Putting Together A Great Haunted House
† Sunday, December 19th, 2010Every year as the weather turns crisp and the leaves begin to change, thoughts turn to trick-or-treating and creepy haunts. There are plenty of haunted houses all across the country, but many of them are expensive, and often require a very long wait. You can create your own haunted house and avoid the hassles of attending someone else’s. A few simple things are required to create a great haunted house that will have people from all over your town making their way to your spooky attraction. The first thing is to decide on a location. Finding a place that has a few outbuildings that are otherwise not in use during the evenings is a great start. If you are able to find some deserted mini storage buildings with roll up doors, you can create haunts right inside and extend the scares to the surrounding property.
The area around the haunt should be as spooky as the inside. Decorate the outside of the buildings you are using to make people feel as if they are walking into a scary situation. Offer a few unexpected surprises if people will be waiting to enter the haunt. You can also build a corn maze around the haunted house which allows people to wind their way toward the entrance of the attraction. This is great for dumping people into the haunt confused and bewildered.
If you love the idea of having the haunt outdoors, consider creating a hayride that takes riders around the property where they are surprised by unexpected scares. This is especially good for younger children and adults who have a tough time walking around. It may be a little less scary to not have to make your way through a haunt on foot, and you feel protected as you are ridden through the haunted area.
Be sure to include plenty of scary characters both inside of and around your haunt. Typical scary creatures are clowns, famous characters from horror movies, and hospital patients gone wrong. Arm a few of them with fake weapons, make their faces up to be particularly gross or scary, and clothe them in darker fabrics so they are hard to see. Remember the anticipation is often the scary part of the attraction, so do not go overboard with living scares.
Finally, be sure your visitors are disoriented and unsure of their surroundings. Keeping a space dark and allowing people to wait for the next scare is very rewarding. You can also use strobe lights and loud music to create a feeling of fear. Those traveling in groups will be unable to communicate and going from darkened areas to rooms with flashing strobes scares even the most savvy of haunted house attendees.