Tonight was the first Halloween meeting...ideals needed?

[turney31]

We would put a wild man in a hog trap, chains. OOps who knew he could actually get out?
Three or four Zombie soldiers, bloody camo, strobe, carring guns, flag. Fog. Make sure they stay in a close group.
One prop that gives everybody the creeps, is in our fake cemetary we have a small simple cross headstone, the "its alive" baby stapled to the cross. Old baby doll with a slit cut where the mouth is, Fake wolfman teeth trimmed and stuck in that slit blood all over its mouth and down the front of its clothes and hands.
Large landscape timber cross with a foot stand. A large scary dude standing on it with his arms out stretched. When people get close jumps off and gives chase.

 

[greeneggsandham]

Aliens. Get some glow in the dark body paint. When the people walk through the corn maze the alien can walk in front of them or beside them through the corn. Like in Signs. That movie scared the crap out of me.

 

[Peaches Lee]

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Wow! This is really cool. So it works pretty well for your Department? Well what about a crazy doctor? Blood on all of him, wants to operate while your still awake!! Crude instruments. That sort of thing! Good luck, I'd love to see pictures, Halloween is my favorite Holiday!

 

[KristyHall]

children of the corn, kids running through the corn just out of sight in one of the quite part of the maze. they rattle the corn stalks and giggle.

zombies freak me out.

a black light maze. there was one I volunteered at and it was a black room with big glow in the dark spots all over it. it had a hidden door you had to try and find. meanwhile there were people, usually children with black bags completely covering them (eye holes included so they could see) and covered in same large glow in the dark spots. when you weren't looking they would creep up behind you and just stand there. it would take you a few minutes to realize you were being followed.

oh and someone in a camouflage bush. this is great for people waiting in line near a brush area. the bush occasionally gets up and moves somewhere else but when people get close it rattles bells or jumps at you.

also check points in various parts of the maze is fun. give people little pieces of paper and have a stamp at each check point. they can try to find every check point and stamp their map. it adds to the fun and ensure they explore every part of the maze. You could even make some of the check points hard to find.

some of the scariest parts of a maze isn't the screaming but the sudden deadly quiet and monsters that creep up on you without making a sound.

Mazes that are hard to navigate are fun too.

clowns. clowns are freaking scary

 

[NGT ANGL]

Wow Spook - I would love to visit your haunted house!! You seem to have all of the bases covered with regard to props and sets. What scares me the most is the fear itself...sort of the startle then scare tactic or a one-two punch if you will with events happening very close together. After you startle someone, you have a split second before their rationalization comes back to startle them again. Combine the senses - use noises, sudden movements from the sides in their peripheral vision (this type of vision doesn't lend itself to analytical thinking) as well as something in front since we tend to focus to the front when walking. When someone is in the shakes of one type of scare and then you hit them quickly with another, they are operating almost entirely on instinct and their rationalization and intellect have checked out. Happy Haunting!!

 

[greeneggsandham]

Oh almost forgot. Zombie Chickens.

 

[bt03]

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One of the scariest haunted houses I have ever been to had both of these elements. It was pitch black and deadly quiet then all of the sudden you hear the song from a jack-in-the-box really slow (they had an actual jack from the 80's) then a clown creeps out from behind to scare the beegeepers out of you! Scariest thing ever! I'm not afraid of clowns in any way but I had to put 2 of my daughters clowns away until after Christmas because of that

 

[chickenlover98]

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x2!!!

Throw things at people, like huge scary furry spiders! (FAKE!) And have a Michael Myers hidden around a corner and scare the pants off people when they turn the corner! (knife all bloody, maybe a dead body laying next to him....)

 

[Ferrret]

I'll put in my 2 cents on chainsaws, shot guns and other loud noises.

Not trying to be a downer, but it's annoying, sometimes painful and not especially frightening. It may get me to jump, startled, but not scared. Loud sudden noises leave my ears ringing painfully, and I know many other people who have the same reaction. After attending a couple trade shows with mini haunts set up to feature products, I have grown very tired of hearing air horns, squeals and loud bursts every 10-15 feet. I have also participated in haunts where I was placed adjacent to a mock semi truck with it's horn blaring every 5-10 minutes for 3-4 hours. If you use very loud noise props, please be considerate of the people working in the haunt as well as those attending.

Other than that, I've been helping out in haunts since 2002, grew up in a haunter family, and one of our best scares was placing an actor in plain clothes in the crowd then attacking them. If you can get an actress that can be genuinely scared going through multiple times it will set off other people in the crowd, if they are small enough they can be picked up and carried off and big guy actors can be climbed on if they are in good shape. Most people know that haunted houses don't allow their actors to touch people, so there is a feeling of safety.
Another great scare, one that the city police did not find as amusing as we did (but that's another story), was hanging a dummy and running it along a zip line out across the path of people with scream playing. It was very effective, looked like a guy was falling off the roof, though it could be set up to look like a monster was flying off with them, or like a monster was coming down to get people.

For those that don't know, the no touch rule is a safety measure for both attendees and workers. Attendees can get hurt by a sudden touch they weren't expecting, they can react violently and strike the worker, or in a few cases some people claim they were groped sexually or harshly assaulted, whether it was true or not. Even false accusations can be damaging for a haunted house like any other business.

If you are looking for theme ideas, there are a few websites that have hundreds of ideas, tutorials for building props, sets and costumes, and general knowledge of Halloween stuff. One I like and use often is Halloweenforum.com.

 

[KristyHall]

if you let them in in groups, plant someone in each group then have a scene where a monster comes out and mauls/kills/ or kidnaps that person.