard cut-out doll made him dance and spin, arms and elbows elevated looking for ...something?
"Oh, you got me, you got me!" He freely admitted.

Yes but have you ever been tackled by a Haunt Owners wife!!
Been there done that,scared her so bad coming out of my cage she took my butt OUT!
Screamfest 2003 oh the memory's of that night! If i remember right i never went home that night i slept in a coffin in the cemetary.