[0:23] Hello everyone, I'm Jonathan. I'm Krystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast for the haunted attraction entertainment community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you. And we return this week with episode 408.
Fun fact, divisible by four, that means it's time to do the news. But hey, and I gotta be honest, there is a lot of a copy, not copyright news, that's my other job. I know, your brain's still Yes, my brain is still in the copyright news mode. I'll try to get it out before this podcast is over, I promise.
But no, indeed, we do have a lot of Haunted Attraction news to go over this week, as to be expected this time of year.
This episode and next episode are probably the busiest of news episodes, so we have a lot going on.
But if you're not interested in a news episode, I know, we took a poll of you guys, and some of you loved news episodes, some of you didn't.
Didn't. So if you're one of the latter, please do check out our other episodes.
You can find us at hauntweekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, and youtube.com slash hauntweekly. You can also find us wherever you get podcasts sold at. Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, whatever. We don't care.
So on that note though, um, it's our busy season two. Yes, and Some of you might notice that this episode is going out a little bit late.
[1:49] Um, that is because a hot work yes, but b the more important reason is we have some big news Well specifically you have big news. I ain't got shit. Yes. I haven't really talked about how, unhappy I had been at my uh job Yeah, forgot to open drink for the past two years, but it's been.
[2:12] Brutal and I quit my job on yesterday was the 25th and, So we went out celebrating because I start my new job on October 2nd and this new job is literally better in, Every way a job can be better. Yeah, I'm away. Yeah, if I'm looking at the comparison sheet in my RPG Yeah, all the stats are green.
Exactly.
[2:39] It's like a no brainer. More money, fewer hours, your work from home at least four days per week. Yeah.
Excitement over the benefits of the new job.
[2:46] You're doing work that you love. Your boss seems like a really nice dude.
Yeah. And the cohorts in the area seem really nice.
Yeah, insurance is paid for, which has not happened.
You don't have to pay for parking, no commute. It just, it keeps piling up.
Yeah, it's like too good to be true. And I'm, you know, there's that piece of me it's like skeptical, like, but yeah, and I'm excited.
And I completely understand, but no, it's a big deal. And that's one of the, that's the key reason we're late is because everything kind of came to a head on Monday and we didn't get a chance to record over the weekend, like we normally do because we were busy, A, with our haunt work, which we'll discuss in a minute.
And we were busy doing haunt visits, which we've also now started.
And we've so far visited two haunts this season New Orleans nightmare and mortuary haunted house, We're gonna have we're gonna actually record that episode either right after this one or later today or sometime very soon, And so the caveat means we're not gonna the question a week's gonna be a little fucky for a bit Yeah, there's gonna be patient with us cuz and it's fucky because I made a mistake, too.
[3:56] So it's super fucky, but the bottom line is Stone Cold said so no But the thing is we have started haunt visits and we're gonna have our first two kind of just long-form talks about these haunts.
[4:10] Coming up next episode 409 will be the first couple after that We are tentatively planning to do a redux episode, but we're not sure we're not sure yet, We may record but we actually have a very important episode We want to do the Redux over, replay an old episode, because I think with recent events, an old episode needs to come back again.
You'll see that for X, so yeah. That's our housekeeping shit.
Crystal, new job. Hauntwork, crazy.
Episodes, fucky. Anything else? Yeah. Did I get it all?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, the hauntwork is coming along. We've got a new actor who's been helping us out.
And that's nice. We worked until 10 or 11 on Sunday, which is why we didn't record.
Yeah. Because after all day in the heat, we just were, we were beat. Yeah, we, and that's been the enemy this year as far as homework goes, has been the heat. Yeah. Like I know we live in New Orleans, I know it's hot, but it is not hot like this. Right. Because even like right now, as we are recording this. September 26th, and I know it'll be backdated to September 25th, but shut up and work with me. But on September 26th, the heat index is still, or the feels like temp, is still well over 90.
Discussion on the extreme heat affecting haunt work.
[5:33] And mind you, that is better than when a few weeks ago it was in the 110s.
Yeah, we were getting daily alerts from our little alert system.
Basically, keep your hats inside.
Yeah.
And, you know, not only... 110 degree heat is too hot to work in the yard and do the yard display stuff, much less be in that un-air-conditioned oven of a garage.
Yeah.
So, you know, we're having to limit how we work and what we do.
But we've accomplished actually a lot.
We've gotten several of the scares in place. Nice. One of them even secured. One of them secured and ready to go and, The actor who I think will likely be operating it has been, you know, offering feedback on it and helping Yeah Playing around with it. So that's been really cool to have the actor likely to be in that scene this early on, Helping out with that's something we don't get the luxury of a lot as a small-home haunt The other thing we accomplished, and I'm super duper proud of this, is the light tunnel is constructed.
Yeah. Every year in the yard display we have done a pumpkin slash light tunnel, and every year it has been a fucking nightmare.
[6:46] Because we're working with PVC, and PVC is not the most precise of materials. Just to be kind.
It's not the most precise. There's a reason why plumbers use so much putty and tape and stuff.
I've just decided that.
But no, it's very difficult to work between the inaccuracy of PVC and us using PVC in particular and New Orleans ground being notoriously difficult to work with.
And this year having to battle a new problem. Yeah, so it's too dry to get the PVC in, so we've been having to...
So that took two days, basically. We ended up having to soak, pre-soak the ground, which is something we've never had to do in New Orleans. No. Because the thing is, in a New Orleans summer, it's supposed to be hot, but it's supposed to be wet.
[7:34] And it usually rains every fucking day in New Orleans during the summer. You get these high temperatures so by like 3 p.m. it gets hot then the sky opens up for like just a few minutes but a good hard rain and then everything soaks and then it's cooler and you go into the evening and then you can work again. That has not happened this summer. I think that's one of the reasons why it's been so hot is the rain has not been there. In fact we're facing some potential, mild crises due to low flow in the Mississippi River. There's a salt water intrusion in the Mississippi that supposedly could impact our area by October 22nd. We're keeping a modest eye on. Yeah, but everybody else around us is like freaking out. They're buying up all the water. Like there's... you can't find bottled water in New Orleans right now. I love the fact that we went to Home Depot to buy PVC pipes, we needed more PVC pipe to finish the light tunnel, because we also used a new design. Yeah.
Mention of potential water crisis in the area.
[8:31] Um, and then the lady in front of us was buying five flats of fucking, uh, water. Yeah.
And I'm probably paying an exorbitant goddamn price for it, too, because it's Home Depot, they're not, not, not a grocer, you know?
Yeah, it was $5 a flat, which is not as bad as Best Buy, which at least one sign, I don't know if it's real or not, but one sign had it at like $25 a flat.
I don't know man, but how much fucking tap water y'all drink?
No.
[8:59] Anyway, enough about that. The other funny thing is because of that hard ground though, when we got some of them in initially we realized we couldn't get them in deep enough or level enough.
And so to soften the ground, we literally poured water down the pipes.
And just let it sit overnight. And I remember my thought, wow, this is the first time we've used PPC as actual plumbing.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Anyway, so no, but the great thing about the tunnel is we built it right.
[9:29] I feel like we actually got it right this year. And yeah, no, I do too.
It's like, y'all been building that for a while now, haven't y'all gotten it right before? No. Not this perfect.
[9:41] No, we haven't. This is really close. Like, this is about as perfect as you can get with the aforementioned limitations we discussed.
Yeah. So yeah, we've learned some valuable lessons. We're going to redo a lot of our PVC, I think, for next year, not this year, for next year.
But we've learned a lot. And I think we've got a good system for actually building this now, and if we can replicate it next year.
Um, will be in good shape. Yeah. We're making, trying to make things easier on ourselves.
But yeah, haunt work is coming, yard display work is coming. Crystal will be out in the yard hopefully in a little bit working on a few things. We're inside here working on a few things for the yard. We're wanting to get the rest of the construction done for the yard display before the weekend so that way we can put skeletons up and lights up over the weekend. Yeah. I think that's a reasonable goal. I do too, because you know October 1st is just around the corner, and I've already been seeing people put out all their stuff. Yeah, decorations appeared really early this year. Yeah, like two years ago, two weeks ago. Yeah, they started appearing a week or two ago, and I was taken aback because we'd always had the rule we try to be have ours display up for the first full weekend of October. Yeah. And this year I feel like we're just way behind.
Yeah, me too. People are excited for it. I know so that's great news for us.
Oops! Forgot the Question of the Week
[11:02] All right, moving on to the question of the week y'all. I uh fucked up.
[11:07] I'm, i'm just gonna own it. I forgot to post the question of the week So y'all didn't get a convenient place to actually post your you know comments and thoughts on your answers, So last week's question week, which will also be this week's question of the week was what last minute thing has slash had, You most worried because now we're going to be dealing with haunts that have already opened too, So what was the last-minute thing that was giving you an ulcer?
Yeah, let us know what we could calm hunt look on Twitter. I'm gonna clean Facebook. Da da da da da da You know the beats and yes, I'm still calling it Twitter on the podcast. I refuse to change I've memorized those things way back, 400 plus episodes ago. I can't unlearn it now. No, it's I can't do different things now L? I don't know L!
[11:52] All right. Well, it is an even episode, so that does mean it is time to do the conference reminders. And Crystal, will you kick us off with the upcoming conferences?
All right. September... Actually, that one's passed. That one's passed.
Next one. That one's passed. Next one. We need to resort.
Yeah. All right. So Lost Souls Haunted Bus Tour is going to be September 30th and October 7th.
It's in Chicago and okay and the main thing is that they've released some new, tickets yes they're almost sold out again yes we would not have mentioned this at all because a this is the last year yes and that makes us sad yes, especially because he dropped that on us on our podcast yeah thank you thank you just drop it down I'm teasing no it was great it was wonderful Jase is wonderful and I will never say anything negative about Japes as long as I live.
But yeah, there were some fresh tickets released. LawSoulsChicago.info, check out the Facebook page.
That is where they're sharing that information as tickets become available or if they become available.
So even though a lot of it sold out or has been sold out before, you may still have a goddamn chance.
And if you're in the area and you want to go, I encourage you to take that chance so highly.
[13:13] Yeah. even begin to express how highly I want you to take that.
Right. And beware of scammers.
Go directly through them because there have been scam posts saying that there's tickets for sale. And that's not an issue unique to Lost Souls.
That's every ticket at an event that's sold out.
Yeah. Just be smart about it.
Yeah. Just be smart and know that there's no way to get a ticket without going through Japes, because even if you transfer a ticket from someone else, he has to approve the transfer.
Just know that. All right. October 13th through the 15th at Sun of Monsterpalooza in Burbank, California at the Marriott Burbank Hotel Celebrity Panels and Photo Ops featuring Elvira. Costume contest, trade show, floor monsterpalooza.com slash fall for more info. Right. Legendary Haunt Tour will be November 10th and 11th in Salem, Massachusetts. There will be Visiting Haunted Overload, Fright Kingdom, Barrett's Haunted Mansion Legendary Haunt Tour with 2Ts.com. And because even we can't get out talking about Christmas shit in October, in November 17th and the 18th, that's Creep It Real Festive in Santa Ana, California, the Heritage Museum of OC. No details yet, but CreepItRealOC.com for more information.
So, yeah.
Haunted House Chicago's Special Event Announcement
[14:36] Okay, so anyways as I mentioned at the top of the episode, it's episode 408 that means it's time to do the news, Well, it's a divisible by four. So it's time to do the news.
Anyways, and we want to kick this one off with an important announcement, especially for our Chicagoland, Chicago area, deep-dish pizza loving haunters of the country. A major announcement from Haunted House Chicago.
[15:04] Basically, the Chicago area haunts are putting on a special event honoring Jim Warfield and Ravensgren on December 2nd. This is a save-the-date announcement at this time. They do not have the venue. They do not have other information and honestly I wouldn't expect that until November anyway because I'm just gonna guess haunted house Chicago's a little busy right now. A little bit, yeah. They've got some shit going on. But if you go to the event. The rule is don't dwell on the sad stuff at the event, so we're not going to do that here either. You know, and share your fun, crazy Raven's Grinning stories. Yeah. Talk about how you pooped yourself going down the giant slide, that type of thing. No. Because believe me, it's plenty of stuff to talk about. But yeah, they are jumping in. They're offering this, and I honestly cannot wait. I wish we could go. I'm hoping that we might be able to. Okay, yeah, because it is, December and we once again new job greater flexibility with travel.
Exactly. So we may because it because that's the great thing about a job that is work from home.
Home is where the heart is and your heart can be in back in Chicago yeah, because I'm sure that I'll be able to arrange it by them because.
[16:19] Until January it's kind of the slow season at the new job, which is a great time to start Oh, it's a perfect time to start except for you know, it's also October, which is a really busy time for me, But it also means your job won't be putting too much pressure on you right out the gate exactly, you know, That's the hope they're not not putting they're not fastening the jumper cables to your nipples and giving you a shock right away.
[16:42] They're gonna ease you in yeah, which I think is great, but yes Excellent event Jen December 2nd save the date keep a watch at haunted house Chicago calm for details I Hope as many I hope a lot of you are able to go because God knows Jim Warfield has a had a career, That goes beyond story. It goes beyond legendary. It goes beyond any of the adjectives I could pull out of my mind. Yeah, and basically.
Tragic Story and Memorial at Portals of Fear Haunt
[17:13] Jessica his wife Haunted Illinois and lost soul Chicago James all brainstormed for this event. So it's gonna be big This is gonna be awesome. Yeah, I mean it yeah, this is gonna be an event to remember no matter what All right, moving on. Yeah, all right, so Charles Morrison, the owner of Portals of Fear in Pittsburgh, PA, reached out to us and asked us to share a devastating story from their haunt family. Portals of Fear is a charity haunt that benefits St. Thomas the Apostle Youth Group. The teens of the youth group are the majority of those who build, act, and run the concessions.
[17:58] One of their members, Samantha Kalkbrenner, was killed in an automobile accident on her way to school last week, and five others were injured.
They're still planning on holding the show, but they just wanted to say that this year's show is going to be in memory of Sam.
So, if you are in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, definitely, A, obviously, spare a thought for the friends and family of Sam there at Portals of Fear.
And also, consider swinging by, making a donation and contributing.
This is a terrible tragedy, auto accidents, I mean, I don't know what to say.
It's always tragic to lose someone so abruptly like that. It's just, I don't have words for it.
That's what automobile accidents do, though, is they take people immediately.
So, yes, but definitely.
To consider supporting the organization and supporting the haunt. We will provide a link to a news story about the crash.
Tragedy Strikes and Haunt Closes Doors
[19:06] That will be honest like I said realistically our hearts are just going out to the friends and family of Sam Especially the whole portal of fears team hopefully, You know, hopefully out of the tragedy comes at least something positive. Yeah.
[19:22] Because I'm pretty sure Sam would want that Okay, speaking of sad things, though I'm not on that level, I don't know why I did that intro, Jesus Christ, Jonathan.
But we have the tale of a haunt closing. Right as haunt season was kicking off, we get a story of a haunt closing.
Mystery Manor Haunted Theater in Omaha, Nebraska. This is an article by Christopher Burbach at the Journal Star.
Star but yeah basically apparently rumors of this attraction to closure had, been swirling for some time. The owner Wayne Seely died last fall and the property was sold and now on the Mystery Manor Facebook page they have confirmed the closing saying with sadness and love Mystery Manor Haunted Theater has decided to close our doors permanently. The post said thank you all, for all the love and support of the small Omaha business for 38 years.
Yeah.
Basically, there's no confirmation on what they plan to do with the mansion.
It's a 133-year-old mansion. Yeah.
Which is, I mean, that's old even by New Orleans standards. Yeah, it's very old.
It's brick. It looks mostly brick anyway. But but yeah, they they don't know what it's gonna become of it or what will happen with it.
[20:50] But the the difficult answer for our industry is it will not be a haunted attraction Yeah, it does not look that way. So that is sad, but also You know, that's 38 years. It's a hell of a run man. You got to admit that is a good long run. Yeah.
[21:06] So feel good about what you did. Remember the good times and keep haunting. Yeah Next up, Reckless Ben videos. We talked about this on episode 406 because we couldn't wait to talk about it.
Oh god no, there was no getting around talking about Reckless Ben.
Yeah. And honestly, the only reason we're including it here is because I want to talk about it again!
Well, we'll want to talk about it again and...
It ties in with the next story, which is that the haunted attraction association. Well real fast backtrack, Okay, the reckless bin videos for those who didn't listen to 406 shame on you because that was a great episode it was, um But yes those that didn't listen to 406 to catch you up reckless bin and his friend danny, uh, basically, Did tours at mccain manor and I don't have enough fingers for the air quotes. Yeah I for the words I'm using here. They did exercises in the front yard. They did, Basically, they were treated by a very shitty personal trainer.
[22:10] And go watch the videos it talks about the experience at length, but basically this has really, Brought up the name of a cameo manner into the mainstream in a way that I'm pretty sure Russ McKamey is definitely not happy about, That's... yeah. I think that's an understatement of the century. Yeah. But with it coming back up into the mainstream, then we go into... The Haunted Attraction Association has put out an official statement saying that the McAmey Manor is not a haunted house.
The Board of Directors members have said that consensual torture experience described as a haunted house is not a haunted house.
House. They don't want it described as Haunted House. They're sick and tired of it being listed that way because it's not. They're very clear with their description of it.
And they you know I love that they say that it doesn't resemble anything to what they can, what a customer can expect from a modern professional haunt build home yard or charity haunt.
[23:22] None of it none of it yeah it doesn't fit into any category it's like Pluto it's not a planet anymore oh and I guess it is a little like Pluto and that apparently and that's one of the things we learned in the Reckless Bend videos, it was an actual haunt at one time. I didn't fully understand this. I think someone had told me this, but I don't think I grokked it. This feels like something I'd heard, but maybe not understood. But that it was a haunt at one time, but they kept leaning toward the edgy and the extreme, and eventually just sort of morphed into... I don't even think...
I think calling it a consensual torture experience is giving it too much credit.
Yeah.
I think even that is too kind. Especially for those Red Cross Bend videos.
Yeah, it sounded like after they got shut down at their home haunt in California, that they were just blindfolding people and beating the shit out of them in the back of a van.
Yeah, and then when they finally got pushed to Tennessee, now it's press ups and a onesie in some dude's front yard.
I mean, yeah, I mean it's, It's sad It's frustrating. But yeah, I think even consensual torture experience is way too kind, Yeah, I don't I don't think it's even that anymore. I'm going with shitty personal trainer personally. Yeah.
[24:48] And I think that's because that more closely resembles what I saw in those reckless bin videos Mm-hmm, and he actually had footage of his, tours. Once again, I don't have enough fucking air quotes for this because he didn't tour anything except a drainage ditch. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Am I wrong? No.
It's just bad. I mean, other than some light waterboarding between friends, I mean, it was nothing but writhing around someone's yard. It was It's so sad, so frustrating.
And it is nice to see the HAA further distance haunted attractions from it.
And I do love, cause you called the tone of this perfectly with your read.
They are fucking exasperated.
Exasperation seems to be the word I would come up with to describe this.
Yeah.
And you know, the timing of it in conjunction with the Reckless Ben videos And are talking about it and other people talking about it and getting the word out there is, It's pretty interesting.
Yeah, because even though the Reckless Ben videos... I was thinking about this after we recorded 406, by the way. Mm.
Even though the Reckless Ben videos have not been like truly viral sensation, I don't think any have hit a million views yet, They they're in the high hundred thousands of K's. Yeah, but they're not across the million threshold that I'm aware of.
[26:17] There's still way more attention to McKamey Manor has gotten probably in the last four years, Yeah, it's probably the most attention Russ McKamey and McKamey Manor has gotten in the last half decade. Yeah, so, So yeah, I have no doubt that these Reckless Ben videos...
On that note though, to remind everyone, A, subscribe to Reckless Ben's Patreon.
It's five bucks per month and he's got a lot of additional content there. It is awesome.
We are subscribers and recommend it highly.
And be sure to subscribe to him on YouTube and give him lots of lovely comments and kindness because he took the risk so we didn't have to. Exactly.
Was very very kind of him. There is no FOMO anymore about that. Yeah, a little bit that happened like 20 years ago. Yeah and and honestly and I think that I think you just hit the point like I haven't had FOMO about McCamey Manor in a long time but I think you're right I think it like cured the retroactive FOMO. Exactly. It like was so bad it cured me of anything decades ago. Exactly. All right so next up Did I do that one or did you I forgot?
Hallow's End Opens at New Location in Staten Island
[27:30] Okay, Hallow's in Staten Isle is quote-unquote scariest haunted attraction on tap at Stadium in st George just in time for Halloween as the headline from Carol and Benanti at SI live.
[27:45] Basically Hallows and will be opening at a new location At Staten Island. I wonder if that's anywhere near the vampires from I don't know. That's the only thing I know about Staten Island is that's where the vampires from what we do in the shadows live.
That's that's interesting. That is terrible as well. It's just not interesting. It's fucking horrible. Yeah, what's Laszlo have to say about this?
But no, um, we'll be opening its gates at a brand new location at Staten Island University Hospital Community Park at St. George.
Basically, they're asking participants to step into the world of fear and excitement as hallows end.
So yeah, it's an interesting move, pairing up with a university stadium.
We've been seeing more and more haunts open up in partnership with stadiums, especially stadiums that are out of season.
This is becoming a more and more common thing.
Yeah, and you know, I.
[28:50] It's interesting. I think it's a good way to get started in the business. Like I think it's a good way to start a haunt is to partner with somebody who already has the land and space.
And some infrastructure too because they'll have like bathrooms. Yeah. You know.
Exactly. Some of the necessities you need and you bring a knockdown haunt to it basically. Exactly.
And a stadium especially if it's for a specific sport that is not playing right now.
Like and I don't know sports enough to tell you which ones is I know it's not football, Football is definitely going on. Yes, because we keep accidentally finding it We keep accidentally running into it, but I I have nothing on any other sport, But yeah, so if you have a stadium that's being disused during September October November, This seems like a natural pairing. They've got the grounds. They've got the land They've got the infrastructure and it just doing fuck all otherwise. Yeah, why not?
Right. Mm-hmm make a little money for both sides. So this makes a lot of sense, It makes as much sense as you know, the ones we've seen where they've been taking over vacant real real retail space, and things like that, you know, so just Makes sense?
Brawls at Fright World in Buffalo, New York
[30:06] Yasmin Young from WYRK has reported on multiple brawls that happened at Fright World in Buffalo, New York over the weekend, this past weekend actually.
So I think it was September 23rd, yes September 23rd at 1030 p.m. A large crowd.
[30:29] In the parking lot started fighting and the cops were called and the weird thing Is is that this isn't the only one that's happened in Buffalo recently. Yeah, I mean, Okay to be honest I haven't actually talked about this before the closest I ever got to just stopping haunt weekly and walking away from this show. Yeah.
[30:51] Was haunt season 2020? Yes, because a you had haunts behaving badly and not taking kovat seriously, Probably killing people with dangerous practices and then the haunts that did open, We're seeing fights shootings. Yeah, I just ran the max of fucking violence and up. I was so close to done, Yeah, so fucking close And so when I saw this headline pop up in my my Google Alerts, which is how I got this one, I just had a flashback Straight to that view, but then I began like you said dug into it This appears to be a recurring problem in Buffalo specifically because you as you noted and as I also read there was a very similar thing that happened a couple weeks prior at a movie theater yeah, movie theater crowd it was a really bad movie apparently but 200 should have watched the riff tracks yeah 200 people you know were involved in this brawl in the parking lot at the movie theater though no one was hurt but no one was heart and it just it sounds Weird that you're having you're saying that a fight is happening, but no one's actually being in it to this.
Group brawls and ongoing issues at Buffalo's Fright World
[32:08] When in these are you Yeah, the youth, But no when you fight they they're often isn't anyone injured for various reasons.
[32:20] But still when you have that many people involved in a brawl, I mean clearly not everyone was kung fu fighting, right? So, So, but yeah, apparently this type of brawl, this type of group warfare, whatever the fuck it is, is a thing that's not really a product of Fright World, but an ongoing issue at Buffalo more broadly, and Fright World just happened to be the location of the latest.
Yeah, and I think that Knott's Berry Farm, we reported on something like similar last year happening, and that resulted in new rules for how...
Age limitations for when you had to have a guardian with you. Yeah, they basically established effectively a curfew saying that if you were under the age of like, 16 or 18 or whatever, I don't know what it was, after a certain time you had to have a guardian with you. Yeah. Okay, this one's complicated. Yes. I'll try to get through this we'll talk about the story first and then come back and put some context on it.
[33:27] ScareScape is, according to this headline, Marietta's newest haunted maze which focuses on facing fears. This is by Ashley Ludwig at Patch.com. But basically Temecula, California is seeing a new haunted attraction. The Creative Minds production team, and it lists people here, I'm not going to read all the names, are building a four maze haunt based on different phobias, it sounds like, which is an interesting concept. I'm going to give them that.
[33:56] Now, the thing is, they were tied, this group was tied with the Bloodshed Brothers.
And if you go back to our episode with Maddie Monster, you know how that story ended.
Basically, Zachary Ball must register as a sex offender. He was convicted of multiple sex offensive of the minor and according to the article the individuals involved in this haunt felt very betrayed by Zachary and the Bloodshed Brothers more broadly I'm guessing. They said they have worked either a field of screams or Temecula Terra.
[34:33] Many of them have worked with the bloodshed brothers in the past. They felt betrayed and, Yeah Basically, they wanted according to this, They wanted to do a new hot move on from them. They wanted to keep haunting basically, but move past bat Right, which honestly would be fine. Yes, and in the article they say that they are wanting to make a safe place for both hunters and, customers and that they are background checking the employers and And putting everybody through sexual assault prevention and harassment training for the new attraction, Now comes the context and I want to word this very very carefully. Yeah Because we are friends with Maddie monster on, Facebook and She has posted that apparently both bloodshed brothers have been seen working on and helping with the build, Yeah I Well, I do not have confirmation of that. No, I, Don't know if I have a way to get confirmation of that honestly, no.
[35:39] But that is what?
Various people have said and told Maddie and that is what? She has posted on her Facebook, So it doesn't appear this was the clean break that they were making it out to be.
[35:54] Mm-hmm. I just I don't I don't know what to think about this one, Because this article makes it seem like, hey, we were people that just happened to be working there.
We were betrayed by them the same as, you know, we were betrayed by them.
We still love haunting. We're going to go and we're going to open our own haunt away from them and move on.
[36:13] And that would be a great noble thing to do. It would.
And it seems like the area haunts have really suffered because of the Bloodshed Brothers actions and Morgan Fowler who worked at Hilda Screams and was a serial sexual predator.
They've really and and you know It sucks. It sucks that basically two and a half people, because one of the Bloodshed Brothers of course hasn't been convicted of anything. It hasn't even been directly accused that I'm aware of. I don't know the whole situation admittedly, and I have been trying to keep up, but it keeps coming so fast that it's impossible. But yeah, a handful, but basically a couple of people can do that much harm to an area's haunt community.
Yeah, well that sucks. It does it sucks and I think that a lot of it's because they were owners and they built multiple haunts around the area and they, Had an impact on hundreds of haunt of haunters and future haunters Oh, yeah, and the blood shed brothers had a very successful and famous YouTube channel Yeah, they were the face of that areas haunt community because of that Yeah, they were like, you know, two idiots who started up a podcast and did four hundred eight up is no.
[37:34] But but no, they don't compare us with them. I'm sorry. That was that was not good. No, We are nothing like them. No, But no, but yeah, but they were a face. Yeah of that area is what I was trying to hit at Yes, and some people would say that we're influencers face. I absolutely think those people are idiots, but some people have said it Um, but, but no, they were definitely the face of it.
And yeah, that, when that, when the news came out about what was going on, yeah, that, that's going to have ripple effects with the entire law community. And honestly, there's just no way around that.
[38:15] So yeah, I would, I don't know, take, but honestly, obviously this story needs to be taken with a degree of salt and some care to be sure that the victim, in this case Maddie, is heard.
Beverly Hills bans shaving cream and silly string on Halloween
[38:31] All right, moving on. All right, one U.S. city, mainly Beverly Hills. Yeah, I don't know why they fucking do that in the headline. I hate that shit. I don't know either. I know it's to get clicks, but it still fucking sucks for us. Yeah, Beverly Hills is outlawed shaving cream and silly string on Halloween. This article is by Phil Harris at K1047, and hair removal products, which is, You know, I didn't realize that kid they say in the article and I didn't realize it either that they were playing around with hair removal products like, What are you doing with that like how is that even being used in this That the ordinance was passed to create a quote-unquote safe family-friendly environment, because when Used improperly the products outlined in the ordinance may cause harm to individuals, property and or the environment the ban applies to anyone under the age of, 21 and first-time offenders will get a verbal warning before citations are issued and.
Town Bans Sale of Certain Products on Halloween
[39:38] Good but The town is not banning the sale of toilet paper and eggs which is not one of the things listed in the headlines, but is in the is, Is in the ordinance, So they're not banning that stuff being sold. So there still might be a mess, Well, and they are only they only see banning these products being sold to people under 21. Yeah on Halloween yes, not before and, Anyone under the age of 21 first-time offenders get a verbal warning and then citations are issued, But it's only a one day ban. Yeah.
[40:21] And it only happens one night. Yeah, there's and so this whole thing can be defeated, by the simple act of check's notes planning ahead. Yeah, I mean this reminds me of the story that we covered in Japan where they are, you know, banning the sale of alcohol for the week before Halloween. Yeah. Or the week of Halloween. In that specific area of town. So people are just going to buy it before. Or BYOB it. Yeah. They're just going to stockpile it beforehand.
Yeah, or goes outside of that cordon. Yeah. Because it was only like limited to one particular region of town if I remember correctly. Yeah. I don't understand this because.
[41:12] I guess it will stop some sales of it because I'm sure you know maybe I'm overestimating you know, hooligan tendencies to plan ahead. But I don't think I am. No. Because, because like I, said, just buy it the day before. You know, it's not like it's a week-long ban. And it's only to people under the age of 21. And it's only in Beverly Hills. I'm sure that there are stores It'll sell it to you. Yeah, it's just I, Saw this and at first I was like I'm not gonna put this in the notes because this is not directly haunted attraction related, But then it's like I need to talk about how dumb this is I mean, yeah, I need to get this is therapy now if I had to see this you have to see this Yeah, and this is Halloween. I mean, it's Halloween news. That means it's it's news we're going to report on. Yeah it's at least adjacent enough but yeah just wow.
Controversial Halloween Display in Bucktown
[42:15] Oh, now we get some local news. Yeah, we got you first of two. Yes local items. We have this week, Neighbors call for controversial halloween display in bucktown to be removed is the headline by lily coming to ford wwl, uh Bucktown for is an area in metairie. Yeah Apparently some neighbors once again going up to everybody's putting up their fucking display so early this year Yeah, I was really surprised that someone here already had their display being complained about.
[42:45] Well, it is quite a display. I watch the video and it is worth watching the video. So, This is a good one to click the show's I agree because the display depicts a beheaded Jesus, Flanked by a nun and a priest and Jesus's head is in the hands of Satan. Yeah, I believe that's about all it needs to be Said yeah, and the owner admits that quote-unquote. We have a little religious theme Yeah.
We wanted to make people scared, to make them a little uncomfortable.
Apparently, mission accomplished on the latter note, definitely, as there have been multiple complaints to the parish and to basically, but since there doesn't seem to be an actual ordinance that addresses this, and it seems like local officials are agreeing that it's quote-unquote clearly offensive and certainly not in the spirit of a family-friendly Fram Laferne Jefferson Parish Halloween.
What the fuck is that?
Genuine question. What the absolute fuck is that?
[43:49] Don't tell me I'll know it when I see it, but the parish president they got the parish president to chime in. Oh, yes Cynthia Li Shang said in a statement of WWL, Basically, the owners say that this does not reflect the family's personal or religious beliefs. He says just for fun on one hand I applaud the I mean, I always have it in a slight I always have a little thing and he's like admiring the trolls. Uh-huh. But on the other hand, it's like Jesus Christ, dude Yeah, what why we so carefully avoid religious themes in hours.
[44:22] Because we don't want to offend on that ground. Yeah, we don't want that kind of news media, Coverage we won't ever doing good. And in fact, there was a hilarious moment when WL came to WL these people Yeah came through our haunt last year. Yeah, they took video and, And someone said wow, that's all we ballsy of y'all to have a Bible screwed into your ceiling Yeah, and we're like what Bible those are all legal books Yeah, And we went out there and we went through every book in the fucking ceiling of that room to make sure that we didn't, Accidentally put up a Bible. No, it wound up being a dictionary. Yeah a legal dictionary Yeah, because it was a legal library But it had the onion pages and I saw how they got and the little tab the thumb tabs exactly for um, Or so I see how they thought that but no it was it was a legal dictionary. Yeah, I'm probably a very expensive legal dictionary in like the 60s when it was bought Yeah, but today it's literally just a prop that went straight into the ceiling of a hall and this year I don't think it's gonna get that treatment. No, I don't think so I don't know that we still have that book because that was a few iterations ago.
Oh, yeah, it wasn't right. It might have been 2018. Yeah that happened. I don't know man Do your start coming and they don't stop coming?
Until they do until they do. Um, um, all right, so Fallsburg fear put fear plex.
Dark Baptism Theme Sparks Mixed Reactions at Fearplex
[45:47] Theme is producing producing mixed reactions speaking of controversies that could have been sidestepped This is from Austin Johnson at the Daily Independent in, Kentucky, So here's the thing, They have named their theme Dark Baptism, because religion has always been part of horror movies.
Yeah, the exorcist... Yeah, that is what the owner of Fallsburg Fearplex has said.
Religion is part of horror movies. Why can't it be part of a haunted house?
I mean, even like vampire lore is rooted heavily in religion. Yeah, exactly, So they wanted term signifying that you're entering something scary and frightening and that's what they came up with.
A Controversial Haunted House Theme Emerges
[46:41] Because and I put this quoted here big just because I want to see this haunted house, We're a haunted house. We certainly don't set out to portray rainbows and unicorns But why not? I would love to see scary rainbows and I bet you could make a kick-ass haunted house, By taking the rainbows and unicorns and like perverting and twisting it in slight ways Yeah, in fact, you wouldn't have to do it much. I mean just think like Charlie the unicorn, Or the pestilence ponies or the peasants from yeah robot. Yeah, there's ways to do this, Yeah, make the make the four horsemen, you know, Anyway, but this is throwing up controversy and, you know, the owner, Cassidy, said that church groups come through, they bring busloads of people, they participate.
Some community members are threatening to boycott because of the name, others are saying the boycott's stupid because why would you boycott a small business that's been supporting the community for decades.
And the thing is, is that the only thing that changed in the haunt, according to the owner, is the name. This is the thing, quote unquote thing.
Yeah. So that's a, that pulled a New Orleans Nightmare. Yeah.
[48:02] Well, yeah, but we'll get into that. That's next week.
Next week. Um, but yeah, so the only thing that's changed is the name of the theme.
Debate on Boycotts and Religious Sensibilities
[48:13] And, yeah, because here's the, on one hand, you know, obviously I think the people calling You, for a boycott or being silly because the term baptism, while it does have religious connections, you can say things like baptism of fire, baptism can be other things too.
It does primarily have a religious connotation in our parlance, but it also doesn't have to. Right.
Second, but pardon me also, you're a haunt in Fallsburg, Kentucky.
Yeah. Needling, by your own admission, depends heavily on church groups and so forth.
Needling religious issues probably wasn't very smart.
Yeah. They say they try to cater to the church groups to make it not offensive, but I don't mean the dark baptism, which, Yeah, if you can't figure out why some people would look at that and feel like it's a targeting religious sensibilities Yeah, I mean even I can see that and I mean I am NOT Christian No, even I can figure that one the fuck out pretty quickly. So.
Backlash over a controversial statement
[49:30] So, yeah, I I think that was an An unforced error, I think that was dumb, but I also do think that perhaps some of the backlash needs to calm its tits a little bit, you know.
Anyways, back to local news. Yes. A famed New Orleans home haunted attraction or home attraction, I should say, is in limbo due to concerns over crime.
This is an article by Shea O'Connor WDSU. They're our NBC affiliate now from CBS to NBC.
But basically David Gentry sets up what is known as Ghost Manor every year.
It's a yard display that is pretty well known. Yeah, we've been to it, to the Gentry's house several times and seen it.
And like the the projections and things are really impressive.
Yeah, they do an amazing job. It's a big, big manor and they have a lot of fun with it.
They just basically set up projections and they do that were they the ones with the singing skeletons? Yeah Yeah, they do a lot of amazing things with animatronics and projections and things like that. It's just awesome stuff, They're probably up there with the skeleton house, Yeah in terms of how well known they are but this year they say they may not be doing it He has started setting up but his house was burglarized with tools being stolen from an outside shed And he's actually caught people and apparently been shot at yeah for catching someone breaking into a neighbor's car.
[51:00] Yeah he shined a flashlight in their direction and they shot and they shot blindly yeah yeah, um so he's meeting with the councilman to see what can be done for the neighborhood um and he states that he feels betrayed by the people in the neighborhood yeah because this is something that he does for free like yeah like we do yeah and the thing is this house is in one of the nicest neighborhoods in New Orleans, on paper. Yeah, but apparently crime has been rising in Irish Channel. The other thing I want to mention here... One of the nicer neighborhoods, I should say, because I mean it's not St. Charles. It's not, but it's still a very nice one. Yeah, it's not far, and it is a very nice neighborhood. Yeah, it is. You know, it's not like this is all, you know, Rural and I don't know right right and known for an infamous for high crime. No, it's not like that This is a neighborhood that's known for being, Pretty nice. Yeah in general well and, This apparently is happening other places over the cunt over the country because I haven't seen any specific news articles about it but I've seen multiple people posting in the Ohio area that their.
Increasing Theft of Yard Decorations Raises Concern
[52:16] Their decorations are being stolen out of their yard You Yeah, which is just something. I don't usually see as much. I'll say this weird, We have new security cameras that we put up and I may be adding at least one more, I'm not really worried about us, but, You know, I I don't know. I mean, Well, I know the cameras don't do anything to prevent No, but they can at least tell us when something happened what happened and give us ideas on if something does happen, what we can do to improve and minimize in the future.
Yeah.
Because the main thing is I don't want to come home and see a skeleton missing or something gone from the yard.
But that's the other thing is none of our decorations are particularly valuable.
No, and they've been outside all year, like visible from the roads.
Yeah, they've been in the queue line, which is not locked in any appreciable way. No.
I agree that we're not probably at high risk. I'm not super worried about it, but I still do feel a little bit better having a security camera that's got the display monitored this year. No.
All right, last story. It's yours.
Suburban Haunted House Terror Roulette in South Barrington, Illinois
[53:29] Oh, okay. Because I did both of the local news. Remember? Local news, woo!
Yes, yes. Suburban Haunted House Terror Roulette, which is in South Barrington, Illinois, Is taking thrill-seekers on a spine-tingling gamble. This is from Tia Ewing at Fox 32 Chicago, This is Scott Swenson's new thing. Yeah, this is his new event.
[53:54] So he's the writer and the producer for it Basically, you go in you that you draw cards that determine your experience, That's why it's called roulette Wait, but you don't use cards in roulette. I know you use like a spinning thing Scott have you ever been to a casino? Maybe not just asking. Anyway, sorry.
[54:15] But there's 22 rooms and and, each group has a different experience. In fact, people within the same group can have different experiences because you might be split up at different times and then put back together.
It looks like a lot of fun and it also looks like it's possible to go through multiple times and never see the full thing. Yeah, I both love this and hate this from a business standpoint Yeah, because a you definitely got that repeat ticket factor going. Uh-huh, but also I worry Well, what if I only go through once now device that doesn't leave my FOMO?
Well and Chicago area has so many haunts. Yeah, like I don't Yeah, I'll go and Ohio are in terms of number of haunts, especially a number of large ones. Yeah Yeah, they're the they're the areas that I I'm definitely most I think about most is like crowded with haunts, So yeah, I don't know if making a haunt that the idea is you go through multiple times Yeah, it's such an easy thing to sell. You could definitely sell here in New Orleans Yeah, where we have a limit of large haunts and the limit of high-end haunts. Yeah, but I Chicago That's tough because you're up against Hell's Gate. You're up against evil intentions. You're up I mean, you're up against a lot of things a lot of your haunts. Yeah, and if you're.
[55:45] You know, I would be a dead. Yeah. Oh, I mean so I I've been curious to go to one of Scott's, you know, yeah for a while That's the thing about Scott Swenson. I've always loved and admired and have so much respect for is, He's always doing something unique. Yeah, whatever the fuck he does year to year, Yeah, you know, it's gonna be unlike anything you've heard about before. Yeah, and that that, Dude, I present this. Yeah, you know, so yeah. Well on that note everyone, Finally a news episode that goes over 50 minutes I don't know if we've ever done that crystals giving me though because she knows we were talking about this earlier, But on that note everyone, please definitely check out more of haunt weekly We're at hauntweekly.com, hauntweekly on Twitter, hauntweekly on Facebook and youtube.com slash haunt weekly, You can also get it wherever finer podcasts are distributed, but until next time I'm Jonathan. I'm Krystal We will see you all next week. We'll be talking about about, hopefully, our first few hog visits.
See you all then.