As a home haunter, it's often difficult to create a complete experience for your patrons with the space constraints of a small backyard or a two car garage. With that in mind, I decided to make a list of ways to make the most of a small space.
At a basic level, there are two ways to maximise a small space: either make smaller rooms (and therefore more rooms), or slow people down so the whole experience takes longer. It would be impossible for me to list every possible way to do these two things, so remember that essentially anything that achieves one or both of these purposes will effectively make your haunt longer (in other words, don't limit yourself to the ideas discussed below)!
Without further ado, here's my list of space-maximising techniques.
Creating Smaller Rooms:
1) Build narrow hallways. Granted, if you want to have wheelchair access, your halls need to be three feet wide or more, but there is absolutely no reason to make halls wider than that. The less space any one scene takes up, the more scenes you can have in total. In my haunt, I rarely have hallways wider than two and a half feet, with my average being right around two.
2) Use 2-dimensional props whenever possible. Let me elaborate on that; with a small space you don't want to lose square footage to large props. But then of course, you can't have a good haunt without props. So how do you meet both of these demands? It's simple; you establish your setting using wall-mounted props. Signs, posters, family photos, cork boards, warnings, windows, tool racks, and even some not-so-thick props can all be hung on walls without cutting into layout space. As a general rule of thumb, think of anything that you can draw onto a blueprint-style layout of your haunt as a space-consumer, something that detracts from the remaining usable space in your haunt, and be sure to carefully consider the necessity of all of these pieces. (But on a side note, make sure you do have something other than just walls in your haunt, otherwise it's just a bunch of hallways. I would never argue for anyone to do this, just to remove the unnecessary and space-wasting set pieces.)
3) Take time to paint and detail your base walls. If you're lucky enough to be able to afford wooden walls, don't waste this powerful scenic opportunity! Going off of my last point, if you can establish a setting using the existing walls rather than by adding set pieces that take up more horizontal space, you will be left with more walking space and therefore a longer haunt.
4) Utilize floor and ceiling space. The top and bottom of any scene are powerful but often overlooked canvases for telling a story. You often may find that you can't do much to the floor of a scene without creating a tripping hazard (but if you are in a permanent space that belongs to you, a simple coat of paint can do wonders); however, one should never forsake the opportunities that ceilings present. Of course, you can install a wooden panel and paint it to your heart's desire, or cover the tops of your walls with cammo netting or erosion cloth, but also remember that putting a prop above people will never cut in to your workable space; essentially, the same few square feet can be used both for scenic elements and as the patrons' path.
Slowing People Down:
1) Scare backwards. It is often said in the haunt industry that scaring people forward (or from behind) is the best way to run a haunt, but this is only true when the purpose is to increase throughput by pushing people through the event faster. Of course, in the world of home haunting, the goal is rather to slow people down and make the overall experience take longer, and arguably the easiest way to do this is to put a monster in people's path.
2) Use the sense of touch. Whenever people have to push their way through any obstacle, be it as simple as hanging fishing line or fabric flaps, or as complex as a claustrophobia tunnel or moving room, they inherently slow down. This comes, I think, largely from the fact that touch is the only major sense (excluding, of course, smell and taste) that isn't preyed upon by other forms of entertainment; after all, movies can desensitize people's eyes and ears, but most people will still have hesitations when it comes to touch.
3) Make lots of twists and turns. By making your guests change direction frequently, you can both hide upcoming scenes so the haunt seems longer and slow down the patrons' pace. People can't run around 90 degree turns in a two-foot-wide hallway, no matter how loud the chainsaw is behind them.
4) Employ fog, darkness, and other disorienting effects to confuse people. When people can't see where they're going, it takes them longer to get there, so whenever you can, be sure to block or at least minimize patrons' line of sight. (These effects can and should also be used to hide a scare, otherwise you're really just killing one bird when you could take two.)
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Haunting With a Purpose
No human does anything without a reason. We eat because we are hungry, we work when we need money, and we exercise when we want to become more fit. It's easy to asses why we do simple tasks like these, but few tasks are as hard to assign a motive to as building haunted houses. Certainly it seems simple at a glance; after all, scaring people is fun! But never in this industry have I heard a conversation about why fear is fun. For a while I've been pondering this concept with myself, thinking that there must be something more to haunted attractions than simply fear, because let's face it guys, if all we're good for is terrifying and intimidating people, why do people come?
So I decided to do a little research. Obviously, as haunters, we provide a service. For one reason or another (I'll get to why in a moment), people like being scared. But we can't forget about the pleasure that we, the owners and actors, experience by creating this fear. And I think this joy is doubtlessly the most significant reason why we make haunted houses. Yet without an understanding of why our patrons like being on the other side of the fear transfer, however, it's hard to see ourselves as anything more than the satanic freaks that certain Christian groups want us portrayed as.
Thankfully though, there's more to haunted houses than, say, the demonic love of all things evil. Haunted attractions present a special kind of fear, specifically, the fake kind. If one really wished to be scared, he could take a pleasant stroll through East Saint Louis. Or do trapeze off the side of the Empire State Building. Or drive a pink Volvo with bumper stickers reading "I'm Gay," "I'm a Vegetarian," and "I've Come to Take Your Guns" through the hills of West Virginia. That, my friends, would be real fear. That kind of fear is not available at your local haunted house.
Haunted Houses are not the practical equivalent to horror movies because horror movies never have happy endings. Assigning this horror movie comparison creates an inherent paradox, after all, our patrons always seem to exit our events in one piece; furthermore, they do so laughing, not in tears (excluding, or course, the case of the easily-traumatized child dragged through by her over-eager parents). Haunted Houses are like action movies; the heroes (patrons) overcome the villains (actors) to escape with their lives. We are not simply presenting images of death and fear, we are creating an adventure!
On a side note, when we examine the purposes of Christian "Hell Houses," it's easy to see how their goals are not to create an adventure, but rather to simply terrify children and adults alike. Rather than telling a story and creating a hero's journey (to entertain their patrons), they use highly frightening emotional appeals to persuade their patrons into conversion. We entertain, they merely frighten. Damn hypocrites.
Now for a brief science lesson to explain why exactly we like being scared in Haunted Houses. When we are scared, in any situation, the brain releases certain chemicals, most importantly, adrenaline. Adrenaline is a key component in triggering the fight-or-flight response, which, among other things, accelerates the heart and lungs, causes tunnel vision, and relaxes the bladder (which is why people wet their pants). Of course, this response causes a great deal of stress. Thankfully, however, most people who go through haunted houses are mature enough to differentiate fantasy from reality, and therefore subconsciously interpret the stress as eustress (good stress) rather than distress (bad stress). This positive interpretation leads to a response with a sense of hope and vigor rather than one with a sense of despair. With this outlook, haunted houses are challenges that, when defeated, boost confidence among patrons. (Of course, if someone interprets the stress of a haunted house as distress, the experience can be traumatic, so this is why we have warnings for small children and those with mental illnesses not to enter). But thankfully for us, the body itself cannot discern between distress and eustress, so the instantaneous reaction to a startle will likely be the same for all people until their brain has time to process the scare.
Again, to my "Hell House" reference. Since their purpose is to form an argument in favor of Christianity, and the tools they use to create that argument are emotional appeals about the horrible nature of Hell, they inherently strive to create long-lasting distress in their audience. Their goal is to keep their patrons terrified of Hell long after the experience itself is over. Contrastingly, our haunts have the goal of momentarily frightening and then relieving patrons to create an overall confidence-booster for the audience. Hell Houses make distress, Haunted Houses make eustress. Damn hypocrites.
In conclusion, let me sum up the purpose, or at least my purpose, for creating a haunted house. Think of this as the thesis in an argument for why someone should build a haunted house:
Haunted Houses do not simply scare people, they create an adventure. Fear is simply one of the tools used to build that adventure, along with relief to grant a sense of accomplishment to the patrons. The artificial struggle presented by haunted houses allows for satisfaction when, time and time again, patrons overcome the monsters, in essence, defeating them.
So I decided to do a little research. Obviously, as haunters, we provide a service. For one reason or another (I'll get to why in a moment), people like being scared. But we can't forget about the pleasure that we, the owners and actors, experience by creating this fear. And I think this joy is doubtlessly the most significant reason why we make haunted houses. Yet without an understanding of why our patrons like being on the other side of the fear transfer, however, it's hard to see ourselves as anything more than the satanic freaks that certain Christian groups want us portrayed as.
Thankfully though, there's more to haunted houses than, say, the demonic love of all things evil. Haunted attractions present a special kind of fear, specifically, the fake kind. If one really wished to be scared, he could take a pleasant stroll through East Saint Louis. Or do trapeze off the side of the Empire State Building. Or drive a pink Volvo with bumper stickers reading "I'm Gay," "I'm a Vegetarian," and "I've Come to Take Your Guns" through the hills of West Virginia. That, my friends, would be real fear. That kind of fear is not available at your local haunted house.
Haunted Houses are not the practical equivalent to horror movies because horror movies never have happy endings. Assigning this horror movie comparison creates an inherent paradox, after all, our patrons always seem to exit our events in one piece; furthermore, they do so laughing, not in tears (excluding, or course, the case of the easily-traumatized child dragged through by her over-eager parents). Haunted Houses are like action movies; the heroes (patrons) overcome the villains (actors) to escape with their lives. We are not simply presenting images of death and fear, we are creating an adventure!
On a side note, when we examine the purposes of Christian "Hell Houses," it's easy to see how their goals are not to create an adventure, but rather to simply terrify children and adults alike. Rather than telling a story and creating a hero's journey (to entertain their patrons), they use highly frightening emotional appeals to persuade their patrons into conversion. We entertain, they merely frighten. Damn hypocrites.
Now for a brief science lesson to explain why exactly we like being scared in Haunted Houses. When we are scared, in any situation, the brain releases certain chemicals, most importantly, adrenaline. Adrenaline is a key component in triggering the fight-or-flight response, which, among other things, accelerates the heart and lungs, causes tunnel vision, and relaxes the bladder (which is why people wet their pants). Of course, this response causes a great deal of stress. Thankfully, however, most people who go through haunted houses are mature enough to differentiate fantasy from reality, and therefore subconsciously interpret the stress as eustress (good stress) rather than distress (bad stress). This positive interpretation leads to a response with a sense of hope and vigor rather than one with a sense of despair. With this outlook, haunted houses are challenges that, when defeated, boost confidence among patrons. (Of course, if someone interprets the stress of a haunted house as distress, the experience can be traumatic, so this is why we have warnings for small children and those with mental illnesses not to enter). But thankfully for us, the body itself cannot discern between distress and eustress, so the instantaneous reaction to a startle will likely be the same for all people until their brain has time to process the scare.
Again, to my "Hell House" reference. Since their purpose is to form an argument in favor of Christianity, and the tools they use to create that argument are emotional appeals about the horrible nature of Hell, they inherently strive to create long-lasting distress in their audience. Their goal is to keep their patrons terrified of Hell long after the experience itself is over. Contrastingly, our haunts have the goal of momentarily frightening and then relieving patrons to create an overall confidence-booster for the audience. Hell Houses make distress, Haunted Houses make eustress. Damn hypocrites.
In conclusion, let me sum up the purpose, or at least my purpose, for creating a haunted house. Think of this as the thesis in an argument for why someone should build a haunted house:
Haunted Houses do not simply scare people, they create an adventure. Fear is simply one of the tools used to build that adventure, along with relief to grant a sense of accomplishment to the patrons. The artificial struggle presented by haunted houses allows for satisfaction when, time and time again, patrons overcome the monsters, in essence, defeating them.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Welcome!
Hello fellow haunters!
Welcome to my new blog, How to Haunt Your House! Over the past few years I've been working on and off on on some tutorials for haunt owners, focusing more on 'haunting theory" than tutorials on specific props (and let's be honest, there are plenty of sites out there for prop-builders if that's what you're looking for). I decided a few weeks ago I decided I'd like to be able to share my ideas about scaring people and creating world class haunts, and it looks like today's the day I'm finally getting around to starting the process (yay!)
Before I get into the tutorials, let me take a paragraph or two to give a little background on myself and my experience with haunted houses. I'm a 16 year old high school student from Lafayette, Colorado. Because of my age, there's not many subjects I consider myself to be an expert on, but believe me when I say that haunted houses are one of them. I've been in love with Halloween for as long as I can remember, I've loved haunted houses from the moment I was old enough for my first one, and I've been creating my own home haunt for six years now (2013 will be the 7th year for me).
Starting in 2007, I began making a short haunted trail in my Dad's backyard. Of course, it feel way short of my elaborate plans (which included an animatronic barrel wall and a lawn-mower repair shop), but none-the-less, it was a start and got me hooked for years to come.
(I started taking pictures in 2008, and select ones from each year thereafter are posted on our website at http://www.creepacres.com/pictures.php)
In 2008, I was able to channel the excitement from the previous year into creative drive and much more effort. This led to better planning and drove me to ask for permission to use the garage for the haunt. This was the first year that I created an actual flow-through path, and was also the first time I made a wooden room (with the help of my Dad) rather than using black plastic walls. I continued with this in 2009, where I was thrust back out into the backyard thanks to a basement renovation cluttering the garage. I made the commitment not to use any black plastic and only wooden walls to make the rooms. Unfortunately, due to poor planning and a massive blizzard a few days before Halloween, I was unable to paint all but one room of the haunt.
2010 saw the start of what, looking back, signaled the first major turning point in my haunting history, and also happened to occur the year I decided to change the haunt's name from the generic "The Terror" to "Creep Acres." I was back in the garage, and made the commitment to convert most of the walls to the standard industry wall panels (excluding one scene from 2009 which we wanted to keep as it was). The main difference between typical wall panels and my wall panels was that I wanted to make hallways narrower that 4 feet wide, so I made my panels 4, 3, 2, and 1 feet wide so I could make more custom-shaped rooms. It was also the first year that I painted (and detailed) all of the wall panels to create more realism. This style continued into 2011, where I finally decided to theme the haunt, selecting "Uncle Bubba's BBQ," a redneck cannibal butcher theme, half way through the year's build as a way to connect the scenes together and create a better flow.
And then in 2012 we bought a farm. My Dad and step mom had been eyeballing a certain neighborhood with 1-2 acre plots for quite some time, and when a 1.9 acre ranchette went on the market the quickly pounced on it. And the best part, at least for me, was the 2300 square foot workshop beside the house. I expanded roughly to a haunt roughly 3 times bigger than what I'd done in 2011. I decided to divide the haunt into 3 rough areas: Uncle Bubba's BBQ (completely redesigned but with the same root theme as 2011), Body Repairmen, and UNEARTHED: Into the Cellar. The renovation to Uncle Bubba's included an all-new slaughterhouse and an amazing outdoor scene with three amazingly detailed facades. Body Repairmen preyed upon the creepy hillbilly motif, and was set in a backwoods repair shop where inbred freaks wreaked havoc on their victims. UNEARTHED, on the other hand, focused on demonic serial killers who made their home in a creepy old basement, making guests venture through old storage rooms, caves, and sewers. Despite our modest turnout (thanks to our more rural location), 2012 was easily my favorite year so far.
Which brings be to the coming season. Today is January 28, 2013. Thus far, I have two custom and all-new scenes being built in the shop: a claustrophobic coffin hallway where the shape of the exit is that of a three-foot-long toe-pincher standing vertically, and a super-gory wooden shed that will house an actor with a skill saw. This is by far the earliest I've started working on haunt sets, and needless to say I'm insanely excited for the upcoming season. I have some awesome plans for this year and plan on pulling out all the stops as it will be my last year before college. For more info on Creep Acres past and present, check out my build vlogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/minimoose1750
So now back to the topic at hand. With this blog, I'm hoping to be able to share some of my experiences and advice about running a good haunted house, anything from startle execution to set design. So pull up a chair, dim the lights, and get ready for a hellishly scary time!
-Collin
Welcome to my new blog, How to Haunt Your House! Over the past few years I've been working on and off on on some tutorials for haunt owners, focusing more on 'haunting theory" than tutorials on specific props (and let's be honest, there are plenty of sites out there for prop-builders if that's what you're looking for). I decided a few weeks ago I decided I'd like to be able to share my ideas about scaring people and creating world class haunts, and it looks like today's the day I'm finally getting around to starting the process (yay!)
Before I get into the tutorials, let me take a paragraph or two to give a little background on myself and my experience with haunted houses. I'm a 16 year old high school student from Lafayette, Colorado. Because of my age, there's not many subjects I consider myself to be an expert on, but believe me when I say that haunted houses are one of them. I've been in love with Halloween for as long as I can remember, I've loved haunted houses from the moment I was old enough for my first one, and I've been creating my own home haunt for six years now (2013 will be the 7th year for me).
Starting in 2007, I began making a short haunted trail in my Dad's backyard. Of course, it feel way short of my elaborate plans (which included an animatronic barrel wall and a lawn-mower repair shop), but none-the-less, it was a start and got me hooked for years to come.
(I started taking pictures in 2008, and select ones from each year thereafter are posted on our website at http://www.creepacres.com/pictures.php)
In 2008, I was able to channel the excitement from the previous year into creative drive and much more effort. This led to better planning and drove me to ask for permission to use the garage for the haunt. This was the first year that I created an actual flow-through path, and was also the first time I made a wooden room (with the help of my Dad) rather than using black plastic walls. I continued with this in 2009, where I was thrust back out into the backyard thanks to a basement renovation cluttering the garage. I made the commitment not to use any black plastic and only wooden walls to make the rooms. Unfortunately, due to poor planning and a massive blizzard a few days before Halloween, I was unable to paint all but one room of the haunt.
2010 saw the start of what, looking back, signaled the first major turning point in my haunting history, and also happened to occur the year I decided to change the haunt's name from the generic "The Terror" to "Creep Acres." I was back in the garage, and made the commitment to convert most of the walls to the standard industry wall panels (excluding one scene from 2009 which we wanted to keep as it was). The main difference between typical wall panels and my wall panels was that I wanted to make hallways narrower that 4 feet wide, so I made my panels 4, 3, 2, and 1 feet wide so I could make more custom-shaped rooms. It was also the first year that I painted (and detailed) all of the wall panels to create more realism. This style continued into 2011, where I finally decided to theme the haunt, selecting "Uncle Bubba's BBQ," a redneck cannibal butcher theme, half way through the year's build as a way to connect the scenes together and create a better flow.
And then in 2012 we bought a farm. My Dad and step mom had been eyeballing a certain neighborhood with 1-2 acre plots for quite some time, and when a 1.9 acre ranchette went on the market the quickly pounced on it. And the best part, at least for me, was the 2300 square foot workshop beside the house. I expanded roughly to a haunt roughly 3 times bigger than what I'd done in 2011. I decided to divide the haunt into 3 rough areas: Uncle Bubba's BBQ (completely redesigned but with the same root theme as 2011), Body Repairmen, and UNEARTHED: Into the Cellar. The renovation to Uncle Bubba's included an all-new slaughterhouse and an amazing outdoor scene with three amazingly detailed facades. Body Repairmen preyed upon the creepy hillbilly motif, and was set in a backwoods repair shop where inbred freaks wreaked havoc on their victims. UNEARTHED, on the other hand, focused on demonic serial killers who made their home in a creepy old basement, making guests venture through old storage rooms, caves, and sewers. Despite our modest turnout (thanks to our more rural location), 2012 was easily my favorite year so far.
Which brings be to the coming season. Today is January 28, 2013. Thus far, I have two custom and all-new scenes being built in the shop: a claustrophobic coffin hallway where the shape of the exit is that of a three-foot-long toe-pincher standing vertically, and a super-gory wooden shed that will house an actor with a skill saw. This is by far the earliest I've started working on haunt sets, and needless to say I'm insanely excited for the upcoming season. I have some awesome plans for this year and plan on pulling out all the stops as it will be my last year before college. For more info on Creep Acres past and present, check out my build vlogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/minimoose1750
So now back to the topic at hand. With this blog, I'm hoping to be able to share some of my experiences and advice about running a good haunted house, anything from startle execution to set design. So pull up a chair, dim the lights, and get ready for a hellishly scary time!
-Collin
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