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  • Actor as a patron?

    Has anyone acted as a patron within a haunt? Basically you start the haunt and an actors kidnaps you making the others in your group thinking you aren't part of the act.

  • #2
    This always seems like it would be just startling as crap for other patrons, but from our haunts experience it never works out as well as expected.

    Something I've been wanting to try is to have that one patron in the group that is always just walking behind the group "Not Scared at all" to suddenly show up in front of the group, possibly freaking out the rest of the group. Have them take a shortcut or bypass a room to jump ahead of them and let the group walk up on them like "where the hell did you come from?"
    Chris Riehl
    Sales@spookyfinder.com
    (586)209-6935
    www.spookyfinder.com

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    • #3
      I would like to see this tried but I feel like this would have to be sudden like a trap door opens snagged and pulled in. you would have to rotate the "patron" out so you would need a group so people do not catch on as quick and do not do it every run. Things that happen tend to leak out and sometimes you get alot of repeat customers.
      Proud to be able to work at
      http://www.haunted-hollow.com/

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      • #4
        Ive seen it happen with mixed results at the haunt I used to work with. These were "Grab the victim in the queue and drag them into the haunt through a side door only to have them show up as part of the attraction in one of the scenes as a mind-controlled zombie" type scares. When it was a guy, people were shocked and horrified as this was a 'non-touching' haunt. However when it was a female working as the 'victim,' there were at least 2 occasions where other customers would try to help her and got aggressive towards the actors. They stopped having females as victims and scrapped the idea after a couple of weekends. Not worth the potential problems.
        http://www.bigscaryshow.com
        http://www.rabidbadger.org

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        • #5
          I wasn't trying to do it like that I was going to have it more as an actor along with tour guide get grabbed from a group. The actor would ask the tour guide is it ok if I go with this group and the tour guide would start then that person will get taken. Or the second idea to go with this past seasons theme of an asylum we had a priest start the walk and we were going to add a nun to go along with the priest and get taken (the group would feel safe with a nun and priest by their side) Later on the "nun" (who would be a different actress) would be in a diffferent area of the haunt being tortured etc. the first nun would walk with the group and priest and as the group continues the priest and nun walk back to the next group. The people waiting would not know that this nun got kidnapped as she would be the same actress for each group.

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          • #6
            This is silly. For the brief .5 seconds of the body's natural reaction to seeing this and believing it's real, right afterwards your mind would realign your thinking to realize this is all just a gimmick.

            Sorry, cheesy, corny, ineffective past the initial reaction, and as Badger said? Too much liability and hassle for what is in my opinion a dull thrill.

            10 years ago? Maybe.

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            • #7
              Not a fan. Some of my actors wanted to try this a few years ago...I let them try it...much like the aforementioned problems...rotating the actor in to be believable and the short-lived unnatural nature of the startle isn't worth it. I mean it was a fun idea back in the early days of haunting...or during the time when people weren't familiar with the "actors won't touch you" nature of haunts...but IMO it's not worth it...
              O'Shawn McClendon
              Creative Chair -- Operator: Cayce-West Columbia Hall of Horrors

              One mans junk is another mans kick-ass new prop...

              http://www.hallofhorrors.com

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              • #8
                Abducted

                I've seen this happen... But in my experience it was done QUITE WELL ...
                But it was different...

                It was a high output haunt and instead if one patron it was 5-8 in a group of 10 or so... One actor getting abducted by scary characters is one thing ( slightly cheesy ) but when 1/2 or more of your group gets abducted... THAT'S a different story... Hell, it was my wife and I... Now I'm a seasoned veteran but I will say it was strange to see the group disappear one by one.. Maybe two at times ?

                I was impressed... But maybe I was just lucky? Maybe those characters in the haunt abducted those innocent people ?

                o_O

                B.
                "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

                Malicious Studios
                www.maliciousstudios.com
                "HORROR FX THAT STICKS TO THE ROOF OF YOUR BRAIN !"
                http://www.myspace.com/maliciousstudios

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                • #9
                  Abducted

                  I'm guessing no one would catch on... ATLEAST not right away... They'd probably be upset that they didn't get inducted THIS time... Lol

                  Darn it... I will have to buy another ticket to find out !!?
                  "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

                  Malicious Studios
                  www.maliciousstudios.com
                  "HORROR FX THAT STICKS TO THE ROOF OF YOUR BRAIN !"
                  http://www.myspace.com/maliciousstudios

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                  • #10
                    Yes this has been done by many haunted houses... you can't really do that in high traffic haunts on the inside of the haunt however you could do it outside in the que line. For example a group is waiting in line like everyone else for 30 minutes then you put on some skit and boom a customer is killed, eaten or whatever... if you do tour driven haunts its a no brainer to have plants.

                    Larry
                    Larry Kirchner
                    President
                    www.HalloweenProductions.com
                    www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                    www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                    www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by drfrightner View Post
                      Yes this has been done by many haunted houses... you can't really do that in high traffic haunts on the inside of the haunt however you could do it outside in the que line. For example a group is waiting in line like everyone else for 30 minutes then you put on some skit and boom a customer is killed, eaten or whatever... if you do tour driven haunts its a no brainer to have plants.

                      Larry
                      Just make sure the guests have already bought their tickets. Otherwise you could potentially lose a few if the didn't like seeing it.

                      Jake

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                      • #12
                        We did this one night about 8 years ago at our haunt. Some groups were very scared and freaked out while some groups figured it out. It was fun, but labor intensive and really not worth the trouble. The customer complaints were pretty intense.

                        That year we had a volunteer group each night to supplement our acting staff. One night it was a sorority house with 7 college girls (19 – 21 year olds). We had been wanting to try this, but didn’t want to give up a good actor. So we decided to try it with this group of young girls. A girl would approach our starter at the front of the cue line and ask where her friends were. The starter would tell her the group already gone in. She would say she was in the bathroom and complain that she didn’t want to go through alone. The starter would ask the next group if she could go through with them. Of course the groups always said yes and so our victim would introduce herself to the group and then enter with them.

                        About 12 scenes into the haunt; two of our clowns would grab her and drag her kicking and screaming away from the group. Then she would go back to the entrance and wait her turn to approach the starter for the next group.

                        Some of the extreme reactions; people would try to rescue her from the clowns and get very upset. Even had a woman call 911 to report the kidnapping. One guy became very attached to the girl in his group and he stood there in the scene crying. Some people complained at the end that a person in their group had been touched and taken away. Some people would scream and run away and some people just kept going through the haunt without concern about her safety.

                        You couldn’t insert someone with every group, we had to wait at least about 5 or 6 groups and we tried to pick a group that looked the most susceptible. We had a DJ next to the cue line to keep people entertained and distracted so groups further back in line weren’t aware we were inserting anyone. We never put her in with a family with children.

                        At the end of the night we decided not to do this again. The scares were pretty good, but the customer complaints and negative comments outweighed them.

                        Kelly Collins
                        The ScareAtorium

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                        • #13
                          "Dull" "Thrills?'

                          Originally posted by NightmareAftershockLLC View Post
                          This is silly. For the brief .5 seconds of the body's natural reaction to seeing this and believing it's real, right afterwards your mind would realign your thinking to realize this is all just a gimmick.

                          Sorry, cheesy, corny, ineffective past the initial reaction, and as Badger said? Too much liability and hassle for what is in my opinion a dull thrill.

                          10 years ago? Maybe.
                          "Dull Thrills?" Kind of ...contradictory? (Sort of a "White" Black?)
                          To have a lot of things going on, to look at ,think about, adds up to entertaining people, usually.
                          I have asked for a volunteer or taken a volunteer (HA!ha!) and then simply set them up to scare their girlfriend, boyfriend, Mother, half of the people in the room!
                          The one doing the scaring usually loves this and will return with more paying cutomers to get another chance at this.
                          The same thing can work extremely well when trying to keep a family together once they enter the house, because a shared family experience will reinforce those strange memories and they will be "advertising" for you possibly for the rest of their lives!
                          The kids that have returned as teenagers , then adults, then bringing their kids here is always very gratifying to us. You Really know for sure, 100% that you did something very right for them.
                          Of course WE also get quite a "Charge" seeing a 3 yr. old push a button that scares the rest of their entire Family too!
                          hauntedravensgrin.com

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