First Parking Lot Haunt

It was decided to move both haunts to the mall. The haunt inside would mirror the classic school haunt and be opened weekends only. Customers entered a replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise (Next Generation). It was a display, no scares here. The customers would pass through the operating turbo lift doors into the Tardis (from Doctor Who). A lightening display hung overhead and the theme music prepared them for being transported through time and space to the living room from Hell and the first series of scares. On the couch was the dysfunctional family, the distraction. Flying through the air came one of their children and as you tried to escape another child came at you from the fireplace. The path was a twisting one.

The dark path began to glow red, a large blood red shower, running water, shadow of girl being hacked to death and her parting the curtain. She would lean out, pleading for help. She was the distraction, another hacker was positioned on a platform above the shower, he was already leaning out over the customers, waiting for his cue. No one ever bothered to look up, till it was too late. The girl in the shower was wearing a nude body suite, the blood painted on and soap bubbles strategically located. The customers looked at her, the shadow of hacking and were totally destroyed by the scare from above.

Pace came into play here. After the shower, things slowed down. The wedding scene was mild and the passage scares almost comical. This all lead up to the dentist. This scene was played for laughs, the scare came from the opposite direction of the dentist. Our seven foot creation slipped up behind the customers as they enjoyed the dental antics. The scare was nothing more than a startle, OOPS, something big is behind us, they would scream and run or was it run and scream. It was difficult to tell.

They were not able to run far. The path led directly into a room of massive fallen beams. No clear path, strobe lights and many blind spots for actors to pop out of, which they did. Once the customers exited, they found themselves in the largest haunt room I ever constructed. One scene, 1,000 square feet, 50 white trees in a landscape of white snow covered earth. A cobble stone path wound through the eerie strobe light landscape. A wooden fence outlined the path, which split in two at a fenced enclosure. Screams came from the fenced area. Customers could go to the right or left, but something very large seemed to be before them. It was a giant spider. More than eight feet in length, it would rise seven feet above the ground, its ten foot long legs bowing beneath it. Suddenly it would drop back down onto the girl it was tearing apart. Customers would pause, the exit was clearly visible, they would chose a path to the left (or right, it made no difference) once the choice was made the spider would rise and lean over the path. Some would back up and take the other path, the spider would lean over it, too. Eventually, they would escape.

The indoor haunt was built around a central actor break room. Emergency customer exits emptied into this room and it had two exits to the outside. It allowed our actors to move from scene to scene and was a learning experience for central corridor development.

The outdoor haunt was larger, more than 6,000 square feet. It was one big black blob with some white trim. The press loved the indoor haunt and stated that the outdoor one was a waste of money. This haunt had two central corridors as I had not figured out how to have only one central corridor. It was nothing more than a twisting path in darkness. Scene illumination was at a minimum because we were operating from a generator.

The building and fire department inspected both haunts. They had a one page handout that I received when I applied for my temporary CO. I have not a clue as to what they were doing, looking for or expecting. The handout was common sense to me (at this stage in my development as a haunter). My personal observation was that they were on an information gathering expedition. We passed both inspections. The indoor haunt made more money, got better reviews and was more fun. The outdoor haunt had more customers exiting early. My conclusion was that more detail was needed. Customers appreciated set design and props. Several customers revisited the indoor haunt, to the best of my knowledge no customer visited the outdoor haunt twice.

Next Week, 1991

Mad Hatter

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