# Haunted Hayride - a bust?



## BevAnn (Aug 7, 2007)

I put this over on the general thread, but I'll kind of repeat it here too.

Our party was Saturday night. 54 9-13 year olds. It was our first attempt at the hayride.

We had a PERFECT setting - a dirt road....no moon, but clear skies...temp was 70 degrees....

I had written up a story, and I had the perfect story teller relay it on the way to the dirt road.

Not a one of those kids listened! The younger ones did, but the older ones saw it for the farce it was. They get so smart mouthed and cocky at 13 and 14!

Anyway, we were going along...and they were like - when are they gonna scare us? I was like who? You know, whoever...when do they jump out? I was like, I don't know what you're talking about! Then my 12 year old says - UH! MOOOOOM! 

Then when they did jump out - no one was scared. We even had a chainsaw and cool costumes, etc...nothing. We broke apart glow sticks and drizzled the goo on the road along the way. They were like - some one just busted up a glow stick....big deal.

ARGG!!  Good Lord I remember being scared to death on hayrides!! WTH?? *sigh* Anyway, I guess next year I'm really gonna have to get down and serious. I am insistant that we will scare the CRAP out of these kids!

Any ideas folks? Cause these kids just didn't get even nervous once!

It's a challenge now!! I'm already researching more - I only have 364 days until next years party!!!


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## colmmoo (Jul 23, 2005)

Don't worry - you'll get 'em next time!


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## DeadTed (Aug 12, 2007)

Next time light some of the hay on fire in the middle of the ride. But not before tieing their shoes to the trailer. Good times. Good times.


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## BevAnn (Aug 7, 2007)

LOL my friend that had the chain saw, said ok by God, next year, I leave the chain ON!!!


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## LV Scott T (Aug 14, 2007)

Teenagers are a tough crowd. They don't get scared, but if they like it, they'll usually say so. Plus, hayrides are safe because the riders are too far away to feel threatened. Remember the old Universal Studios backlot tram tour? The only really scary part was when the bridge dropped 6" while crossing it. Everything else was too far away (except when Jaws appeared sooner than my dad expected while he was leaning out to get a picture of it). Put a threat or 2 (monster, ghoul, etc) on the trailer with them. Maybe stop in the middle of RR tracks and play a train SFX. Or, pass under a bridge where someone is hanging over the side. Have an airhorn go off underneath the trailer (unless you're horse-drawn).


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## DeadTed (Aug 12, 2007)

Heh. I think you'll always run into that with kids that age. Most probably get scared but do that attitude thing to be 'tough'. I remember when I was that age (which wasn't too long ago) and even if I wasnt' scared, I was appreciative that there were people actually having fun and taking the time to do that for us.

Did you have folks jumping out of the bushes? What kind of area is it? Forresty, grassy?

A fellow church member had a haunted hayride last year and I had the great opportunity to make little kids wet themselves. It was in a grassy area (tall 7 and 8ft tall grass - like the everglades sans gators). I tucked myself in the bushes and after the tractor would pass, just slowly emerge from the bushes and follow the trailer for a few feet. Nice and slow - kids seem to hate that. Then just run after them or something... I dont know - it was fun, but those kids were also younger than teens.

Sorry about your outcome, good luck next year.

You should stage a kid on each ride so you have someone jump out, grab him off the hayride and drag him into the bushes. Lots of screaming, calling for mom, that sort of thing.



Then light the hay on fire.


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## JohnnyL (Nov 6, 2005)

Just have the Headless Horseman chase them down the road. 


If they all stand there, have a stunt dummy get his head taken off, lol.


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## TxRat (Oct 11, 2007)

Sorry it was such a bust. 

May try a few tricks that were played on us when we were kids. One was have the driver pretend to break down and bring the trailer to a stop and act as if the battery is dead on the truck thus killing all lights.Now since the vehicle is in a stopped postion the kids will feel more vunerable. Have him raise the hood and fiddle around. then you can have him dragged off into the woods by your actors 

since your kids go with you have them in on it and have them be abducted by one of your actors. and continue this with sounds and the occational dim watted lights moving about in the woods screams and moans etc. Guarenteed to soil a few pairs of underware..


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## colmmoo (Jul 23, 2005)

Not sure how long your hayride is. Based on a really good hayride that I've been going to, maybe you can set up different stops for parts of the story and have a scene with actors at each. Then after each scene is done and the tractor starts moving, one or two of the actors stalks after the tractor which isn't going fast enough to get away. I've sat in the back most of the time and the actors follow the tractor with chainsaws, knives, etc. getting so close as to make everyone in the back lie on their backs with their legs up in the air. 

Also, if you could set up some sort of area where you can make the tractor stop and be closed in (sort of like those wooden bridges with a roof), turn off all the lights, have something like a corpse drop from above and give them a good scare, that would work too.


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## barefootcountrygirl (Oct 1, 2003)

Teenagers are hard, they act tough even when they're scared, and they think they know it all. I took my teens to a haunt last weekend, and the scariest thing for them was this young girl whose face was painted white with blood dripping who just would come up and stand behind them without making a sound. They saw her several times during the walk and each time she freaked them out more because they kept thinking she was going to jump or scream to scare them and she never did, the suspense was killing them! She just kept appearing, but never in full view, they would turn around and she'd just be there. Another thing that works well is to have two or three scary things all together on one side of the path, and once everyone is concentrating on them, have someone attack from the other side. Another thing that seemed to get the teens at our haunt was a gut pile, and when the "butcher" slammed his cleaver down in it, we had it rigged so they got squirted with water, it felt like blood and guts splashing them.


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## Ween12amEternal (Apr 15, 2006)

Sorry you felt your hayride didn't go well - hey, you got all those kids out in the fresh air; if nothing else, their parents were probably glad you wore them out.

At Lake Geneva the hayride we went on the ghouls actually got on the hayrack with us and went up & down the center aisle, got up in kids' faces. Lots of screaming and laughting on that one! Good luck next year!


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## halloween71 (Apr 22, 2007)

We are doing a hayride but not a haunted one.Everyone seems excited 2 hrs long I hope they hold the excitment.
Sorry it was a bust I am sure the lil ones were scared.


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## wilbret (Oct 8, 2004)

I think a haunted hayride is too hard to run without big money and staff. A regular hayride would be fine, I think.


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

If you could find some way to hide a person on the trailer (in the hay?) that could just reach out and grab a kid's ankle, I think that would probably get a scream out of them.


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## BevAnn (Aug 7, 2007)

We did do the grabbing a kid off the trailer and drug him into the woods - he didn't know before hand either!! that was the best part too - but they weren't scared still! LOL They thought it was funny!!

What's even worse - they knew who the spooks were! And I had them in full costume!! They were like - Hey Kelly! You don't scare me Dana! Hey Adam, there's your dad!!

I was like - how the hell do they know that??!? 

Damn teenagers...I agree on the trailer part - they felt safe and next year - we WALK....maybe a haunted forest instead...keep them in groups of 5...in big numbers they get smart mouth trying to show off in front of friends and act all cool. Yeah, next year, small groups, in the dark forest...walking.


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## dustee (Oct 25, 2005)

I agree....5 or 6 dont stand a chance to be smart alecks....in groups they outnumber you.....


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## Vee (Oct 9, 2007)

My husband and I had a similar experience a few years ago.
We had a haunted backyard, sure got the kiddies and a few scares
from the adults, but the teenagers stood around our house and made fun
of it and how it wasn't scary and literally messed it up for everyone else. -Sigh-

But small groups are awesome. Maybe try that?


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