Room / Scare Ideas

[rwrussom]

Alright folks I need some input. It looks like I may be going with a partner and have to make some concessions. My designs are integrally themed with a linear story line. My partner does not come at it from the same view point. Hed igs that prop or this scare and wants to throw them together. That wont fly for me, so I have to weave his desires into a complete concept that works together. He really has a hard on for Oak Island's claustrophobia and a magoot room he saw in Vegas two years ago. So it looks like the tried and true "Phobias" theme will carry the day here.

I am looking for some fresh ideas on phobia rooms and scares

Looking forward to all your creativity

[DarkTikiEntertainment]

You could have a needle room (many people are afraid of shots). Maybe a room filled with bio waste for the germ-a-phobes? You could have a room filled with women in wedding dresses holding babies, for those guys with commitment phobia... ha ha.

[Jim Warfield]

The Two Most Common fearfull concerns

"What is under the ground"
"What is under the water." ?

Answers could be " the Dead" "Zombies" "Tunneling Monsters" "The World's Largest Toe-Jam collection' "The Devil"
Submarines-Gillman-Sharks-Atlantis-Very strange fish-nuclear waste-really, really deep water.

The third most common fearfull concern
"What is making that squishy sound inside the back of my pants? And can anyone else hear it?

All haunted entertainment concerns itself with phobias. The dark,strangers waiting for you in that dark,spiders, snakes, foreigners,tight spaces, basements, attics, unidentified sounds,unidentified touching upon your very personal body!!!
"IF YOU TOUCH ME I'LL SUE YOU!"
"Well, I was going to lightly drag a feather across the back of your neck, but after hearing this I'm trading the feather for a Louisville Slugger, might as well make it count!"

[Allen H]

Personally If you take the experiences as experiences and forget their name and the current context they are used in you could easily work them into a theme. As an example If you had a haunted house that was actually house themed then I would set up claustrophobia in a child's bedroom closet, start them going through two rows of clothes that get closer together until that leads right into the claustrophobia as if it were just a tight spot in the closet, at the end have the clothes again to carry that thought, At the show the maggot room does not have much of a theme, but set dress the room like it is a kitchen pantry and then the maggots have a reason, turn the hanging heads into hanging hams or turkeys. just because there is not much creativity in the trade show walk through does not mean you cant have it when you use the effect. I like to think of effects as colors of paint, yellow can be used in a kitchen , bathroom, or living room. do not let the way they display their product limit your perception of it.
On to your original question...phobias
Roaches, people hate them.
I hate to say it, but......clowns.
I have always wanted to do a needle room like it was a ball pit.............
Ok a $1,000,000 Idea here some one has to do it
Think of oak islands claustrophobia, the new waist high version, but the air bags are see thru "needle disposal" themed bags full of syringes, lit with a blueish light from underneath. Im willing to bet that would make people freak out big time. Vendors feel free to run with it. I would love to see someone make one of these.
tell me that would not be wicked awesome.
Good luck with the show,
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

Allen..

You're just needling him because he came asking for ideas. Of course he didn't specify whether he needed a idea worth $10,000 or one worth a million dollars.
...lets put fins on cars, right over the rear wheels. This should make them look like they are really going fast when they aren't even moving!

[ghost37]

another take on claustrophobia or small spaces. Have moving walls - when the patrons walk down a hallway, the walls and ceiling start to move in (as if they are going to be trapped)

[Badger]

I've always had an idea for a room completely dark and silent (maybe with a low hum) and have a character with night vision goggles and a fishing pole with a jelly worm on the end torment the customers as they try to make their way through. Perhaps coming out of a Claustrophobia into a room like this? Patrons must make their way down a narrow dark hall or along rails while the character is messing with them.

I know it would freak out a LOT of people...

[Waken]

Lost

Anyone ever thought of a "Lost" themed room or hall? Where you walked through the jungle and to a temple facade all the while you keep hear whispers. Then out of a crack in the facade a Smoke monster appears. If anyone does this let me know I will be at your haunt tomorrow!

[Jim Warfield]

Moving Walls can pinch

And even severe fingers!
Some farmboy JCs not too far from here drove the tractor right up to the side of the old house, disconnected the hydralic cylinders, keeping the hoses hooked up and this was the motive power to move their wall they built back and forth.
Since a tractor hydralic can lift a very heavy bucket of dirt (or manure) , just maybe they had enough power to kill someone if someone pushed the wrong lever?
Severed finger, yes it happened at a spinning moving wall situation I was told by a haunter who was there at the time.
If a wall is going to move it had better be moving slowly and with much caution having numerous safety concerns in place.
Then I heard about a moving wall that simply fell flat into the floor and became part of the floor!
Resetting this might have been alot of work. It would have to be built solid enough to take people walking over it, so it would be somewhat heavy.

[JamBam]

severed finger

The severed finger comment brings back a memory from old. We had a JC member that was a farmer and worked in the parts dept of the local tractor dealer. He had lost a finger in a gear sprocket. He told a gruesome story of how it happened and sounded, as well as how he had to wait for the sprocket to turn far enough around to free his hand and go get help.

Well, when he worked the haunted house, he brought his finger with him. It was kept in a jar of formaldahyde. Looked better than any prop I have seen at any show or catalog. He would show the partons his hand, make some comments, the kids would say he was bending over and had him figured out. He would then turn his hand and show them it was missing and then bring the jar with his finger in it out to show them. They scattered pretty fast.

He was a lot of fun. One night after a haunting, he was a the bar and bet someone he could drink a shot of jack through his nose. He did it, but was feeling it for a couple of days through his sinuses.

He later was elected county commissioner, too. lol

[Jim Warfield]

More finger Storys

A 12 yr. old came through my house one winter and he survived my "Finger-chop" routine, he returned later in that year with his parents. When I tried to do the routine on him again he fought me pretty hard . I said, "What's the big deal? You got ten fingers!"
He said, "I got five!"
"You got ten."
I got five!!"
"No, you have ten fingers."
Then he pulled back the sleeve of his coat, held his hand in my face, "I got five!"
He only had a total of five fingers.
I felt like whale shit. Nothing lower than that.

Another time I was storytelling telling some people that a woman got a finger cut off going through the house. We found it, rushed her to the hospital, they sewed it back on...then we noticed it was a large grey-looking finger!?
That was the finger that the drunken hog farmer had lost the week before!
"Seeew-wee!"
HAHAHAHHA!