Year 1999
Ideas from Halloween-l Members
Subject:
Re: HALL: New Animations
Date: Sat, 02 Jan 1999 19:05:48 PST
From: "Joe Pfeiffer" <halloween97@hotmail.com>
Sometimes things that generally themselves are feared by people can get a real boost
when animated. Three common things are scarecrows, mannequins and clowns. Putting
these in a common yet somewhat sinister atmosphere can generate a basic fear that
has not been as desensitized as blood and gore has been. A clown asleep in a rocking
chair, a lifeless scarecrow on it's post or hung from a tree, or a somewhat worn
yet hauntingly lifelike discarded mannequin in a dumpster. In each case when these
characters suddenly burst to life so too does the audience's fear. Just a few animation possibilities
Joe
This reminds me of a local haunt I went to a few years ago. We were walking along
and came upon a group of bloody mannequins strewn in our path (victims of the werewolf
that scared us a yard back or so). Anyway, these all looked rather fake and obviously
done. And as we walked past, one just sat up. We ran screaming; it was wonderful.
The point of this is these "mannequins" were NOT hauntingly lifelike; in fact they
looked pretty fake. So when one sat up it was even more of a scare. -Clayton Something
similar to this was done at a local "Haunted Park" near me. The setup was a series of
dummies starting with really obvious and badly done getting progressivly better until
the last which was a live haunter. The first few lulled them into a false sense
of security. "It's just another dummy" ~Tom Henk At knotts this past year they had a room
that was set up like a movie theatre.. a bunch of seats with about 10 dummies dressed
like the scream guy. well they even had a bright light shinning down the path like
a movie projector so you had to squint.. well one of the scream dummies was actually
a person so he reached out for and and.. it was one of the few things that night
that made me jump. it was cool for there were maybe twenty or thirty movie seats..
and ok maybe only 5-8 scream guys.. randomly placed in the chairs..
pretty cool..
Subject:
HALL: Exit Left
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 17:21:00 -0800
From: Chuck Rice <Chuck@WildRice.com>
At 3:55 PM -0500 1/7/99, Ricky & Karen Dick wrote:
>>I know Jenny's phone number.
>
>
> Is it 867-5309?
> Gravely
Now that brings to mind a neat passage out of a HH room. (Don't ask me how. It involves
more than one level of indirection). Set up a coffin on one wall and place a phone
in it. Then when the marks are in the room, Ring the phone and ask the mark that
answers to close the coffin door. When they do, open a door on the other side and usher
them out. When their friends open the coffin again, they will have vanished. What
you do with the separated mark after that is up to you. -Chuck-
Subject:
Re: HALL: A new thread....
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 21:14:59 EST
From: JMeils42@aol.com
Hi,
Now that the holidays are over I thought we could get something going on a
room design thread.
To start this off, I'd like to ask: "Suppose you had to build a room at the
last minute? You have the usual supplies laying around (cast of furniture, paint,
cammo net, what have you) What do you do?
One of our "ace in the hole" room designs has always been to cover a room
in cammo net, and drape a scrap piece over an actor, sometimes with one of those
"glowing mouth pieces" you can get at Walgreens. The scare of bumping into someone
who blends with the walls always works.... Later, when we have time to refine, we'll add a
good swamp soundtrack and a few varied plants.... Joe "DiaboliCo"
Subject:
Re: HALL: A new thread....
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 23:38:36 -0700
From: htraver@dreamsys.com
(Joe on the last minute room) I would go with a very dark room and use speaker fun
and games to scare the biological functions out of guests.... a large thunderclap
with a
strobe in a dark hall can do wonders....
Nightmare Tony
Subject:
Re: HALL: A new thread....
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 09:17:13 -0500
From: "Cliff Martin" <cliff.martin@saralee.net>
> (Joe on the last minute room)
> I love the simple scares that play on people's already programmed fears:
1) Snakes! Start with a very dark hall. an operator wiggles garden hose (or soaker
hose) through holes in the wall about ankle level.
2) Spiders! Another very dark hall. fishing line hanging from the ceiling, then whisper
"dont step on the spiders", while tossing a few pieces of popcorn on their heads...
3) Voices! Ok, another very dark hall. An actor whispers from the other side of the
wall through access holes right in the guest's ears. "hiya!" "rats!" "snakes!", etc...
3) Tentacles! A very dark hall (not again!) widens into a dark room. Guests must feel
their way along. Suspend several flexible tubes from the ceiling or out from the
tops of the walls. Corrigated(?) drain pipe works. Attach some tubes at the bottoms.
Wrap some of the tubes with fake fur. Guests must work their way through the tubes to
get out. Add intermittent growling or wolf barks, or preface with a story about giant
spiders... You can 'turn up the dial' on any of these by adding a (trustworthy) actor
dressed in black that only moves or speaks when touched... Minds are a really fun
thing to play with - all squishy... Cliff
Subject:
Re: HALL: A new thread....
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 12:44:29 -0500
From: "Cliff Martin" <cliff.martin@saralee.net>
> > (...the last minute room)
Or, start with not-so-dark room, a few short throw air cylinders and a living room
set with a table, couch, chair, etc... Connect the furniture bottoms to the air cylinders
and set them all to fire quickly. This could either be a 'possessed' room or an 'earthquake' room depending on the soundtrack. For a variation of the possessed room,
hollow out one of the seats of the couch (or chair), and an actor/monster could jump
out from beneath the seat cushion just when the furniture has settled down... Just
a random thought... Cliff
Subject:
HALL: calling their name
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 22:06:44 -0500
From: elionwyr@onix.com
There's a house in Newtown, PA - called "The House", aptly enough - that this past
Halloween season used the name thang in a great way. They'd have their patrons fill
out a mailing list info card, and near the end of that group's tour thru the house,
one of those names would be projected up on a tombstone. Really clever, and got great
reactions! - Dusti "Minion"
Subject:
Re: HALL: Room Idea?
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 01:09:58 EST
From: Hauntedfx@aol.com
In a message dated 2/17/99 9:26:23 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mmarcrum@ix.netcom.com writes:
<< How about a fear of small tight places...and then you make a room that is very
very very dark...and the people have to walk down the middle, but because it is
so dark they can't see that the walls are coming in on them from the side..until
it is just wide enough to squeeze through. Only thing is there is no door at the end so they
are stuck...just a thought! the new kid on the crypt >> The haunt I worked at last
year you entered a maze through a coffin and it is very small but all the walls in
the maze are made of foam rubber so everyone can squeeze through i was told a few years
back some sumo wrestlers went through it ..but any way it worked great .. getting
people to go in the coffin was hard though.....by the way it was an up right coffin
used as a door with no back to it but the lid you could shut .. people would get in and
start banging on the lid to be let out ...it was really great when the next group
came in and heard banging from inside the coffin they were about to go in to.
Subject:
HALL: "Collapsing Room" was Re: Room Idea?
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 21:19:32 -0600 (CST)
From: John Dolan <jdolan@titan.iwu.edu>
On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, #mmarcrum wrote:
> How about a fear of small tight places...
In keeping with the "unlimited budget" vein.... :) How about this.... You (the guest)
walk onto a spanning bridge (like the "Black Hole"). Instead of being in a tunnel,
you are in a hallway that is painted to look like rocks. The side walls are 6ft.
apart and the ceiling is 8ft. tall, but the is no apparent door at the end, so you are
stuck on the bridge. Suddenly you hear the sounds of heavy rumbling, and the walls
and ceiling start closing in. Just when it starts to get uncomfortably narrow (say
the walls are now 3ft wide and the ceiling is at 7ft.)... The lights go out... but the "rumbling"
sound continues.... (At this point the walls, and ceiling, in reality stop, but I
can just envision the guests huddling and ducking in the dark due to the sound effects playing on their imagination). This wouldn't be a cheap effect to accomplish....Well
actually it could, if you didn't want to add the ceiling, but hey, I'm not spending
my money so..... This effect would have to be framed so that the side walls do not bear the weight of the ceiling. The ceiling would be held up outside of the walls
by additional framework. The whole platform (side walls and ceiling-but not bridge)
would be lowered by hydraulic pistons (for the ceiling part). Simultaneously, the
side walls (that are built on rollers-top & bottom) would be moved inward by hydraulics
on both sides of the lowering platform. Actually you could probably use the "sound
effects" to mask the noise of the reverse of this process when the lights go out.
When everything is back into position, the sound effects stop, the lights come back on,
and a door now opens at the opposite end of the bridge.... It would be mighty expensive,
but in my head it looks pretty good!!! JD jdolan@titan.iwu.edu
Subject:
Re: HALL: Disclaimers
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 11:28:54 -0500
From: Ricky & Karen Dick <castleb@dns.pulsenet.com>
Hi, Here's a new topic to try. I was thinking about how we all most likely put up
the strobe/fog disclaimers somewhere. Then I saw the disclaimers in the morris catalog
on the page where they sell the nazi armbands and such. Since we have gotten evil
letters from those offended by even the tarot cards in the gypsy room, Or the fully covered
actress in leather in the torture room, I wondered about a'Content Disclaimer' and
if anyone has any thoughts on this. Heres a sample of what I might post this year.
WELCOME! and thank you for attending Castle Blood.
Tonight you will enjoy a secular, theatrical performance based on traditional dark,
spooky halloween images and classic monster movie themes.
The actors and displays whithin are here merely for theatrical amusements purposes
only,and are in NO WAY intended to promote, encourage, or discourage any one particular
religiuos belief or faith.
Please enjoy your evening with us in the spirit it is intended. Thanks you, Gravely
MacCabre esq.
Whatta ya think?
SO many times when people complain, I just scratch my head and wonder, what the heck
they were seeing in something that sure wasn't what I wrote. I've told patrons "
you're watching a different show than we are" Many of you have seen our 1996 tape,
'the quest' and I still keep a letter from a lady from that year, who found at least 6
reasons that me and the cast are gonna burn in hell forever. And I still dont get
it. Gravely
Subject:
Re: HALL: 3-D haunted houses
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 22:50:22 EST
From: PYROGOD4@aol.com
I've been to a 3-D miniature haunted house at Hades Haunted House here in Chicago.
Although it was short, I liked it alot. Before entering you were given a pair of
3D glasses and you then entered the HH. On the walls were fluorescent designs and
halloween graphics and such. Psychotic clowns chased you around and various actors with
neon costumes and such. If it was a full length house I would definetily come back.
I think these 3D houses illuminated with black lights are a great idea. SILO ERIC
Subject:
Re: HALL: 3-D restaurant & info.
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 21:26:55 -0500
From: "John Denley" <boneyard@erols.com>
The secret is a very diluted white vinegar bath! Real cheap, easy, and very safe!
I re-used 100 pairs of glasses on approx. 40,000 people! 21 pairs were broke! I didn't
even touch the other 400 I had purchased! The effect s sooooo much better with the
better glasses! You wont be sorry, I've built 4 of these damn things already!
Subject:
Re: Re: HALL: black oozs
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 12:01:55 EST
From: Magic84565@aol.com
How a bout a gian wall of bloody, turning gears with chains and wire coming
out with bit of fleash on them. This could be a tie in with the two themes.
Subject:
HALL: Haunt Rumors
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 22:12:16 EST
From: ScottM2251@aol.com
Has anyone ever planted rumors about their haunt actually being haunted?
I always thought it would be neat to occasionally tell people that an effect was not
something you had planned. Such as: "Wow! That ghost in the hallway was really cool!"
"What ghost? We don't have any effects there."
Or have some patrons 'overhear' a conversation amongst employees of the haunt: "This
is weird guys! People are starting to see ghosts where we didn't put any! Shhh....
the customers can hear us."
Or put some shills in the line to talk up rumors about the place: "I heard some guy
got trapped in there in the off season and died! People have seen his ghost in there,
man!"
I know Incubus created hi own urban legend for his haunt ;) . Anyone else try this?
Regards, Scott Messinger
Subject:
Re: HALL: Haunt Rumors
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 23:14:53 -0500
From: mrscary@kiva.net
At 10:12 PM 2/22/99 EST, you wrote:
>Has anyone ever planted rumors about their haunt actually being haunted?
-Although not "planted", our place has had it's share of ghost stories.... A listmember's
wife will not go back into the building after what she saw inside....And her husband
(who was with her the whole time) did not witness anything.
-One season, a group was stopped by the radio host outside and they talked about a
scene that was not there....and a character we did (and still don't) have...(same
apparition as above).
-We also have a photo of "something" captured from '97. Several photographers cannot
explain it...
-Our building was constructed as a Church, original pastor: Mr. Butcher. (I like to
tell folks the cemetery is still there...they only moved the Headstones...When in
fact, there was never a cemetery to begin with. :)
-We have been in touch with a few "ghost hunters", but none have actually inspected
the place since the "ghost" is...er...has been, non-violent.
-Do we elaborate on the stories? I donno, but it sure makes life interesting.
-We had a couple actors tell me they stayed all night (with permission) in the building,
but they didn't get there till 3 am, and were gone by 8....I don't consider that
"all night". Their night went uneventful, aside from the fact neither remember turning off the radio...
-To date, the only video, or photos from inside that turned out o.k. were for commercials....all
other attempts have failed....Even another listmember's camera failed to work once
inside...Every attempt to do a "live remote" from inside has failed.
-Do I believe? I hate to say...but I've had my fair share of shivers. Besides, it
keeps the vandals out. :) ~John J
Subject:
Re: HALL: Room idea of the week
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 07:47:10 EST
From: JMeils42@aol.com
Hey Guys!
I think I fell behind a week on this offering. It's not that I've run out
of ideas, but rather that booth building has taken up every spare second of time.
You'll note that this is being written at 5:30 am Colorado time. (Couldn't sleep,
even after working 'round the clock. I'm a little punchy, so take this into account when reading
the following room ideas.)
The "What the Hell?" Room
This one will take some engineering.
The patrons enter the room, which is completely dark. There is a clap
of thunder flash of lightening, and the room is revealed to be a fairly simple, furniture-less
room in a haunt......darkness again.
On the second flash, the room is revealed to have completely changed! Now
the walls are bloodstained, or have altered into some kind of jarring, difficult
to look at pattern.
Third flash: back again to the old house room it was before.
This effect is similar to the old "quick change" model kits we used to play
with as a kid. Each of the room's wall panels are hinged, and linked together by
a single rod. They shift back and forth like venetian blinds under the cover of darkness.
The "Lose Your Cookies" Strobe Room
Surprisingly effective for such a simple effect. You create a simple
winding passageway out of white walls lit by a strobe set to an annoying 20 pulse
per sec level. To really mess people up, try airbrushing some patterns on the walls
from this site: <A HREF="http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/ismap/image.html"> Xmorphia</A>
That's it for this edition....
Expect three room ideas next time....since I won't be around
until a week after Transworld. Remember, if you're going to the show, please stop
by the "DiaboliCo / Safe-Tex" booth.... It'll be the gothic, Lovecraftian / mad
scientist thing towering over everyone else outside the Dark Zone. Joe
Subject:
Re: HALL: Room idea of the week
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 09:50:06 -0500
From: Leonard Pickel <leonard@hauntedattraction.com>
These are great Joe thanks!
> The "What the Hell?" Room
A simpler way to do this, would be to use the old blue light/red light gag. Two sets
of lightning lights and different colors of paint on the walls!
>The "Lose Your Cookies" Strobe Room
We use one of these in Myrtle Beach. We took white walls and a ketchup squert bottle
full of red paint and made bleeding gashes on the walls.
>Remember, if you're going to the show, please stop by the
>"DiaboliCo / Safe-Tex" booth.... It'll be the gothic, Lovecraftian / mad
>scientist thing towering over everyone else outside the Dark Zone.
Sounds like you win the most creative booth at the show award =) Leonard
Subject:
RE: HALL: Room idea of the week
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 10:58:40 -0600
From: David Kiihne <daveki@fes.org>
Joe (JMeils42@aol.com) wrote:
>The "What the Hell?" Room
Leonard already offered the red/blue lighting idea. Another thought would be to borrow
from the on-going "glow-in-the-dark painting" thread. You might be able to paint
the blood stains (and perhaps a scrawled "HELP!" or "REDRUM") with paint that glows
red(-ish) under black light. Under normal lighting the room looks normal. After the
blackout, bring up the black light along with the (dimmed) normal lighting to see
the "blood." Just another thought to effect a room change with no moving parts or
slat lines to worry about. Any other ideas, list?
>The "Lose Your Cookies" Strobe Room
I went to the site you mentioned (<http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/ismap/image.html>)
and set one of the images as a tiled wallpaper on my computer. I had a headache
in under a minute! UGH! :) Since the images are "tile-able" you may be able to
have custom wallpaper made to spare your painters some work. A couple other ideas I've seen used
for strobe rooms (or, in this case, hallways). A VERY talented artist friend painted
B&W images of classic horror movie monsters (Frankie, Drac, Wolfie, etc.) on the
walls of a strobe room. Then, when the guests walked through, he got dressed in his
Shadow outfit (which was also B&W) and stood motionless against the wall where there
was an opening. About every 3rd group or so, he would move and get a BIG reaction.
He didn't even have to move much most of the time. Some groups would be looking at the
artwork and talking about either how good it was or when they saw that particular
movie and when they got to him, they'd scream if he just turned his head toward them.
He would also position himself in another blank spot that the guests would face AWAY
from on their way out of the room. Once they were past him (but still in the room)
he would step out about 2 feet away from the wall and maintain his original pose.
Some groups wouldn't notice and just walk out of the room. Once in a while, though, someone
would turn around and see that one of them had come out of the wall. He said the
reaction to that was priceless. :) Another thing done (in the same room actually)
was to paint the floor with a B&W grid pattern and then skew it to look like a depression
or even a hole in the middle. People invariably walked around the "hole" in the
floor. You could do the same thing with the walls and make a "wavy" grid that also
disorients them. Or you could also paint a dark doorway and see how many try to walk
through. Although this is a bit mean-spirited and could actually get someone hurt.
Hmmm. That was good. More ideas! More, MORE! FEED ME, SEYMOUR!! ;) Dave - daveki@fes.org
Subject:
Re: HALL: operating table
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 03:10:51 -0500
From: mrscary@kiva.net
While doing a few pop-up effects for a client, (Using the parallel set-up) I took
one and set it up 90 degrees off, and put one of our fuzzy Spiders on it. As people
approached, they see a spider, next to a wall on the floor...Then when triggered,
the spider would jump OUT 4 or so feet while jumping UP about 3 feet -way fast!-.... Sort
of like the set-up to the Corpsealater. This spider-slinger thingie was the source
of many bladder-losses. ~JJ
Subject:
Re: HALL: After all these years (pt.2)....
Date: Sat, 06 Mar 1999 01:17:47 -0500
From: mrscary@kiva.net
The original plan (when there was going to be more room) was to theme the haunt as
"The William B. Frigid Mortuary School or (School of Embalming)." I was hoping to
work the whole haunt from a "Institution" aspect and not locked into one general
idea (Funeral home). Using a "school" as the platform would allow: Library, Theatre, Dorms,
Cafeteria, Gym, Hearse garage, Casket manufacturing, Grave Digging 101, etc... All
kinds of classes, Instructors, the possibilities were wide open. (There was 3 floors
and over 80,000 sq ft to play with.) Some concept slogans were: "Where Life ends, Work
Begins" "Better a Short life, than a Short Coffin" "We preserve history" "Where customers
never complain" "We put the FUN in FUNeral Science" "The mind easy to preserve, hard to keep" I'm hoping that the building owners re-consider, I have a cool design
in mind for the "University" Shirts. Heck, I might print them anyway. :) This year
will be a blast! ~JJ
Subject:
Re: HALL: Room Idea of the week!
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 23:36:06 EST
From: JMeils42@aol.com
Hi, Guys!
I just finished packing for Transworld, and have a few minutes to spew out
another room idea before turning in. In April, I'll do 2 in one post, to cover the
week I'll miss this month while I take some R&R in Illinois after the show.
This weeks room, I must say, is based on the work of another artist, Bob Flanagan.
Some of you may remember him as being the subject of a documentary film last year,
called "Sick"
Mr. Flannagan is afflicted with a degenerative nerve disease. As such, he's
had to live on the edge of powerful sensation most of his adult life. (He's kind
of an S&M performance artist.) Many of his works also deal with the subject of his
impending death, and death in general....
Anyway, I highly recommend the film, and suggest you read up on his work.
There's lots of stealable ideas here! For instance:
CUSTOMER CREEP OUT #001
This can be achieved in various ways, from a cut piece of cheap plastic mirror,
to a sophisticated digital camera/projector set up. The audience member
is encouraged to look through a face sized hole in a barrier of some sort. Sort of
like those peep holes they provide for construction sites, or a cheesy photo op. Anyway,
looking through, they see a body lying in a coffin....as they watch, the face changes
into their own!
The Cheap Way: The body is unlit, and the lights go on only when the patron
pushes his/her face to the opening. A simple mirror aligned with the hole provides
the effect. You could rig the glass to be semi reflective and use a set of faders
to alternate between a decomposed face and their own. (More effective!)
The Somewhat More Expensive Way: Use a TV camera and projector set up, similar
to the ol' Madame Leota gag.
The Best and Most Expensive Way: Use a digital capture system, similar to
the souvenir photos system. Take the photo of the customer enjoying themselves at
a cheesy photo op without their knowing it....then send the stored pic to the projector
inside the coffin body set up.... If it is done as line entertainment, you can time the
photo to show up for the person and the group they are in....
In this set up, the coffin can be wide open, and the entire group with the
patron will be amazed at the trick... There is something definitely chilling
about seeing yourself in a coffin, unexpectedly. Joe "DiaboliCo"
Subject:
HALL: Re: Halloween prop product liability insurance
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 21:46:38 -0800
From: "Graveyard Productions" <paulb@primenet.com>
I have found a company that offers really good rates for liability insurance. They
are one of the largest insurance companies in the US. They specialize in mail-order
companies. **BONUS** They even offer coverage for Haunted Attractions, they quoted
me the same coverage that I paid Allied last season, and they beat them....and not by
a few bucks either. I suggest to at least get a quote from them for your stuff for
this year. The Parent company is Zurich Insurance Companies, I got my coverage from
a local broker "KOHLHASE INSUSRANCE" their PH# 602-832-8370, ask for Lori. I'm sure she
can direct you to a local contact if needed. Hope this helps - Paul Boyd
Subject:
RE: HALL: Contest - hay ride idea..
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 13:20:42 -0800
From: Brandy Thorp <brandyt@microsoft.com>
Ok, here is an idea scripted for a haunted hay ride type attraction, but it could
probably be changed and used in many different situations.... Assumptions: You are
the guest. You are in the back of some kind trailer. The driver of the tow vehicle
(Guide) has been giving the speal as we've go through the ride. Guide: Well, folks looks
like we made it through the graveyard alive, at least for now (evil
laugh). Next stop is Dracula's castle!
You can see a lighted castle up ahead, but suddenly from a small dirt track
to the side of the main path, several bikers turn on their lights and start
revving their engines.
Guide: Oh No! A click sound like they've tried to change radio frequencies.
"Security, Security, Come in! Security, we have a situation!
Come in! May Day! Security! (screaming now.) You see: A group of
bikers. The old kind of bikers, just released from prison. They circle the little
tram repeatedly revving their bikes. Guide: Gets out of the car and says to the lead biker:
(shrilly) "Excuse me, but this is private property. You are going
to have to leave. We have a restraining order!" Head Biker: Get
lost. (Knocks guide out of the way roughly and jumps into the car).
The car makes a sharp turn down what is obviously NOT the way the ride should
continue (a dark 2 lane road, instead of the brightly lit road with a gleaming castle just in sight ...) The car goes bumping along being circled by bikers.
It stops after a while at a tar shack that would make the uni-bomber proud. The
bikers force people off the trailer and into the shack. Inside the shack you can
sell t-shirts and have photo ops, but most importantly there is a clear exit in the back that
leads down a path to the parking area.
Subject:
Re: HALL: This years haunt
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 18:20:55 EST
From: Beetljuse@aol.com
Hey, that's my old budget ! You got to start somewhere. I've been working with the
'99 haunt idea for a while now - since last year's maiden commercial voyage. We are
playing off a character that worked well, Master of the Manor sort of guy. Originally
we planned to create a "legend" around him but I accidentally stumbled upon a better
way to develop the story. I came up with a very authentic looking newspaper clipping
covering a bizarre series of murders that occurred in the manor - 13 bodies that
disappeared after their discovery. I followed this with another clipping dated 50 years
later and finally one that is recent. All of them build the story to a "legend-like"
status while giving patrons and sponsors a real feel for the storyline and will tie
it all together nicely when they do enter the haunt. We are reproducing the "clippings"
in poster form for the walls of our entry room which contains a kiosk with a monitor
that plays a video loop "newscast" further bolstering the "legend". Any of you out
there got any suggestions ? Be kind though, it's hot enough on this list already ! George
Subject:
Re: HALL: Glass/Mirror
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 12:33:11 -0800
From: Chuck Rice <Chuck@WildRice.com>
At 12:54 PM -0500 1999/03/23, Mark & Anna Wehr wrote:
> Here I am, another lurker emerging from the deep, dark shadows of the list. I have
a question and am hoping I can get some ideas or suggestions. My husband is a glazier
(glass industry) and is able to get me all the glass and/or mirror pieces I could possibly want. Is there anything I could do with or a way to use the glass/mirrors
in my small home haunt? Have to get moving here, ONLY seven months to go! Thanks,
Anna>
I was just thinking about mirrors today. I was thinking that a Triskaidekaphobia Room
(fear of 13) might be neat. In that room there would be all sorts of bad luck. 13's,
Ladder over the path, Hat on the bed, etc. One of the things I was thinking of would be breaking a mirror. I thought that I could set up a broken mirror in a frame with
an unbroken mirror in front of it in a channel so that the unbroken mirror could
slide down into the wall. When I wanted the mirror to 'break', I would pull a trigger
and make a flash and sound while the unbroken mirror dropped revealing the broken one.
There would need to be some sort of spring cushion to catch the good mirror so that
it would not really break. It might be neat to have 5 or 6 of these go off in rapid
succession when the TOTs enter Room 13. Humm... That would be a good name for a haunt
too. The Thirteenth Floor. That floor must be somewhere since it is missing in all
of the hotels. You could find anything on The Thirteenth Floor. -Chuck-
Subject:
HALL: Using a TV or PC in your haunt
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 19:31:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Incubus and Spidella <hauntedchamber@yahoo.com>
"Sinister" Cindy wrote:
"...they were installing a TV in a bathroom (weird to me) behind a two-way mirror.
When the TV is off, you just see a normal mirror, but when the TV is on, you see
the image coming thru the glass. I thought that might work well for a ghostly image.
If you had an image on a very dark background hopefully you wouldn't see the shape of the
TV screen, but just the image in the center that you want to show. Haven't tried
it to know if it'll work, but maybe someone else on the list has?" Several years
ago I put my PC in the Haunted Chamber behind a rather thick black curtain. It was impossible
to see anything was there at all. Then just before a group would get to where it
was positioned, I would click the mouse which would begin a PowerPoint presentation
that I had created. So as the group came around the corner, ghostly images would suddenly
appear and disappear along with the instructions for what the group had to do next.
It actually looked very bizarre and I got a number of comments on how much people
liked it. It was simply a different way for me to tell another part of the Chamber legend
and pass on additional instructions to the patrons. The thing that surprised me
was how many people were actually frightened by it. Keep the change, Incubus