The Disneyland Resort has a special treat this year for Haloween fans. Both Disneyland and California Adventure are both decorated to the hilt. This made this year’s Mickey’s Halloween Party even better!
It’s not just about Mickey’s Halloween Party!
Before going to Mickey’s Haloween Party that day, we decided to spend some time in Disney California Adventure Park and take in some of the new Halloween themed sights and sounds. So awesome to see a giant Oogie Boogie looming over the California Adventure entrance. Imagineers did a fantastic job on this one, it looks like the whole entrance was built like this to start with. The Halloween decor is everywhere; in the windows, regal purple Halloween banners, and even an amazing Headless Horseman statue, just outside the Carthay Circle. 
And the Carthay Circle Theater itself is billowing bats out of its tower. If you’ve got some time, grab a Caramel Apple Smoothie (only available in the fall) over at Schmoozie’s and try a Sea Witch-Themed Cocktail at the Cove Bar.
The three main Halloween themed things we wanted to hit up in California Adventure before the party were:
- Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween
- Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark
Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween was really fun. They created all new original Halloween songs that go with the dances. Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree also had all new songs that were thoroughly entertaining to listen to. Both rides had the original voice actors record the new songs, of course. But what was really exciting was the new Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark!
I really miss The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror but the Guardians of the Galaxy ride is awesome, too!
Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark was fantastic! The entire ride, even the setup in the holding area with the animatronic Rocket is different. Rocket asks “What are you still doing here? All of the monsters that were being held captive by The Collector have been let loose!” And Groot’s in trouble, but don’t worry, Rocket has a great plan to use you as bait for the monsters so that Groot can escape. The new song created specifically for the ride, Monsters After Dark, was fantastic! It had the same exact feel as the Guardians of the Galaxy films and went with the whole experience perfectly. It also felt like the whole ride was MUCH longer than the other songs you get in Mission Breakout. The video was great, certainly a bit scarier aliens this time, and still very fun to watch. The production value was exactly the same as Mission Breakout which makes me think that they probably had already shot the Mission Breakout and Monsters After Dark scenes with the actors at the same time. Fantastic forward thinking, Disney!
Get in line at the right time!
Monsters After Dark only starts to board at 5 PM so you have to time this one just right. FASTPASSes are not available to the ride until they shut it down temporarily for the switchover, around 4-4:30 PM. The line just for the FASTPASS is long and doesn’t have any guarantee that you’ll get to ride it in time to still make it over to Mickey’s Halloween Party by 6 PM (most likely you won’t). So we decided to just stand in line around 4:30 PM, shortly after they closed the doors to the ride to let the last of all through who were riding it for the regular Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout. It worked perfectly! We got to ride it by 5:30 PM and made it over to Mickey’s Halloween Party just before 6 PM.
Mickey’s Halloween Party Is Tough To Get On The Guest List
So here’s the thing about Mickey’s Halloween Party, if you haven’t bought tickets to it already, you are totally out of luck in getting them for this year. In fact, you practically have to already be an Annual Passholder (or a Disney Chase Debit Cardholder), sometime before next July, in order to be able to buy them in advance for next year. Passholders and Disney Chase Debit Cardholders get a few days, first dibs on Mickey’s Halloween Party tickets, around the end of July. They sell out faster and faster each year!We were lucky enough to get ours in plenty of time. Yes, it is pricey, but yes, it is totally worth it. Disneyland goes all out bringing you a hauntingly good time with plenty of décor in the park, but at the party, you get some really fun exclusives.
Here are the best parts of Mickey’s Halloween Party:
- You get to dress up in costume, even if you are an adult
- A limited number of patrons are allowed in the park so wait times for rides are very quick
- Candy, lots and lots of candy!
- Ghostly fog and lights in New Orleans Square, featuring the Cadaver Dans
- Disney Villains at Villain’s Square
- The Real Headless Horseman rides down Main Street
- Exclusive “Frightfully Fun Parade” Hosted by Jack Skellington
- Exclusive “Halloween Screams Fireworks” Spectacular
At 6 PM, you can’t get into Disneyland unless you have your special ticket. At the entrance, they give you a wristband. Anyone still inside of Disneyland there for a regular visit is asked to leave the park and are not allowed on any of the rides. They actually clear out Adventureland and Frontierland completely and won’t allow the Mickey’s Halloween Party patrons in until sometime around 7 PM. This is a perfect time to head straight to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland to do a few rides over there first. Be sure to ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy while you are over there. The candy lines open just a little after 6 PM, so if you are lucky, you can catch one of these early on, before the lines get long.
Take advantage of the short lines for the rides!
You will find yourself waiting longer in a candy line than a ride line. So if candy isn’t your thing, or if you’d rather try to grab some at the end, instead, go for it. We were able to get plenty of candy right up until the party closed for the night; they didn’t run out. Try to get in a few rides and take some fun pictures while in costume, in the park (because any other time, it’s a no-no).Besides riding Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, you will certainly want to be sure to ride the Haunted Holiday Mansion. Disneyland does a fantastic job changing the Haunted mansion over each year to always make it feel like its own ride. They keep adding in new things each year and always have a different gingerbread house in the ballroom.
Lots of tasty treats for all good ghouls & boys
The candy is all individually wrapped major brands of candy but at each station, they also offer healthier alternatives, too! We especially like the dried apple slices! We loved spending our time in line eating our treats which was a great way to save a little money on buying food. But if you are going to buy some food in the park, we highly recommend the Bat Wing Raspberry Sundaes.If you are lucky enough to go this year, we hope you find some of our tips here helpful and also hope you enjoy the party as much as we did!
This year we kicked off the Haloween season with Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest, and we were delighted to see some great improvements!
What are the best things about Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest?
As a whole, Magic Mountain does a great job adding a good scare to their park, but here’s what we think sets them apart from other theme park Halloween events:
- They have the best scare zones of any park. Their use of stilt walkers is fantastic; they already look very ominous from afar but aren’t afraid of getting close to you. All of the actors know exactly how to get amazing screams out of all the patrons in the park.
- The next best thing about those scare zones is the makeup. Out of all the parks, I’ve honestly seen some of the best makeup at Magic Mountain, but usually, you only see this in the scare zones.
- Another bonus is that beer and wine are served throughout the park and not only that, Magic Mountian just added the all-new Club 6-Foot Under Pub; a real bar for the adults!
Not that it makes Fright Fest any better or worse, we wanted to make note that Six Flags Magic Mountain had a much more noticeable security presence throughout the park than we’ve ever seen in previous years. We never saw any sort of altercation, other than a couple of folks cutting in line. I’m not so sure so much security was necessary, but I’m all for the deterrent that it creates. I certainly felt safe, suffice it to say.
So what were the not so great things about Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest?
- There are just 7 mazes and a some of them feel a bit short, to boot.
- The maze lines are long (even though we went early in the month when they have been historically shorter at those times).
- The restrooms in the park need some serious attention.
The best way to enjoy Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest
- First, consider getting a Gold Membership because…
- It’s only $14*/Month
- Free parking (Save $20)
- And then also get a Deluxe Dining Pass because…
- They are currently at a discount ($86.99)
- You get a cup for this year and next, if timed just right, you can use the meal pass for next year’s Fright Fest, too**
- Discount for Goulish Grub at the Pub (normally $24.99, only $14.99 with Dining Pass)
- 20% off merchandise
- Get there around 4 PM or earlier!
- Get maze wristbands from the gift shop at Samurai Summit, just down the hill from the Dead End maze or the gift shop by the Aftermath 2 maze to avoid the line for them at the front
- Be waiting for the 3 mazes at the front to open at 7 PM, get there about 6:45 PM.
- Chupacabra seems to never have a line, go for it anytime
- The line for Willoughby’s Resurrected is usually fast, consider going for it anytime
- Enjoy the scare zones and rides then go for Dead End and Aftermath at the end of the night
Is it worth getting the Express Maze Pass?
If you plan on going anytime in October, I would say, yes. It will cost you $32.99 but if you are only going for one night this year, you will need it to be able to do all of the mazes.*Approximate price. Membership pricing on their web site changes often, depending on the season.**If you go late October this year, you can go early October next year, still within your year of the meal pass being valid.
Even after packing in another day of Midsummer Scream 2017, there was still not enough time to see it all, but what we managed to catch was some really great stuff. (Be sure to check out what I posted about day one.)
Halloween Horror Nights Presentation
The presentation for Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights got me beyond excited! They announced that they were bringing Ash Vs Evil Dead to HHN as a full fledged walkthrough haunted attraction. Can I say, “Groovy!” The original Evil Dead series is probably my all time favorite horror franchise. I simply can not wait to see the monsters in this maze that will “swallow your soul!”
The good news didn’t end there. HHN will also be bringing us a walkthrough of one of Stanley Kubrick’s greatest works, The Shining. Kubrick’s The Shining is probably the best film adaption of any Stephen King story, bar none. You will now get to walk on that amazing, and oddly unsettling, hyperchromatic mosaic-style hotel carpet, yourself! (Yes, they even replicated the carpet!) Just a small handful of the behind-the-scenes photos they showed the audience, made my face melt.
Midsummer Scream Mini-Haunts
I was able to get through most all of the mini-haunts on day two. One, in particular, I found very interesting in that it was sitting on wheels. HallowEve Designs had a 44-foot trailer setup as a ready-to-go haunt called Cold Storage. Yes that’s not a lot of room and it was pretty short, but they really did pack a lot into that trailer. The video effect with zombies behind a door, trying to get through, was really fun. They did a really good job giving you a lot of details to look at, to distract your attention, and get a good scare. It’s still not quite the same as a full sized walkthrough but I think it would be great to rent 1 or 2 of these to add to your existing haunt location (perhaps in the parking lot) to give your patrons some more options.Another take on this idea of bringing the haunt to you was Immersive Parties’ Mutation Analysis Center. This was a zombie apocalypse style walkthrough that was built to be torn down and setup quickly with many of the effects built into the structure and ready to go. It was actually much more effective at getting some good scares vs some of the other mini-haunts. It also had a lot of great detail.
And the best mini-haunt…
My favorite out of all of the mini-haunts had to be The Maritime Horror by The Haunted Rose. The facade on the front of this haunt set the mood, and then some. The unique theme of a fishing dock was very original. Thick fog, rolling into the bay on a dark and ominous night; of course, that would be creepy and scary, but I’d never thought about how that would make such a good theme. I was so surprised to find out that these guys are backyard haunters. They have a haunted house in Whittier, CA that doesn’t even charge (although donations are welcome)- they just do it for fun!The first room of The Maritime Horror was great at setting the mood with a mutated fish man chopping a dead fish in front of you on his cutting board. The “blood” (water) spurted all over our group which was a great shock and a good laugh. There were lots of great original makeup effects throughout, but the thing I kept nerding out on was that all of the stone felt real. Nothing felt like styrofoam. The stone walls, the columns, all of it was done with (I’m guessing) some sort of mortar/plaster sprayer. That one detail made everything seem so much more immersive and believable. I tried to do that effect on several of my own haunts and could never pull it off right; these guys nailed it!
Midsummer Scream Exhibitors
There were a ton of great vendors there but a few of them really caught my eye. I was especially impressed with Jasper Anderson’s creations from ChickenProps.com. Jasper has managed to create some projection effects that I really thought were every bit as impressive as something you might see at Disneyland. The Ghoul was particularly remarkable. Not only was the disembodied head talking, it tilted his head around, as well. Jasper has created a way to add something very dramatic to your haunt on a tight budget.
But if you do have a big budget for your haunt, you can always pick up a custom Frankenstein Lab Machine from Das-Machina.com. These authentic looking devices will certainly make any mad scientist lab come to life. The plasma globes and radio tube-style lights are mesmerizing to watch. You might spend $2000-$4000 on a machine but they are built to last and would look great in any man cave in the off-season.
There was so much more!
What you’ve read here is just the tip of the iceberg. Come back to thefright.com/ for more articles coming your way regarding Halloween Horror Nights, Knott’s Scary Farm, Six Flags Fright Fest, and much more.
If there was anything I can say about the first day of Midsummer Scream is that there’s just not enough time to experience everything I wanted to. It’s all so good and there’s just so much happening at the same time.I found myself having to choose carefully what I wanted to see. I’ll do my best to run down some of the highlights and will post in more detail about what I found at the event soon.
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Presentation
I was very saddened to learn that Disneyland was re-theming the Tower of Terror last year. It took some adjustment, but I do actually like the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride, and at the same time, I miss the old Hollywood Tower Hotel badly. It was such a treat to get to see the original Imagineers that brought this unique ride to life talk about how it was created. My favorite part was the funny story Mark Silverman (the uncanny Rod Serling impersonator, heard on the ride) told about getting into an actual hotel elevator with some strangers and start into his lines behind their backs as the elevator doors close- “You are stepping onto an elevator and into another dimension.”
Knott’s Scary Farm Presentation
Knott’s had a lot to say about their new mazes but the most shocking announcement came from the Mistress of the Dark, herself. Everyone in the crowd was elated to watch Cassandra Petterson (A.K.A Elvira) walk out on stage and tell us all about her upcoming show, only to then tell us that it will be her last one at Knott’s Scary Farm!I was happy to hear that they will include 13 mazes this year at Knott’s Scary Farm and an all new type of haunt that will include flashlights that “mysteriously” stop working as you try to find your way out through the darkness. They announced that they were changing the way the Fright Lane Passes will now allow front-of-the-line passage to all the rides at Knott’s, as well.
Hall of Shadows
I wasn’t able to go through too many of the many mini-haunts setup at the event but was impressed with what I did see. At the entrance were some really great cemetery scenes that set the mood very well. I was especially impressed with a grave that appeared to have somebody in the ground, shifting the earth around trying to escape- a very convincing animatronic effect.
The Gorelesque Peep Show was captivating. It wasn’t a whole lot of scare, but it certainly set an interesting mood. I found myself really getting caught up in the mystery of the characters they presented. In a full sized haunt, this would be a fantastic way to set things up for the rest of the maze.There were some great scares inside of the metal mini-maze made by Unhallowed Productions. I also enjoyed a surprisingly good scare out of an escape room preview from Dead Zone 805.
Exhibitors
There was so much to see on the exhibitor floor. I was really blown away by the replica props made by New Rule FX. They had everything from stage glass bottles to cast iron skillets that you would swear were real until you touched them. It was great to see AtmosFX in action as well as some other electronic effects vendors. It was also great to finally meet Kaci, the Homicidal Homemaker, who also happens to live in the same town I work in.
And on to day two…
The Fright will be attending Midsummer Scream 2017! This will be the first event of the year for us and we couldn’t be more excited! We are looking forward to meeting many of the industry pros that will make this year’s haunted attractions terrifying. This year, Midsummer Scream will be held Saturday, July 29th, and Sunday, July 30th at the Long Beach Convention Center.
There’s so much we look forward to seeing!
Certainly, a few of the presentations we will want to be sure to catch are…
- Beyond the 5th Dimension: Creating The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Knotts Scary Farm Official Presentation
- Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest
- Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor
Midsummer Scream 2017 has so much waiting for all the horror and Halloween enthusiasts!
Suffice it to say, we are also anxious to see some of the 14 mini-haunts that are part of the Hall of Shadows. This special area will give us a sneak peek at what many of the Southern California haunters have in store for us, this Halloween season.There’s also a “Screaming Room” featuring a collection of different original horror shorts. Along with this are also escape rooms, special performances, and horror themed experiences.Special guests at the event include Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark), Sid Haig of House of 1000 Corpses fame, cosplayer LeeAnna Vamp, and an absolute ton of industry pros that create the frightful fun we crave.On top of all of this, there are some interesting looking workshops that we hope to check out that show you how to do everything from homemade tombstones to projecting ghosts in your living room.Oh yeah, and let’s not forget about all of the exhibitors that will be there to sell us their wares. We can’t wait!
I discovered a pleasant surprise with the Haunted Mansion FASTPASS this summer.
New FASTPASS Reminder for the Disneyland Haunted Mansion FASTPASS
I was recently at Disneyland and was fortunate enough to try out the new FASTPASS system at Disneyland. This is a much-needed upgrade to an almost 20-year-old system! It has remained virtually the same since 1999 when Disneyland first introduced the system. Back then, they hoped it help with the lines and allow their guests to have more time to shop and buy food instead of standing in line. It did help with that some but over the years, Imagineers have learned that the system was not nearly as efficient in its goal as it could be.If you have ever used the FASTPASS for a ride at Disneyland, you know that you have to walk all the way over to the ride, then come back to the ride much later to redeem your pass. You often find yourself walking all the way from one end of the park to the other, just to get and redeem your FASTPASS. Disneyland learned that many of its guests were spending a lot of time walking all over the park, just to ride rides, instead of spending money on merchandise and food. On top of this, the FASTPASS holders were adding to the enormous and unnecessary foot traffic all over the park. On heavy days, the traffic can be so bad that it can take you an hour just to make your way from one end of the park to the other.
So what’s the improvement?
The new FASTPASS system now lets you scan your park entry pass or annual pass and the ticket you receive is now simply a reminder of your return time, instead of being your actual FASTPASS to get you on the ride. When you go to redeem your FASTPASS, you now scan your park entry pass or annual pass at these really cool looking scanners, at the FASTPASS entry.
Why scan the park entry passes and annual passes?
The whole reason for this is so that Disneyland can also utilize the new MaxPass, a premium FASTPASS experience. The MaxPasses are going to be sold for $10 per pass, per day and will allow you to use the Disneyland app to schedule your whole day of rides in the park. My assumption is that you will be able to load multiple passes (everyone in your party) onto one device and only need to scan that device once per redemption. There are also going to be add on options for annual pass holders to purchase the MaxPass for the whole year.
There are a couple of things this new system changes and it took me a while to get it.
• When you reserve a FASTPASS slot, the system now knows immediately when you redeem it. Therefore, another slot opens up.• Because you no longer get a ticket, you can no longer give them away to other guests. No chance to “pay it forward” to other guests when you know you have to leave the park before your FASTPASS return time. This is kind of a bummer but because of it, it takes more people out of the mix.
So what makes new FASTPASS system so awesome for the Haunted Mansion?
So now, certain rides in the park that have very fast line queues to start with have very quick FASTPASS return times. Like literally 2-3 minutes after you get your pass! What’s crazy is that you can get a FASTPASS, immediately redeem it, ride the ride within a few minutes and then go get another FASTPASS for the very same ride right away! That’s because now, the system knows you just used up your last FASTPASS. You can ride the Haunted Mansion on a fairly busy day 3, 4, 5 times in a row without hardly waiting at all!I’m guessing that when the MaxPasses are added into the mix these return times will get a little longer. Hopefully not by much, though!On rides that are more popular and/or rides with slower line queues, FASTPASSing them will force you to wait until that FASTPASS return time and it will also prevent you from riding rides with the quick return times, over and over, consecutively. (Until the time stated on the bottom of your reminder. Usually, this is quite a bit sooner than your currently held FASTPASS return time.)For now, the list of rides, other than the Haunted Mansion that have these fast return times are Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Goofy’s Flight School, and California Screamin’.
So why are there still people in line? How is this still working?
The thing that took me a while to understand was that all of those people that were standing in the regular line for the Haunted Mansion were only there because they had used their FASTPASS reservation for one of the more popular rides in the park. My kids and I were able to ride a whole bunch of rides in the park many more times than we used to on a super busy day, in the summer. What a fantastic improvement!I definitely plan to add the MaxPass to me and my kids’ Disneyland Resort Annual Pass, so long as it is reasonable. Even for just one day, on a busy day, $10 is well worth the extra cost. What a dream it would be to practically walk on every ride on a busy day and spend the rest of the time enjoying the park!
I never believed in such a thing as an actual haunted house before, but a house my friend lived in, gave me pause.There I was sitting alone in a bedroom of a house that had always made me uncomfortable, and by uncomfortable, I mean too scared to be alone. Yet somehow, there I sat alone.
It wasn’t really a haunted house, was it?
What was it about this house in particular that scared me, you ask? I’ll tell you. Many people, including myself, have heard footsteps upstairs when nobody was up there. “Probably just a critter of some sort.” I would tell myself. The doors upstairs have opened and closed on their own. “Maybe it’s just the wind, I’m sure it’s the wind.” Even the bathroom faucet had turned on and off in front of my eyes as I walked by. “Wow! These plumbing issues need to be addressed.”
So there I am… alone.
My friend had promised they would be right back. I waited telling myself there was no reason to be worried. All of those experiences had reasonable explanations. I have no reasonable explanation for what happened that night.
Life light fairy, capturing souls.
I recently went to on a day trip to Disneyland. I know what you are thinking, there is nothing horrifying about Disneyland other than the cost. Well, my eeries, I managed to find us a de-frightful surprise.
This amazing drink is just a short walk from Disneyland
Shrunken Zombie Head Drink At The Disneyland Resort
Great drink! Awesome mug! …A little pricey
It wasn’t exactly cheap, $25 for the mug and beverage. The drink was strong and I felt like a zombie after drinking it. Luckily there weren’t any witch doctors around or surely they would have shrunk my head and I would be a mug right now.My shrunken zombie head is my new favorite mug and I think it will be yours too.Do you have a favorite fright related glass? If so share a photo and let us all know where it came from.
Let’s talk Fright Fest at Six Flags. Halloween season is, of course, my favorite time of year at Six Flags Magic Mountain.Fright Fest has select coasters you can ride in the dark, walk through attractions, and scare zones.
Year after year, Fright Fest doesn’t disappoint.
The walk-through attractions are good and the themes come back each year. Some seem better than the year before. Some are not but it’s ok, they are still a good time. The downside to Fright Fest is you need a maze pass to access the walk through’s on top of paying to get into the park.The makeup and costumes in the scare zones, as well as the zones themselves, are getting better each year. I think it’s worth just going for the scare zones and not paying for the walk through’s at all. Also, I find it very entertaining to watch people walk through the zones and get scared. I have sat and watched people screaming and running away for hours.
Big roller coasters in the dark are scarier than you think!
The very best thing at fright fest though are the black out rides. You would think rides would be rides, lights on or off, right? So not true! I screamed my head off! I lost my voice I screamed so much!
Go early, if you can!
The closer to Halloween it gets, the busier the park is. I waited until the end of the month once and I parked so far away I didn’t know the lot I was directed to even existed. So go early in the month. If you don’t then my advice is to pay extra to get the front of the line pass for the walk through’s and get in line for your favorite black out ride just as it’s getting dark. By the time you get on it will be dark and you still have plenty of park time left.
Should you bring kids?
There is a suggested age limit on the mazes (13 and up) but it’s not mandatory and you know your kids better than I do.
Is it worth it?
Depends on how busy the park is and your budget. It’s a great deal if you already have season passes or memberships and visit early October.
There’s a ton of gimmicky websites out there that try to sell you the secrets of how you can make your own haunted house or haunted attraction (and make a gazillion dollars). I would like to share with you some real, first-hand knowledge I gained through the 10+ years I worked on haunted houses. I’m doing this completely free, simply to benefit all the haunted houses and haunted attractions out there, to hopefully make them that much better. I learned a lot along the way. There are so many things you never think about until you start putting things together. I hope what I share with you here will help steer you clear of the many pitfalls of the business.
Haunted houses are never as easy as you think, or think about the second time, or ever.
Before you take on the task of creating your own haunt, whether it be for some kind of small club as a fundraiser, or a giant, multi-maze attraction, I’d like to warn you that there are two main things you will need that you will never have enough of; time and money. Be ready to spend much more of those than you think you will right now. Hopefully, what I can share with you, will help mitigate that issue. There is one other thing you will need at all times to get you through it; an absolute love for scaring the hell out of people. This is isn’t absolutely everything to consider, but these are the main “not so fun” things you should be on top of before starting in on your own haunt:
- Location
- Non-profit/Charity partners
- Sponsorship
- Promotion
- Insurance
- Security
- City Ordinances, Permits, Fire Safety & Inspection
- Planning/Scheduling
- Obtaining Materials/Construction
- Alternate Profit Sources
- Tear-down/Cleanup/Storage
- Be ready to do it better next time
Location
This is probably the most obvious one. You need to secure a good location for your haunt that can not only accommodate your attraction, itself but also offer plenty of room for parking and be easy to find when driving there. I used a small meeting hall in the middle of town a few times then eventually used the town’s fairgrounds. A perfect place would be anything like that, right next to an interstate. Pick a familiar place, close or in town that is easy for people to find and if you can, keep that same location each year. On the inside, ideally, it should be a large open building with lots of grounded electrical outlets everywhere, no leaks in the roof, and have decent bathrooms available for your actors. You should check the breaker box, make sure things look sound and make sure you have plenty of breakers. Here’s where I can’t stress enough the importance of finding a good licensed electrician to help you out. You probably will not be able to afford to pay them (at least not for everything) so that’s where the charitable part comes in, they either need to be a good friend that will help out in the name of your partnered non-profit or try to find a local company that could become a sponsor, in trade. As much as you can, use their expertise to ensure you don’t have any electrical risks or problems. Also make sure you have restrooms for your patrons, outside of your haunt. Hopefully, those may already be part of the facility or you will need to think about renting portable toilets.
Non-profit/Charity partners
Here’s the part you will certainly need to take advantage of if you don’t want to spend an absolute fortune for everything. If you can bankroll a full commercial haunt, go for it! I was never able to go that route, although it was my plan to get there eventually. I’ve talked to a couple of owners of large local, commercial haunts that have been around for many years. Interestingly, they said they were just barely able to break even each year and they still had to live off a “day job”- they really just did it for the fun.
Working with non-profit organizations can save you a ton!
So to save yourself on money, find one or several charities that you can partner with. In my case, I partnered with the local community theater and high school drama departments for actors. We had a contract where they would get a portion of the presale and door tickets. The presale was a great deal for them. They sold a 2-for-the-price-of-one ticket and got to keep a portion right off the top. I also invited any other local fund-raising non-profits to sell presale tickets. I also teamed up with the local youth center, where they built a hay maze for little kids. They got to keep whatever they made on the maze and also sold presale tickets to my haunted house. In some earlier years of the haunt, I teamed up with a local high school building trade class to help with construction. The added benefit of getting multiple groups in the community involved is that you will get the word out about your haunt.
Sponsorship
Of course, besides trying to save on costs, you are still going to need some serious capital to pay for your haunt. You should do all you can to get as much stuff for free, but the one thing that you won’t get free (at least not enough) is advertising. You need some local business to sponsor your event. Pretty much every dollar I got from my sponsors went right back into advertising. I had to bankroll the rest of my costs myself and crossed my fingers that I would recoup the funds from the haunt’s ticket sales. This was certainly NOT the way I wanted it to go. I would have loved to have been able to sell more sponsorships. This is one of those areas I know I should have done better on. Perhaps the better approach on this one is to find a good advertising firm to help you, but watch out, ad firms are notoriously shady. If you can get them to help you sell the sponsorships and handle your advertising on a commission from the sale of those sponsorships, then at least it’s no money out of your pocket. There’s also a tremendous added benefit of not having to deal with coming up with all of your own promotional materials and managing everything that goes with that. I probably spent half of my own time on sponsorships and promotion, instead of more time building my haunt. Don’t do that.
Promotion
This may not be the case for you, but I was fortunate enough to already have my own production company, specializing in commercial video production. My day-job was making local TV commercials, but I also did a lot of graphic design, web sites, and other similar types of digital media. I made all of the promotional materials for my haunt; the sponsor packets, the TV spots, the radio spots, the signage, etc. This gave me a ton of creative control and saved me some money, which was great, but again it robbed me of a lot of valuable time that I could have spent on the haunt, itself.
As I mentioned before, I spent almost all the money I got from my sponsors on air-time for the local radio and TV commercials. I learned that radio got me a much better response. One year I spent about $1000 on radio and $4000 on TV. The next year I inverted that, spending $4000 on radio and $1000 on TV. My attendance went up roughly 50%. Of course, there were other factors that made that attendance rise, but I think the majority of that huge increase was that radio was much more effective.
Now it’s all about the millennials and their Facebook & YouTube
That was almost 20 years ago and now advertising is completely different. If I were doing the same haunt this year, I would be spending almost all of my advertising budget on Facebook, Google, & YouTube ads. This one is kind of a no-brainer. Your main demographic for a haunted attraction is teens and millennials. They have their eyeballs glued to their smartphones 24-7. You obviously need to have a constant social media presence, a good web site (specifically designed for mobile, no Adobe Flash) and be offering coupons. I would highly recommend using Groupon and sell tickets directly online (at a discount). All that said, I think buying a little bit of time on local radio might go a long way (maybe even a remote) especially if you have a local radio station that plays music that your demographic listens to.
Insurance
Insurance is an absolute necessity and can cost you a lot more than you might expect. Most places that you can rent will usually expect you to carry a million dollar liability policy, during your operating hours. This can cost $1000 to $3000, or more, depending on the size of your haunt/event and how many days you are open. Even if your haunt is small, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT open to the public without this one covered. Check with your local county laws and city ordinances, as well to know for sure what is required. One way you can save some money here is if the location your haunt occupies is owned by one of the charities you partner with. In many cases, their own liability insurance can cover you, but make sure to check with their insurance to be absolutely certain you are covered. The last thing you want is for someone to get hurt in any way and not have insurance to take care of their injuries, or worse yet, come after you and everyone involved with a lawsuit.
Security
Security is another necessity to which how much can vary greatly, depending on how big your haunt/event is. On some smaller haunted houses I did, we managed to have some off-duty officers volunteer their time. On larger haunts, I had to hire a security company. In all cases, I still had to have a good number of backstage personnel on radios (with earpieces), keeping an eye on things, simply to observe and report. (If you are lucky, you may be able to trade some security services for sponsorship.)I have a bit of a pet peeve on seeing security inside the haunt, by the way. It takes away from the experience in such horrible way if every 15 feet, your patrons see some guy in a bright yellow t-shirt that says SECURITY (actually seen that done). Understandably, that makes for a good deterrent but I don’t think it’s worth it. I found having black curtains all over my mazes that my security could watch from, was plenty effective. They could always step out to make their presence known if they spotted potential trouble makers.
You will always have troublemakers; be ready.
A lot of larger attractions use video surveillance. I think as cheap as you can get a security camera setup these days, even for smaller haunted houses, that’s a very smart way to go to help watch out for troublemakers and protect yourself and your actors. I can’t tell you how many times I had to pull a group out of a haunt that was deliberately destroying our props, hitting our actors, etc. Every time (and I mean every time), without fail, the group would lie about the incident and often even go as far as to try to accuse our actors of harming them. If you ever have anyone get combative in that situation, you will want to be sure to have trained, adequate muscle to help you get them out of your haunt as quickly as possible. When you do have to pull a group out, it’s always best to never discuss the situation as to why until you are away from everyone else in a safe location where you can have them exit the property. If you have video and the incident is serious enough, you may choose to press charges. Certainly posting signs that you will prosecute as a deterrent, is a great idea. You’ll have to post that they are being recorded anyway, so why not? Also, don’t forget about security when no one is at the haunt! I have had some very minor thefts occur. It almost never happened during construction (we often built morning and night, almost 24-7) but we did have some incidents where thieves broke in when the place was locked up in the middle of the night, between openings. Cameras would be good in that situation, but you may have to result to some 24-hour security, as well.
City Ordinances, Permits, Fire Safety & Inspection
Before you do anything, you need to make sure your haunt will be in compliance with state laws, local county laws, and city ordinances. Making a few phone calls to your local city hall can get you a lot of quick answers, but you need to check with local officials to make certain you are in compliance. There are some specific laws that regulate haunted attractions, and of course, those laws vary from state to state, county to county, and even by city. It’s entirely possible that your town has outlawed temporary walk-through attractions.
Fire safety is everything
In California, the state my attraction was in, there was some regulations that were mostly related to fire safety, as they still are today. The most recent of those regulations can be found through the California Building Code site and the ICC website specifically. Many of these rules in the California code are taken from the national guidelines, so your state’s regulations will likely be very similar. There is a lot to read through but some of the important basics are this:
- Submit a site plan showing your maze(s) floor plan and where everything like exits, fire extinguishers, electrical shut-offs, escape routes, etc. would be needed to be known for fire safety.
- All decorative materials (anything fabric or cloth-like) must be either inherently fire retardant or sprayed adequately with fire retardant.
- No open flame inside (no real candles)
- A sufficient number of working smoke & fire alarms, fire extinguishers, and no smoking signs must be present.
- All extension cords must be UL listed (grounded plug).
- Only use UL listed power strips (with a built in breaker), kept off the floor, & never have one power strip plugged into another, you must run another cord from the receptacle.
- You must have a fire inspection, prior to opening, but after all construction.
- It’s not listed in the link above but you need to have a minimum walkway width of 36″ anywhere in your maze (your local ordinance minimum width may be more).
Find a fire marshal
It’s a good idea to find a fire marshal at your local fire department and have a talk with them long before you even start putting your haunted house together. They will likely have a guideline document of some kind already made for you to read through. (Orange County has a nice one.) My fire marshal was always especially concerned with any kind of fabric used and how my electrical was run. Just a grounded extension cord is not always good enough. Make sure you have a heavy enough gauged wire for the length and load you are running.
Notify the police
Besides what’s going on inside, make sure you have any permits covered for the noise you are making on the outside. I had to get a permit to amplify on the weekends because my city required it for anything making loud noises in the city limits, past 10PM. The amplification permit was filed with the police department. Although not required, it was a great thing to keep a dialog with the local police to let them know about my event. They often came by during my event and during construction to check on things. Their presence always went a long way to deter criminal activity.
Be sure you cover everything you can!
Once, I was faced with a permit catastrophe that cost me a lot of money when the dates of my event were not properly submitted to the city. In my town, there is a simple public event form that you have to submit several weeks before your event, in order to avoid paying a $400/day fee to operate. Even though I had submitted my event, something was left incomplete on the form and it was never approved. No city official bothered to notify me, of course, but luckily I found out about it before it was too late (I think I remember calling, asking about something else when it came up). I had to go to the next city council meeting and beg them for an exception which graciously, they did. I thought I was out of the woods. Unfortunately, I trusted the same city official, that helped me with the form in the first place to fill out the dates for the event. She inadvertently filled in the previous year’s dates, which were 2 days less! I still had to pay the city $800 for those days, plus hire extra security to be compliant with the added regulation that other type of operating permit required. I have to tell you, it almost felt like the city was actually trying to shake me down. My advice is to have all of these types of things in order, WAY before you do anything else. Do all that you can to be best friends with your local fire department, police department, and city government.
Planning/Scheduling
Use a good calendar app (Outlook is still my favorite) and put everything you can think of in it. Make sure you place all of your permit deadlines in it and mark them in red! Try to make deadlines for yourself for the months and weeks leading up to your opening. Ideally, you can be working on a lot of things, months ahead of time. Schedule time for when you are going to work on a particular effect, prop, etc. and make a deadline for it. I got to the point where I was planning and building new effects and props, right after the last haunted house was over. You are also going to need to make sure you have all of your actors scheduled correctly for each night and each shift. I did what I could to hand this off to the partner charity that was handling the actors, but I often had to cover this myself, as well. Make sure you have everyone’s contact info and a copy of the actor schedule on you (or in your phone somehow).
Obtaining Materials/Construction
Again, if you can get sponsors for your event, this is where you can save a ton. Get a hold of roofing companies especially, early on (like months ahead, if possible). Often they will be tearing out old roofs with OSB and various paneling. It won’t be any good for permanent construction, but it can make for great materials for temporary walls. Once I scored a ton of 12″ thick 4’x8′ Styrofoam insulation panels. I was able to use them to make all sorts of props and stone wall features. My local lumber yard allowed me to buy culled 2x3s and 2x4s at a huge discount. I want to say I got about 60-80 8′ 2x3s for just $100. Many of them were bowed and had to be cut down, but for a lot of the temporary structures we were putting together, they didn’t always have to be straight.
Don’t be afraid to ask for ANYTHING
If you are really lucky, you may be able to get a construction company to provide materials and labor in trade for sponsorship. Over the years I had lumber yards, roofers, contractors, plastering companies, and other types of builders trade out and donate a lot. It’s sometimes amazing what you can get if you just ask. Some of the things you build will probably have to be metal, so you’ll either need to be good with metalworking or partner with someone who is. I can weld and fabricate things myself, but I often used the help of friends and family who had their own shops that could build a lot of the custom items I needed. I had a local shop teacher build a full-scale cemetery gate. My father and uncle built a rotating tunnel and bridge out of their shop. I’ve seen those go for $10,000+ online. We were able to build it for under $1000 of materials.
Alternate Profit Sources
Here’s something you should definitely be thinking about, early on. You should remember that you are going to have a lot of people coming to your haunt and they will probably spend money on more than just admission. Here are a few things you should think about having around for your patrons to buy, outside of the haunt:
- Food & Drink vendors and/or food trucks
- Glow sticks, glow necklaces and other light up toys (These are super cheap to buy and you can mark them WAY up!)
- Halloween related merchandise
- Pumpkins (I sold these leading up to the opening. I made a little bit but found it was a good way to help promote my event.)
- T-Shirts (Also give away t-shirts early on, as part of a contest to win a VIP ticket package, $15 per entry.)
- In-haunt scare photos
- Carnival Rides (if you have space)
Tear-down/Cleanup/Storage
Be sure to plan for the time and labor it will take to tear-down, clean, and store everything. You are probably not going to be able to just keep everything in the garage so have a lot and/or building that you can rent the rest of the year, to store your stuff for next year’s haunt. Ideally, you might have a secure fenced-in area that you can get in trade, again from one of your sponsors. You could build a temporary shed out of some of your materials to store items that you will need to keep out of the weather in said lot, but a real storage shed or separate storage unit will obviously be best. Whatever the cost of this storage, be sure that you have that planned out and figured into your costs of your haunt.
Be ready to do it better next time
It’s very difficult to do because you will be so busy, but do all you can to take the time to document everything you can during the whole process. If you can’t write it down, take a video with your phone, or at least a picture. The more you can go back, after the event and go over the things that went wrong, the better. You will be exhausted, but the best time to make notes of the most important things that you won’t want to forget for next time will be freshest in your mind, right after the last day. Probably the easiest way to keep from missing stuff is to make your own private video blog of sorts on your phone. Force yourself to review all of those clips, right after the haunt is over and write out a couple of pages of bullet point things to remember/improve.
Disclaimer: This is simply advice on making haunted houses, it’s nothing official or legally authoritative. Anything you do in creating your own haunted house, haunted attraction, or the like is entirely your responsibility. TheFright.com is not liable for anything you chose to do with this information. Use it at your own risk. Read our terms and conditions, as well.
Talladega Ranch (AKA, Talladega Frights) had their 2nd annual Beers for Fears attraction/fund raiser and I couldn’t wait to go again! Beers for Fears is described on their website as part obstacle course, part zombie run, and part pub crawl. This is a pretty accurate description of a very unique event.
It’s not for kids
This is of course a 21 and over event because as the name suggests there is beer (I have to admit I liked that there weren’t any kids around). The gates open early for registration. Once you get in, there are food vendors, cigar vendors, and of course beer vendors.You can pass the time playing corn hole and beer pong. There is also a DJ and a dance floor. Which is pretty much empty before the course, and packed after.
Not your typical zombie run
When the sun goes down you line up at the gate and are given a belt with 3 flags. When the course opens, you go through in small groups. There is an obstacle course followed by a fear zone where the monsters try to take your flags. Then the there is a beer zone where you play games and drink beer. This pattern continues until you make it to the end where you are rewarded with… a beer.
Is it challenging?
I would describe it as a moderately physically demanding course, littered with fun games, and of course beer. It will test both nerve and skill.The interaction of the monsters trying to steal your flags, in comparison to the normal walk through and get scared attraction, adds a layer of competition and it feels like you are running for your life (because you need your flags). It really gets your adrenaline going. The total black out section leaves you with only your sense of touch to get you through what seemed like an endless maze. I found this to be much more frightening than I expected. The whole thing is so much fun, you just want more when it’s over.
Is it worth it?
It took about an hour to get through the entire thing. This is completely based on your pace.At $45 it is expensive but totally worth it.
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark Slot Machine
Elvira put her personal touch on this one
So this is not just another slot machine where they grab some sound bites and movie clips and try to make a game out of it, no this thing is so much better than that! Elvira recorded her own audio and video for this game. It’s filled with a ton of tongue-in-cheek one-liners that you’d expect from The Mistress of the Dark. “Mmm, hey there, big spender!” when I hit the max bet gave me a good chuckle. She also says things like “It ain’t sinnin’, if YOU are winnin’ !” and “Was it good for you, darling?“
Fun to watch, fun to listen to
One of the best things about the game is the chair you sit in; super comfy (obviously to get you to stay there) and awesome sound. There’s a really good goth-metal type track in the background that cleverly drives you to want to keep playing. When you get a bonus to show up on the reels, you hear (and feel) a crunchy guitar strum to build up your anticipation. The makers of this game were very good in knowing all the cues to get you to keep playing.The animation has very nice touches, as well. When the reels stop, Elvira’s “girls” take a little extra time to stop. And speaking of her best-known assets, you can play to win the “BOOby Prize” or the jackpot “The Breast Prize Ever“. If you are lucky enough to hit her bonus, you get a really cool montage of classic B horror movie clips to watch as the jackpot bonus builds up and it actually takes quite a while to watch the whole thing so after you just blew through the last $50, it almost seems worth it.
Worth it? Of course, it’s Elvira!
The payouts are pretty good if you are lucky and can keep hitting the bonuses. Of course, as with any slot, she’s going to take more than she’ll give. At least you can have a lot more fun, losing your money and you never know- maybe you will be the lucky one!If you are going to Vegas (or the local casino), look out for this machine. I highly recommend it!
One of the best Southern California theme park Halloween events worth experiencing is Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights.In my opinion, all of the Southern California theme park events are worth experiencing. Universal Studios, however, does one thing better than any of the other guys. They bring terrifying movies and tv shows to life. The other guys simply can’t without the exclusive rights to all of the horror franchises Universal Studios owns.They showcase horror fan-favorite film and television shows with an amazing amount of detail. The authentic masks, the detailed costumes, the elaborate sets, will blow your reality away. There you are standing face to face with Freddy straight from your nightmares!
Halloween Horror Nights added a surprising new dimension to the experience!
Something Halloween Horror Nights incorporated in the mazes for 2016 were aromatic scents. There was pumpkin (this was actually pumpkin spice which is probably better than pumpkin) in the Halloween maze. You could smell it as you passed through a giant pumpkin. The Krampus maze had gingerbread smells in the kitchen. There was also burning wood and perfume in American Horror. These scents really added to the experience.On the flip side, what did not add to the experience were the bad smells. I could have done without the smell of vomit in The Exorcist and rotting flesh in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre maze. These smells made me want the maze to end, but not because I was too scared. Overwhelmed and so distracted by the horrible stench, I couldn’t take in all the hard work that was put into these experiences. I just wanted it to be done with and I couldn’t get out of those mazes fast enough.Well over half of the regular attractions stayed open for the event. So you get to take in some of the rides as well. A few of them even seem to go with a Halloween theme.The scare zones seemed to fall flat this year. The scare zones in previous years have been great. I think the lack of variety with all zones being themed with The Purge just didn’t do it for me.Suffice it to say, they have some really decent merchandise for this event! I had trouble making up my mind which souvenir to get. I ended up choosing a package of postcards representing each of the mazes.
Best surprise ever- I got to live a part of horror history!
My favorite thing this year was the opportunity to stand on the steps of the Psycho house, with Norman Bates holding a knife to my throat, for a photo. I definitely hope they continue this type of experience in the future!This year I purchased the early entry pass and was able to enjoy the park, including Harry Potter land, before they started shutting things down for the event. I highly recommend doing this as it was more than worth the added cost! For about 3 hours, very few people were in the park and I got to ride many of the most popular rides without waiting. I practically walked onto Harry Potter twice in a row!I’ve only gone on Sundays, mid-October and the crowds have been pretty light. A few years ago I invested the extra money and purchased the front of the line pass. It was great to go to the front of the line like a rock star but probably only worth the cost at the end of October.Another important thing to note, they do not serve alcohol during the event. Probably for the safety of everyone. They do sell alcohol prior to the event starting (during the early entry hours). Be aware and plan accordingly.Overall, Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights is a really fun experience and the mazes are always getting better. It is honestly hard to imagine how the mazes could get much better but I look forward to finding out next season if they do.
