A Night At The Haunt

[Kaylyn]

So is this a bad time to say I did a bit of clowning at one point? :P

Never occurred to me that some people were afraid. I never ran into any, thank goodness. I dressed up and did the hospital thing once, and came to Vacation Bible School when I was teaching the preschool class and even did the kids up in clown makeup and made them balloon doggies. I wouldn't have known what to do if there'd been a coulrophobe there...

[Cai1987]

first one if you did that to me my friends would be more than patting you, as they would be calling the paramedics to deal with my panic attack and subsequent mental breakdown. It's not "funny", and this is why I don't go to haunted houses, a clown is terrifying enough to me that it could put me in a psych ward for a few days.

I have to agree. It's fair game while you're inside the house, as scaring people is somewhat the point. But if you chased me or one of my friends around the parking lot for 20 minutes, AFTER the point of locking the door to a portajohn? Yeah, I'd be making a serious complaint. It's fun to scare people when they're asking for it (as in, when they've paid for the tour) or if they've done something to you, but just because the guy was scared of clowns you had to chase him for that long? Not cool, in my book.

[Redbeard]

One of the best clown scares I ever saw was done by the haunt owners 6 year old son.
They put him into full evil clown makeup, gave him a hatchet and slipped him into an adult clown costume. People were FREAKED by him waddling around the lot doing line scares

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Speaking of creepy little child clowns...




I'm also laughing over the Tubthumping Douchebags in the original post.

[Mystic]

first one if you did that to me my friends would be more than patting you, as they would be calling the paramedics to deal with my panic attack and subsequent mental breakdown. It's not "funny", and this is why I don't go to haunted houses, a clown is terrifying enough to me that it could put me in a psych ward for a few days.

People who have that kind of issue shouldn't be at haunted houses because this stuff happens. It's part of the act. We've had people who have come and not gone through the house because they think it's going to be too intense. They are usually stalked in the parking lot by one of our outside actors the whole time while their friends laugh.

We do know limits though; it's called having common sense, and we do break character if we feel there is truly a situation growing. I've actually taken my mask off once this season in such a case.

People can argue it all they want, but if you know you have this kind of condition, you have no business going to a place like this where it can flare up into something serious, so I certainly applaud you for having the common sense yourself not to put yourself in that situation. For the others who do... well, there are tons of comparable stories about people like that on this website. :P

[Mystic]

I have to agree. It's fair game while you're inside the house, as scaring people is somewhat the point. But if you chased me or one of my friends around the parking lot for 20 minutes, AFTER the point of locking the door to a portajohn? Yeah, I'd be making a serious complaint. It's fun to scare people when they're asking for it (as in, when they've paid for the tour) or if they've done something to you, but just because the guy was scared of clowns you had to chase him for that long? Not cool, in my book.

Actually, many of our crew are hired to do just that: be outside scaring people. And I'm not sure who'd you'd be complaining to considering the owners are outside enjoying the show themselves. This is a well stated fact on the houses facebook page as well, so it's not like these people don't know that people are around in all places throughout.

You come to a haunted house, you're asking to be scared. Inside, outside, wherever on the property. The amusing thing is that our house is tame compared to a lot of the other popular ones out there such as Scare House or Field Of Screams... places with multi-million dollar budgets that can afford all the uber-realistic stuff.

But it's as I said before... if you've got a condition like that, you should know better than to come to a place like this.

[radiocerk]

I don't go to haunted houses anymore, not because of the scary people, but because of the guests. I do not scare easily, so usually the "monsters" pick easier targets. But I have been repeatedly grabbed by guests to shove me between them and the person scaring them. I got tired of having to resist the urge to deck some stupid teenager, so I stopped going.

[Mystic]

I don't go to haunted houses anymore, not because of the scary people, but because of the guests. I do not scare easily, so usually the "monsters" pick easier targets. But I have been repeatedly grabbed by guests to shove me between them and the person scaring them. I got tired of having to resist the urge to deck some stupid teenager, so I stopped going.

Very true... I always hate when drunks come in too not only because they are drunk, but because they tend to ruin the experience for the other guests who are in their group. Especially when you have to pay to come through, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth about the whole experience. :\

[Kisa]

Yeah people can be d-bags :/ Every year at my high school, we turned the wood shop, metal shop and design classrooms into a haunted house to raise money for the design classes. The one year I did it we had a few incidents. When you first walked in, there was the ring girl in her well. She crawled out and plopped on the floor. You followed the path outside through the cornfield where you met the texas chainsaw gang. You then went into another door which brought you through a spinning tunnel and into the clown room. Next, you went through the closet door and into the silent hill room (my baby!) with my nurses and my armless man. Then came the spandex walls where hands came out at you. Next was the dolls and the zombies and then you went out over the Jason docks past Jason himself and out into the hall. The end.

1) one of the "tough guys" from the local gang decided it was ok to start pushing on our clowns. They all got kicked out.
2) Another gang kid punched our living doll in the face. The living doll being played by a small 16 year old girl.
3) Some smartass decided to try to pull the ring girl out of her well. She was all shook up and crying so we replaced her with a skinny guy He was a good sport.
4) One of my classmates was kind enough to bring in her snake and tanantula (in their tanks of course). One kid tried to get the snake out to hold it...yeah real smart

[Cai1987]

<snip>This is a well stated fact on the houses facebook page as well, so it's not like these people don't know that people are around in all places throughout.

<snip>

Okay, see, I didn't realize that from your original posting. If a guest knows in advance that the entire property is fair game, that's fine. I was imagining something like a more traditional haunted house where the haunting ends at the house's door.

I don't avoid haunted houses because of the scariness, I avoid them because strobe lights give me seizures. Which, speaking of douche-baggy haunted house customers, reminds me of the time I found that out. I was on the floor for about 10 seconds, had lost one of my shoes, and was struggling to get back to my feet before I got trampled by the crowd. One of the actors broke character to ask if I was okay and lead me out a side door.

Another guest actually complained that they broke character.

[LillFilly]

Hee, this reminds me of when I went to a college party as a Dark Elf (yeah, nobody got it) in a long green cloak, white wig, etc. I was standing by the door because it was cooler, with my head down and the cloak wrapped around and people thought I was a dummy and would poke, look under the hood. One girl who already looked WASTED pulled back the hood and I snapped my head up. She freaked, fell back and ran screaming. I felt kind of bad and tried to apologize, but her boyfriend wouldn't let me near her and was pushing me, telling me to leave her alone. He kept trying to fight me; I think he thought I was a guy.

I love haunted houses and being scared, but my boyfriend ends-up with a half-crushed hand at the end of the night!

[Redbeard]

I once had a walk through on a slow night at the haunt. this 16 year old girl sees my Security shirt, grabs my arm and wraps it around her. I have never worked so hard to keep my hand AWAY from a breast in my life! The actors and staff thought it was hilarious, the jerks :P.
Okay, it was pretty funny, but I was happy when about 10 minutes in her friends pried her off of me and I could fade into the background and get back to enjoying the show

[Treasure]

One year i dressed up as a "gypsy", and dad was in his kilt; dagger through my hoop earring, "pinning" me to the wall in front of the door, (mom was sitting on the porch to the side of us, holding the bowl of candy); Little Brother was lying under a large box partially obscured by leaves, he had tattered clothing on that had been rolled in leaves etc....

Dad and I stood still as statues, and I would watch until the trick-or-treaters would get aaalllllmmmmoost up to the porch, then I would let out a scream and we'd watch them jump, then they'd get their candy, and as they're saying "thank you" LB would throw off the box and scream and laugh and chase.... he also climbed the tree, and would drop down, etc etc....


Last year, I dressed up as a witch, a friend did my makeup, and I sat on the bench in (what is now) the courtyard (where LB did his attacking zombie schtick from previous story) and I waited, and stayed as still as possible, breathing shallowly, and then, let out a cackle that would do the Wicked Witch of the West proud.

[Mystic]

I don't avoid haunted houses because of the scariness, I avoid them because strobe lights give me seizures. Which, speaking of douche-baggy haunted house customers, reminds me of the time I found that out. I was on the floor for about 10 seconds, had lost one of my shoes, and was struggling to get back to my feet before I got trampled by the crowd. One of the actors broke character to ask if I was okay and lead me out a side door.

I keep a flashlight on me in case something like that happens as well. We've had several people lose shoes (because for some unknown reason, some girls are still wearing thongs (aka flip-flops) even though the weather is cold) in the area leading to my room so I've had to go hunt them down. We do have notices at the ticket office and again outside the house on the use of strobes and smoke, which reminds me of something that happened the other night which still makes me giggle a little.

My room has a smoke machine. I use to have a strobe in there as well, but I've since switched to a laser because it has a much better effect. As some people may know here, I've spent many years now as a lighting designer and special effects technician, so I find humour in a lot of these little things.

So I've seen many people walk into my room and start coughing... one the other night almost threw up. It has to be some sort of visual reaction or something because most smoke/fog is water based fluid that is activated when the propylene glycol is heated and forced into the atmosphere under pressure to create a fog effect. There is nothing in the fluid or atmospheric results that should cause someone to cough or throw up, so I always laugh when people come through and start their exaggerated coughing like they are being suffocated.

[Arcus]

I worked in a haunted house for 7 years. I still enjoy going even though it's almost impossible to scare me now. I love it when an actor doesn't give up and walk away when they realize they are not going to scare me. For that actor I will play along with them and I feel sorry for anyone that's watching us. Give me a show and I will give a hand before I move to the next room.

At a moments notice I can switch form scare mode to silly mode when I see little kids. Once I get them laughing, I will show them that it can be fun to be scared. While still in character I would sit on the ground talking with them and point out what I can do to scare people as they pass. I found that if the kids feel safe and watch the actors do what they do, the kids don't freak out anymore in the house. There is just something great when you see a kid suddenly find the fun of a haunted house. Their eyes just light up. As much as I loved to scare someone, the best thing I ever got while working was the letter from a father thanking us. He said that his daughter was scared of the dark before they came though the house, but she wasn't anymore after the "monsters showed her what they really do in the dark."