Send a text We're pretty sure most people have figured out what the focus of this week's episode is. It's about the FearVR story and, to be frank, we don't have any good answers here. Still, we talk at great length about the story and how our industry made international news. But that's not to say that there isn't other news to cover. We have a similar story from Home Depot and a potentially offensive prop there, Five Nights at Freddy's has a new haunted attraction and several other haunts are o...
Oct 03, 2016•53 min
Send a text When it comes to actors, every haunt wants to know three things: Where to find them, how to train them and why they stay or leave. Japes Palles may not be able to help much with the first item, but he has 14 years of experience with the other two. This includes finding their strengths, finding the best role for them and, most importantly, keeping them happy so they stay through the season and come back for the next.In this interview, we sit down with Japes and we talk all about train...
Sep 26, 2016•58 min
Send a text It's that most wonderful time of the year, the time where haunts are opening up and we get to go to a few of our own! That, however, means buying tickets and, for a lot of the haunts, that means buying tickets online. Unfortunately though, buying tickets online isn't aways the smoothest experience it can be. In an ecommerce era, we are an industry that often leaves their online ticket sales as an afterthought.So, in this episode, we provide some alternatives that make it easier to ge...
Sep 19, 2016•54 min
Send a text This week on Haunt Weekly we are revisiting our Women in Haunting series but this one is a bit different. Our interviewee this week e is local to us and had a very negative experience with her attempt to enter into the haunt industry.While her experience is certainly not every woman's, as we've learned from the other interviews, but hers is unfortunately common and it's an experience that keeps many women out of the industry.So, in this episode we'll be sitting down with "Cricket" (w...
Sep 12, 2016•50 min
Send a text Yes indeed, it's another episode that's divisible by four and that means it's time again to do the news!It's a bit of a downer this go around as we have stories of one major haunted attraction that will be shuttering its doors in the new year and another popular one that won't even get to open this season. However, we do balance it out with news of one attraction that's opening after a long slog and yet another that's being funded, in part, by its local government.All in all, this is...
Sep 05, 2016•53 min
Send a text To pay? Or not to pay? That is the question.As haunts across the nation begin to recruit actors the question about pay will inevitably arise as actors and owners alike will try to decide what they want and what is best for them.The truth is this: There are haunts that go both approaches very successfully. However, it's important to choose the approach that works best for your haunt and then build your haunt accordingly.Bear in mind, we're not discussing the ethics of unpaid haunt act...
Aug 29, 2016•54 min
Send a text This week on Haunt Weekly, we are returning to the subject of women in haunting and have a great conversation with Neena Collins of the Scareatorium in Columbus, OH . Neena's story is, in many ways, not the typical one for a haunter. Though she was brought into haunting by dating a haunter, one who would later become her husband, she said she wouldn't have likely dated him if he knew where he worked.Still, it's good thing for everyone, including the haunt industry, that she didn't kn...
Aug 22, 2016•54 min
Send a text We run one haunt, we've acted in several and we've been through countless. The vast, vast majority of our haunt experience has been completely safe, wonderful and fun.This is not about those experiences.There have been a few times that the horror of the haunt got a little bit too real. Whether it was unsafe props, overly aggressive actors or just poorly-thought out construction, there have been moments we were genuinely worried about our safety when either working in or going through...
Aug 15, 2016•56 min
Send a text Yes folks it's another episode divisible by four and that means it is time to do the news!We ended the show a little bit early this week. misestimating the amount of time we needed to talk about each of the stories. However, it's still a VERY busy time for the industry as we're learning about new haunts opening up and what attractions to expect at some of the big events.This week we also have a trio of movie-related news as we have information about Ghostbusters, Freddy v. Jason and ...
Aug 08, 2016•40 min
Send a text This week on Haunt Weekly, we are putting my degree to some use and talking about guerrilla marketing. Guerrilla marketing is one of the most popular topics not just at haunted attraction conventions, but all small business conventions. However, most businesses that attempt it fail miserably because, while they love the "low cost" part of it, they are a bit short on the creative aspect.So we decided to spend the hour talking about not just what guerrilla marketing is but giving some ...
Aug 01, 2016•55 min
Send a text This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing something a little bit different. As we've discussed in some of the recent episodes, we're wanting to start a series on women in haunting where we discuss the experiences and challenges women face in the haunt industry while keeping an eye on how to make our industry more inclusive to all.This week, we're sitting down with Holly Crisler of Literally, a Haunted House at the Culbertson Mansion , a haunted attraction in Albany, Indiana. Holly's sto...
Jul 25, 2016•53 min
Send a text With the recent news in our industry, we've been thinking more about haunt reviews in general and the tense relationship between haunters and reviewers.The truth is we have a very unique culture when it comes to reviews. Many haunters seem to dislike haunt reviewers and even have open mistrust to them. The biggest complaints include reviewers wanting free admission, that reviews are easily influenced and that they don't drive any business.However, if we're going to evolve as an indus...
Jul 18, 2016•55 min
Send a text Yes everyone it's another multiple of four and that means it's time to do the news!This time, however, things are a little bit different. We start off this week talking about the recent controversy involving Ohio Valley Haunts. While it's rough that we have some very hateful people in our community, it's been truly amazing to watch how Haunters Against Hate have risen up to shout down the bigotry. We also have news of a major expansion of our industry as Dubai gets its first haunted ...
Jul 11, 2016•51 min
Send a text Every haunt that has a backstory has a process for coming up with it. This week, we wanted to share ours and take a long look at how we come up with the story and how it ties into the construction of our haunt.So how do we come up with a new back story every year and weave it into the fabric of our haunt? Should the backstory follow the haunt or the haunt follow the story? We don't claim to have all of the answers but we know what's worked for us over the past decade.So take a seat, ...
Jul 04, 2016•54 min
Send a text This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing things a little bit differently. Normally we find a topic and take a deep 50-minute dive into it but we've had a lot of things we've wanted to discuss but haven't really been able to figure out a way to talk about it for nearly an hour.So, we're taking a bunch of those topics and putting them into one episode for your listening pleasure. We're calling it Rapid Fire Questions and we're going to make this a semi-regular feature if it goes over wel...
Jun 27, 2016•50 min
Send a text Following up on our previous conversation about the need for kid-friendly horror, we take a look at look at one medium that's been giving the younger generation a good fright for decades: Music videosBut these videos aren't just a way to introduce kids and teens to horror (perhaps helping spread the haunting bug), they're important lessons for haunters about storytelling, scene setting and more.The restrictions of a music video are legion. They have to tell a story in 3-5 minutes usi...
Jun 20, 2016•56 min
Send a text It's a number four episode and that means it's time to do the news!And to think, we were worried we wouldn't have enough to do a monthly news show. This week we have a lot of news about haunts, opening/closing/moving etc. as we enter permit season, including one haunt that's making a small move into a much bigger location.However, we also have a lot of other key industry news as one of the most famous "haunted" attractions, the Amityville Horror House, goes back on the market and a n...
Jun 13, 2016•57 min
Send a text This week on Haunt Weekly, we have something very special for you. We brought in a good friend of ours, Dawn, to talk about her experiences with Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando.Dawn is a 10 year veteran of Universal Studios and has helped not only with a decade's worth of Halloween Horror Nights but also providing technical assistance to various stage shows throughout the year. Whether it's Bettlejuice or Barney, she's worked with them all.Crystal and I have n...
Jun 06, 2016•53 min
Send a text When people start thinking about opening a haunt, there's one decision that they usually make almost subconsciously: Whether the haunt will be indoor or outdoor.Very few haunts, it seem, seriously consider changing their path in this regard. Most people start out knowing if they want to have a haunted trail, a hay ride or an indoor haunted attraction and don't look back.However, it's a decision that more may want to consider. The reason is that there are significant advantages and di...
May 30, 2016•56 min
Send a text Pretty much every haunt has had to kick out a drunk and belligerent customer. It's a part of the industry that few like to talk about but everyone is familiar with.This is part of why the haunt industry's relationship with alcohol is so strained. Being drunk in a haunt is just plain dangerous and having to kick out drunk customers is unpleasant and disruptive.Yet, some haunts have made their peace with booze, opening up bars and alcohol-serving restaurants on their premise in a bid t...
May 23, 2016•53 min
Send a text This time on Haunt Weekly, it's all about the news! That's right, it's an episode that's divisible by four and that means we're taking a look at all of the latest and greatest news in the haunted attraction/entertainment industry. And boy do we have a lot this week. We start off with some coverage of "Halfoween" that showcases just how big the Halloween and haunted attraction industry has grown and then we shift our focus to this week's big story and a battle over the trademark for t...
May 16, 2016•53 min
Send a text Maze attractions are great. For many, nothing says Halloween more than a corn maze in the dead of a brisk October night.However, many haunted houses incorporate mazes into their attractions, rather than making them standalone. The idea is simple enough, people are afraid of being lost and a maze is a great way to get people confused. Throw in the fact they're simple to build, easy to staff and great for padding out walkthrough time, a maze can seem like an appealing tool.But mazes co...
May 09, 2016•52 min
Send a text Many haunted attractions bill themselves as an interactive horror movie. Why should one simply watch a film when they can be a part of it?But on that front haunted attractions have some strong competition in the form of horror video games, which actually are interactive horror films.But whether you view video games as competition, inspiration or something in between, there's a great deal that haunts can learn from them. Simply put, video games have evolved a great deal over the past ...
May 02, 2016•55 min
Send a text For all of the planning, building and other work that goes into a haunted attraction, haunts inevitably run on actors. It's the people in the haunt that make or break it.But recruiting and keeping good actors is no simple matter. Virtually every haunt struggles with this to some degree, making it one of the few things that truly unites all haunted attractions.So how do you recruit and keep actors. To be honest, we struggle ourselves with this but we have learned a few tricks over the...
Apr 24, 2016•53 min
Send a text Haunt Weekly fans it's time once again to do the news, this time for the fifth time.This week's episode starts on a bit of a down note as we get dueling reminders about the importance of safety when working on and acting in a haunted attractions. We then shift gears and talk about legal stuff as a long-running case against an Illinois haunted attraction is settled.From there, it's all about the Texas Chain Saw Massacre as we not only have news on an attraction themed after the movie ...
Apr 17, 2016•52 min
Send a text Religion and haunted attractions have always been a strange mixture. Sure haunts have long had exorcism rooms and themes surrounding the devil, but typically haunts have avoided straying too far into to the religious.But while haunting has been reluctant to approach religion, religion has been very eager to approach haunting.Across the nation and the world hundreds of churches and church organizations set up "Hell Houses" every Halloween season. These haunts have a dual purpose of ra...
Apr 10, 2016•55 min
Send a text The two of us have been blessed with our haunt experiences, nearly every single time we've been through a haunt we have enjoyed ourselves or, at the very least, had something great to take away. We've been able to tour some of the greatest haunts in the world and have shaken hands with some of the best actors, builders and creators our region and our industry. You couldn't ask for more.However, not every haunt experience has been charming. A handful of haunts we went to were just che...
Apr 03, 2016•56 min
Send a text Haunters have always had a strange fascination with evil. We love using the fear of evil to build a mood and get scares in customers. Our attractions regularly feature grizzly murders, demonic creatures, inhuman villains and much, much more. We even advertise how "evil" we are in a bid to draw more customers.Basically, the haunt industry has long used evil to sell itself and customers have grown to expect nothing less.But sometimes the evil can get a bit too real. What happens when t...
Mar 27, 2016•55 min
Send a text Rejoice Haunt Weekly lovers it is time for our fourth news episode as we get you caught up on all of the things going on in the haunted attraction industry. While it's true that the ides of march (or close to it) is far from peak season for haunt news, there is still a great deal going on including the announcement of a brand-new year-round Walking Dead-themed attraction opening this summer, more news surrounding The Darkness and its battles with the city of St. Louis and we have a b...
Mar 20, 2016•53 min
Send a text Backstory. Not every haunt has one, not every haunt needs one, but if you're looking for a great, free way to improve your customer's experience and your marketing, it's a great place to start.However, not all backstories are created equal and even great backstories can be implemented poorly. So this raises the question: What makes a great backstory for a haunted attraction?We attempt to answer that question and many more in this episode as we take a look at the writing behind the ha...
Mar 13, 2016•54 min
