Finding The Happy Medium

by Kevin McCurdy

The Theatrical Haunted House -vs.- High Thru-put

There are two very different ideas when it comes to haunted attractions. The first being a show that scares guests by actors jumping out around every turn, constantly pushing the group forward, always moving toward the exit, usually ending up to be a rather quick experience but often a very frightening one. The other show is more theatrically based, bringing the group into scenes, often with some kind of guide, performing along the way, sometimes presenting illusions or telling stories that end with another actor doing the scares.

It's like Freddy vs. Jason. One spouts out funny one-liners and kills you and the other says nothing and kills you. One can move fast and the other moves slowly and depends on you tripping on a rock. The slower one, Jason, builds anticipation and is a slightly more physiological scare. While Freddy slices and dices his way along. But what if you combined these two? Sounds like a good movie huh?

The best haunted attractions, in my opinion, are also combination of both, a happy medium between these two ideas. There is a lot to be said for the high thru-put house that can do those amazing amounts of people per hour, (especially financially), if they are scary. Otherwise a "fast" show can be disappointing to an audience. On the other hand a long winded, drawn out performance, by even your best actors, can be boring when it comes to a theatrically driven attraction, especially if there is no interactivity or scares.

For twenty-six years I have been trying to find this happy medium. Sometimes I think I have. But I'm always leaning toward the theatrical.

So first let's talk about the Theatrical approach.

I create environments. That's what I do. I create things to please myself, hoping to please others too. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. Sometimes I get too involved in the scenery and forget what is scary.

After I recover from the Disneyesque overdose I realize that maybe... I should have turned off the lights. After all the dark is scary. That's one of the dangers of the Theatrical approach. Forgetting what is scary and overloading your guests with storyline. Another is drowning your guests in too much dialogue from your actors. We all know how actors like to improvise. By the end of the season the show script can grow twice as long by actors who insert all the funny things that they have written themselves over the season. Good actors know how to keep the pace moving and how to set up the guests for the scares. Just find some good actors, that's easy, right?

The Greatest concern of taking the path of the dark side of the force, I mean the theatrical approach, is Numbers. GPH. Guests per hour that is. You can't do high numbers when your sending in groups every three or four minutes. Believe me, your lines will be hours long, guests will not be in the mood by the time they get to the door, and you'll never please them. Remember the ancient rule that the Egyptians lived by; guests will always talk about a bad experience first. If word gets out that your lines are long, that may turn some people off.

Now lets talk about the pros of a theatrical haunt. (Yeah my favorite Part!)

For one it gives the audience a chance to feel like they participate in the action, especially if there are interactive experiences set up between the actors and audience members. If there is a story involved the audience will remember it and take it with them so to speak, and look forward to the next year.

Providing the scenery to make your audience believe they are somewhere out of the ordinary becomes important, a tomb, a swamp, a mold-ridden basement or mothball smelling attic, enhances the guests experience. Eye candy of decaying corpses, rats, severed heads and other expensive latex -based fru-fru is more appreciated, and becomes part of the show. However all the picture perfect sets cannot take the place of the actual effect. Make sure your payoff is there.

Music and sounds can be a large part of the theatrical experience. One year I did an experiment using a large empty black space. One pin spot in the center of the room provided enough light for people to enter the room and get settled. Then the light went off. From that point only music and sound effects were used to enhance the scare technique. (Night vision goggles on the actor and a stick with a piece of fur dangling from a string) We called it CHILLERAMA. It was a huge success. There's an old Alfred Hitchcock theory that what people imagine in their mind is far scarier then what we can come up with. It's true.

Recently I gained some new insight into the other world of high scare - high volume attractions. I went to work on Rich Hanf's show in Long Island for a few days. I was there to dress up a few scenes and make some new props- just the artsy stuff as usual. I realized that he had more scares per foot than any other show I've seen. It got me thinking more about combining the two concepts. I wanted to rush home and add more black halls to my house, more drop down panels, and more ingenious Rich Hanf type scares to my show this year. I actually thought up a scare or two that was worthy enough for him. I was impressed with myself. I didn't think I had it in me!

The pros of the high thru-put house are certainly the amount of guests per hour, the fast paced intensity of the show itself, the need for less scenery (as your just not there to see it, although this is not necessarily the case). Size matters in this case too. A fast paced show has to have a great maze design and / or a lot of room to make the show a reasonable length for the money. Generally the show length should be equal to in minutes the amount in dollars. If the show is under the dollar a minute rule you're in trouble.

I have worked on many high thru-put houses over the years and sometimes I get inspired to come home and change my own haunt into one. I can only speak from my experience creating a theatrical attraction that the challenges of doing so every year become greater. Every year I say I will change it and make it a less theatrical show and more of a high thru- put one. For one reason or another, I don't. I believe that what I do each year keeps people coming back to see what's new and what the theme will be. Each of us has our own style and that's what makes it great. There are things to learn from both .The audiences have changed over the years that I have been doing this. It was much easier to scare people back in the day. We need to try and keep a step or two ahead of our audience to keep things fresh in this business. Utilize high tech effects, video, sound, along with low-tech old-fashioned showmanship, and interactivity, and you'll have a great show.

The bottom line is people are coming to get scared. Period. How we do that is our choice. As long as you meet the guest's expectations you'll be successful.