Hands on shoulders, waists or holdng a chain?

[robert]

What's the recent take from Haunters who have been using the "Hands on shoulders, waist, blowmolded chain or rope" for groups of 4 to 6 guests. Looking for Pros and Cons on using this method these days. In the past it has worked extremely well in regulating group speed and reactions to gags. Please nothing hypothetical, just what you have experienced. Thanks.

[Mr Nightmarez]

If a group of 4 come together they will stay together if 2 groups of 2 come - they won't.

If you get a group of 10 or 12 they will try to slow down or scare the other group or speed up.

Placement of 'pushers' or flow control personnel is the best solution IMO.

But each person, group, place is different... as Rich Hanf always says : "Get your scare and get out of there" - well unless you are part of flow control... we use everything from plastic barrels to backs turned and elbows spread... Some nights this is impossible - but when we can we try to keep them spread for the sake of the haunt.

I've seen the shoulder technique work but unless you have some very dark or completely dark locations - this won't happen. But as I said - my opinion...

[robert]

Thanks Mr. N. Sounds like good advice. Anybody else with "in the trenches" stories. When I've seen it in action most groups have had a tendency to keep their pace slow which is what I need. (Unless it's a really busy night)

[Gahaunter]

Chain....

It worked fairly well for Terror On Church Street in the years it was open. Harder to enforce if the group doesn't know each other but still do-able. If it's a group of friends they are more likely to hold on to each other anyway.

[FablesStudios]

Rope..

There was a haunt back in the day (10years or so) that used rope. there was about 8-10 people going thru at a time. It worked out well. kept everyone togther and kept them moving thru the rooms. I think it is good if you have larger groups going thru, but not needed if you are sending 2-4 at a time. Use actors to regulate the flow and room designs. Hope this helped.

Peter T
Fables Studios

[RJ Productions]

We've used the "Shoulder Method" since day one. We have no problem with people complying and it has probably saved us thousands in damaged props and actor injuries. Added benefit is that when one person is scared, they react and since they are "linked" they tend to help scare the others in the group. Trick is to set it up in your intro. Depending on your theme, you are asking the people to "link together" to protect them from the spirits, zombies, werewolves, vampires or what ever "threat" your attraction posses.

I know of several haunts that have used ropes or chains, but I would be worried about putting something in the patrons hands. They could swing it, smack each other, someone drops their ends and others trip over it, especially if you have a final scare where the potential is to run out.... Then you also have to collect the rope and return it to the front.. Shoulders..."hands down" !!!

[robert]

Just noticed that in the promos for Lyton Harris' Universal's "Mummy" theme park haunt that they are using the hands on shoulders method. It looked like it was working rather well.