Haunt Weekly - Episode 386 - AI in Haunting

[0:20] Hello and welcome to Haunt Weekly, the podcast for haunters by haunters. I'm Jonathan and I'm Crystal and we're back for another episode. That's right, Crystal. Today we're going to be talking about an important aspect of running a haunted attraction that is often overlooked, marketing. Marketing? That sounds boring, but I guess it's important if we want people to come to our haunt. Exactly, and there are a lot of different marketing strategies that haunts can use, from social media to print advertising to email campaigns, but the key is to find the right mix of strategies that will reach your target audience and convince them to visit your haunt.
That sounds like a lot of work.

[0:57] How do we even get started with marketing our haunt? Well, the first step is to identify your target audience.
Are you catering to families with young children? Teenagers looking for a scare?
Hardcore horror fans?
Knowing your audience will help you tailor your marketing message and choose the right channels to reach them. That makes sense, but what if we're not sure who our target audience is? Then you might need to do some market research. Talk to people in your community, do some online surveys, and check out the competition to see who they're targeting. Once you have a better sense of your audience, you can start developing your marketing plan. Okay, so what are some specific marketing strategies we can use for our haunt? Well, one approach that's been very effective for many haunts is to create a strong online presence. That, means having a website, active social media accounts, and engaging content that will attract and retain followers.

[1:54] And we can also use email marketing to keep in touch with our customers and promote special events or discounts. And don't forget about traditional advertising channels like print ads, billboards, and radio spots. Depending on your target audience, these may still be effective ways to get the word out about your haunt. That's a lot of different strategies to consider.
How do we know which ones will work best for us? Well, it's all about testing and tracking. Try out different approaches and see which one generates the most interest in ticket sales.
Use tools like Google Analytics to track website traffic and social media engagement and adjust your strategy accordingly. That sounds like a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it if it means more people will come to our haunt.
Absolutely! And remember, marketing is an ongoing process. Even if you have a successful haunt and have been around for years, you still need to keep promoting and reaching out to new audiences to stay competitive. Great advice, Jonathan. Thanks for sharing your marketing expertise with us anytime crystal and and thanks to our listeners for tuning into another episode of weekly we'll be back with a next week with more tips and tricks for haunters.

[3:06] How many of you are wondering what the fuck is going on if if there's if if you were listening to this in a car i apologize for the car accident and the sheer confusion um if you didn't notice the title of this week's episode. It is entitled AI and Haunting. And so for this we decided to sit down with an AI, chat GPT, and ask it a bunch of questions about haunting. Now we'll get more into the topic in a minute, but one of the questions we had to ask was could it write a script for Haunt Weekly? And that's what it came up with. Word for word with the best acting I think we we could do.

[3:48] Fucking hell is saying to do Google and Google analytics is shutting down in a month. Apparently. I don't like doing a lot of work No, no, I said it twice You really focused on the not working bit of this, Oh lord, anyway, can we start the episode for real now? Yeah, I think we should get into the the real intro, Okay. Hello everyone. I'm jonathan. I'm krista and this is on weekly, Weekly podcast for the auto attraction entertainment community whether you're an actor owner or just plain aficionado we aim to be a podcast for you and I don't think we have to worry about being replaced with an AI writer any time in the immediate future.
No.
I mean, A, we told it to write a script for Home Weekly. It gave us only two minutes of shit.
Two minutes of it and it was on topic, but then it was like, I'm not even a host.
Yeah, you're just some kind of weird... I just asked you to be on.
Either I'm not a host or I am the host and you're the guest.
Yeah, and you're just interviewing me. I couldn't tell either way. I have no fear right now No, so please follow us humans, And all the places you follow us hauntweekly.com, hauntweekly on Twitter, hauntweekly on Facebook and youtube.com slash hauntweekly is the YouTube channel You can also find us wherever your podcasts are distributed and pay special attention to the Facebook page.

[5:08] Some live recordings are coming soon. We're doing outreach. We have At least two live episodes we're very excited about right now.
Yes.
One guest just got back in the pocket where we can try to get them on, and another reached out to us, and I'm excited about this one.
Yeah, that one's gonna be fun. That one's gonna be a lot of fun.
We need to get our new mic stands in. Yes, we do. We need to get new mic stands.
But anyways, every week we do a Question of the Week, and last week's Question of the Week was a doozy. What is one hot mistake you would undo if you could?
And to that end Ryan Greger said buying sparkly things thinking paint will stop the herpes.

[5:52] Ryan Blessed summer child you Innocent soul who thought there was anything that could get rid of glitter. Yeah, there's a reason glitter bombing is an actual, tactic of you know Anyways, Chris Gay said he wants more photos from his first years could not agree more One of the things I was thinking about when we were talking about our mistakes was how little is left from those first years because we didn't know this would still be a thing in 15-20 years. Yeah, exactly.
We had no idea, so we really weren't taking a lot of fucking notes.
No, we were just doing it for like a year just to get people back through, you know, 2005.
Yeah. That's all we were doing. Really and truly, we had bigger things in mind.
Yeah. Pete Blackwell said, accepting responsibility for anything other than my area.
That's a good one. Don't do that. Listen to Pete, everyone. Pete's a wise man here. Listen to him.
John Miller said, spending eight years building sets for one of the nearly universally hated haunt owners in my state.
Did not look up his state. No, I'm not gonna hazard a guess on who that is. No, but Jesus that's gotta suck Yeah, they're trying to get that mark off of their their history and reputation. That's gonna be a hard one Yeah, especially if you're like closely tied to them. I mean, yeah, and and you know what I get it. In fact, oh.

[7:13] We've unfortunately had some bad news this week in the haunt industry, but another haunt owner. Oh, yeah Yeah. Jesus Christ.
And so we'll be... We won't talk about it this episode.
Stay tuned for the next news episode. That'll be 388. Mm-hmm.
So, two episodes to each, and now we're going to cover it.
But yeah, just know that there is another scandal involving a haunt owner doing things with underage actors that no haunt owner should ever do with anyone, any underage people at all. Yeah. Anyway, moving on.
Brian Page. Not related to Adam Page or Brian Cage.
Yeah. Oh, well, that's good to know.
Glad you researched that. Yeah, not having 4x the cash and reserves when I opened this shit's expensive No fucking shit. Yeah, and that was the one they got the hell he has from the gallery I just realized chat GPT did not have a swear at all. No, I don't think that, I think that's the least believable part of that script. Honestly, there was no fuck no shit.

[8:12] There's no Jesus Christ None of that stuff. None of the good stuff.
Yes, but the question of the week did get a lot of other really good answers.
So you can find all of the answers on the Facebook page.
Facebook.com slash Haunt Weekly. Worth checking out. Yeah, we definitely got a lot of answers on this one. A lot of them are really, really good.
But as far as the cash reserve thing, yeah, I think cash and haunting is like firewood. You get as much as much as you think you need and then double it at least.
Yeah. So I'm pretty sure that's the case. Anyways, this week's question of the week, let's keep it AI themed, what do you see being potential uses for AI in haunting.

[8:56] Um, well, anyways on that note it is an even number episode that is mean it is done. Whoo to choke on her own spit, Yes, and also to do the conference reminders now before we jump in apologies the last episode we did these I.

[9:13] Kind of borked it. I forgot to update some of the notes. I've gone through I've updated everything. We should be caught up. So, So if, you know, things sound a little weird in the conference order, that's why.
So I'll start this one off. Coming up April 29th, next weekend people, pay attention!

[9:31] In Los Angeles, California, it is the Spooky Swap Meet at the Heritage Square Museum, a great place to purchase gently loved items, including costumes and decor, created by one of the co-founders of Midsummer Scream.
SpookySwapMeet.com for the details.
Then at Southeast Hollows Haunt Convention May 5th through May 7th in Savannah Georgia at the Savannah Convention Center featuring three days, of haunted attraction seminars, two makeup contests, and a masquerade ball.
Early bird tickets available and... I'm deleting that. Yeah, you don't have early bird. It's not early anymore. Yeah, you expect an early bird ticket now? It's on you.
Yeah, there are those conferences that offer them up to the day before, which is just weird.
Yeah, anything that's not at the door is considered early bird.
Yeah, that's the comic-con we went to did the same thing. Exactly.
But anyway, if you want to find out more about them, it's SEHHC.com.
Then June 8th through the 11th, this Midwest Honors Convention in Rosemont, Illinois at the Donnelly Stephens Convention Center.
I swear I checked it just 10 minutes ago. The 2023 info is still listed as coming soon.

[10:47] So, yeah, feel free to set up an alert on the page MidwestHonorsConvention.com so you can see when that finally gets posted. I mean, Jesus Christ, guys, April's almost over. Yeah, Michigan Hawk Fest is going to be June 23rd through the 25th in Munith, Michigan at the Oaks Campground.
Demos and make and takes meals not provided Saturday adults charge $2 for the entry fee to the park, Michigan haunt fest dot we believe calm. Yep, and, Finally, July 15th and the 16th is Texas Honours Convention in Mesquite, Texas at the Mesquite Convention Center, The were they eating mesquite barbecue and there no Anyway features a trade show floor a costume ball door prizes costume contest and a game night, Texas haunters convention calm for more information. All right. I think that brings us back into the fold.

[11:45] Basically, though Work we did for our hog this weekend was none. It's this with jury duty and everything that's been going on I'm fucking burned out. Yeah, we've been dealing with physical and mental exhaustion here lately. We have things we want to do. Now that we have the design we're ready to jump in but we need to both do work inside the haunt and in the backyard. Yeah. And one of the issues we've had is lately we've been putting in a lot of hours on the yarn store. Yeah. So it's we we're hoping to get started but it has been very frustrating trying to.
So anyways, the title of this week's episode is AI and Haunting, and I want to have like a few minute talk here in the very beginning before we jump into our conversation with chat GPT. Yeah.
And if there's interest, let me know if there's interest. If you hear this bit and are curious, I will copy and paste the entirety of the conversation into a Google Doc and share it in the show notes.
Yeah. So everyone can read the full fucking thing.
And I'm totally happy to do that, but I'm not gonna waste my time with it if there's no interest, because I don't wanna throw shit at you you don't need.
So AI and haunting. AI has been the big topic. Artificial intelligence has been the big topic lately.

[13:02] And it's been huge in the tech world, and in my day job, it has dominated the news in a way that is unprecedented in my pushing 20-year history of doing this.
It caused a lot of issues for you. It has been literally like top of mind on both the copyright and the plagiarism side for a lot of very valid reasons. So just be mindful of that. This is like day job stress here too for me. But I'm not someone, even though a lot of people think I'm like really anti AI, I'm actually not. I mean I don't like the way AI was created, the way these AIs were trained, and that they used other people's copyrighted works and other people's creative works without permission to train these large language models or LLMs as they're called.
I don't like that, but I do think this technology has a lot of potential.
I think it has a lot of potential in haunting too, because here's the thing.
We used ChatGPT and asked it a bunch of silly questions and got a pretty diverse collection of error answers, we'd say.
They were diverse and some of them were funny and I was really hoping they would give me actual answers.

[14:13] But some of these, but AI, the concept of it has a myriad of other uses.
And I wasn't, one of the things I've been thinking about that could be really, really good if AI powered in Haunt, for example, is the timing of props.
Because right now, prop timing and timing in general in a Haunt has to be done either by a rigid timer system or just, you know, trigger activation or whatever.
But I really think there could be something here for an AI-controlled prop management system. Adds a little bit of unpredictability to it, but it might be able to work better at targeting and, you know, really nailing customers with various skaters.
So I think it could be useful. But I'd be curious to hear, and that's the reason that's the question of the week, is, what do you see the uses for AI in Haunting Being?
We are such a human-driven industry that that was my struggle bus effort to come up with an area that could truly be useful in Hollman.

[15:14] The other areas are a bit of the more cliche ones. It might be able to help with like writing responses and chatbots and things, might be able to help generate social media posts, respond to emails, or even be able to grade in process contest to type that yeah there's useful elements for in marketing but basically one of the problems right now is that what AI is being used for is either spitting out text which is what we primarily used it for or creating images slash video and I mean I grant AI generated haunted attraction videos could be interesting but why not just shoot a real video of your aunt it'd, should probably be easier in the long run, you know?

[15:59] No. And one of the things we did was we actually cut a image AI loose on a couple of prompts we had.
The first one was, we had produced a haunted attraction poster.
Yeah. And okay, it had no actual English on it.
No. I had like fake Russian language. I don't know what that language was.
Yeah. But it was not any language I recognized. No. But it actually had a picture of a haunted house.
It was a well laid out poster.
Yeah, it was. And it was retro, which is all in rage right now, you know.
Retro never leaves rage. It's just a matter of what is retro.
I know, we are retro.
We, no, no, no, no. We were retro. We're on the retro, retro cycle of right now. We're just old.
We're just old, yeah. That's what we're saying.
But yeah, so it did produce a decent poster. But then we asked it to create a layout for a haunted attraction.
And it spit out an architectural, like top-down, like a tower of control, that made no sense. None whatsoever.
Had no idea. I could tell it was an attempt at some kind of like blueprint type thing, like the diagrams, but it made zero sense. Yeah, because I wanted it to try to build a layout for a 625 square foot pond.

[17:17] Now, those of you who are listening, that's the size of our garage, so that could have been useful, But it didn't take that specific of instructions.
So we had to keep broadening the instructions. Yeah, and then whenever it did spit something out, it was completely unusable.
I mean, I'll have to share the image of this one, because it was so bad.
It had the outline of a building, and then it had like a couple of rooms in the building.
But like most of the building wasn't filled in and then there was like these slanted walls that were, Falling over with bats on them. Yeah, I pray, If this place ever gets built, I pray I never walk in there drunk because yeah, I will be dead, Yeah, I don't think it would pass a fire marshal. I don't think it would pass any inspection I don't think it would stand up as it's as it's designed right now Yeah, so that was a bust. But no, that goes back to the question a week ago.
What do you think AI could be used for in haunting? We've been kind of racking our brains and not coming up with a lot.

[18:22] But we decided to talk to ChatGPT a little bit about the haunted attraction industry.
And the reason we want to share this is because with a large language model like ChatGPT's, the only answers it can give are things it finds on the internet. Yeah. And usually in large quantity.
So, the things it talks about are things that are out there on the Internet, prevalently and repeatedly, most likely. So, what was the first question we asked it? Oh, well, the first one we asked was, what is a haunted attraction? We thought, we'll get a baseline, figure out, does it even know what we're talking about? And it said, a haunted attraction is a type of entertainment venue that simulates scary or supernatural experiences. These.

[19:07] These attractions are typically set up during Halloween or other holiday seasons and may include haunted houses, mazes, hay rides, or other spooky settings.
Honestly, not the worst definition I've seen. And it goes on to say the purpose of what the purpose is to scare and thrill visitors through a variety of means, that people dress up in a variety of costumes, and some include an element of interactivity.
Honestly, not the worst definition. I thought we were off to a pretty good start at this point. Me too.
So the next question was, what do I need if I want to start on it.

[19:43] Yes. And then it spit out a list. A lot of these are in list format, so we're going to be going over the list.
So I'll warn you that now. Yeah, and basically we're just going to say a little bit.
So starting a haunted attraction can be an exciting and rewarding venture, but it requires careful planning and investment to be successful.
Okay, fair. That's all reasonable.
Then it says you have to focus on vocation with an explanation permits and licensing, Budget. Yeah, no kidding question of the week people, Theme and design actors and staff special effects and props and marketing all of that, You need to start in your business, but I was about to say that though What drove me kind of nuts about this and this answer isn't that it was a bad answer per se Mm-hmm. It just wasn't specific to the haunted attraction industry in any way. I could say, Everything about the success may be actors and staffs about Ellie's yarn store. Yeah.

[20:50] Yeah, go down this list I mean we needed a location Okay, that did take for fucking ever, you know, yeah, I'm not gonna lie permits and licensing Yes, we had to roll through all that budget. Yeah. Yeah, we had a budget. We had a limit theme and design Yeah, we had to come up with colors. We had to come up with a look. We had to come up with an aesthetic, Figure out what was going where now we did not need special effects and props necessarily, but we did need, accent items and things in there like the spinning wheel and other first aging and, The signs for the window like I would yes under special effect. Yeah, so maybe it's not like the same kind and as marketing, Well, duh. Of course you need marketing. So that was what kind of frustrated me here, was that it's like, here's the answer to your question. It's super generic, could apply to almost any business. There's nothing special related to Haunted Attraction Industry. And I mean, and it's kind of funny that I'm the one bitching about that, because the whole reason we started Haunt Weekly way back when we started it was to talk about haunting as a business.
Yeah, and partly as to people who aren't in the business, but our business people. Yeah, um talk about it that way, So yeah, I mean we were trying to pitch haunted attraction as being just another business and then chat GPT Doesn't I get a little fucking offended? Yeah.

[22:13] It's like you asshole All right. So the next question was what makes a good design for a haunted attraction?
Mm-hmm, and it starts out saying a good design for a haunted attraction is crucial to creating a memorable and scary experience for visitors Here are some key elements and we kick into the list again. Once again, it's gonna be kind of a theme literally Yes It starts off with theme and then layout lighting sound props and decorations Live actors and safety and it says safety should be top priority when designing a haunted attraction Then puts it last in the fucking list.

[22:52] Yes, but I do agree with the point.
Those early episodes, people have died from drinking every time we said safety first.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure if you actually did do a shot every time we mentioned something about safety, there are a few episodes, especially in the early days, like you said, that you, would die of alcohol poisoning.
You wouldn't make it through the first half of the episode. And honestly, yeah, we do harp on safety a lot because one of the things that we know and one of the things that came out like in the Six Flags Fire and all that, the Haunted Castle Fire, is that when one haunted attraction fucks up something with safety and someone gets hurt or, God help us, killed.
It is every other hot that gets punished for it. Yeah the entire industry We're so small so insular and so below the radar that the minute waiting dickheads, causes Our entire industry to peek up above ground like I mean like a like a fucking gopher sticking its head out of the hole, The whole the whole fucking colony gets whack. Yeah, you know cuz basically it's it's you stick your head up the hole Oh, there's a gopher! Now suddenly they're flooding the entire mound and all the gophers are dying.
No.
And yes, haunts are like gophers, by the way. Apparently. So yeah.
Well, I mean, you pop out and scare people, so...

[24:14] And we actually followed up more on the theme element, though, with this.
The layout, I did like its answer on layout, though.
I really did, because it said the layout of your haunted attraction should be designed to keep visitors engaged and create a sense of disorientation.
Orientation. You can use winding corridors, false walls, and hidden passages. Okay, false walls and hidden passages, no. Probably not. Well, I think that that means more for actors to go through. True. But you don't...but yeah, I...okay. Maybe it meant...I don't know. It's a fucking AI. Yeah. It didn't mean anything. It just picked words that came after the word before and we're trying to find meaning in this. Yeah. The fact we can find... Well, that's way I interpreted it. The fact that we can find any meaning at all is impressive enough. But no, all in all, it was not the worst answer. Like I said, though, I found it kind of weird. It's like safety should be a top priority. No, no, it's the top priority. It's like, yeah, it tried to come in hot on safety, but then put it last and kind of couched it. Yeah. You know, so it's like, like, whatever. Anyways, moving on.
All right, so the next question we asked is, why do people go to haunted attractions?
Yeah, we wanted to see how much of it all it plagiarized from Margie Kerr.
See if we recognize any of her stuff in there.

[25:36] But yeah, people go to haunted attractions for a variety of reasons, but the main one is to experience a thriller scare.
Many people enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with being frightened in a safe and controlled environment.
So yeah, I think plagiarizing Marky Kerr worked pretty well here.
Haunted attractions provide a way to experience the excitement and intensity of a horror movie or a scary story in real life.
You don't know how scary stories happen in real life. Yeah!
See, this is the thing. It's like this is what kind of I've been noticing as I've done this and other things with chat GPT, It's like you can almost fool yourself into thinking a human wrote this until you get something like that, Where's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, you know, you know, like you didn't fully rock.

[26:23] This you know, I mean it didn't fully take this in. So yeah, I don't know this wasn't this was kind of a nothing answer realistically yeah but even chat GPT says that haunted attractions are seasonal for Halloween only yeah at, least in this answer yeah though it in the previous answer it said and other holidays yeah yeah the popular a popular form of entertainment during the Halloween season everybody a unique and immersive experience is not available other times of year. Once again, ignoring your round haunts. For many people, visiting a haunted attraction is a fun and exciting way to celebrate the holiday. And yeah, I mean, it is. That's, I mean, it's not that you're wrong at GPT. It's just that you're self-contradicting, A. And B, you're not fully... it's one of those classics. You're not wrong, but you're not fully right either. And that's what's so frustrating about it, because it, it's like it feels like it's like almost there to actually putting out the answer.

[27:32] And just screws it up enough that it calls it back. Moving on though, what are some good themes for a haunted attraction? Oh boy. Yeah we got a list again. Yeah. Starts with the classic haunted house. So what's your haunted house theme? Haunted house? Exactly. No no no no what's the theme for the haunted What is going to be the theme? Haunted house!

[27:56] That's basically what our skeleton is. That's basically what our skeleton is.
Pond and house, pond and house, pond and house!

[28:01] Don't know what the fuck you want out of me Margaret. It's haunted house themed haunted house.

[28:16] Describes a classic haunted house theme a theme is a staple of the genre. No shit, You can use classic horror elements such as ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural beings to create scary and suspenseful atmosphere.
And while you're there, please hang on to the mention of zombies in the first item of the list.
Yes. Because the second item of the list is zombie apocalypse.
Yes. You little redundant motherfucker. Oh, man, this theme involves a world overrun by zombies and visitors must navigate through a post-apocalyptic, Landscape filled with danger and gore. Yes, make it sound delightful. Yes. So the next one is asylum.

[29:08] Yeah, we don't Asylum themed haunts have gotten really complicated and, they We have mixed feelings. Well, and I think one of my problems is like there are, Asylum themes were the the the thing that's supposed to be scary is the mental illness Yeah, And then there's asylums like the rise well asylum or what's meant to be scary is the godforsaken Doctors and nurses that are torturing and being cruel to the poor patients. Yeah, You know, I mean, you know, it's historically and then it's about to say it's probably the most historically accurate Yeah, I don't want to try to we've been through for that, But what GPT says is that an asylum theme plays on people's fears of being trapped and confined in a creepy institution, You can use patients doctors and orderlies as characters to create a sense of enemies and then everyone's favorite, Carnival they can do a circus carnival theme. They'd be fun and creepy twist on the genre. You can use clowns, fortune tellers and other performers who, Create a twisted carnival experience. Yeah, that's good. It's complicated. Yeah, then it will just go through the next pretty quickly Yeah, exactly haunted for it for forces pretty self-explanatory a haunted hotel, which we've seen plenty of those But yeah, but I don't see hope never mind, but it's like the hotel's not the theme.

[30:30] Moving yeah, and then finally it gave us nightmare realm. I guess a chat GPT has been watching a little too much stranger things, You know? Yeah, and that's supposed to play on people's fears of unknown or the surreal.
This is...
This is a thing. This was an answer. And a third, I just I cannot believe in the, infinite wisdom of Chad GPT. That it's like the first, right off the bat, the top theme for your haunted house is classic haunted house. Yes, look it's up the definition of circular logic and you will find this answer to this question.
The word recursion comes to mind here. It's just jeez That is that's rough and and frankly, I'm not like over the moon about any of these theme ideas No, um, cuz like the zombie apocalypse has been done to hell. We mentioned why asylum is complicated Circus carnival has also been done to death.

[31:34] Haunted forest, I think that just described every trail haunt. Yeah, pretty much ad nauseum Haunted Hotel. I mean, yeah, I guess that one's unique and night, you know what I mean?
It's just like none of these like leap out at me. It's like yes, that's that's the new sex That's the new thing. We need to do all that. Num num num in my face right now.

[31:56] So After had helped us try to determine what our theme for our own it out should be, We then asked it. What are the duties of a scare to duty?
It's duties of a scare actor in a haunted attraction And it said the duties of a scare actor can be varying, Depending on the specific attraction and role of the actor will know no shit, Captain obvious here to help us through this.

[32:25] Jesus Christ, thank you for that illumination. You know what these remind me of these answers It reminds me of the diagrams I used to have to do in high school, for writing a paper where you state the the important sentence at the beginning you list your bullet points and then you restate the first paragraph at the bottom. See what I think this reminds me of it's also school related is when you're given an assignment to write 750 words on something and your first draft only comes up to 500 yeah so you've got to add some bullshit sentences like the, duties of a scare actor and a haunted attraction can vary depending on the specific attraction in the role of the actor. Yeah, but I remember learning to write like that, restating the question as an answer and then getting into the actual answer, which happens to be scaring guest. Once again we're in the recursion zone here, but granted that answer kind of was required. Yeah, staying in character. Alright. Fair point, fair point. Safety.

[33:28] Once again, I think that should be higher up. I do think safety should literally be first, but okay. I'm moving on.
Yeah, and that's ensuring the guest of themselves and guest.
They are if you are a scare actor you are in charge of the safety of everyone in the interaction. Mm-hmm. Literally.
Improvisation. Yeah, basically here. I mean this was actually I thought one of the better answers. This one. Not the whole thing.
This one because like sometimes guests may react in unexpected ways and scare actor must be able to improvise and adapt to the situation to maintain the experience to keep the guest engaged yes yeah that is actually exactly right and I'm pretty sure Japes is somewhere listen it's going yeah you know be ready for that yeah okay now Japes is we actually have a Japes response to a later one we'll get there though yeah but then makeup and costumes that may be required to them which is true and some haunts they do collaborating with other actors mm-hmm that's definitely a duty basically but then it goes back to total oh shit I've got to get more words yeah overall the scare actors main duty is to provide guests with a thrilling and unforgettable experience while maintaining their safety and staying in character mm-hmm.

[34:51] Thanks Captain Recap. Yep, exactly. Jesus Christ. All right, this is the one we got Jape's opinion on. Yeah. Because after we read this, we had to, and we're gonna be doing this one item by item. This one's special. Yeah. We asked, what are lines a scare actor may want to use in a haunted attraction? Write our actor's lines for us. Go for it. And we'll just skip straight to the list cuz it's beautiful. First one, I've been waiting for you. You're not supposed to be here.
Don't go in there!
You're next!
I can see you! Run! Followed by, I'm gonna get you!
No. No. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
To a fucking man each and every one of those are fucking awful. Yeah Fucking awful and it was so bad that when chat GPT spit this out. We learned.

[36:04] We copied that section and dropped it to James Immediately because we had no we we needed someone else. Yes, and his response was two words Hoo boy! Yeah. And honestly, those two words say a lot. Yes, now I was glad to not say boo or rar on here. Yeah, but I mean, you're next. Well, and you don't tell people to run if it's against the rules to run in your haunts. Yeah, that is, that's a bad one. And you don't make empty threats. I'm not, I'm gonna get you or whatever. You're not supposed to make empty threats.

[36:43] They also did not say one of my other least favorites, which is, uh, what are you doing in here? Yeah, or help me. Or yeah, just help me. Yeah, no victim lines at all on this list, but they did say you're not supposed to be here, which is equally bad to about you. What are you doing here? But yeah, this is just terrible. Yeah. I mean, genuinely, truly terrible. Yeah. So we asked, next up, we asked the reverse of that question. Yeah. Which is, what should scare actors not say in a haunted attraction? And we were really happy, overall, with the answers.
Yeah, this answer was way better than what to say. I'm gonna admit that completely. Yeah. But basically, right now, Japes, your job is safe, man. Hey, I ain't kicking down your door anytime soon. No. Alright, first thing I mentioned was racial or ethnic slurs. Okay, good start. Yeah. That's a good fucking start.
Yeah, sexual language. I agree with that and Darkwoods, remember what we talked about!
Personal insults. Don't get personally insulting and okay, well a little bit on that one because like What do you mean by insult and what do you mean by personal? It's kind of a vague thing there, I don't I think it's more of don't call don't call the fat kid fat or something. Yeah, Don't call the ugly kid ugly. Yes, stuff like that. Yes.

[38:11] Don't do that. I know I get that but it's like But no, I mean, I know when I'm in the front of line and especially when kids come up in costume. I like to.

[38:21] Lightly insult who they're playing as is the character. Oh spider-man, huh?
Last movie didn't go so good did it? That's I just like just nothing like too harsh not like spider-man sucks. I wouldn't say that that's personal either No, that's a character attack on someone but it is a insult at someone's person. Yeah, someone personally, Yeah, it's it's a fine balance that you prefer. Yeah, they were the chat GPT was a little vague the next up profanity, Yeah, and I say this is a person who swears like a fucking sailor, you know, Yeah, don't you should not be using profanity and the reason is unless of course you have a content warning on it Yeah, or you're an adult only over and even then I'd have a content warning about it, Yeah, because I mean and content warnings for haunts is something I think I've been wanting to do an episode on for a while, Because I thought we had done that already we might have but we need to revisit it It's probably past time if we have but the thing about it is was like every other industry, has ways in which it lets the viewer know the type of content that's inside it and haunted attractions don't really do that and that's something we need to work on but yeah profanity He's not a good idea. Neither are threats Jesus Christ. Yeah. Now once again.

[39:45] Like one of the things I love that Japes talks about is about how you should not, you know, toss out an empty threat. A threat that you, you know, won't ever do.

[39:58] Because, yeah, if it's an empty threat, the fear is gone. Like I can't, like, I'm gonna throw you in my crock pot and eat you up or something like that. No, you're not. Hey, I wouldn't fit in a, crockpot. Yeah. So you immediately have one problem. I mean you've only got a six quarter. Yeah. So immediate problem there. But the other thing is like you don't want to do empty threats but obviously there are threats you can do. It's like you know come here I'm gonna tickle you with my feather or something. I'll see you in your dreams. Yeah. Or I'll be watching you as you go through and then, you can have them like at various places keeping in and looking. You can make some Some threats happen, and those are fine, but empty threats or threats that cross the line into actual threats on someone's personal safety, agreed.
And it sums it up with, it's important for scare actors to remember that the primary goal is to provide a thrilling and enjoyable experience for guests while maintaining their safety and comfort.
Scare actors should always be respectful and professional in their performance and avoid saying anything that could be harmful or offensive to guests.
Agree. And if this can get it right, why are so many haunts struggling? Don't know, man.
Well, the next one we ask is, what are some roles for women in haunted attractions?

[41:21] The quote japes, hoo boy! Yeah. So, the very first one. Right on the bat. Right into it.
Creepy dolls. Jesus Murphy. Yep.
Then ghosts How about witches? What about demons?

[41:41] Monsters which I mean monsters are fine. That's actually demons. I like I don't have any real issue with but but then, You get final girl, which they had to like explain the horror movie trope, Which if you have to explain the trope in writing you can't make it fucking work in a haunt Yeah, sorry, and then my head and finally host you can be the person who welcomes guests to the attraction Yes, yes. Yes. Welcome to the attraction. Go see all the boys that will be scaring you in the back. Exactly, I'm at least glad I didn't see mother or cook as the first one because I've been putting both of those or just victim, Yeah Yeah, Or I don't know it this that was a rough answer I'm gonna be honest with you. It was because I like we left it completely open. Yeah, it could have gone anywhere with it Yeah, it could have said owner. Yeah, like it didn't even think about it, Yeah, it it realistically just completely.

[42:42] Completely ignored Most of the best things that I mean because the the correct answer is obviously that women can do, Anything in a haunt they want. Yeah Yeah.
But I also understand why Chad GPT may not be spitting that simple piece of truth.
Basically, I wanted to see how sexist the internet was against women and haunting.
And now you know. And now I know.
Okay, next up, we ask what are some safety concerns?

[43:12] Tripping hazards was the first, which isn't a bad one. Physical contact.
Yep, it says actors should not make physical contact with guests.
Good answer, good answer.
Fire hazards. Emergency exits. Which, I mean, okay, the emergency exits are not a safety hazard. They are the prevention of a safety hazard.
Yes.
Lack of emergency exits is a safety hazard. Yes.

[43:35] Act your safety. Guest safety. Yeah, once again, recursion. Yeah.
Guest safety, double recursion.
And basically, safety is a critical consideration for any haunted attraction.
Operators should be diligent in identifying and addressing potential hazards.
I mean... Yeah? Yeah. No shit. All right, go ahead. And the next one we wanted to start some shit. Okay, so Jonathan wanted to start some shit. Yeah. I asked... There's the bus, it's running over you. So you get to say it, because you asked it. I asked Chad GPT, what are the best haunted attractions in the United States? Obviously I'm not putting much Stock in this no, but anyways first up was Halloween Horror Nights both at Orlando and Hollywood Yeah, next up was 13th gate here in Baton Rouge, Next up was netherworld haunted house in a little judge. He's not in Atlanta, Jet GPT. No, it's never a Sonoran cross. It's always been an oracle, The Bates Motel and haunted hayride in Glen Mills PA But I don't even know if that's true since it didn't get the last one right the bright dome at Circus Circus in Las Vegas, the darkness in st. Louis, Sorry, I got all some stuff. Yeah, it sounded like you.

[45:02] Erebus and pot and Pontiac, Michigan aka Detroit see it got Pontiac, right? Yeah, but it did not get, Netherworld, right? Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, I mean this is the most genericky generic list of popular haunted attractions. This probably was pulled directly from various listicles that pretty much always have these names. So yeah. Okay. So next up we asked how much does it start to cost to start a haunted house, a haunted attraction.
And it gave reasonable answers anywhere from 20,000 to a million depending on how big you want it Yeah, I mean it's totally sure what I expected with that answer But that's I mean it like you said it was actually not it gave us like a small haunted house is 20 to 50 K a, Medium-sized haunted attraction is 100 to 500 K and a large-scale one is a million now my question Here is is with a small haunted house. We're talking a home haunt or an actual pro haunted small Yeah, it says commercial space or even in a backyard shed. Yeah, it doesn't know is the problem. Yeah.

[46:15] It's saying you can do it in a backyard shed But at the same time we asked about you know to start a professional haunted attraction, Theoretically, maybe we needed to like change the prompt some or so Yeah, exactly to include commercial haunted or professional or whatever, but I mean It's it's such a nothing answer at the end of the day. It doesn't really take a stand. No, Which I mean they do this and it does the same fucking thing on the next question, Which is what makes a haunted attraction successful?
Cuz item one high quality scaring No shit, really? Yeah. Yeah. No, no, Needs to be scary. Got it All right, immersive theming. I mean, skilled actors. Mm-hmm. Unique and memorable experience.

[47:07] Marketing and promotion. And finally, safety. You know, I'm gonna give ChatGPT and IOTA a credit because anytime it's been able to sneak safety into a list, it has, including this answer. Always at the bottom of the list, but it's in there. You know, pretty much always at the bottom, but it is there so points for that but I mean like I don't know what I expected from this answer but this once again it feels so vanilla so like honestly if I had read this text on like how to wiki.com or something like that one of those stupid spammy how-to websites I wouldn't have been shocked basically it feels like I'm reading Haunted Attractions spam at this point. Yeah. I think it's the best way to describe it and like it was written by someone whose English is not only not their first language but probably not their third or the fourth worth it either.

[48:09] So after that we asked it, what are some common problems haunted attractions face?
And it started out, this time safety's number one.
Yeah. Safety concerns. All right, fine, well played. Yeah.
Chad GPT. Staffing issues was second. Yeah. We've all felt those pains.
Guest experience, and I like this, is providing a great guest experience can be difficult, particularly if there are long lines.
Mm-hmm. Chad GPT. You know who you are. ChatGPT is done with your fucking long lines. Therefore, you should be too. If ChatGPT is saying this shit and you don't know it, you got a real problem. It obviously is not because the information isn't available. Yeah. Anyways, moving on.
Poor organization and issues that lead to less enjoyable was also in that guest experience. Sorry, yeah.
Competition. Yeah.

[49:03] Now, I disagree with ChatGPT. because haunted attractions can face significant competition from other attractions, in particular in the Halloween season. I always believe the competition for your haunt isn't the haunt, other haunts in the city, it's that concert, it's anything going to the movie, it's anything that they could be doing with their night other than going to haunted attractions. Yeah, it's other events. It's other time and money sinks in that season. Um, weather and seasonal challenges, that one's fair. Yeah, we get wind here. I mean, and if you're an outdoor haunt, it's That's doubly so.
Yeah, I know. Finally, operating cost.
Because it's expensive. Once again, cost. Looking to you, question of the week, Raelle.

[49:45] All right. All right. And anyways, our final question. Well, no, let's do... let's skip that one. Okay. And go to the one after it, and then we'll make that one our final. That's it. Because it's funny. Okay. So, what makes a haunted attraction experience inclusive? Yes, inclusive.
Meaning available to everyone. And here, I think the answer... this may be Chet GPT's best answer.
Yeah. Legitimately. Because the first thing it says is accessibility. Make sure that it's physically accessible to visitors with disabilities. Yeah. Well played. Yeah. Sensory considerations.
Consider sensory needs of your visitors. Yeah. Some people have sensitivity to loud noises and flashing lights, so take that into consideration. Yeah. Cultural sensitivity. Looking at certain haunts out there. They know who they are. Diversity and representation. Yes. This is a, big issue that I see. And it's an issue we've struggled with too, to be honest. Yeah. But ensure your attraction represents a diverse range of experiences and perspectives. Yeah. And staff training. Train your staff to be sensitive and responsive to the needs of all visitors.

[51:00] I mean I can't I can't top that no I'm the fucking human here and I'm I this question this answer I genuinely think chat GPT beat any answer I would have given.

[51:16] Because I think it thought of things, and especially the sensory considerations, that I might not have thought of. And the reason I wouldn't have thought of it is because, me, I mean, I have, we all have our own things we bring to a lot of interaction, but I don't have any of those particular issues other than being slightly hearing impaired. Yeah, which probably, was not helped by a couple of Hans' previous early years. But, I mean, okay, other than some hearing issues. I don't really have sensory issues like they're talking about.
Right. Like we have an actor who has a sensitivity to blinking lights and will, vomit if we have blinking lights near them. Yeah, I don't... we try to avoid blinking lights full stop. Yeah. Just because, you know, we have enough people go through that the odds of someone being photosensitive epileptic is very likely. Okay, oh man, that one. Well, I think that we should just say that here's some more of the questions, and if you want that link out there, you can read the answers yourself. Well, and actually what I want to do is I want to save the two of these. Oh, how about this? I got it. The next question we ask is, what are some of the important moments in haunted attraction history? We'll go through this fast. 1969, The Haunted Mansion opens at Disneyland.

[52:32] 1974, The Haunted House, widely considered the first modern haunted attraction, opens in Louisville, Kentucky.
1984, Universal Studios has its first Halloween Horror Nights.
Then in 1991, The Dent Schoolhouse opens.
Now, I'm not knocking Dent Schoolhouse, mostly because I need to sleep at night, and various listeners of Haunted Weekly would probably murder me if I did do that.
But really we're doing five points in haunted attraction history and then the schoolhouse is one of them? I was glad to see it on the list. I was glad to see it on the list. No, not.

[53:10] Disney or Universal loaned thing on the list. Yeah, but that's what you just pointed out.
It's like Disney and Universal dominate three of the five things that listed.
To 2010, I'm talking about Walking Dead, the ride being Universal's first year around haunted attraction.
And like, okay, that's true. But what about the planned opening in Vegas?
What about, you know, what about, what about, what about?
And I'm thinking about all these other things and it's just so weird that the only, Other than the haunted house, the only haunted attraction mentioned was Dent's Schoolhouse.
Yeah. It's just kind of weird.
All right, now, we do a lot of talk about backstory here, so we actually had ChatGPT write us a series of backstories, and we'll go into them later because that needs some time, and we're running a little bit shy on time right now.
We got two backstories that exist. the most generic-y backstories ever.
So you know, that that, but we're going to do an episode sometime soon about backstories.
We all know that because we always do. There's always ones.
I want to bring them up then and cover them properly, maybe like grade them, sink our teeth into them. We don't have time right now.
So we'll get to the last question.

[54:32] Asked chat GPT, and I'll take the heat for this one. What are some great podcasts about haunted attractions? I.

[54:41] Just had to fucking do it.

[54:45] Number one according to chat GPT The haunted attraction network. Okay, that's that's actually fair. You know what? That's a little like a whole lot of us the same thing So all right number two the scare factor. Yeah, Once again, totally apropos No disagreement here item three a little-known podcast called haunt weekly.

[55:10] Yeah, we were number three and it's great so right we're stuck right in the middle of the fucking list who it's like perfect We're the we're we're like the most middling of everything. There's nothing interesting to say about us. We're just here Yeah, number four was haunted AF. Mm-hmm, Yeah, and the last one was the dark ride by this and they mentioned it's by Scott Swenson Yeah, Scott Swenson's the only host they name. Yeah, which is weird because when we had it right the script it knew our names Yeah, I know we didn't tell it We didn't tell it that and it didn't go this podcast is hosted by Jonathan and crystal You know, it just goes this podcast in but here's what here's this description of all weekly, right?
This podcast covers a wide range of topics related to haunted attractions including news interviews and tips for running a successful attraction, I mean, I've Heard described worse. Yeah by people who listen to the podcast, But here's my thing like where's big scary show yeah, come on chant GPT get in there, But anyways, no, there's a lot of great podcasts that did not get a mention here and I don't know. I don't know how. I think obviously ChatGPT limited itself to five, And those were the five it chose for reasons that are its own, and that's it.

[56:28] Don't blame me. Go spam chat GPT. Drew Badger's jumping on right now.
But anyways, that's been our route with chat GPT and AI and haunting.
Let us know what you think.
If this episode's been a little different, so I'll be curious what you think about it.
We should be doing more of this kind of thing or if we should just never repeat this type of experiment ever again.
I understand. Let us know. You can find us at hauntweekly.com, hauntweekly.com on Twitter, hauntweekly.com on Facebook, and youtube.com slash hauntweekly, Catch us wherever you get your podcast, Apple podcast, Google Play, Google store, whatever. Get a, Get your podcast. Let us know. We're eager to hear So until next time I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. Two very much human beings, Thank you very much for sharing your expertise with me. Smack!
Smackity smackity smackity smack!
What the fuck was I saying? I don't know off the block.
Two very human hosts that will see you all next week provided I don't murder Crystal.