Increasing Startle Effectivity (Part 2): Startle Timing

In part one of this article, we discussed the components that made a startle scare successful in the instant it takes place. Now, it's time to take a step back and look at how we prepare guests for the biggest reaction possible using startle timing. This will be a shorter article that the first, but just as important.

Scare actors in haunted houses most frequently jump out at the front of the group; after all, it’s the most convenient place from them to leap out at. But is this really the most effective scare tactic? Most haunters agree, it is not.

Imagine yourself in a group about to enter into a haunted attraction. You’re reading about haunted house scare tactics (you little nerd), so we’ll assume you’re more familiar with haunted houses than most. As such, you’re the most courageous member of your group, so you get nominated to take the lead. Conversely, imagine that there’s also a blonde, teenage girl (not to stereotype) who’s more scared than anybody else in the group. Logically, the group suggests she hide in the middle of the bigger, tougher members. Let the monsters either leap out in front of you or trail behind the back of the group; either way she’ll be safe. This scenario happens with virtually every group who enters a haunted house; it is practically human nature to shelter the most scared group member within the fearless, experienced members. And this is where we get our first theory of scare timing.

Scare the middle is the tactic that emphasizes directing actors’ scare efforts more often at the middle of the group, where its most frightened members are often hidden. This tactic preys upon the contagious nature of fear; if a person in the middle of the group becomes terrified, everyone else will either scream too or laugh (and laughter is a good thing too), but if the tough, unwavering group leader doesn’t flinch to a scare, then nobody in the group will. Of course, this tactic has its limits; if every actor jumped at the middle of the group, things would get a little stale for those on its outskirts. However, until actors start showing the same natural initiative towards targeting those in the middle as they show to those on the periphery, it will be up to those who train them enforce that they do indeed scare the middle.

The second tactic of timing, developed by Leonard Pickel, is what he calls scare the gap. Its principle is simple: rather than targeting one patron or another, target the space in between them. According to Pickel, both patrons will react nearly identical to the way they would had only one of them been targeted. How Pickel discovered this tactic, I’m not sure we’ll ever know; yet it does prove itself surprisingly effective. Patrons, unsure who exactly the monster wants, feel almost the same fight-or-flight simulation as when the monsters jump at them and them alone.