# Pet peeves concerning haunted houses, hayrides, mazes?



## Terror Tom (Nov 3, 2008)

I went to a local haunted corn maze with the wife and the daughter last night. The maze itself was great. They had some little sheds that had different effects going on in them to scare you. They even had a portion of the maze that was pitch black inside an old silo and you had to feel your way around inside to find the exit. But what's with the chainsaws?!!!!! They had about 10 of them. Most being carried by clowns!!!! Chainsaws should only be scary if your are a Douglas fir tree and you are on American Loggers! They had a great effect of the moving headlights that made a noise like a tractor, that even made me jump. They had some characters dressed like children of the corn. The description on the website mentioned revenge from the scarecrows. I don't think I seen a single screcrow! They successfully scared the wife and daughter but I wasn't thrilled. Maybe I just expect too much or have seen it all done before? Anybody have any thoughts on this?


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## psox16 (Jun 6, 2009)

I've been to hayrides/mazes etc that have one guy dressed as Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a chainsaw, so that made sense. But only one guy. 

I went to a corn maze yesterday. It wasn't a scary one, just a family friendly autumn themed one with baseball trivia hidden in certain places and you had to find the markers. I was a little bummed because I like baseball (sports in general) but not well enough to know much trivia. It also wasn't much of a maze, because the corn stalks were in geometrical designs and you could easily find your way out.


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## stormygirl84 (Sep 4, 2009)

*Terror Tom*, I'm with you on the chainsaws. They aren't subtle at all. Too damn noisy for me, truth be told. I mean, I get the whole Leatherface thing, but I don't really like it.

Actually, I don't like when _any_ licensed character is used in haunts - Leatherface, Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, etc. It makes the haunt less scary for me. It kind of kills my suspension of disbelief. These are _movie characters_. By putting them in a haunt, it makes it obvious (to me) that it's not real. I don't know if I explained that well, but I hope you understand what I'm saying. I can believe that I'm being chased by an evil scarecrow or a vampire or a werewolf or ghost, but when Freddy Krueger starts coming after me, I just have to laugh. I guess what I'm saying is that I prefer the generic stuff over the well-known stuff. (I mean, seriously, even small children who have never seen _A Nightmare on Elm Street_ or _Friday the 13th_ know who Freddy and Jason are.)

I'm also not wild about how much clowns figure into most Halloween haunts. In the past few years, it seems like clowns are EVERYWHERE. I mean, I do understand the logic behind why people find them scary. I just don't find them scary myself.


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## Terra (Sep 23, 2007)

Congo lines. 

Went to Halloween Horror Nights last year. Been a few years and obviously they'd become a huge success because they were packed. So, instead of choosing to sell out the night _(like they say they do)_ they decided to pack us into it like sardines. There were no groupings, just a huge congo line. You couldn't get scared because you always saw the scare ahead of you. The houses looked awesome but wasn't scared too many times in the haunts. My best scares were in the scare zones. 

Video I took of our visit. Shows the entrances, scare zones and the behind the scenes of my namesake's haunt in 2005 (_Terra Queen). _When you are watching the entrances of the haunts, see the congo lines?


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## Terror Tom (Nov 3, 2008)

Terra, the congo lines are the worst!!!! Thankfully every haunt I've been to has divided everyone up in small groups.


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Congo lines DESTROY a haunt. 

And, *ACTING*, people. That doesn't mean every single teenager in the place jumping out and screaming/banging something.


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## Mizerella (Aug 6, 2009)

I am hoping the haunted train ride at Schnepfs Farm is better this year. 

The last time I went it was just like You said UnOrthodOx , a bunch of tweens and teens just jumping out and screaming.


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Terra said:


> Congo lines.
> 
> Went to Halloween Horror Nights last year. Been a few years and obviously they'd become a huge success because they were packed. So, instead of choosing to sell out the night _(like they say they do)_ they decided to pack us into it like sardines. There were no groupings, just a huge congo line. You couldn't get scared because you always saw the scare ahead of you. The houses looked awesome but wasn't scared too many times in the haunts. My best scares were in the scare zones.


I agree 100%. I went to Knotts Scary Farm a few years back, and although I was so excited to go (I'd been wanting to go since the day I moved to California), I was very disappointed. Conga lines. This place is huge and there are over 13 mazes. It would be no big deal to stagger the groups just a little bit before sending everyone in. My other pet peeve was the extremely large amount of highly visible security guards. Every 30 feet or so was a guard, sitting on a stool with a reflective vest. If you tried to peek your head in the opposite direction of the conga line (like to see what could be hiding around in the dark corner) the guards would flick their flashlights on the floor in the direction you were supposed to go. This was extremely frustrating, it was a maze after all! No mystery, and I wasn't scared once, well once, when I was walking between mazes through fake fog so thick I smashed into another guest and thought I broke my nose. Overall, I loved looking at all the props in the different themed mazes, which ultimately inspired me to decorate each room in my house a different theme for our party. But I don't think I'll be going back to any haunted houses any time soon, unless someone can recommend a stand-out!


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## piraticalstyle (Sep 1, 2009)

I completely agree regarding the chainsaws. I can't stand them. Frankly, I consider them a lazy person's scare tactic. I love a good themed haunt, and would accept it if they did a full Texas Chainsaw Massacre scenario.


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

Loud music...hate it. I'm trying to check out the detail of the scenes and props and the loud music makes me move on. It's not what they're playing, it's just that they're trying to damage my hearing.

Chainsaws and clowns...not a fan of either, but they make lil girls scream, so until the lil girls stop reacting to them, you can count on seeing them.


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## Boo Baby (Oct 7, 2008)

Congo lines absolutely. They really need to space people out, we're not herding cattle here. 

What also bugs me is rude teenagers. No I don't mean teenagers in general for those of you who are teens in the forum.  Just those ones, that certain type, in a haunt situation who get in the haunt/on the hayride and have done it a dozen times before and feel the need to talk out loud about everything that is coming up. Either that or they screetch really loudly right before a scare happens to ruin it for the rest of the people. 

I'm all for people giving a good scream cause they've been genuinely frightened but some people (again generally referring to teen boys in my experience) play up the screaming and are just screaming to be idiots. That is sooo annoying!


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## trentsketch (Aug 4, 2009)

The one thing I cannot stand is air guns. There's an otherwise fantastic haunt 30 minutes from my house that does a Vietnam scene at the very end where someone lunges out at the crowd with an assault rifle that explodes with the full volume of an actual rifle and shoots air at the crowd. I don't think that's fun for anyone. People scream because they think they were actually shot. 

I'm also a total sucker for a room with unexpected drop panels. I can tell where they'd have to place them, but misjudge if there aren't any obvious targets like a painting or a mirror. Drives me nuts. Same with live actors mixed with animatronics. That's just evil. One time, one actor heard me point out how great the animatronics were in a casket room, crawled out of her casket, and whispered in my ear "the can hear you."


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## ICKYVICKI (Sep 12, 2003)

$20.00 a person for a haunted hayride is a major pet peeve of mine. Here in Mi, every hayride/haunt is at least 20 bucks to enter. It would cost us $100.00 to take the kids to a 20 min hayride. It's ridiculous in this economy...just sayin'!


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## tomanderson (Dec 6, 2007)

I don't like chainsaws, maybe once in a while is okay, but they are overused, I think. I don't like clowns, I especially don't like seeing them all over the place, clowns are starting to get pretty boring, in my opinion. Always those same "extreme" masks with the teeth. 

The other BIG pet peeve is something that is hard to avoid these days...too many characters, as mentioned above by someone else, and too many store-bought props and masks, generally. I hate stuff that looks like it came right out of a crate or a store. I LOVE stuff that looks like someone built it, or at least augmented it! There used to be lots of cool home-made stuff. The classic cheap dummies with the styrofoam wig head, those are cool, you hardly ever see that sort of thing these days. Alas, it is far too easy to get something mass-produced, so many haunts have a plastic look to them. I like these things grungy, grody and a little rough around the edges!


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## Junit (Sep 1, 2008)

One more for congo lines. The nearest haunt is an old prison which in itself is creepy because there are a lot of stories about it being haunted and they do an overnight ghost hunt in the off season- anyways... if you go early in the season... End of September... you will have a blast! They send you through in groups with just the people you came with, it was just three of us one year and there was probably 5 minutes in between us and the next group! BUT if you wait and go when it's actually close to Halloween in the middle or end of October- first you wait in line for 3 hours, second they cram you through in groups of 40-50. And they don't even space you out far enough, so that by the end people are coming out in huge groups of 100 because they people ahead went slower and the people behind us were running into us pushing us  I tried that 2 x and wont ever again, unless I go really early. 

Sorry for the lengthy complaint!!! Just looked up and realized how long this post is!


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## Junit (Sep 1, 2008)

trentsketch said:


> Same with live actors mixed with animatronics. That's just evil. One time, one actor heard me point out how great the animatronics were in a casket room, crawled out of her casket, and whispered in my ear "the can hear you."


That is fantastic!!!


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## yblehsspot (Jul 7, 2011)

ICKYVICKI said:


> $20.00 a person for a haunted hayride is a major pet peeve of mine. Here in Mi, every hayride/haunt is at least 20 bucks to enter. It would cost us $100.00 to take the kids to a 20 min hayride. It's ridiculous in this economy...just sayin'!


I agree. I'm also from Michigan and we hate that. It wouldn't be nearly as bad if the haunts were awesome, but when you pay $20 bucks each, you expect it to be good and not awful. Like Erebus; we went there last year because of all the hype for it, and how everyone claimed it was so good when it wasn't. They talked alot about how theres 4 stories of terror; the 1st is just lines and waiting, and a good 1/4 of the 2nd was waiting as well. Then another 1/4 is to divide people up so that they don't run into each other. The haunt itself was quite boring because there's tons of dark hallways where nothing happens.
So I hate when they try to hype a haunt up, and then it ends up being bad and we wish we never went. I also don't like when everything is the same. Like you go one year, and the next year everything is pretty much the same and nothing is changed. That makes it boring as well. I also don't like the teenagers that go in groups and freak out at every little thing. I understand going in a group, but don't act like a baby or ruin the haunt for other people. My mom and I went once and there was a group of like 4 boys that were around 16 or 17, and they went right in front of us. They were the wimpest guys I've seen in my whole life, they actually ended up waiting for us/walking with us since they were so scared, but then they tried to act all cool and like we were the wimps instead of them. Kinda sad, but hilarious as well; seeing as how I was a 14 year old girl at the time and that they were worse then me. So if you go in a group, don't latch onto another group because you're scared. If it's that bad, then don't even go and don't ruin it for the others. It was frustrating!


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

As much as I love Halloween I have NEVER been to a professional attraction. I'm afraid I'd end up spending all my time taking notes & pics or asking them how they did this or that!!

Wait, that's not true, I went to the Haunted Mansion on our senior class trip to FL in 1985, but other than that, I have no desire to go to a haunted hayride or whatever.

The 2 that are close to me that get good reviews are charities. 

http://screams.org/ benefits the Olney Boys & Girls Club & the other http://markoffshauntedforest.com/ benefits Calleva & their summer camp program. They're both kinda expensive but I think since they're both for charity it's considered a donation & you could write it off.


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## DontWorkWithDemons (Sep 10, 2011)

You know, I don't mind a single licensed character. But if you expect me to accept that Michael, Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, _and _Ghostface are going to chase me down I'm going to laugh. Not being able to see anything too,whether it's too much fog, strobes, or pitch blackness stops being scary after a couple minutes. I go to haunted houses mostly to see the props.

Biggest one is definitely people who run up to you, scream in your face and run away. I just...what?


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

My biggest pet peeve is too much darkness... hear me out now! 

A few of the haunts I've been to have no or feeble lighting and really expensive or creative props and anamatronics... but due to the low/no light conditions, you can't see the props/anamatronics. I get that dark=scary for most people. I'm not suggesting they set up a bunch of floodlights in there and light the place up like a x-mas tree... just a few low wattage lights or pin spots to HIGHLIGHT the prop, or a light flipped on when the anamatronic is triggered... would be a huge improvement to me.

Never had to deal with the conga lines - the haunts I've attended always ALWAYS wait at least 5 minutes between groups and never send more than 6 in a group through that I've experienced. That sounds AWFUL, tho.


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## stormygirl84 (Sep 4, 2009)

Frankie's Girl said:


> My biggest pet peeve is too much darkness... hear me out now!
> 
> A few of the haunts I've been to have no or feeble lighting and really expensive or creative props and anamatronics... but due to the low/no light conditions, you can't see the props/anamatronics. I get that dark=scary for most people. I'm not suggesting they set up a bunch of floodlights in there and light the place up like a x-mas tree... just a few low wattage lights or pin spots to HIGHLIGHT the prop, or a light flipped on when the anamatronic is triggered... would be a huge improvement to me.


I agree there, too. Not only for being able to see all the props and decorations, but also because I get a bit disoriented in extremely low light, and often I don't know where I'm headed. In fact, usually when there isn't a conga line, I have no idea where to head next. I once walked right into some poor stagehand, who had to turn me around and point me in the right direction.


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## Boo Baby (Oct 7, 2008)

I'm with you on the darkness Frankie. I went through a haunted maze at a major theme park near where I live on Saturday night. In one of the many pitch dark spots I went through what I thought was a door, it wasn't.  It was a part of a wall that looked like a door in the practical pitch blackness of the maze and I almost fell out. It dropped off and I almost laid an egg!! 

All that and I couldn't see any of the decorations in there!


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## Gordy39 (Feb 14, 2011)

Oh man, where to begin lol...More than 6 people being let in at a time(really prefer just myself and my wife)...punk teenagers...using children as actors, this is NOT scary!...cheap masks and costums...screaming in my ears...drunks...the dorks that has stupid stuff to say to the charactors ALL through the haunt...long stretches of nothing happening in a haunt...haunts using a guide...any crawling or having to squeeze through tight spaces...mazes that you have to go through 20 doors to only find your back inside the room you started out in and when you tell the actor in there look i've had enough tell me which door to go out of and they don't ARGH!...i can probably think of more lol

Gordy


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## killerhaunts (Jan 6, 2010)

I hate screamers! Other than the Haunted Mansion, the first professional haunt I was in was one I worked at. They taught us NOT to scream because we were running almost 30 nights so it's not a good idea, even do scream for ONE night. We had a cute little trick, though. We got an empty soda can put in a few pebbles, crushed it then uncrushed it and now you have a scare-shaker! FYI - don't do it next to your ear .. that's not cool. 

As for chainsaws ... i hate them but actually bought one this year because it was marked down becuase the chain didn't rotate - great - I would not want one that did! (BTW it's just a prop saw). Now hear me out. I bought it because I thought with me in the plant/bush costume I could sit in my haunt and hubby could start up the saw like he would prune me and i could jump up really fast to scare the patrons who thought the SAW was the scare! 

Clowns ... meh ... unless it's a circus theme, then they're ok.

One thing that was in Terra's video that was totally horrible IMOP, the guy who came up behind the girl and she saw him and was startled, then a 1/2 second later he screamed or lunged or whatever ... um ... delayed scares don't work you know, just look at her face, she's confused now. Duh.

Oh, yeah, hate non-related licennsed characters. Freddy does not belong in a cornfield ... neither do clowns ... I'm not big on the famous horror movies but maybe Jason in the woods or leatherface in a farm would be ok, if you had to use one. Ghost-face ... just a real joke now no matter how many sequels they try to make .....


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## k k (Jul 21, 2009)

oh what a great thread. I absolutely can't stand chainsaws, they are so played out and so loud - i have hearing loss and tinnitus and the last thing i need is a dude with a chainsaw 3 feet from my ears. when you operate a chainsaw you're supposed to wear hearing protection, that's the primary reason i wear earplugs to haunted houses, but i really wish i didn't have to


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## Kaiserxion (Sep 17, 2010)

I've thought long and hard about a lot of the stuff people are saying and I can't agree more with most people here. Well known characters such as Freddy and such are played by professional ACTORS in hollywood that earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per movie. The sophmore or senior from the local high school no matter how theatrically trained he is will never capture the correct characteristics of what you see on film. They shouldn't even try!!!

- A lot of the tactics they use I understand what they are going for. The tight crawl spaces are suposed to pull you out of your comfort zone. Unfortunately it does that but in an iritating way that pisses most people off.

- People make smart ass remarks to the actors because it's like talking to yourself when you are walking somewhere at night by yourself, it calms your nerves slightly. Humans do that to keep themselves aware of their surroundings.

- The crowd of people or conga line is self explanitory

- Chainsaws 'It's worked before!'

Myself, I want to complain about lighting. Pitch black areas are ok, so long as you have a general idea of where to go! I have been stuck in one section of a haunted house for a good minute or two, and when you and your girl are the ones holding up the line it gets annoying. I love dark lighting, but I love atmospheric lighting better!


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## MotelSixx (Apr 14, 2010)

My worst experience was being part of the 1st group to walk through a haunt, and there was an actor that was walking toward the group proclaiming that he was in the group ahead of us, and lost his group, can he join ours?.... hmmmm this may work on future groups, but the FIRST group come on.
Best exerience was a mistake. Walking a haunt in Canada, where you follow a red light on the wall that leads you. We got to the Michaels Myers 'room', which was pitch black, and the Halloween theme bouncing of the walls at 40 decibals. Red light kept cutting out, so we kept running circles around the place, it was pitch black and we were lost. After close to 5 minutes, a stagehand had to guide us out. The anticipation of Michael Myers coming out at any corner was scarier than ever encountering him.


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## SheerTerrorHaunt (Jul 22, 2011)

Wow. Didn't realize how many things bothered me in haunted houses until I read these and were able to agree.  The biggest things I don't like are:
-Conga Lines (When I went to Creepyworld, we were sent in 5 seconds after the last group forming a conga line for those of us that want to slow down and take it all in.)
-Breaking Character (Not going to mention anymore names but I was going through another rather famous haunt and there were two guys that were talking about getting into a fight AND THEY HAD THEIR MASKS OFF?! Hello? They then quickly pulled their masks down and tried to scare us... Nice try.)


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Gordy39 said:


> ...haunts using a guide...


Those are rather rare around here, but I always enjoy the guides, providing there's a good story for them to tell. 



SheerTerrorHaunt said:


> -Breaking Character


Heh. I had one this last weekend. Started into their lines, then broke: "Oh, I know YOU! Can't wait to see your yard."


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## Deaths Reach (Aug 7, 2009)

Plywood and spray-painted words like "death" and "murder". Really? Spraypaint? 

Totally agree on the licensed character thing. I got into an argument once with a guy at work over that. He claimed that a haunted house would fail without them, they were a MUST HAVE, because people come to see them. He didn't just mean Freddy and Jason, mind you, but Aliens, Predators, and dinosaurs (Jurassic Park masks). I had to walk away from that one.


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## Minakitty (Jul 29, 2011)

MotelSixx said:


> My worst experience was being part of the 1st group to walk through a haunt, and there was an actor that was walking toward the group proclaiming that he was in the group ahead of us, and lost his group, can he join ours?.... hmmmm this may work on future groups, but the FIRST group come on.
> Best exerience was a mistake. Walking a haunt in Canada, where you follow a red light on the wall that leads you. We got to the Michaels Myers 'room', which was pitch black, and the Halloween theme bouncing of the walls at 40 decibals. Red light kept cutting out, so we kept running circles around the place, it was pitch black and we were lost. After close to 5 minutes, a stagehand had to guide us out. The anticipation of Michael Myers coming out at any corner was scarier than ever encountering him.


That's a shame about the actor's timing, because that's a great idea!

By any chance, was the red light haunt in Niagara Falls, just off the main drag? It sounds like one my husband visited many years ago which he described as being dark except for a red light.


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## BobbyA (Aug 20, 2010)

My peeve is the overuse of anything in the houses. 
After 2nd banged trash can or plywood panel, my dog doesn't even jump anymore. Times it by 6 bangers, in 5 houses and whoohoo we're having fun now...
Ditto with jumping out and yelling. 
Too dark for people to see anything interesting (or too cheap to have anything interesting), hang 20 bags of rags from the ceiling of the path to walk into, that should panic anyone. 
More than 2 drop panels in a house and I say they are charging too much for admission.
I have a camera that doesn't require flash to get an okay picture in low light. I found some of the houses were decorated nicely, but we couldn't see it while in them. Pictures told us later what we had been unable to see. Part of this comes from bright lights at the entrance to the house.


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## shinehigh (Jun 29, 2011)

@ Minakitty I am pretty sure they are talking about clifton hill in the falls. its been a while since I have been to the canadian side of the falls


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## ds6191 (Nov 19, 2007)

I went to a haunt a few years back and the last room had 2 gas chainsaws going,inside the building! We could barely breath because of the exhaust fumes. A different haunt we go to every year the person at the end of the line asked us how we liked it. I told her that it was to dark. The scenery and props they had were good but you couln't see good enough. The following year it was lit a lot better. She listened to our complaint and done something about it, which I thought was cool.


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## Nebulosity (Jul 6, 2010)

My pet peeve has always been the haunts that mistake 'startled' for 'scared'. You wanna jump out at me from behind the corner? Sure, you might startle me for a second but then what? Someone else jumps out? Sorry, but it's already getting old. If you really want to scare me, convince me that really is a corpse walking around, or an evil spirit is lurking and poised to strike, whatever. 

Playing music at dance club volumes with constant over the top yelling and jumping out just isn't scary.


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## Countess Dracula (Sep 19, 2010)

k k said:


> oh what a great thread. I absolutely can't stand chainsaws, they are so played out and so loud - i have hearing loss and tinnitus and the last thing i need is a dude with a chainsaw 3 feet from my ears. when you operate a chainsaw you're supposed to wear hearing protection, that's the primary reason i wear earplugs to haunted houses, but i really wish i didn't have to


This exactly. I have tinnitus as well but I'm on the opposite end as you. I had my hearing checked and the doctor told me I have the hearing of 5 year old LOL  So loud noises really seem to bother me a bit more from time to time. I have absolutely grown to hate the chainsaws. I find them useless. Too loud and not scary. I run from them because I don't want the noise near my ears not because they are actually scaring me. In the past I have not worn my earplugs to a Haunt but this year, if I go to one, I definitely will. I doubt we will go to a commercial haunt this year though as the prices are crazy. 

I guess that would be my biggest peeve ... the steadily increasing prices. The four main haunts around me, which all have good reputations, have become quite pricey. Price ranges from $25.00 to $39.00. Guess we'll be passing on those this year. 

I would love to go to haunted corn maze but don't know of any around my way ( lower Dutchess county NY ).


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## HauntedHorror (Aug 8, 2006)

I hate those corridors where you have to squeeze between two air-filled walls of canvas/nylon type stuff. It's not scary, and it's just gross. I don't want to push my face through dirty canvas after who knows how many people carrying who knows what germs. One time I went through one on a rainy night, and part of it was WET! Yuck. 
Maybe it was interesting the first time, but now EVERY SINGLE haunted house has one of those.

I don't mind dark areas as long as it's not the whole haunted house and as long as there is _something _going on. I've been to some haunted houses with a long dark maze or corridor where there is nothing happening. Or maybe they have some threads hanging down every once in a while, or a few "corpses" hanging from the ceiling that you have to walk through, but no actors, no animatronics or anything happening. It's just boring. 

I guess I've been lucky that I never went through one with a "conga line", they always take one group at a time or maybe two groups if they are very small groups.

I don't have a problem with a chainsaw if it's used in an interesting way, but it seems like all the haunted houses now have a guy chasing you out the door with one at the end. I do not find that scary at all, and I just walk out at a normal pace.




Halloween Scream said:


> No mystery, and I wasn't scared once, well once, when I was walking between mazes through fake fog so thick I smashed into another guest and thought I broke my nose.


I went to a haunted house like that once. The first segment of it was a fog-filled maze. They had green lights so the fog was green, but it was so thick you could put up your hand and not see it. We got lost in there for a while because we just could not figure out where we were supposed to go. And it wasn't a scary sort of 'lost', it was a boring sort because they had no actors or sounds or anything, just the fog and IIRC annoying loud music.


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## theworstwitch (Aug 14, 2006)

I LOVE haunted attractions and try to go to as many as I can.

One thing that stands out to me isn't something the haunt is doing, but the customers:
You're in line and right ahead of you is a group that decided to bring their 1 and 3 year old children, whom of course are totally unhappy.
WHY?!?!

It kinda ruins the fun a little bit for me to see these little kids possibly getting Halloween spoiled for them for years


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## screamqueen2012 (Aug 2, 2012)

ok so all said what they didnt like, what DO you like, what do you think startles you the best?.........i'd like to see the feedback....

i think you need to build suspense and disorientate the visitors,then do your scare...and it can be as simple as being in a hallway and the lighting goes pitch black....


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## HauntedHorror (Aug 8, 2006)

screamqueen2012 said:


> ok so all said what they didnt like, what DO you like, what do you think startles you the best?.........i'd like to see the feedback....


Maybe start another thread for that?


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## JustWhisper (Nov 16, 2008)

HauntedHorror said:


> Maybe start another thread for that?


agree. Keep to the topic listed.


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

From what I've seen so far this year, add prices to the list.


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## mrhamilton234 (Sep 7, 2008)

Chainsaws: They only work in certain scenes, like a Leatherface type character, but they've become very cliche and a cheap way to get a scare.

Licensed characters-As much as I'm a huge horror nerd, that comes with a curse: Being extremely genre savvy.That said, seeing Jason or Freddy in a haunt will make me go fanboy instead of scared. Plus, as another user said, no one will capture 100% the essence of a character. It's cool to go to a haunt based on a movie and see the familiar settings (Like Camp Crystal Lake), but that's eye candy, not genuine scares.

A big culprit for licensed houses is Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. I generally prefer their original houses rather than their licensed ones. In fact two of my favorite houses they had, Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate and H.R. Bloodengutz were originals, even if they were based off of some phenomenon (LT is inspired by stuff like Ghost Hunters or Paranormal Activity and Bloodengutz has that campy creature feature host vibe)

Darkness: I too like haunts for the detail in their sets and props, but what's the deal with sometimes total darkness? Universal is guilty of this too. They make movie quality stuff, but they insist on the darkness/fog/strobes. It's not all bad, like the bed scene in LT, where there were some strobes flashing around the poltergeist in the bed.


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## IowaGuy (Jul 30, 2012)

Chainsaws, yea their ok I guess. Congo lines...I assume you mean the huge groups of people. For me I made the mistake of going to our town Haunted Forest maybe 3 years ago with a young crowd. I was literally being pushed and pulled through! Then one of the girl part of my group decided to get mouthy with one of the actress'...well women always want to the last word in a arguement (no offense ladies) so neither one of them would shut up and keep going. Being the logical guy I am, I knew the actress' would kick us all out if my "friend" didn't hush so I resorted to telling her to shut up myself. This, in return, got me "that b*tch started it" to which I replied "I honestly don't care what just happened, we are all here to have fun. Now shut up before you get us all kicked out". Somehow that did the trick. So my two pet pieves 1) Being rushed through a Haunted attraction and 2) The Immature crowds


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## Blarghity (Sep 2, 2012)

The only place licensed characters belong in a haunt is playing tour guide. Especially Freddy, considering how chatty he is compared to Michael and Jason. In between the scares, he can tell you about the time he painted a bedroom ceiling with pureed teenager. Michael and Jason would just point you in the right direction with their machetes.


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## theworstwitch (Aug 14, 2006)

Blarghity said:


> The only place licensed characters belong in a haunt is playing tour guide. Especially Freddy, considering how chatty he is compared to Michael and Jason. In between the scares, he can tell you about the time he painted a bedroom ceiling with pureed teenager. Michael and Jason would just point you in the right direction with their machetes.


LOL! Freddy-chatty!


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## TheHalloweenGuru (Sep 17, 2015)

What I see with most yard haunters & non-professional haunters is that they have a great, big, well executed display or haunt, but then they have ONLY small dollar tree tombstones in their graveyard! DT stones are being bought by the general public too, so this isn't only a thing haunters can catch


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