Recommendations from the book "HAUNT GUIDE"

Location

Does location really matter when it comes to seasonal haunted houses? I believe it does, but only in extreme cases. If you hold your event in the middle of your local slums, you will surely notice a difference in your attendance (not good).

At the same time, if you hold an event in your city's most populated area, you will also see a difference in attendance (this is good). On the average, most people are willing to drive the distance to visit an attraction if it at least meets their personal standards. (And of course, the attraction needs to be good) Use a familiar area for your event and always have security on site. Have a well-lit area with close (free) parking to the event. Offer on-site restrooms or food if they are not found near by. Does your facility even look haunted? Consider "spooking it up" with a haunted facade.

Haunted Themes

Is your haunted house a horror house, or does it focus more on realistic haunting? A theme will help you maintain a certain spooky atmosphere for your haunt. I first started my haunted house various gags and assorted terror. This included horror movie characters and lots of chainsaws. It was not until a local newspaper review pointed out that a certain haunted house had no plot. "A plot?" I asked. "Who needs a plot?" The paper was right though; they did need a theme. Since then, our house has been running on a legend that its dead owner, Allistair Crowley, has returned to reclaim his house. It really gives the audience something to focus on. The entire attraction revolves around this one story, so chainsaws and movie characters are limited.

Create a spooky character for your haunted house. Robin Graves, Harry the Haunted, etc ... Develop a haunted story or legend about your haunted house. How did it get haunted? If you use a theme, stick with it! Do not give up half way in it and start adding in clowns!

A Floor Plan

Is your layout a safely planned "one-way" path? Walls, ramps, and other areas are all very important issues in a haunt. You always want to give your audience a smooth tour without having to "back track" over them, or having to ask them to hold on while you make sure that it's clear for them to proceed. Signs, tour guides, and recorded messages will help you keep the tours flowing right. Get the most out of your facility by sectioning it off into several small staging areas. Consider using guides to stand to the side and quietly show the way if needed. With a "one way" path, anyone could tour the house and still find their out with no direction.

Ghostly Scenes

Should you use walk by scenes, or use interactive actors and creeps? You're scare factor is most affected by your scenes, so incorporate your audience as much as you can into them. I prefer NOT to use handrails in my scenes since it tends to separate the audience from the horror. The guests need to be a part of thrill and not just on-lookers. Simple walk through haunts is good for younger audiences, but tend to bore the older ones. A good haunt should use both walk by scenes AND short acting skits.

Consider using doors that the audience must open in order to exit the room. Involve them! Always plan to scare your audience forward (this means "getting them" from behind). In every room, use a focal point that they are attracted to first. This could be a body, a table, or whatever. As they are looking at it, the creep comes out from behind. It works every time! Be sure to move around the scenes each time so the audience is left wondering what will happen next.

Music

Are you looking for some really good haunted house music to play this year? Almost every costume shop or Wal-Mart (only during the Halloween season) has a great spooky music cassette or CD. "Horror Sounds of the Night" and "Haunted Horror Sounds" are CD's that I prefer. I have also found that movie tracks work good too. Check out the CD entitled HALLOWEEN: The Best of John Carpenter.

Advertising and Promotions

I am a firm believer in effective advertising. Even if your haunted house is not the best this year, you still need to promote it like crazy. You can use flyers, posters, radio and TV commercials, free public service announcements, direct mail coupons, billboards, newspaper ads and free articles, publicity stunts, and even merchandise. No matter you do to promote the event, WORD OF MOUTH will always be the best! This comes from having a great show, and tons of exposure.

Safe Lighting

Number one on the safe lighting chart is the subject of seizures and strobe lights. From my knowledge with haunted houses, seizure activity is brought on with EXCESSIVE usage of strobe lights. This would include a constant strobe flash, and/or directing the light source into the eyes of the audience. The strobe lights in our haunt are only directed on fixed objects like our electric chair and etc. No matter what you do to prevent harm to guests, it could always happen. Post "strobe light warning" signs as we do, and at least cover yourself this way.

Another tip would be to ALWAYS have back-up lighting in your haunted house. If something were to go wrong, you could turn on these lights quickly. We have overhead lights with emergency switches, and use individual safety lights in each room. They consist of simple clamp-on lights.

Dark is good, but use it wisely. Perhaps place small candle fixtures or blacklights to lead the way. In our darkness parts, we've added boarded windows. A regular (or fake) window is covered with pieces of painted scrap wood. Under the wood is a hidden light source that shines through the boards in the dark. Red, green, and even blue work great!

Tunnels and Ramps

You should NEVER require anyone to bend over, jump, or crawl in a haunted house. They should always tour in their normal standing position. Sorry, but save the tunnels for the playground. There is too much risk for anyone having to crawl in an attraction, and there would be no way to regulate the safety issues on this either. On top of all of this, tunnels do not even fit most haunted house criteria. In my opinion...too dangerous, not scary, and not worth it!

Plus, it's always nice to have your haunt "handicap accessible" so that a person with a prosthetic leg, a wheelchair, or even a kid with a cast on his broken leg and crutches can navigate your haunt. Boasting that your site is "handicap accessible" is good public relations. Remember to test it out yourself first, grab your hands on a wheelchair and test your haunt. If you can't navigate it, how can someone else do the same ?

As long as your ramps are built safe, I see no problem. Ramps add a special feel as you tour a haunted house. I have one ramp (incline) that levels off into a flat platform. You then exit down from the platform around a downward (decline) ramp. They are built sturdy and safe for even the biggest person. The great thing is that you hardly notice you are on them until you reach the top. (A cheesy white stone paint job looks great under blacklight.)

Haunted House Supplies

"One man's trash is another man's treasure." My favorite haunted house items were bought at my local Salvation Army and Goodwill Thrift Stores. Lights, pictures, dummy clothes, and loads more of CHEAP stuff can be picked up here! Visit your local thrift store today, and you will not be disappointed. Yard sales also fall under this category. If you have to buy at regular price, then Home Depot (also Lowe's, Builder's Square, Hechinger's) are great places to shop. These large warehouse stores carry almost everything for haunted houses except actual bloody props. The main advantage of shopping here is the low prices and convenience of a "one stop" shop. Radio Shack is a great place for red LED lights, mini-bulbs (for eyes), circuit boards, and all of the other nick-knacks for building detailed haunted house figures. You could also run into specials on radio speakers and alarms. Also check out American Science and Surplus for tons of useful leftover parts and accessories.



Low-Cost Flyers: Success in the Eye of the Beholder
George Colavecchio
Epitaph Magazine

   The success of any haunted endeavor whether it is a small home haunt or a fledgling commercial project, is dependent on how many potential patrons hear about it. Most large commercial haunted attractions have a fairly large amount of capital dedicated to advertising to ensure that the greatest number of people learn of their existence. Unfortunately home and smaller commercial haunts rarely have much left over for this purpose. So how can these haunts spread the word? One of the most effective and cost efficient methods is with simple flyers, coupons and tickets. With a bit of determination and a computer almost anyone can produce outstanding printed media to help draw in needed patrons.

   In virtually any entertainment venue, opinions are initially formed visually. Music makes a good example; two bands, one poorly presented but excellent musically, another mediocre musicians who are well presented, animated and entertaining. Who do listeners consider the better musicians? Most times it will be the mediocre bunch because that initial impression - nice to look at and fun to watch - wins out. Haunt advertising is no different. A well done flyer denotes a well done haunt. A poor flyer gives the impression of a poor haunt, no matter how good the actual product is.

   Great flyers require just a few things; enough (but not too much) information, well thought out design presentation and sheer volume. Information has to be contained in a flyer, but attention spans are generally short, so stick to what’s important; name, place, dates, cost and contact (phone or web site). If your location is somewhat obscure, a map is helpful but don’t dedicate too much space to it. Those that need it will keep the flyer to refer to later and those that don’t won’t even notice it. Good design is what will separate your haunt from the one across town. An impressive presentation is remembered.Cost is the obstacle to be worked around and there are many ways to do it.

KEEPING DOWN THE COST

   The best way to keep cost down, of course, is to get a sponsor to pay for it but as we know too well, this doesn’t always work out. We’ll take the approach here that none could be found. Everyone seems to prefer color flyers but it is possible and perhaps wiser to 'pick and choose' where color and black and white presentations are distributed. A well done b&w flyer works just fine in some situations - as handouts in locations where large amounts will be picked up, shopping centers, malls, grocery stores etc.. Areas where you are not necessarily hitting your target audience. Color flyers work really well if used in an environment where you know each one hits the mark. A great location for this is a movie theater that might be showing Halloween or Horror themed films. Those people are interested, target them. Color also works well at events tied to the season. Again you have people that most likely will go to a haunted event.

   Let’s take a look at ways to produce the flyers in quantity. Master copies can be designed and printed on your computer. These can then be turned out in quantity on a copier but to make them not appear inexpensive takes a trick or two. Most office supply stores have dozens of different types of copy paper. Find one that is different and suits your theme. While a bit more than plain paper, the cost per copy is minimal. Parchment works well for Gothic themes while a brightly colored or party print paper may accent a clown theme more effectively. Picking the right paper can give the impression of a color production without actually being one. Going one step further, most print shops print certain colors on certain days. Find out the schedule and make copied flyers with some information on them and have a printer do the rest. Simply put, use your logo or artwork and run copies on a copier and then have a printer reprint them with colored ink adding all or part of your text. You can usually get a great price if you talk to them. This can also be done in just the opposite manner with logos in color and text copied on later. Another print shop hint is to find a printer who can do poster sized copies.

   Poster copies usually are limited to black and white, but the sheer size of the result is impressive. I found a printer who charged $1.00 per poster if I bought the paper. The cost per poster was about $1.25 and I used them in store windows inside shopping malls. They were VERY effective!

   Another effective ad tool is 'VIP Passes', those that you hand out to sponsors, media folks and others that you want to attend for one reason or another. Using a computer and precut business card stock, really vivid and unique 'tickets' can be produced. A hundred cards will cost about $.20 each including the ink used. A very small price for the finished cards which go a long way toward impressing potential associates and sources of haunt help.

INFORMATION:WHAT DO THEY NEED TO KNOW?

   As I said before, don’t include more than you need to. What, where, when and how much with a contact number or web address is enough. No matter what you want them to read, you first need to get their attention. Let your graphics tell the story. If you have a theme, find graphics that will get the idea across immediately, Killer Clowns, Gothic Terror, Alien Crash Site, Mad Doctor it doesn’t matter. Grab attention with a picture and it will be remembered. For a long time, it seems the graphics on the web sites and printed material of haunts and haunters were almost repetitive. These days there is so much in the way of available graphic material that limits hardly exist. Digital graphics, 3d graphics, enhanced photographic imagery-all available no matter the budget. Search the internet and sites are everywhere, usually just a polite request can get you permission to use a unique picture or drawing. Better yet is that most likely, no one else will be using it and for patrons it becomes unique to your production. (Remember to give credit to the source)

   Web sites are a very important tool to all haunters, regardless of size and these days every haunt should have one. Even a free site with the accompanying ads works and gives the overall impression of professionalism. Keep it simple and informative-AND to the point! Tell visitors about the haunt-just the haunt (It’s that attention span thing again!) and feature the web address prominently on everything you print. One other first impression trick is your sponsors. If you secure well known sponsors, feature them as much as possible. Patrons seeing a familiar name they associate with quality or big business, tend to transfer that opinion over to the haunt. Sometimes it is actually to your advantage to work out a deal with a recognizable name even if it doesn’t benefit you financially up front. A number of large corporations designate donation/advertising monies many months ahead of time, so monetary help may not be available when you want it. Be willing to trade, an ad for flyer distribution, an ad for a poster in a store window, and my favorite-an ad for food! In our 1999 haunt our cast and crew ate pizza from Pizza Hut almost nightly. Not only did it get us a great sponsor but the added perk of free food kept employer/employee relations on an even keel.

VOLUME: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH!

   Finally, there is no such thing as too much or too many. If 1,000 flyers works well, 10,000 works better. Print as many as you can manage, in as many forms as you can think of, it will work! If you have your flyers in 'copy-ready' form, visit local businesses that have copy machines and ask to trade copies for tickets. Don’t limit your copy sources to printers and the like, most large offices have very good copy machines. Just ask around and don’t be shy about it. I have obtained copies in years past from banks, hospitals, doctors, high schools and even a few home based businesses. It doesn’t matter, ask everyone. Bring lots of paper. If you are passionate about your haunt, people usually respond well and in the end if you have to grovel a bit to achieve a successful haunt-so what!

George Colavecchio
Epitaph Magazine






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