Mutual Beneficial Affiliation

Last year is still in my memory, engraved. Another problem '92 had been that the haunt was too far from the school for volunteer support. I approached an amusement facility. They had go-carts, two arcades, paddleboats and more. They were very interested, but could not say yes or no because they were in the middle of a management change. About this time an indoor go cart track opened a mile from the school. They welcomed us and saw an opportunity for joint promotion. The city threw us a new curve with a parking restriction, which we blew out of the park with permission for parking from our neighbors.

This haunt was a new design. No tent, a central corridor that ran from one end of the haunt to the other and outdoor elements mixed with the indoor ones. I developed my core group of actors from this haunt season and began to experiment with room designs, effects and scare concepts. The first week was devoted to trying this, then that and then rearranging entire scenes, walls and all. It was fun this year, we had a blast.

The first event was a walk through ghost. The customers walked through an air-powered fog that a live image was projected onto. Customers entered the room and were held in a jail cell. On the other side of the bars was the ghost. She would talk briefly and then reach out opening the jail door; the customers would exit the cell walking through her image. It was a great effect, except that Castle Dragon (the Haunt was named this year) was portable and air currents ran through it like water through a sieve. After its success on opening weekend I had to remove it, because the air currents competed with the closed air system and destroyed the illusion.

It was replaced with a 20Kcps tone generator. Customers entered the darkened cell, were left in the dark for a brief moment, the sound was activated and nearly every group had at least one person react to the unheard sound. The cell door would open and the sound was discontinued. This effect remained for the season. It was briefly visited by its sister effect the 100 watt 20cps tone generator. This caused some extreme reactions. One person got sick and threw up, others would not travel down the hall and still another looked to faint. This experiment lasted about an hour one evening and has not been repeated.

The wall made its debut this year. It was one of those brainstorms that created problems a plenty. Customers would enter a room with a platform. On the wall behind the platform was a sign that said "Creature on Break". As soon as a customer reacted to the sign the wall the sign was on would spin around and reveal the monster. The original platform was square. Customers went out of their way to stumble over it. White posts added to the front stopped this and in latter years I cut the platform into a half circle and removed the posts. It remains to this day as one of the best effects I ever designed.

Edgar Allen Poes' story of the Pit and the Pendulum inspired my next creation. The pendulum was twelve feet high. It was the first outdoor event. The blade was an eight-foot arc swinging over the body of a lovely young lady. The room contained a rack where additional tortures were being conducted. Customers had to walk between the two events, but the scare came from above.

I had fun the summer before the haunt opened. But I was not able to complete all my creations. One item not installed but nearly completed was the Lava Floor. It contained cracks of Plexi glass looking like red lava illuminated from below. Skull Cavern was only partially installed. I had visited a haunt the year before that had great caves and caverns. The creator told me there was no way to make something like it portable. My portable Skull Cavern has grown each year and even now in its state of disrepair awaits its rebirth for 1999. It was not used in 97 or 98 due to budget constraints.

The raceway and the haunt worked together promoting the event. We created package entertainment deals for customers that wanted to go through the haunt and race.

The volunteers from the school kept costs down and the giant quad searchlight brought in the crowd.

Next Week, 1993

Mad Hatter

Copyright 1999, All Rights Reserved

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