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.
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