If you were...

If you were going through a haunted house, What would scare you the most? Would there be anything you would lookout for?


I'm pretty new to the game, but every October I run a haunted house for a weekend at my job.  We're currently in the planning stages and would like outside ideas. Here is out last years website that includes pictures of past years and our dates this year (which should be updated soon)
www.brookdalehauntedtheater.com

Give me some ideas, and they could possibly be used October.

I'd be really scared of that girl from the ring crawling out of a well or a T.V.

God, I watched that movie with a friend around 3am... i made him stay up with me until sun up... of course, sun up was around 6am, and it wasn't up "enough." He went to sleep then... it was 8 am by the time the sun was up enough for me to sleep xD

I am scared of nearly everything in a haunted house, but I find that things that pop out and are around corners freak me out the most.

Things that imply creepiness, but don't show anything really, like a mangled up tricycle, or a single child size shoe, laces torn, dried on mud and covered lightly in cobwebs...  maybe a family album where all the pictures faces where cut out, or violently scribbled over. A pile of clipped up newspapers. A groundskeeper with large rusty clipping sheers, dressed all sceevy like, with black teeth, who is simply working but occasionally stops abruptly and stares at people passing by in an awkward way, maybe flashing an creepy grin.

For something more supernatural, a dusty baby cradle, that is slowly rocking, but its empty... although a real faint cooing can be heard. 

James has it  - there's basically two kinds of scared.  Creepy, and Startle.

One of the best ways to spook the everliving crap out of someone is to do both at the same time.

Having a bunch of "bodies" on the floor (well-disguised dummies, or even actors who can be very, very still) that are motionless for a long, long time.  The victims will see them, and probably think they might move... soon... well, they didn't yet, so they must be dummies.... OK, it's safe.... HOLY CRAP!  The same can be done with things like hands in jars, etc. if rigged up well.  Just trigger them after the person looking at them thinks they are safe.

This also relies on the victims not seeing the faces of / being able to recognize the actor that is going to move at some point.  If I see Jenn posing as a corpse, I *know* she's going to move.

If you're doing teams / couples, make sure you time it so that the audience doesn't know the other person is around until it's too late.  I was on a hay ride when a witch (Amy Inglis) said "My husband will be home soon..." and I spun around to see him (Chad, her husband) trying to sneak up on me from the other side of the wagon.  The look on his face when I spotted him was priceless.

A couple ideas that my crew and I have put together so far has been separation of couples, (boys one way girls another).  Another one was a dead fantasy forest, which could easily be made over for a kids friendly tour.  We've put together a few ideas, but nothing too big so far that would give our "tourist" a scare.

Dick Cheney

Nancy Pelosi

--Skimmel

Nancy Pelosi

--Skimmel

Way to be original

little girls with music boxes standing at the end of the hallway.

Creepy clowns, dolls, and portraits.  Eyes that follow you!

Way to be original

There are few things "original" about haunted houses.  They are all comprised of the same basic elements.  That one would be simply terrifying.

--Skimmel

Don't discount smell & creepy music.  As long as it's not over-done!  Subtle is good, that way they can't put their finger on what is making them so creeped out.

In all seriousness though, James is right.  Creepy is much better than the typical "jump in your face" scary.  If someone jumps out and startles you, you get over it in a few seconds.  See something creepy enough and that shit will be stuck with you for hours.

--Skimmel

I agree with both James and Geoff. The subtle creepy really gets me, especially things that just aren't right, i.e. family album with the faces cut out. One of the best things I ever saw/creeped me out was at Eastern State Penitentiary on their Halloween tour. We entered a room with strobe lights going off and standing around the room, forcing us to walk past them were hooded figures in cloaks. Some were hanging from the ceiling and others were just standing. As we walked through, very confused because of the lights, some of the figures started to *SLOWLY* move towards us with their hands out. It creeped me the freak out because I had to walk through more of the them and didn't know which ones were dummies and which weren't. Think dementors as far as they were dressed.

This sounds awesome, btw!

Well, i just came back from my meeting and so far the two things going for it as the main "themes" are the classics and a reversed fairy tale land.  It's interesting how a 1 hour meeting can turn into 3 hours with planning on how to spend the budget on props and then getting costumes handed over to myself xD

Nancy Pelosi

--Skimmel

Way to be original

... but sooo right...

High-Five Kimmel! *smak*

... OK enough derailing this poor ladies thread with Politics.

That's ok, the meeting was derailed about 5 times because we were playing with a dog.

I love the idea of a reversed fairy tale land.  A deranged Red Ridding Hood going after the wolf with an axe?  That's just creepy.

yea, it's a twist on what we normally do.  Hopefully new photos from this past year will be on the website soon.

A room full of carneys...



that look like Nancy Pelosi

Make the exit of the haunted house a door that requires you to hug a ************* looking guy in Freddy clothing and a claw hand in order to escape the horror.  I don't think anyone would leave.

(edited for safety of no politics).

In case James' hint wasn't enough... please no more politics.

when I think of little red riding hood being creepy i think of her looking at people with her red hood up casting a shadow over her face so you can't see her face, another thing that gets people is imagination, just thinking about what her face could look like would scare people.

-Cody

Hitchcock demonstrated that the unseen, but vividly imagined, is much more terrifying than what is in sight.

Also, get some of those old porcelein dolls, and rig them to slowly move and then have a moan or something come from the doll. Really freak people out.

Just fast enough to actually make them look a second time, and slow enough not to unduely attract attention.

Also, Watch one of the big demented versions of Alice in wonderland, I think its the 1984 version which is best.

So my haunted house opens tomorrow...
check on the link.
(ps: I'll put it this way, I just got out of a 14 hours shift at work to finish it haha)

www.brookdalehauntedtheater.com/

I love when you cant see if there is an actor inside a piece or part of a wall of skulls, then moves just enough to make you uneasy

Also, when in complete darkness, a muted light comes on a corner or a hiding place of an actor revealing them

also most things that create sparks or explosions

Break a Leg Jenn!!

My High School Theater kids are having our second annual haunted house this thursday... last year we creeped a lot of people out with just various non-sequitors of creepiness.  This year we are going with a creepy hospital which is dealing with an outbreak of the Z1B3 virus with an optional post-zombpacalys run through afterwards. 

I'm excited.  I take pride in the fact that it is a handicap accessible indoor tour.  Plus, we have not 1, but 2 different tours because of the child friendly tour. Which it pretty awesome because we have makeup stations set up so the kids can see what we do behind the scenes with makeup and costumes.  Last year we had 1500 people through it in 3 days, and now we've added a forth.  So I'm having  my fingers crossed.