# Scares That Just Didn't Work



## Eric Striffler (May 6, 2006)

I'm sure you all have had some great idea for a scare and then when it was finally show time nobody got scared by it!
Share your unsuccessful scare experiences here!


----------



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Well....years ago we held a kiddie haunt for the park district and my wife held our pet rat and pretended like she was eating it. I figured gross factor and everybody's scared of rats, right?

Well, as it turned out as the kids went through, the gross factor didn't affect too many as everyone was clammering to pet the cute little rat! Go figure.


----------



## Verno77 (Apr 6, 2008)

Unfortunately, when bigger kids (teens) come to the haunted house I volunteer at, we usually don’t get much out of them scare wise, but I do hope they get some amusement out of the haunt. This year, however, will be different. That’s one of the reasons I joined this forum.


----------



## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

I sat in a refrigerator box with a scrim and used "horror" lighting on my face with flashlight. Wasn't scary, wasn't funny...just wasn't.

My father decided he would just lie down on the driveway. The kids weren't sure if he was fake or not, he played dead a while. OMG. He would yell at them when they got close, and they would lose it. He was much more successful than me that year for scares. LOL! He wasn't wearing a costume or make-up. Just laid there...in the driveway....with his eyes closed while I was in a box....sweating....with a flashlight.


----------



## Haverghastasylum (Jan 10, 2008)

I can never seem to scare people with a chainsaw. I ran up behind them, Start it up, and they just stare at me. What am I doing wrong?


----------



## Verno77 (Apr 6, 2008)

Haverghastasylum said:


> I can never seem to scare people with a chainsaw. I ran up behind them, Start it up, and they just stare at me. What am I doing wrong?


You got to pop out in front of them, that way they don't have enough time to think about whether it's a "real" problem or not while there turning around.


----------



## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

It especially works if you chop up the person in front of them first.


----------



## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

Some of the area haunts use chainsaws and honestly i'm to the point i expect it, so maybe that's effecting your lack of scare. The best scares seem to be when they come form unsuspecting places. I like to setup what looks like would be a great place for a scare to get there attention and then scare from an opposite direction.


----------



## Valleyscare (Aug 31, 2007)

Heh, I always look for that in the houses at Valleyscare. I see the scenes, and so I look the opposite right away to find the guy, and usually then the monster doesn't jump out cuz I spot him/her.


----------



## eanderso13 (Apr 10, 2008)

*Clowns with chainsaws...*



Haverghastasylum said:


> I can never seem to scare people with a chainsaw. I ran up behind them, Start it up, and they just stare at me. What am I doing wrong?


I agree that a bit of misdirection is always good for something as "familiar" as a chainsaw scare.

I used to go to this haunted forest in Michigan where the guide would stop you on the path where a guy was "camping". He had a campfire, a tent and was sitting on the ground having a chat with the group leader. Suddenly, a guy in a mask with a chainsaw jumped out from behind the tent, ran up, cut off the camper's "leg" and carried it off...not scary.

BUT, as everyone is watching this scene, someone jumps out from behind a huge tree on the other side of the path (right behind the group of people), starts up a chainsaw and immediately goes for everyone's legs. Now THAT got some screams.

Or, you could always dress up as a clown with a chainsaw...if people aren't afraid of chainsaws, they very well may be afraid of clowns!


----------



## St Dracula (Apr 12, 2008)

Chainsaws never freaked me out much. I guess it's bacuse the first thing my eyes go to is the lack of a spinning blade. Now what did scare me was when someone jumped down infront of you from the celing. It was very unexpected and worked very nicely.


----------



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Chainsaws never impressed me, but they do freak some people out if they're done right. At the pro haunt that I did the build work in last year, there was like 5 chainsaw guys there... not only were there no blades on the chainsaw bars, there were no BARS!!! They were just holding the unit with the motor in it. And as a matter of fact, I don't think they were chainsaw units, I think they were from gas powered leaf blowers. Yeah they made noise, but only the preteen girls ran... it was the most ridiculous thing I ever saw in a pro haunt. "Hey... let's not only go totally cliche, but lets do it in a way that doesn't even look remotely threatening!"

Karen and Ricky Dick, the owners of Castle Blood in PA, come into St Louis once in a while... They've got a Castle Blood bumper sticker on one of their hearses where the tagline reads, "... Because Chainsaws Are Stupid." Goth purists to the end lol


----------



## Metaluna Mutant (May 18, 2008)

I'm pissed off every year on Halloween because he uses the chainsaw scare. Personally I wouldn't have a problem if it is used at a pro haunt,but it's too dangerous to use it at home haunts. Before they lived next to us, (I guess it's technically one building since It's a duplex) we used to get a lot of visiters. Here's what happened; and continues to happen still. He diliberatly scares little kids; even chasing them into the street where there is moving traffic. 

People wrote in to the newspapers and our local news station. They listed street names that were good and bad to go to. Guess what our street was rated: #1 worst place to go. Now we keep getting less and less people each year. He laughs about it every time he hears about it.


----------



## Departed_Studios (May 18, 2008)

I don't have much to contribute here, because I don't really run a haunt, just a spooky ass yard scene.... But I must say, I love reading this stuff! Great thread!


----------



## Wildcat (Nov 3, 2007)

When I lived out west we build a smaller version of the phantasmechanics Grim Organist. A really elaborate prop that looked awsome took lots of time to build and got "neat" as a reaction but the $1 peice of plywood with a picture glued to it and an actor behind the frame almost sent people people to the hospital from trying to get out so fast.
I've found that the really elaborate props tend to give away or elude to the fact you're about to try and scare them but a cleverly done or placed small prop or trick will get a great reaction because there is nothing to hint to the impending scare.


----------



## ubzest (Jul 1, 2008)

We use chainsaws and the people love em. We use one guy to get you runnin and another to stop you in your tracks! it works for us. Another thing we do some times is, put a chainsaw on a chair and have it look like the chainsaw guy has taken a break, the victims are releved for a moment and then the REAL chainsaw guy goes after them. In a servey we did last year people said they liked the chainsaw guys and the dot room the best.


----------



## Spartan005 (Mar 13, 2007)

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks chainsaws are the most overrated cliche in a haunted house EVER. Seriously though, they just **** me off because every single haunted house I've ever been too has one. it doesn't bother me as much in home haunts though, because usually they're really lame... but then suddenly someone runs out in a chainsaw and at least people are like "damn, that was cool." Still I've never used one, and most likely never will. 

Anyone as for scares that didn't work... we made an 80 foot long tunnel last year, mainly just to block out the view of my canal/other houses. We tried to make it a bit cooler by turning it into an old mine/train tunnel... so basically as they were walking trough it they would here the sounds of a train passing by and then a few seconds later we blasted an air horn in their faces as a ridiculously bright light flew towards them overhead. It sounded reallly cool on paper... but the set could have used more detail and the fact that the stupid light was 'shot' forward using a pullly system (sigh) was pretty lame. Okay it failed miserably, but the rest of the haunt definetely made up for it.


----------



## Eldritch_Horror (Jul 27, 2008)

Not a fan of the chainsaws either, but then again, I work with heavy machinery all day. I'll have to give some thought to my biggest flop and post it later.


----------



## ghost37 (Jul 30, 2008)

I have never used a chainsaw in my haunt either, because the haunt is indoors and I though the fumes would be too much. I have thought if there was a big lineup outside I could have a guy jump out from the corner of the building with a chainsaw and scare the "victims" before they enter the haunt, but haven't tried it yet...

Scares that didn't work - I have had a few. The problem usually is with the room ideas I have created with volunteer actors never work because the actors will never stay in that spot and the effect is ruined. It just end up being a decorated room with no purpose. It's hard to get upset with the actors since they are just volunteers.


----------



## Freakboro (Aug 1, 2008)

Haverghastasylum said:


> I can never seem to scare people with a chainsaw. I ran up behind them, Start it up, and they just stare at me. What am I doing wrong?


(I know this is old, oh well...my 2 cents)

My strategy is starting it up slowly from a distance. Let 'em hear it coming but with no idea where it's coming from...and in the dark. No light till you're right on 'em.:xbones:


----------



## JacksonManor (Jun 27, 2007)

*My biggest failure*

My worst scare that didn't work... I want to lay this out so no one attempts my mistakes.

2006 I built a pirate cove scene. http://www.jacksonmanor.net/blog/?p=8

You enter through here on the right:









Just inside you are presented with a wall, so you imediately have to turn left towards the exit. And that is exactly what people did, turned left and exited. 90% of the people that went in were confused as to why they went in, they saw nothing and came right back out. Now let me explain.

On the wall there where several "holes" that looked like this.








Behind the wall was my pirate cove, complete with an Ocean, rain, thunder and lightning. No one noticed the flashing white light comming through the holes as a prompt to look.


















One of the holes was the biggest, behind it I had rigged a phenumatic pop-up corpse triggered by this prop (please see video) 



 I riggged the "Bleeegh" part to my solenoid valve to trigger the pop-up. Of the 10% that visited the holes, 8% didn't look long enough for the dialog from the portrait to complete causing the pop-up to pop when no one was looking (once he scared the people comming up next though)

What did work:
The rain worked great!
Another hole had a direct air blast tied to a wireless remote, of the people that looked in that hole we had a 100% scare rate.

How we fixed it (rigged rather):
On halloween night after about an hour of shame. I ran into my shed and grabbed an extra black light and some glow in the dark spraypaint. Quickly zip tied the blacklight onto the back wall and painted, In BIG letters. LOOK! and HERE! with big arrows pointing to all the holes, and circles around the holes. Totally killing the cave vibe, but getting people to look.

After that the victim rate went up, with about 25% of the people still noticing nothing.

After this I learned that a lot of people think like sheep. But I will still continue to add detail for the people that take the time to appreciate it.


----------



## thegothicprincess (Jun 10, 2008)

Having inexperienced actors who miss the cue that is what I will be working on this year. 

The other problem I had last year was the spacing of props in my outdoor haunt, to much walk time without a scare. 

The two good scares I got in were the leaf blower hidden in a box and my husband lunging from under a table at patrons feet.


----------

