[abrcrombe]

I think layout has to do with the atmosphere, and so I pose a question for you.

Here is a picture of the layout for our home haunt. I have ideas and props, but I can't really decide what would be more effective. Less walking and split the patio to two rooms, and one room in the backyard/pool area, or have two smaller rooms in the patio area with more twisting and turning hallways and more of the same in the backyard/pool area. What are your thoughts on what has worked for your home haunts? Thanks!!

 

[Nchaunting]

According to the picture, it looks like you have a nice size porch. I would make that into two seperate rooms. Walk up one side and down the other, and then go through hallway 1. When it comes to the pool area depending on how much actual room you have back there minus the pool itself. Have it twist the way down the "deck area", and then through hallway 2.

 

[abrcrombe]

I think I do want 2 rooms in the porch area, but should it just be two rooms or do you think it would be good to have dark hallways/walking areas to get to the rooms?

 

[scare-m]

I think adding dark hallways increases the suspense and anxiety of your viewers..I would go with the dark hallways

 

[Nchaunting]

i agree with scare, put small hallways inbetween maybe some ghost figures on the ceiling with black lights, or along those lines

 

[abrcrombe]

My GF came up with the idea to actually do it backwards. I think hallways are scarier at the beginning than the end/finale. I was planning on doing the last hallway a "tunnel of terror", but I think a room/scene would be better as an end, because there would be nothing leading up to the tunnel of terror.

 

[Eric Striffler]

Make it as long as you can.
People like them when they're longer because then they can't say "That's it?" at the end, which is very common.

 

[fg4432]

What is the right mix for a haunt? Who knows, try walking through out loud with buds

I agree that a longer haunt seems more fun than like the one who stated, "Is that it?" I think from a higher level though, atmosphere is most important. If you take a long walk but don't feel like it is scary, it doesn't matter, you ended up just taking a long walk. If you go short and stack things on top of each other will it be a cluttered lot of props? If you can create the moment of someone actually being in a Haunted house/trail/etc. then I think that is key. You may not have the right mix or setup this year but with a few tweaks, seeing what works or what doesn't, next could be even better. Comment cards are always a good way to get feedback.

I can't stand it when there are ten things at once going on trying to scare me. I like gaps or quiet in between things so that the myself or TOTs don't know what is coming next. What's around that next corner or by that light.

Forecasting a scare position isn't always the smartest thing to do but you would be amazed at how many times that is done. I try to place a scare position about 4 feet before after where it would normally be thought to be. After works the best because walking down that long, dark hallway, you just know something is coming...

And then you have the biggest key word there is. ANTICIPATION

Take what I say with a grain of salt. Only a 2nd year home haunter. I am sure that others could have better ideas. This is just food for thought.

 

[abrcrombe]

So what you are trying to say is when the TOTs are coming to the END of a dark hall, they expect the scare to come from the end, but if you get them a little BEFORE that where they can still see it, or a little after, its better? Sounds really good actually.

 

[Gothic Nightmare]

Hallways are great for scrim effect scares. People expect something to come up behind them or around the corner. They never expect it to come from the wall itself. I have a lot of success with this, and its easy and cheap.

 

[abrcrombe]

Can you give me a little more info on these scrim effect scares?? Newbie

 

[Eric Striffler]

Scrim is basically material that can be lit from the front and the back making a different effect. Lit from the front and dark behind makes whatever is behind it almost invisible, while lighting from the back makes the scrim transparent and you can easily see what's behind it.
In a haunted house setting, you'd have an actor or a prop behind it and the scrim would be lit from the front. Then when the TOT's walk up to it/ past it, you turn off the light in the front and turn on the light behind it and they can see what's inside. It can be a really really cool effect!

Here's a link to a better explanation haha.
http://www.vilethings.com/scrim_box.htm

 

[Gothic Nightmare]

Thanks Erick with no K (but there IS a K?), that's a good explanation and a very good link for info. I don't even bother with lighting the front anymore. I just kick the light on inside and it works great, as long as the inside area is pitch black to start with. I paid $6 for a 6' x9' piece of black sheer fabric from Wal-Mart.

 

[Revenant]

Scrim also refers to kinda rigid plastic sheet with lots of holes in it. Same concept, but since it's a solid instead of a woven fabric, it takes paint better. So long as the front lights are out when the backlight comes on, whatever's painted on it becomes invisible. I saw magazine articles of a stage play that used that stuff on its scenery, using a concrete block motif on the scrim and translucent fabric painted with room decor behind it, and then lighting behind that. They went from concrete basement to Edwardian sitting room at the flick of a switch. Pretty cool.

 

[abrcrombe]

That is really cool. I don't know if I can incorporate it this year, but I will add it to the bag of tricks!!

 

[THeme ssaGE]

Right this is all good but I utterly agree with with fg4432 about atmosphere. You need the set for the actors... so to speak.