Who Truly has the Largest Haunted House?

[Tartarus]

I would like to know who truly has the worlds largest haunted house. After doing some simple reseach i discovered that there many haunts that claim to be the worldest largets. I know Erebus holds the guiness book or world record for longest walk thru, but is it correct? If so they need to start sueing all the haunts out there that make this false claims. In fact there are three haunted houses within 50 miles of each other near Dallas texas that claim to be the largest.

Here are a few i found:

TX:
Cutting Edge Haunted House(who's articale inspired me to post this after reading it)
Boneyard Haunted House
Choas Haunted House

MI:
Erebus

CA:
Haunted Bay

[BarbieHaunt]

It absolutely must be that 10-story haunt that if you make it all the way through, you get a full refund. I've heard it's in Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta, etc.

Nobody I know has seen it themselves but somebody in their family or else their friend has seen it, or they at least know somebody who knows somebody who has. I've even heard they move it every year to make it more difficult to find. Obviously kidding!

I have no idea which haunt is truly the largest and I'm guessing it depends on your definition of size (by building square footage, by walking distance, by perimeter, etc.), which may be why so many are claiming to be largest, possibly by varying measures.

Also, are you talking about individual haunts within haunted attractions, or the entire attractions? It seems it would be very difficult to determine, but Ben of Netherworld and others here have seen many and would likely have a good idea out of those they have seen.

[UnDeRTaKer313]

funny story,
we have actually been talking to Guiness world records and found out that realistically our building is over double the size needed to beat the world record for the longest haunted walkthrough. The record is officially 2,189 linear feet of travel. This is held by Erebus in Pontiac Michigan obviously.
We then found out that its about 3 grand to get someone from GWR out to officially judge that we are breaking the world record. There are cheaper alternative, but this was the only one that really is worth it for an event, because they come out and officially announce it and have PR team work to get it noticed for you as well.

we then decided against this for this year, as it will be moving after this year and we cant afford the cost, blah blah blah, essentially maybe someday we will get there, but bigger is not allways better so were not too worried about it.

also i got the record sent to me officially from GWR that says erebus is the exact current record holder with that 2,189 foot record. so if anyone else is advertising that they are the best, its not technically illegal i dont think unless they use the GWR logo and stuff

[Jim Warfield]

Many years ago...

There was a haunt that did have much-o sq. feet of floorspace but most of it was devoid of anything at all haunted or even interesting, so once again the young haunt customer gets to feel and experience empty hype, that they just paid money believing, "Thanks Sucker!" This never makes for good vibes does it?
We sort of guarantee to scare them, some of them fight us strongly on this ..just to have something to complain about or a bragging issue to their friends?
The experience, their time and money given for the ticket should still amount to something noteworthy or they will not be remembering to return again now will they? Would we?
Are we "actors"? Or just "Gotcha-Dummys " with real stomachs to feed? Are any of us "Artists"? Or just re-pro hacks trying to copy everything we see on Tv and on video?
Sure some customers will be impressed by really good copies ..but maybe they would be deeply impressed by something that sure seems "New"? "Different!"?
"Time flys when you are having fun" is the ancient saying.
I see 2 - 2 1/2 hours pass me by as I lead one group of 4 to 6 people through my house and the funny thing is most of them lose all track of time too because I am giving them alot to comprehend and anticipate..but I feel strongly about doing as fantastic of a job/tour for them, all of them, as I possibly can accomplish, why? Because then they will never forget it and then they WILL come back...and they do.
I admit to being a total idiot in many things haunted and unhaunted, but I feel what I am doing here on a nightly basis is MY right thing to be doing.

[shawnc]

if anyone else is advertising that they are the best

You mean the biggest. Let's not confuse things since there are, at last count, 987 haunts advertising they are the best. :razz:

[Motograter]

I have been inside Erebus many times and I must say it is very large. It is a 4 story haunted house that they built inside an old parking garage.

[drfrightner]

Not to knock any haunt but Erebus wouldn't be the biggest and who would be would be hard to say. It really depends on how you are going to measure the biggest... would it be by how many attractions, walking feet within the attraction, or simply how big the building is, blah, blah, blah.

I would bet anything Creepyworld is bigger than anyone you've mentioned in terms of distance of the attractions and I know there are some other giant ones out there like Headless Horseman, Bates, and many others.

The Beast is I think 5 floors and it may be the biggest indoor... then you have Haunted Schoolhouse wow that uses a lot of space as well. There are many big long haunts and until someone takes a measuring tape to all of them you'll never know for sure.

If I was going to guess walking space all indoors... I'd go with Haunted Schoolhouse or The Beast/Edge of Hell. But who knows and how you define longest has a lot to do with it.

Creepyworld haunted houses not including the hayride is about 50,000 square feet and I'm not making that up! How many haunts out there are that big? Then you throw in the hayride and bam... there are haunts out there with trails, hayrides, corn mazes, and they could be 100,000 square feet maybe 200,000 who knows.

Larry

[Speculo]

The record for Erebus is INDOOR haunted attraction - There was someone on here a few years ago saying he had the biggest and it was trails in the woods with the occasional pallet maze - Outdoor would be difficult to say for that very reason.

I have walked the Creepyworld path and it is endless - amazingly long and FULL of scenes.

Guiness is the generally accepted authority and until someone takes it on Erebus is it...

I have been to Erebus, Schoolhouse, The Beast (and the other KC haunts ) and Cutting Edge and they are all massive! All are multi-story, all have large square footage and all are packed with stuff - i.e. they are not just a giant plywood maze. Cutting Edge has a very large maze, but that is just on one of its floors. Another huge maze is at Hundred Acre Manor but that is outdoors. I understand the Buffalo haunts are really big as well.

It seems as though Guiness is measured by walking path, so Sq Ft. isn't as important. It seems some haunted houses with huge footage are often the most bare, with vast empty rooms you walk right through.

So it is walking path, and indoor. And lets not forget HAUNTED HOUSE. If someone took a big empty building and filled it with walls would that really count? I don't know the opinion of Guiness, but I would hope that walking path would be full of stuff - i.e scenes, actors, effects etc. to count.

Otherwise it would be the worlds largest walk through walls wouldn't it!

Just some thoughts...

[UnDeRTaKer313]

all great point ben.
thats exactly why we didnt try and go for the record.
quality over quantity.

and ben have you ever measured your walkthrough, yours is HUGE isnt it?

[damon carson]

You took the words right out of my mouth Ben. LOL! It is based on indoor haunted attractions. And its based on walking feet or distance to go through the attraction. But I bet the Beast and the Edge of Hell is right on Erebus heels. Theres a outdoor haunt that doesnt add to much more than maybe a pallet maze, and a 100 to now a 200 tombstone cemetary they allways put in there ads. LOL! They claim to be the largest haunted house in Missouri. Says there on 13 acres or maybe 14? I know Greg Allen said his property he is on is like 43 acres. But do either have every square inch of this property with an attraction? No! It would be improssible. No offense Greg Im just mentioning your haunt because its definately sits on more property than this other local one claiming to be the largest. Its just all nonsense.
Damon

[N2SPOOKINU]

hey Damon, no offense taken at all. No we do not use all 46 acres of property we sit on and we dont claim to. Our add says setting on 46 acres but it does not say we use it all. (I know... a technicality lol) Anyway, our corn maze and haunted hayride cover over 18 acres of the property plus the 12,000 sq ft of haunted houses. Some of the property is in woods which we plan to expand our hayride into in the future. The balance of it is in parking lot or not able to use for the safety of our patrons. I know the other haunt you are speeking of in Mid Missouri claiming to be the largest. It doesnt matter to me what they say. Our customer base speaks for itself. We are a popular haunt in Columbia and there are enough customers to go around. All you have to do is let them know where you are and give them what they want. Again, you didnt offend me at all Damon, advertising is part of the game. Hey, hows it looking for you to be open this year?
Greg
Fearfest

[graystone]

Hummmm....

We have 38 acres and the building where Graystone Manor is in is around 180,000 SqFt. I know Ben and Greg and a few others have made mention at the size of the place. But THERE IS NO WAY WERE USING ALL OF THAT SPACE! Graystone Manor is around 44,000SqFt and The Aslyum-Graystone's Nightmare is around 4500 SqFt. But that by no means makes us the biggest as haunts go maybe up there in total size. but not sure. Shane and its I don't want to be the biggest or best anything! just DAMN GOOD! Shane this time.

[Speculo]

I need to re measure. I put the rolling wheel to it a few years ago but I need to do it again. The space changes, every time we get a new giant monster or effect it eats walking path.

Last years upstairs show, Carnivore ran about 22 minutes when timed (That is patrons walking through, no rules or intro counted, no stop and show skits, no mazes per se). We don't really do mazes, they just gum up the throughput, but we have a lot of rooms where you don't know where to go.. for a few seconds... to set you up for the actors.

Our downstairs show last year, Mangler, ran more like 6-7 minutes. It was formerly a dark show with lots of confusion, but we have made it a much more scene and effect show making it run faster (Thats a good thing!)

Both shows have lots of path, and most of the scenes are tight, and some of the bigger scenes you might enter or see several times from other angles. Of course we do a lot of parking lot actors, they are all over.

Oddly I have had some experienced haunters say after going through that they thought it was the size of Rocky Point, (Now that show was huge...it ran like 35 minutes). As far as Haunts I have been to see, NETHERWORLD is not nearly as big as the huge shows under discussion in walking path, but is is cram packed with "stuff that happens"
I would have to say it has as much or more "stuff" or "experiences" as any haunt I have ever seen, but if you compare giant sets (Beast, Schoolhouse, 13th Gate) or walking path like some of the ones mentioned it isn't one of the biggest.


After seeing shows everwhere the last few years the thing that has struck me is how "different" they are from each other (As least most of the shows I have seen).
What matters is that if in your market, no matter how big your building, or how many toys you have, that you make your customers happy, and that they come back in bigger numbers every year.
Now that is easy enough to do in the beginning, but if you get past the awkward phase of "too many people and the show gets bad" and you keep growing then you have really figured it out, IMHO

Anyway thats a long answer!

Thanks!

[The Doctor]

I have to agree with everyone else it is about the EXPERIENCE that your patron has. I mean if I walk 20 miles and do not enjoy myself I have wasted my money, but if I have the time of my life in 4,000sq feet then which one am I going to come back and spend my hard earned money on. It is about entertainment, I mean according to the internet Matrjoschka is the longest film ever made 96 hours but I would say that it is not nearly as enjoyable for most people as one of Pixar's short films.

If a customer leaves a haunt having been entertained weather it be by animatronics, sets, actors, make-up, scares, biggest in the world or what ever then we have done our job, because in the end we are entertainers. Of course it's always nice to have some bragging right and be able to say hey we are in the Guinness book of world records and I in no way take that away from anyone...

Keep haunting my friends

[RJ Productions]

I agree, size doesn't matter (it's what I have told my wife for years!!!) It is too interpretative. One haunt claimed to be biggest in a 40,000 sq ft building. They made this claim on TV. The reporter is talking to them in the back actor area of the haunt. You can clearly see behind them is a vast open space that was not being used, probably near half the building! Then there was a large indoor queuing area.... in total they probably used 10,000 sq ft (still not a bad size) BUT they claim to be a 40,000 sq ft haunt!!!

Look at DisneyWorld. The actual property owned is several thousand acres. Magic Kingdom takes up a small spot, Epcot a spot, Animal Kingdom a spot, etc. An outdoor haunt claims to be on 40 acres but an overview shows that 2/3's is all parking lot!

Unless managed correctly size can hurt your experience. Remember the "roller coaster effect" we tend to use to explain the Haunt experience? How long is an actual roller coaster ride? 2-2 1/2 minutes? Why??? Because any longer than that and it's not scary anymore. First you become sort of numb to it, then it becomes nauseating. Trust me on this. I worked at an amusement park as a teen. We decided to ride a coaster continuously. After a couple trips through it wasn’t fun anymore, then it was “get me off this thing!”

The same effect can happen in a haunt. Too long and first the patrons become desensitized, so things are as scary anymore. Then some begin to get bored, that’s when trouble sets in. Props or sets get damaged, actors confronted, you get the picture. A good haunt manages the roller coaster effect to the fullest advantage to avoid the desensitization.