For today it seems that the haunted house market is still one that is relatively open to new attractions, but in 20 years all that may change. To me, the scariest thing about today’s haunt industry is the fact that one core team now has the ability to operate different attractions all across the country. Going back to the nineties, there has always been Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando and in Hollywood, but thankfully for independent haunters, Universal was limited by its existing theme parks and was unable to expand beyond them. Six Flags, too, runs its annual Halloween Fright Fest out of most of its locations, but for the most part keeps it a side event to the roller coasters and thrill rides. But now a new competitor has emerged on the national scale, and it’s potential to dominate many of the nation’s important haunt markets is astounding.
As a Colorado native, I’ve witnessed the growth and expansion of the 13th Floor franchise firsthand. I remember visiting their now-sister haunt Asylum back before it was anything special and then watching the growth of what has arguably become the influential company in the haunted attractions industry. 13th Floor truly was a marketing masterpiece from the start: owners Chris Stafford and Warren Conard took the ever-present rumor of the 13 story haunted house and preyed upon the mobs of patrons the tagline was sure attract. The concept had even been proven already; Cleveland’s 7 Floors of Hell was a thriving haunt drawing tens of thousands of unsuspecting patrons who had grown up hearing about a mythical 7 story haunted house.
13th Floor opened its doors in October of 2008, with tremendous success. Stafford and Conard never looked back. Over the next 2 years, they expanded both of their attractions in the Denver market, moving both to larger, permanent locations. Then in 2011, everything changed.
Through a partnership with the dynamically creative House of Torment in Austin, TX, 13th Floor multiplied. Two locations popped up in San Antonio and Phoenix (both cities without major competition) in a single season, drawing massive 13th Floor-sized crowds to each. Now, these two small teams of haunt owners had five locations spread across four cities and three states, and on top of that, each haunt was split into the main attraction and a separate pre-show haunt. These haunts became powerhouses; when the new locations opened up, they fed off the budgets of their already-profitable parents in Denver and Austin, and now after only two years they have established themselves as the kings of their respective markets. When somebody in San Antonio or Phoenix wants to go to a haunted house, they want to go to 13th Floor.
The franchise is becoming so huge, it’s beginning to exhibit some clear qualities of typical big business. For years, Denver was home to Primitive Fear haunted house, which was run with its sister haunt by an independent group of haunters and for many years was a highly respected Denver area haunt. So while visiting Asylum during the 2013 season, I was shocked to see the logo for Primitive Fear next to that of Asylum; it was now the smaller pre-show haunted house for Asylum itself. But had the sets come with the name and logo? Well, I had never visited Primitive Fear in its days of glory, but from what I could tell, the sets were mostly the same as Asylum’s 2012 zombie themed pre-show. Asylum and 13th Floor had eaten Primitive Fear alive, now all that remained was its name, drawing its once-fans to its gravesite in hopes of turning a little extra profit.
And it’s not just the 13th Floor folks expanding their creative domain beyond a single attraction. Savvy hauntrepreneurs across the country are taking hold of their local cities and dominating the surrounding markets, like Larry Kirchner in Saint Louis, Todd James in Dallas, and Randy Bates in Philadelphia. Each of these three began their career running a single attraction but as time passed, expanded his control over the local haunt market to include 2 (James and Bates) or 3 (Kirchner) separate events. Worse, these monopolies seem to have has a profound effect on the surrounding markets; just this year, Mr Bill’s Thrills outside Saint Louis and The Haunt House outside Dallas closed their doors for good. Arguably, it just isn’t possible to compete with a haunt powerhouse that’s able to control the whole marketing scene of a city. When a patron at Todd James’s Cutting Edge is offered to buy a combo ticket to Thrillvania at a reduced price, why would he ever go to The Haunt House?
Undoubtedly, the future of the industry is headed down this path. After all, haunted attractions are indeed an entertainment industry, and entertainment industries easily fall victim to monopolies (just think of radio or film). However, there is hope for the up and coming haunter (and this is the takeaway point): the change has not happened yet. The examples I’ve cited thus far are the forerunners in the haunting community, but are certainly not the trend. In 20 years, everything could be different, but for now the young haunter has hope. Here’s how:
First and foremost, the progression to monopoly is happening gradually, and this era in haunting’s history is just the start. That means that there’s still plenty of room for newcomers to take stake in the industry and become one of those forerunners 20 years from now. We just need to be smart about it.
Second, haunted house trends spread in a certain way, and understanding those trends can be key to timing a new arrival in the industry. Twenty years ago, the top haunts in the nation were clustered around its biggest coastal cities: New York, Orlando, and Dallas pop into my mind. Over time, as haunted houses became a new mainstay of the American October, their grip expanded inward from the coasts, taking over less populated and more conservative states like Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, and Utah. As Hauntworld Magazine noted in 2009, the Bible-belt states of the South were “not the place you usually think of when a discussion of haunted attractions breaks out,” but it went on to commemorate the success of two phenomenal Alabama haunts (Armstrong). Over the past 5 or 10 years especially, haunted houses have spread like wildfire across the Deep South; as some traditional haunt hotspots began to fall to the market dominance of one particular company, the southern states like Alabama entered into their prime.
So where is the next haunt hotspot? Well, to answer that question, we have to ask another. Where haven’t haunts been yet? Internationally, certainly, but I’m not about to move to Constantinople to scare people. Within the states, it’s the northern midwest that has yet to taste our scares when October comes. It seems like crazy talk to think about setting up business in North Dakota when Fargo, its largest city, boasts a population of just over 100 thousand, a third of that of Saint Louis and a mere sixth of that of Denver. But look at your competition. Hauntworld.com, which offers haunt patrons a place to search by state for haunted houses, has a poll on most of its state pages asking visitors to rate the top local haunted houses. On the North Dakota page, it asks “What is the scariest haunted house near North Dakota?” Burnsville, Minnesota. Columbus, Minnesota. And Rapid City, South Dakota. The best haunted houses in North Dakota, aren’t even in North Dakota. But if so few haunted houses exist in North Dakota, why the Hell would now be a good time to open one? And this is where our friends at the Census Bureau come in handy. From 2010-2012, North Dakota saw the greatest percent increase in population of any state (oil boomers, anyone?), with a whopping growth rate of 4.02%. At that rate, it would only take seventeen and a half years for the population to double. Now I bet Fargo is looking a little more attractive to you, eh? Where people go, haunts follow.
And it’s not just North Dakota. The western and southwestern states are seeing massive population booms too. With Texas, Colorado and Arizona the 2nd, 4th, and 8th fastest growing states, respectively, it’s no wonder the 13th Floor guys are doing so well! Stafford and Conard struck gold when they took the old tagline and flipped it on its head; sure, if you build it, they will come, but why not build it where people are already coming? Detroit, often toted as the haunt capital of the world, has one of the highest densities of haunted houses per square mile anywhere on Earth. But Detroit’s population, as I’m sure you know, is plummeting. When the recession hit, it went from 900 thousand to 700 thousand residents in just a single year. Many of those left in Detroit, the haunted house capital of the world, don’t have money to spend on haunted houses. But when states and cities are growing in population, there’s obviously money attracting people there. And those are the kind of people that are going to be willing to toss out 25 bucks for a haunted house ticket.
So if you’re in the business of scaring people, what’s the number one thing you can do to set yourself up for success? Beyond all the snazzy set decor, marketing techniques, and business planning, you have to set up shop in a place that will let you flourish. Philadelphia, Dallas, Detroit; they’ve already fallen to the local greats. But places like Spokane, Santa Fe, and Fargo; these markets are the future of our industry. And these are the cities that will boast the next generation of top-notch haunted houses.
