# Messing with peoples heads vs scary?



## clevergirl_AK (Sep 13, 2008)

I am thinking about doing a haunted house in the next few years. I would like some advice from people with experience. What are your thoughts with playing to peoples imagination versus scaring them with actions. 

For example:

Scene 1: Scary room with props and an unexpected drop down portrait effect with an actor behind - surprise tactic

Scene 2: Playing to peoples fears of bugs, sounds, ankle ticklers, movement of items you don't know what they are, limited visibility, etc. where the focus is on what people imagine in their head. 


Does anyone know fear based themes that work well?

Which do people would like more?

Suggestions or resources appreciated.

Thank you!


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## Eric Striffler (May 6, 2006)

I LOVE messing with peoples' heads!
It's so much better and more effective then just popping out.
I mean popping out usually gets people but still, the psychological stuff is more effective if you do it right.


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## ubzest (Jul 1, 2008)

messing with peoples heads, thats what Iam going to do in my 'bug room' this year. When they enter the haunt, the greeter will say to 'warn them' watch out for the real spiders in the bug room, but we won t have any. But they will think we do by having the threads hanging infront of their faces and some bubble wrap or peanut shells on the ground to make the crunching noise! all the while looking at a full size spider victim. hopefully that will mess with them!


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## clevergirl_AK (Sep 13, 2008)

Erick and Ubest - what have you liked that you have seen?


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## ubzest (Jul 1, 2008)

shhhh..
To tell you the truth, Ive never been in a real haunted house! I wouldn t even go thru my own if I didn t know what was in there! Iam a big scardy cat! But I have been doing my haunt for ten years now and got all my ideas and plans by looking at other peoples haunts and videos and albums on the puter.


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## HauntedHacienda (Sep 16, 2008)

From my own experience with Yard Haunts we have done in years recent; I think the one thing of ours is more of a Psychological thing.
This year for example, no one will quite know what to expect. A lot of it is Psychological, where things are Animatronic and do move, but not with all the Blood and Guts stuff, but more of the thing of not knowing if something will in fact jump out at them, talk to them, move, or the like.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

One of the things I love to see most in haunts I go to (home or pro) is along those lines, head tweaking -- where you have actors mimicking animations and animations giving just the most subtle of movements to appear as actors trying to not be noticed. Not knowing what is real and what's not can seriously throw a 'Noid into people's heads. And paranoia makes people jittery, and jittery makes them scarable, and scarable makes them scared, and then they're YOURS muahahahahahah! Do with them as your sick little haunter desires dictate.:laughvil:

Playing head games with people throws them off and makes them vulnerable. It should be at least an ingredient in any haunt.


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## Offwhiteknight (Sep 17, 2008)

If I may reply...my experience is almost all from professional haunts and what I've seen on the Internet.

In my opinion, the best of the professional haunts or mazes are more psychological in nature. Anyone can jump out and give a person a startle. It's tougher, and ultimately more effective, to creep into their head. To just spook them from inside their own head instead of a cheap startle effect.

The same theory applies in horror films. The crappy ones rely upon the startle. The best ones just get into your head.

Hope that helps.


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## Papa McCain (Aug 23, 2008)

I usually do both. When people come out I have an actor waiting to get a feel for what worked and what didn't. There will be a few things that get everybody, some that just flop, but the mindwarping fear spots seem to creep people out the most. Last year I built a short pitch black maze, just long enough that they could see where they came in until they turned a corner then it was nearly totally black for a straight run of about 10 feet to the next turn which allowed them to see the glow of the exit. During that 10 feet I had a CD on loop that we had made of just whispers, you couldn't really make out what was being said unless you stopped moving which no one wanted to do. Along with this I had black garland like thread hanging in various positions and heights, just enough to randomly brush a bare arm or face. Even though nothing popped out, people said that segment really creeped them out because they didn't want to go back through what they had gone through but they had no idea when something was going to pop out or appear or reach for them... their own fears of the dark intensified that short little ten foot segment.


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

why choose? why not do both? Then make sure it's unpredictable. Don't have mind trick-scare, mind trick-scare, mind trick-scare..... do scare, scare, scare, mind trick, scare, mind trick, mind trick, scare, mind trick, scare, scare.....

or something like that so they can't ever get the rhythm of it.


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## trentsketch (Jul 27, 2009)

I'm all about setting up expectations through ambiance and then sprinkling in unsuspected scares. A well timed blast from a fog machine from a small prop while the ToTs are staying at the giant monster that doesn't do anything is my favorite. If you set the theme/tone/story/style well enough, the guests will freak themselves out. The added scares are just a bonus.


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## GhoulishGadgets (May 13, 2010)

I think playing with peoples senses is one of the best ways to operate a haunt.
There is nothing better that self-hysteria to put fear into any situation, followed by group hysteria...
I'm playing with a darkness idea, combined with multiple sound sources to give the impression of moving thing(s)

One idea is a corridor type scene, with a row of overhead lights, switching off in sequence towards the visitors, leaving them in a single pool of light and having scareactors moving in the shadows

Si


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

ubzest said:


> messing with peoples heads, thats what Iam going to do in my 'bug room' this year. When they enter the haunt, the greeter will say to 'warn them' watch out for the real spiders in the bug room, but we won t have any. But they will think we do by having the threads hanging infront of their faces and some bubble wrap or peanut shells on the ground to make the crunching noise! all the while looking at a full size spider victim. hopefully that will mess with them!


I have seen this done with a snake / reptile room where the host would stop the group at the door and warn them that there are some real snakes in the next room and that are expensive so please try not to step on any. Any you enter the room and there are hundreds of rubber snakes and lizards so you you can not tell if any are real (they are all fake) due to the lighting. he had a few people crying. It was really well done. There were snakes and ropes hanging from the ceiling as well and when some one touched one with there head they screamed.


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

I like to set up the scares by messing with people's heads. Rather than offer the guest a nice, wide, well-lit hallway to walk down then someone jumps out and says "BOO", I prefer to make them as uncomfortable as possible FIRST, then hit 'em with a scare. Play off your own fears and what you know people to be scared of. Almost everyone feels uneasy in any setting that removes one or all of your senses. I like to remove people's sight by using low-wattage flickering bulbs. The intermittent dim light throws off your senses and if you place the light in the right place, the guest will cast a shadow on a wall they weren't expecting to see, and that sometimes makes 'em jump too. I also pumped in a continuous 20 hz tone throw a powered sub into a hallway that was really long and pitch black. I saw on one of those paranormal TV shows that low frequency sound over time causes all kinds of reactions in people, such as paranoia. Perfect for a haunt! It seemed to do the same thing in my haunt. If you set people up by making them uneasy, IMO you don't have to put as much into your scares. If a person is already frightened and the adreneline is pumping, the slightest thing is going to make them scream. Distractions work well also. Use your lighting to make peoples eyes gravitate towards an area, like a static prop, then hit 'em from another direction with your scare. I agree with HauntedHaucienda about the gore stuff. I don't think it's always crucial. It doesn't really scare anyone, and if it's not executed well it can make your haunt look corny. I have and will continue to use the classic haunted old house theme. Chances are, if you were to walk into a house today that nobody has been in in 50 years, you are not going to see a bunch of fresh blood and hacked up bodies. Atmosphere plays a big part in the phsychological aspect as well.


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## Spooky Chick (Mar 11, 2010)

I agree with Bascombe, do both! You almost have to. Nothing can scare a person more than their own mind... And it's pretty easy to convince people that certain things are there when there not, you just have to plant it in there heads! Spiders, webs, creepy crawlies, and all they need is to "feel" a web, But, You really need that live actor shock scare, Thats the one that sends them off screaming...And remember, have FUN with it...Think of how great ya feel when ya scare the daylights outta them!!!


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## Dark Angel 27 (Sep 11, 2008)

i would definitely mess with their heads. In my experiance, simple techniques work the best. Just a simple tunnel with moving walls literally had me frozen with fear and I had to be dragged out of there. That one tunnel had more of an effect on me then all the scareactors combined.


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## GhoulishGadgets (May 13, 2010)

the below 20Hz frequency is marketed as 'Infra Sound' - the people that sell these products ask quite a price for it too!!

As long as you get a decent amp that can handle low frequency, it's quite easy to do (car amps are normally quite good) otherwise, many normal amplifiers can me modified to remove or re-tune the filtering that would normally cut out these frequencies.

Si


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

GhoulishGadgets said:


> the below 20Hz frequency is marketed as 'Infra Sound' - the people that sell these products ask quite a price for it too!!
> 
> As long as you get a decent amp that can handle low frequency, it's quite easy to do (car amps are normally quite good) otherwise, many normal amplifiers can me modified to remove or re-tune the filtering that would normally cut out these frequencies.
> 
> Si


I have been installing car audio for a long time (16 years), and had a bunch of test CD's laying around. One of the tracks was just a 20 hz tone. I also had one with sweeps from 10 hz up to I think 30 khz. I used a 12'' 200 watt powered home sub last year and it worked well. I have a 500 watt class D amp and a 12'' dvc sub in my garage that can handle 1000 watts rms. I might use it this year, but that would involve building more stuff, and I have alot on my plate anyway.


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

ubzest said:


> ..... bubble wrap or peanut shells on the ground to make the crunching noise! all the while looking at a full size spider victim. hopefully that will mess with them!


Try Cornflakes instead. Great Crunch, cheap and won't kill people with severe peanut allergy....

Worked great for us last year at the haunted house.

RandalB


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## thealmightyzenk (Jul 7, 2010)

One of my favorite tactics is to have just enough head scares to create suspense. The actors and startle effects are what will get people. Darkness is one of the greatest and easiest head scares their is. For example have a dark hallway with creepy sounds hang some fishing line etc. Then flip on a strobe and have multiple actors slowly walking towards you. When they are getting close to the guests flip the strobe back off and let the guests imaginations do the scaring. Then after a few seconds of silence fire an air cannon at their ankles. Timing in a haunt is everything. Guests will be more "scareable" when their heads get the best of them and they aren't quite sure what will happen next.


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

I agree with the "messing with their head" group. Any haunt can have a guy with a chainsaw jump out. Yawn. Been there done that, not scary. It might get the little girls to scream, but so can a stray mouse. The real trick is when you can get inside their heads and spook them. Of course that is also harder and takes some serious thought and prep.


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## madmomma (Jul 1, 2009)

I also agree with the "messing with their heads" ideas. What's scary is what you don't see but imagine is there. 
BTW, what's the best way to hang thread/fishing line overhead so it won't get pulled down? I never wanted to use it because I thought TOTs, in a frenzy, would pull down whatever was holding the thread up on top of them. Any suggestions?


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

use fishing line 20lbs test will not break easily


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

The creepiest thing I ever had happen at a pro haunt was an 8 foot tall walker following me around not saying or doing anything. Just following me.


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

Absolutely do both. There is no reason why you can't hit them with everything. Both avenues are very effective when done right.


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## Desmodus (Aug 12, 2007)

Certainly do both, but the head scares can be the best. "Shock" and "scare" aren't always the same thing; someone can slam a door behind you and make you jump, but it's not creepy or scary, per se. 
People's imaginations can often be far worse than any homemade or store bought prop you come up with it, so use that to your advantage. Even Hollywood CGI can have a hard time competing with that!


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