Haunt Weekly - Episode 384 - March / April News

[0:20] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast for the haunted attraction and entertainment community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you. And we return to you this week with Episodes Divisible by Four. Therefore, according to the laws upon which this podcast was founded, it is time to do the news. And it's been a fairly busy news cycle. I've got to be honest, Usually this is adult rooms. We're pulling out some semi related stories and some odds and okay, We have a couple of those but yeah, yeah But we do actually have a lot of fairly real accurate news to go over so real important news to go over, So yes, we're going to be doing that, But if you didn't come here to listen to news you want to get something else check us out at the other places We exist for at hauntweekly.com or hauntweekly on Twitter, hauntweekly on Facebook and youtube.com slash hauntweekly, You can find all of our episodes on the YouTube channel It's really convenient if you don't like using a podcast app because...
Reasons. I don't know. But if you don't, you can get it there.
You can also find us on those podcast app including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc.
And pay special attention to the Facebook presence. We'll be making announcements there shortly, hopefully about some new live episodes coming your way.

[1:34] All right. Well, every week we ask you a question of the week and last week we toured the Abita Mystery House and talked about roadside attractions.
Yeah, so last week's question of the week was what's your favorite roadside attraction and we learned some things. Yes, so, Right off the bat Don garlic says gator jungle in Florida to feed marshmallows to gators.

[1:58] Sounds fun. I'm also about a hundred percent sure you can do that here in New Orleans somewhere you can okay, We have a tour guide friend who talks about doing that Like, what is the nutritional content of a marshmallow to an alligator?
I'm just curious.
I don't know. Their mouths are so big and the marshmallows are so small.
Do they even taste it or is it just like gone in a gulp?
I really want to know about the alligator's experience here is what I'm saying.

[2:26] Moving on. All right. Chris Gay said, Calico ghost town. It's a wild west town complete with shops, train ride, and coin operated animatronics.
Awesome. That is in Fallout New... oh, he said that the cemetery he thinks was from, Fallout New Vegas. Okay, regarding that thought, I forgot to do that, but there's actually a site online where you can look up if that location was actually used. Yeah. Because all of the locations in Fallout New Vegas have been covered.
The fans of that game are a specifically nutty bunch.
Yeah, and for the record, Calico...
Attraction was in is in No more. Yeah, Mo, California. Yeah, It reminds me of what he described it reminds me a lot of a place that used to be there in North Carolina called ghost Town in the sky. Yeah, it used to affect I went there once as a kid It was a theme park not a roadside attraction per se. It was definitely more of a theme park In fact, their biggest attraction was a roller coaster built on top of a mountain, Which if you have a gore phobia you can fuck right off with that attraction That is the ultimate in heights.

[3:46] But no actually it was a really fun theme park had simulated gunfights and all that stuff It was really cool But unfortunately goes down the sky last I checked was very much closed because it turns out it's really difficult to get people up a fucking mountain, Yeah, all right, Sam Farrell said the freaky but true peculiarium in Portland, Oregon, which just sounds awesome And the Museum of the Bazaar in Wilmington, North Carolina. I have never been to Pacific Northwest. You can pretty much guarantee that if I ever do get up there I'm going there. And if we're ever in the Wilmington, North Carolina area, which is a very real possibility, yeah we're gonna make sure to check that out. Yeah. All right, Kevin Hopkins said the Gord Place, it's near Helen, Georgia. He said it was not necessarily like the best but the most memorable. Yeah, the one that gets brought up the most because it's weird.
Yeah, we've got one like that too. We've got the Spearchunkin Museum. Yeah. Not the best roadside attraction. No one's claiming that it is the best free one.
I'm gonna give it that. But it is, you know, not the best. But yeah, it gets brought up a lot because it's just that freaking weird. I understand that feeling.
The Haunted Rose said the station at Joshua Tree, at Joshua Tree, California.
Mm-hmm and Cole Al Gore. Yeah, sorry if I like butchered that and I'm sure I did.

[5:11] It's from Wyoming so there are no scary or creepy ones, but there is the Medicine Bow, Wyoming, There's a place called the fossil cabin with over 5,000 dinosaur fossils on the outside of the cabin, You said there was nothing scary or horror thing Yeah, that sounds pretty scary and hard thing to me. You literally made a house out of bones. Yeah.

[5:37] I'm sorry private residence and museum now so you can't or yeah, you can't or but that sounds pretty damn scary to me I'm gonna be honest and I love dinosaur fossils for the record. Yeah, Um, in fact, I finally got to see my first fossil big fossilized dinosaur Yeah, you know not that long ago. It was actually right before the pandemic I find as a 40 plus year old man. I got to see it or as a damn near 40 year old man Yeah, I think it was in 2020 actually March 2020. Yeah, it was Mardi Gras 2020. We did a at Exodus for Mardi Gras because it was happening.
Went to Kansas and I got to see dinosaurs.

[6:15] All right, well this week's question of the week is one that's kind of on our mind, because of the phase that we're in right now. We'll talk about that more in a minute, but what percentage of your haunt do you change every year on average? Obviously this is an average and I would say a rolling average. Yeah, and specifically I'm thinking more about the walk through and the layout kind of issues, not necessarily like everybody's going to rethink, large portions, because that's easy. You know, you change the lighting here and there, you put in whatever the theme of that year is, you know, add that to it.

[6:55] That's pretty easy. But we, every like three years, I would say we give it a three-year run, we change out the entire thing. The walkthrough part, the actual pattern you walk through. Which has gotten more and more onerous every time. Yeah. Because every time a I think we have improved and iterated but also it becomes more difficult to change because like last year we at like one of the previous recent years we added the outside L section. Yeah. And that has the role of funneling people to one specific area one specific side of the garage door. Right. And it's kind of hard to have people come in on this side and then change the walkthrough. Yeah, because I mean, used to we didn't have that and we would just change which side you come in. Yeah. And it would shift the entire walking path. Yeah, now there's this whole structure and it's very confusing. So yeah, lots of interesting stuff here. I'm curious to hear what you all say. So let us know. Huntweekly.com, Huntweekly on Twitter, Huntweekly on Facebook and youtube.com slash huntweekly. Leave a comment, send us an email. We will also post the question week as it's on question on Twitter and Facebook. Feel free to let us know there.

[8:15] All right. Well, it is also in addition to a news episode. It is an episode divisible by two. It's an even one.
So we're doing our conference reminders and coming up first this week in Los Angeles, California. It's Spooky Swap Meet!

[8:31] Um, not quite this week. No, I'm sorry not in two weeks. April 29th through the 30th. Sorry.
I'm trying to actually just get through next week and not have it happen. At Heritage Square Museum.
Were a great place to purchase gently loved items including costumes, including props, etc, etc, etc, and decor. Created by the co-founder of Midsommar Scream SpookySwapMeat.com for more information. Alright, Southeast Hollows Haunt Convention is going to be May 5th through the 7th in Savannah, Georgia at, the Savannah Convention Center featuring three days of haunted attraction seminars, makeup contest, early bird tickets. You lost those. You lost those. Sorry, they're still on sale though at at sehchc.com. All right. Then it's the Texas Haunters Convention July 15th and the 16th in Mesquite, Texas at the Mesquite Convention Center. We're doing a trade show floor, a costume ball on Saturday, door prizes, game night, and much, much more in a costume contest. Texashauntersconvention.com for more info.
HorrorweenCon Idaho is gonna be July 21st and 23rd. I love that I made you say that.
That is impossible. That is fucking impossible.

[9:48] Yes, July 21st and 23rd in Garden City, Idaho at the North Expo Hall at Expo Idaho featuring home haunting classes.
Oh, cool, something for home haunters. Yeah. pro haunter classes, costuming makeup classes.
You can find out more at Idaho horror.com. I-D-A-H-O-H-O-R-O-R.

[10:15] The only thing harder to say than the name is the spelling of the domain.
Yeah. Rolls off the tongue like a socket set. Yeah, and we've got two conferences that we will be adding that were announced recently.
Yes. HauntCon is coming back it's gonna be its own thing in Florida. And then Transworld is going to be having a, Another conference in the Northeast. Yeah in Philadelphia. I believe it was. Yeah. Yeah, this is, This is kind of weird mm-hmm, like I guess we're just gonna cover this as part of the news in a weird way because, Once we got back from Transworld We started hearing about the new Transworld-like convention because Transworld also does Midwest Haunters convention They did a national haunt tour, And now they're doing this East Coast Haunters Convention. Yeah with, Philadelphia's not the coast. Yeah, we're not gonna discuss that part. No, right No, but no, but so they're adding another one more toward the northeast, which is interesting, I did not know if that area was want but fear expo is continuing its thing in Kentucky, Owensboro, Kentucky They're gonna be there next year, but they have added hot con back in as a convention in in Florida.

[11:30] So, everybody's avoiding New Orleans is what I've learned. Yes, the Gulf Coast, other than Florida apparently, is like out.
We don't get invited to things anymore.
No, no, no. We were hot and calm for like five years and now nobody loves us.
That's okay. I mean, you know, they can't win for losing though because whenever they were here every year we were like, we really wish that they would move so we could go to other places and see other things.

[11:58] And not just do behind-the-scenes tours of haunts that we've already seen. Yeah.
Yeah, I know. It's unfortunate. But, anyways, so I don't know.
I'm really going to be curious. 2024 is going to be an interesting year for the haunted attraction industry when it comes to conferences, conventions, and trade shows, etc.
The gatherings of the juggalos that we have.
You're gonna have three major trans world conventions basically. One by the same people that run trans world and two haunt con conventions basically. We're gonna have two new major conventions. Is there gonna be burnout? Are there enough of us to support five fairly large conventions slash trade shows slash whatever? Are they going to take away from their their one show by splitting it into multiple? Who knows? It'll all unfold over the year. And for the record I saw some people online splitting hairs calling Trent making sure that people knew trans world was a trade show and not a convention and I, Get that you're technically it's one of those technically correct, but if you're gonna pretend it doesn't have a convention component to it where people are getting together meeting each other and social networking and, Also that there are classes and other it has convention elements to babe is what I'm saying. It's not purely a trade show So I think it's splitting hairs and I think honestly I doubt trans world cares. I really do.
I think they just want you to come and spend your money.

[13:25] All right, work we did on our hunt actually was very important. Yeah.
Very crucial. We did the CAD and the design for it, nailing down the layout and at least getting ideas for what the first few rooms are going to be decorated as.
Yeah, yeah, because I've got like, I've got general ideas of the decorations, but we need to figure out what scares we're doing because we got to build new scares.
Yeah. things we do is every so often we try to come up with a brand new scare that we've not seen anywhere that we can incorporate or that's a play off of something that we saw but we want to do it different.
And oftentimes we want to do it quote-unquote better is what we say.
Well you know. Well I mean I remember the year we like every haunt had a closet.

[14:12] Gag. Mm-hmm. Where you were going through clothes and like a closet thing where you're moving through clothes and we saw that and we okay that's an interesting idea. That's an easy way to fill that really weird little hallway that we had.
Yeah, but what do we do to actually make it scary and not just mildly annoying and maybe a little bit stinky? Yeah. And what we ended up doing was putting in a static prop, but a very soft static prop. Yeah. But a very gory and scary one right at eye level when they emerged from there. So people were coming out and getting freaked out by what was literally inches from their face. Yeah. It was great. It was. And it's the biggest scare I think we've ever gotten with a static prob. Yeah. Hands down. Yeah, I would agree with that. But yeah, I mean, you know, there are some things that we've done in the past that I would love to see if we could bring them back and, you know, creative way. I'm not doing that fucking guillotine. Go right to hell. No, no, no, no, no. Go right to hell with that one. I'm not building that.

[15:10] One. No, no, no. No, I was thinking the flowing wall. Okay. That'd be, you know, cool to bring back if we could find a way to improve it. Yeah, especially if we could find a way to make it like 100% safe and not have to need humans to prevent it from hitting people, bumping into people. Never was deemed. We had stops. Yeah, we had stops. But it didn't hit people. No, it didn't. It did not. But only because well, I'm saying we got to funnel.

[15:36] The people more effectively is what I'm saying. Okay. I'm trying to get more where the people stand because a couple of times they couldn't pull it because people went the wrong way.
It got too close to the wall and our actor in that room had to withhold Yeah, doing the scare because they were going to get bonked on the head And mind you, she was very good at not bonking people in the head.
But it's also been a long time since we've had body bags and kind of itching to put some up Well, yeah, we took them down. We were actually going to have them in the 2019 haunt Yeah, we had them up and they were going to be in the hotel room scene. Yeah, But we took them down because pandemic yeah, And basically we were talking with other haunters online and elsewhere Like one of the first rules is you got to take down anything. That's a point of contact Yeah, and I still think that's a good thing to minimize those But I'm also with you that there's something about that that makes people stop and examine their decisions to move forward Yeah, exactly and you kind of need that once in a while Yeah, and it's also nice to have it as a way to block view Yeah, which is a big theme of the layout this yeah, if you came through, with hot content 2019.

[16:47] You're gonna find a layout that is similar ish but with all of the view lines obstructed. You're not going to ever have more than about 10 feet of view line.
Yeah. Actually, it's less than that. It's like 6 to 8 feet at top.
Yeah, 6 to 8. So, I think, and we've really put our heads together on this one. It's kind of rare that we both contribute this much to the CAD phase.
Yeah. happens is I do the CAD, make it all pretty, get it all ready, and then, basically we just take it outside and Crystal fixes it live. Yeah, basically, yeah. Crystal fixes it live because it's never perfect. It's never 100%.
It can't be. Yeah. I mean, no matter how good you are at it, something's gonna go sideways. So, yeah, she would just fix it live, but this time around you actually sat down with it and did a lot of the work on it and I think we've come up with an idea that is unique to us. I've not seen this anywhere but we'll make our very very small, once again 625 square feet, choking the life out of you, it'll make it feel significantly big. It's one of the worries I had in and doing this with the light, it's not like the line of sight. Good Lord, Jesus.
Someone call an ambulance for that train wreck of a sentence. Yeah. Christ, we're not even in Ohio.

[18:16] But yeah, I was worried that when we fixed that, we were going to shorten the haunt by having only four real rooms instead of five. And I think that's been adjusted. I think that's no longer the case. I think we actually have our fifth zone back now. We just have much tighter turns and corners. It's going to be interesting. I'm going to be very excited to see how this goes and what we're able to do with it. Yeah, and we've got some cool weather over the next week or so. So, we'll probably get out there and start demolition now that we know exactly what has to come down.
So if we're doing demolition, am I axe, smash, or crush?
That's a wrestling joke for old fuckers. If you were old enough and enough of a wrestling dwarf to recognize it, please contact us.
We need to make sure someone else got it.

[19:09] But yeah. So anyways, as I said before, it is episode 384. It is time to do the news 20 minutes in, getting started on it.
And we start on a sad note, unfortunately. but Disney legend Raleigh Crump has passed away at age 93. We gotta say he, had a long life and a very productive one as we're about to get into. Jesus productive.
This is an article by Dwayne Bevel at the Orlando Sentinel.
Basically, anything you love at Disney World he was responsible for. Yeah. I mean, that's basically it.
Yeah, chance the tiki room was his which that is honestly the scariest attraction at Disney World. It'll freak your balls right the fuck off, But he also did the Haunted Mansion to you. Oh when the actual I know the other scariest ride. It's a small world ride, Jesus Christ, that'll give you nightmares, How was Disneyland not like a its own like Five Nights at Freddy horror movie already? It's got all the elements Yeah, and they also did the land of wonders. We also work. No wasn't content with that Yeah, he retired from Disney in 1966.

[20:19] Jesus Christ, he would go back. He would go back, but he also did work at Busch Gardens Circus World in Polk County and yes, Knott's Berry Farm Basically everything in California.
I think that's the that's like the Infinity Gauntlet He's collected them all yeah, and in 2004 he was selected as an official Disney legend, So he got awards and accolades for that good and his autobiography Came out that year and it's a kind of cute story. That's the title of it. It's a kind of cute story, And whenever he was asked what his favorite project that he ever worked on was, it was the Whimsical Imagineer, of 2016 documentary. You know We're in the year of our Lord 2023 the man lived to be 93 years old and his favorite project had to be one right there near the very end of his Career that is just awesome. Yeah, I'm gonna have to see this. I've not actually seen it, but.

[21:26] It just it's great to know that your favorite project may still be on the horizon no matter what age you're at Yeah, I think that's so cool. So thank you very much, Mr. Crump you are Quite the icon and amazingly productive. I have no one did you sleep?
Yeah, that's a lot. It is. That's a hell of a lot. Okay. All right moving on.

[21:54] So a lot of my friends in the area posted about how sad they were about this. The Jekyll and Hyde, Halloween bar for the ages is a goner. It is closed. This is by Luke Fortney at, NewYorkEater.com. Yeah, the New York Eater. Yeah. Yeah.
Nyi.eat.com. Just use the link in the show notes. Yeah, exactly. So they filed for bankrupt last year with over 7.5 million in debt.
And they shuttered in 2022, not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to, and they lost their liquor license during that time.

[22:37] They opened up in 1991, a handful of homes for their poison-themed cocktails all across the country, including a four-story one in Manhattan.
But the last remaining one was in West Village, and it was the original one also, it has now closed. Yeah, this is sad. I had actually heard about this multiple times. Never, I've never made it to New York City. Yeah. So I've never had even the opportunity to go. I absolutely, this is definitely something I would have done if I had ever touched down in New York.
And that's one of the great things about New York is even on a short visit, you know, the public transit's good. You can make something like this work probably. If you really want to do it. But, yeah, this to me sounds like it was already on rough times and the pandemic came along and just, And I've come to understand that businesses are having, especially small businesses, are having a rough go of it in New York lately.
Yeah, well, and I think that now through the next couple of years, we're going to see the repercussions from the lack of sales during the pandemic years.

[23:44] I think that we're just starting to see these things happen.
I agree, because there was enough money through the various programs put out there for small businesses to kind of keep doors open while the pandemic itself was going on.
Yeah. Keep paying people to keep their debts and their bills paid, but what you lose is momentum. You know, people broke habits. You know, you have people who went to restaurants, you know, five nights a week that couldn't do that anymore, so they stopped going as much. They started cooking at home more. They started getting more delivery items and so they're not used to going to restaurants anymore. They're out of the habit. That momentum has been changed.
Yeah.
And it's the same as this, I mean...

[24:32] You get out of the habit of going to a bar regularly. And I think, like you said, yeah, the PPP, those loans and programs helped with the immediate financial concerns, but doesn't address that, which is a much longer term problem.
I think it's well put.
Yeah. All right.
Talking again about the Hotel of Terror, their owners submitted 1,200 signatures and... 2,100.
2,100. Good Lord, Jonathan. 2100 signatures in effort to halt eminent domain. This is an article by Andrew Sullander at the news leader, And there's an update to this unfortunately but basically, What city is it in I know I we know this yeah, Old Springfield, yeah, it doesn't help no Okay, what state is it and they were playing the Simpsons game? All right, I will go figure that out I'll keep covering. The owner, Sterling Mathis, submitted petitions that he said had enough to halt the city's initiation eminent domain on his property and will put the fate of the haunted attraction to the voters. He believes he needs, 1,600 signatures, roughly 10% of all voters. Missouri. Okay. Oh, so that makes sense.

[25:48] Basically, the plan was to get enough signatures to stop the eminent domain and send the matter to voters where you'd hope to, rally politically to stop the eminent domain. Unfortunately, it appears the petition fell short. According to the people who were checking the signatures, he had about 401 signatures shy and he had until literally when we are recording this, April 10th, to get them. So we have no word yet if he was able to get them, get or not, but that's a significant percentage of those 1600. I, mean it's 1,200 signatures. So yeah, he said he got 2,100 signatures, that doesn't mean I said 1,200, was the math. He said he got 2,100, he said he needed 1,600, but he fell 400 shy of that. So out of the 2,100 signatures he thought he had, he had, closer to 1,200 basically, is what it comes down to. Yeah. That's rough. And we, We actually saw something like this here in New Orleans.
There was a huge campaign to recall our mayor, and I'm not getting into that.
But suffice to say that the standards for recalling a mayor in this city are between batshit and insane.
They're incredibly high. But they made a hell of a run at it.
You gotta give them that.
Made a hell of a run at it, and they thought they had enough signatures, they turned them in, and when the registrar voters got a hold of it, they no longer did.

[27:16] So we've seen this exact same thing play out here just with our mayoral not an eminent domain of a apparently well-beloved haunted attraction.
Yeah.

[27:27] Okay, all right. I gave myself the hard one. Yeah, you did prosecutors are going to throw out the.

[27:38] Baguio City Hall. Baguio? I don't know.

[27:44] Yeah versus the Igorot Park and this is by Angel Castillo and from the Philippines. Yeah, this is our international news section. Exactly.
That's why we can't pronounce anything. Yeah, and I meant to look it up and listen to it, and I'm sorry I didn't.
So I'm just gonna call it BC City or B-City. B-City, that sounds good.
B-City. This is from Rappler.com. So B-City, basically the City Hall.

[28:14] Charged the theme park, which is... where is my... Stone Kingdom in Penzal Village for a lack of merit. So basically they said that they didn't get their permits. They shut down the construction that they were doing on the theme park, and then their builder said, well, they didn't actually shut it down and here's the proof and took it to City Hall. So the City Hall brought charges against them but they were able to come up with and say that they fulfilled the requirements and secured the permits and addressed all of the safety concerns that the the contractor had. So the prosecutors threw it out. They said City Hall you can go. Go ask yourself. Yeah. This is like I read the story. I actually went I read the actual link to this one. Yeah, I did too.
And if we sound confused, it's because we're confused. Yeah.

[29:16] There may have been some translation issues in the article. There may be some issues in the translation and also issues between the different legal and governance systems too. Yeah.
Because I'm sitting here going, how the fuck did this make it to criminal charges when they had the permits? Yeah. And how does anyone stealthily open an amusement park?
Yeah, or continue to do, you know, work on it. Yeah, there's a lot in this work, but the main thing here is that this park was able to prove somehow that they got the permits that they needed, even though the city didn't seem aware of that.
Right. Raises its own questions. Yeah.
I actually read this one because the notes had me confused. I'm like, I'm going to read the full article.
Was just the notes were a little rough. No, no, no, no. Notes are actually way better.
Yeah, notes are better. Notes are better. Yeah, yeah. That's a six thousand square foot multi-level square meter part. I knew I was going to do that whenever I put in the notes. Square meter multi-level theme park and it features stonework and all sorts of things.

[30:27] And you know, honestly, I've got some friends that live in the Philippines actually know people who live there, They're not part of the haunted attraction community, but they are they're part of the tech community, I'm tempted to ask one or two of them about this. What the hell is this type of thing common?
Yeah, Philippines are we missing something in the story?
But but in the end, I mean, it's good news It's good news. They were able to get the permits and get the prosecutor off their back, I was gonna be very curious what the consequences of criminal conviction would mean because I'm like know in these United States we criminally convict businesses all the time and very little happens other than an annoying fine. Yeah. That usually covers only like a tiny percent of what they made. Yeah. It's it pays them not to do whatever. If the fine for a business activity does not at least exceed the money earned from it, it's not a fine, it's the cost of doing business. Yep.
Exactly. I think fines should start at the level of the amount of money they made and go up from there. I think that's how you handle that. But what do I know?

[31:37] All right. Well here's an interesting one. This is from... this is an article by Edward Pavos at Michigan Live. Explore this haunted Michigan forest months before Halloween. That's right. Deranged haunted attractions open for halfway to Halloween on May 13th through the 20th. The aim though is not to give these typical attraction they have from the looks of it. Basically, visitors will be given a deeper dive into the fictional story, the focus centered around, the Greeno Industrial Company being blamed for chaos taking place in the forest. So you got your shady corporation, your haunted trail, bingo banga bongo, we're doing the Stranger Things gambit here. Yeah, right? Yeah, and I'm sorry, the notes were confusing on this one because it's just May 13th. Oh it's just May 13th. Yeah it's $20 for general mission $30 for VIP. I'd say that's a long run for halfway to Halloween but cool.
No but $20 for general mission $30 for VIP. DHA has been operating since 2018 as a professional attraction was a home hunt located in Canton before finding a permanent home.
Mm-hmm. You know.

[32:43] We keep talking about needing to get more events, more content out there throughout the year, more awareness. I think this is an interesting idea, not just because you're doing a halfway to Halloween thing, which, hey, don't remind me. Yeah, but I mean, so halfway to Halloween is already in the public consciousness. Yeah. Like you don't have to do a lot to build off of that.
No, and it's an absolutely apropos time to open a haul. And I mean, it's not like Easter, you know, Which comes with a lot of complexity if you want to open a haunt during it or st. Patrick's day Which also has its you know complexities. No, this is just halfway to halloween. Yeah, it's halloween. Exactly It's basically halloween 2.0. Exactly, So yeah, I think this is a great idea and I love the idea of giving a very different style of attraction, And giving something that's unique to that day if I were in the area 100 chance i'd be going to this. Yeah, and on.

[33:40] Building off of the halfway to Halloween Ohio Haunters Association is having their halfway to Halloween on April 29th at Carnage Haunted House. There'll be vendors, demos and for $5 you can get a lights on tour of the haunt. Yeah.
Food more, encouraged to come in costume. Sounds like a fun time. Yeah.
This sounds like a conference for you know, fans of the haunted house not necessarily haunted house owners. Yeah, this got sprung on us. That's why it's not in the conference reminders. We found this out about the very last minute. But yeah, this is really, really a neat idea here. And like you said, even though it is the Ohio Haunters Association, it's them putting it on. I agree with you. This feels like something for fans of Carnage Haunted rather than What I would think of as a haunted attraction convention like this isn't gonna get your haunt con crowd or your trans world crown I have no idea. I actually have no idea either Yeah, I have no idea who they're targeting but it sounded like you know, the public would be interested. Yeah, this seems more public oriented That's a bit terrible put and honestly, it sounds really really cool We'll have a link to their Facebook post where you can sign up for it. If you are interested is April 29th So you have a couple of weeks.

[35:01] All right, well a horror movie was shot inside of Tampa, one of Tampa Bay's most haunted houses.
This is an article by Paul Guzzo at the Suncoast News. And basically, they were looking for a location for the film The Clock, which basically that's how you name a horror movie now.
The noun. Yes. That's it, right?
The room. Oh, wait. Should have been a horror movie. That one's a horror movie.
Have been a horror movie. That one's being remade. Oh no, shh. No, I do not know. You, are tearing me apart, Tommy Wiseau. That movie does not need, you can't remake that. You can never do that again. Anyways, and they were looking for a location for The Clock, right next to The Cell. Rick Dan for One of the Unique Houses. So it's basically a movie about a demonic clock. Okay, also if you want to do a budget horror, pick random object, have it get demonic powers. Be a car, a couch, a mirror, apparently a woman's genitalia. That has happened. That's an actual movie. But anyways, But a demonic clock purchased by a couple at a church estate sale. I have questions about the church estate sale.

[36:20] They didn't bless the items before they sold them I have lots of questions about this But anyway, the Victorian house is known as the most haunted house in Tampa Bay is a 151 year old house, However, they say no paranormal activity took place when filming. Yeah. Well, of course not. Yeah, and this is one of those you could tell This is one of those padding, stories because you know well But the reason we put it in and the reason I think we include it is because so many haunts do pitch, That they are actually haunted. Mm-hmm. I mean like the mortuary has played that card pretty heavily various times, Yeah, it seems to lean in and lean away from it at different intervals, but it's it's you know.

[37:01] It's leaned into in the past. It is a way to to get people in the doors for something other than just the open hours of the haunted house in October.
And like I said, we know for a fact that movie shoots are key to financial success for some area haunts.
And Louisiana has a very good reputation with the film industry. We're not called Hollywood South for no reason.
And one of the real benefactors of that has been local haunted attractions who have hosted shoots and made some very good off-season cash doing it.
It. So just saying this might be an approach to take. Okay, next up. So it seems like American teens aren't as excited about virtual reality as you may think. No. This is by Kif LeSwing at MSN.com. I'm glad you had to say that name.
Name. Okay, but basically 29% of teenagers own VR equipment, 14% use them weekly, and and only 4% use them daily.

[38:08] Which seems like, you know... Well, this article came out in the context of Apple, supposedly getting ready to release either VR or augmented reality glasses sometime...
I mean, it's been coming for years now, okay? But it says that it's going to be this year, later this year. We will see.
I've been told that before. I've also been told Tesla's be fully self-driving in a year.
Elon!
But yeah, the survey shows that VR is struggling to gain traction with anybody, really.
The trans world moment was such an epiphany for me.
And it's like I said, we were there, the show floor had just opened, it had been open like five minutes, people hadn't even really trickled down to the part of the show floor I was on.
And then there were people experimenting with a holiday themed VR.
Someone else came along said those people look like Prats and I'm like a don't use British insults. That's my thing and be your 100% right, And here's the thing about this. I think VR is entering not what is it?
Not the uncanny valley the unholy valley the we're totally screwed Valley Something like that because the thing about I noticed in this is that 29% own VR. Yeah, that statistic kind of blew my mind I had figured that number would be hovering in like low teens like maybe half to that number.

[39:31] 14% use weekly 4% daily usage. I have a VR I literally have a VR unit within arm's reach of me as I'm recording this I haven't used it in over a month and a half Yeah, a part of it's because I don't have enough space in my office to do it right this microsecond, But also it just haven't felt like doing it, And I think VR might be entering the space where it is both too common to really be special, to be a special attraction.
But also not popular enough to expect people to want to do it at your haunt You know, It's entering that weird space where anyone who wants to dabble with vr has opportunities to do it at a friend's house, or at their own house They don't need to pay five dollars and buy a ticket at your haunt to do a thing. Yeah. Um.

[40:22] But also I think they're just not that interested in it So even if you have the latest and greatest and coolest VR tech, I don't think this is a lasting thing.
I think we're going to have to find something else.
Well, and I mean, video game industry has always tried to get VR.
Oh God, yeah. I remember VR existing in the 90s.
Yeah, and they were like the biggest... The fucking wireframe. Yeah.
Fucking wireframe nausea inducing. Yeah.
Well, and the goggles that you would look in and they sit on the table that Nintendo The virtual boy. Yeah, that was not VR at all. No, I don't know like arcade VRs in the malls, Where they actually did have the goggles who look on but there was it looked like well virtual boy Yeah, actually great comparison. Yeah, it looked like that look like shit, Yeah, and that's because that was at a time in which LED full color LED was ridiculously expensive Like we didn't even really have LED screens yet. LED screens would be coming around as the decade moved on, So yeah, the technology just wasn't there and now now it's here. Look look I got the meta oculus.

[41:35] $200 one. I have played Resident Evil 4 in VR the remaking that by the way Bastards don't make Resident Evil 4. You don't remake good games, Let good games stay. Remake shitty games that just need some fixes and you know what I mean?
Or just make a new game. new game. Or just make a new game.
Yeah, if you're that creatively bankrupt, there are plenty of Resident Evils that sucked.
Remake and fix those all you want. Don't think anyone's gonna be yelling at you for fixing Resident Evil 6, okay? But yeah, I worry that haunts may be leaning into VR, even though this is an obvious dead end though. These numbers do not paint a pretty picture about the future of VR to me. I'm surprised 29% own. I really was. I thought that was something that made me fairly unique you know like 10-15% maybe had it but no no well over a quarter owned them.
Well you got to remember that they were surveying teens.
Last time I checked you were not a teen.
At least I hope not. I would be in trouble. I am 19 teen.

[42:44] Not how it works? No. Okay. But no, but that is true too.
Well actually that makes it even worse though because teenagers typically don't have a lot of money. Right. And they... and the fact that 30% own VR, meaning they spent money that they don't necessarily have... And then don't play it. And don't play it. That's not a good sign. No.
That's even worse. Yeah. That's not helping anything. So yeah, I... I've... we've been talking about VR being a dead end for a while. I think this quantifies it. I don't... I don't know how anyone can look at these numbers and go, yep, building a VR-based attraction this year.

[43:24] If you do, I'm sorry, you kinda have it coming. Alright, and finally this week, a little bit of fun, a little bit of an upbeat, some wholesomeness.
It's even wholesome!
It's a wholesome story to end on. This is an article by Deeksha at Sportskeeda, under their SKpop brand.
But the article's entitled, Who is the Whisper Character on TikTok?
They like to do profiles of people that go viral on TikTok. The characters in this week, it was a character, one of the ones they did this week was a character named Whisper.
I know Whisper has gone on viral on TikTok after posting multiple meetings with Jamie Campbell Bower who played Vincena from, help me out here, you watched Stranger Things, I didn't.
Oh, Vecna from Stranger Things. Thank you.
Um, but yeah, she's a zombie character who speaks in the language or they are rather a zombie character that speaks in the language of cliques and growls, However, it's a completely wholesome zombie character think like Casper, but growly and clicky, and Basically, they carry a teddy bear with a named Willow, which is gonna cause Japes problems.

[44:34] But basically Whisper is a character from Spooker's Haunted House account, which if you've been following this podcast a while you'll know it is a big mega haunt in New Zealand that's open year-round and keeps getting in the news for doing interesting things. Yeah, or being sold. Last time I think it was being sold. But apparently they're still doing interesting things. Yes. So yeah, from the Spooker's Haunted House account, great promotion from them. And apparently this is part of a growing trend for spooky content on social media, and particularly TikTok. So, So if your haunted attraction is not on TikTok and not doing spooky things on TikTok, maybe something to look into right about now.
Yeah, I've recently started seeing reels come up where characters are just reacting to other people's videos.
Like looking at them like, who's this guy?
You know, what is that crazy stuff that they're doing? I do not like reaction-based content.
I've just decided I...
Yeah, I know. A, for copyright reasons, and B, because it never adds anything.
It doesn't make you a fan of the character. You know what I mean? Yeah.

[45:44] But nevertheless it is a trend that's out. It is a trend that is out there. I mean, yeah I mean, this is something that I wouldn't participate in you're not gonna see Bernie reacting to the latest dumb video, Bernie will do Bernie things. Yeah, Bernie could react to you know, the scare videos from the scare cams Oh that one. Okay, and then and reacting and showing your own content. Yeah, that's one thing Yeah, I could definitely see do if you want to do reaction stuff That's a great idea.
If you want to do reaction stuff, react to videos shot in your own haunt of people getting scared.
That is a great idea. Because A, that removes all IP issues from the equation.
That's your stuff.
And B, that is organic. That is what that character should be doing.
Shouldn't be reacting to the latest TikTok dance video or whatever. Oh yeah.
Like if the characters were real, like brought to life as that character, I'm sure that in their off season, would be sitting there laughing their ass off at whatever scare they got and thought was the best during season.
Yeah. I mean, we do that anyway. Yeah. So. Yeah.
What is the aftermath of every night at a haunted attraction but exactly that?
Yeah. Replaying, recreating, reenacting sometimes, very vividly reenacting sometimes, the various scares that were seen inside the haunt and then laughing and being jovial about it.

[47:06] Yeah. everyone thank you very much for spending the past 50-ish minutes with us greatly appreciate it hope that this was useful and you got some information out of it i'm going to check out more whisper stuff that that that they seem fun but in the meantime definitely check out more hunt weekly we're at huntweekly.com huntweekly on twitter huntweekly on facebook and youtube.com slash huntweekly you can also find us wherever you get your podcasts from include to apple podcast google Play, Stitcher, and more. Definitely keep up to date on the Facebook page. We will be posting some information about live recordings soon, but until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal.
And we will see you all next week.