# How can I get good scares?



## Jordan102197 (May 28, 2012)

Hi, I'm new to the HauntForum, but like it so far. Last year I threw together a cheap(ish) haunt at the last minute. It was alright, but I didn't have too many good scares.


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## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

Welcome to the forum 

You'll need to explain more about what you have as far as props and theme(s).


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## Jordan102197 (May 28, 2012)

Hauntiholik said:


> Welcome to the forum
> 
> You'll need to explain more about what you have as far as props and theme(s).


Room 1: The Waiting Room (someone will be hiding under a desk, we'll have a TV playing static, chairs, etc.)

Room 2: Morgue (body bags hanging that you will have to navigate through, possibly a strobe.

Room 3: Maze Room (We'll have evil patients in there, it will be a large pallet maze covered with black plastic and will have strobes, some of the walls will be fake and people can pop through.

Room 4: The Butcher Shop (My Shed) A mini-maze in my shed. Bloody arms, legs, etc on a shelf.

Room 5: The "Warden's Office" where we have the director of the asylum (whom we refer to as "The Warden" dead at his desk. It will be designed to look like an office. As the guests are looking and walking towards the desk, I will come from behind them with a chainsaw and chase them out of the haunt. 
The chainsaw room should be good.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

Here's something I wrote a while ago just to help tell my actors how to scare:



"The components of a good startle:
To sum it up in one sentence, fear stems from a fast, negative, and sensory transition that brings the negative element closer to the person. Now let me expand on that…
“fast”
The monster must make his transition speedy. A lurking, slow moving zombie sets a creep atmosphere, but it’s the fast, lunging zombie that elicits the screams. This speed gives the brain less time to process what’s actually happening and determine if the object it fears is actually worthy fearing. 
“negative”
This one’s pretty obvious. Bringing a cake closer to a fat kid through a fast, sensory transition does not elicit fear, but rather excitement. It has to be something that poses a threat to the patron.
“sensory”
The more of the five senses the transition can affect, the better. Our five senses are the only ways we know anything that’s going on around us, so it’s better in a haunt to affect more than just sight and sound in order to stimulate the brain and take it more time to decide whether or not it should actually fear what is happening.
“transition”
Something must happen to scare someone. The bigger this transition is, the bigger the scare (as I said above).
“that brings the negative element closer”
Even if the patrons have already seen a monster in a room, it is still possible to get a scare by just moving closer to the guests. Of course, if the monster was previously unseen, the fear level increases exponentially because the guests did not previously did not perceive the monster’s existence at all. Additionally, it is nearly impossible to get a scare moving away from guests, unless of course your existence in the scene was not previously perceived."



Additionally, I've found that it's always best to design the layout of scenes specifically around scares and then fill in theiming elements rather than vice-versa. As haunters we tend to just focus on creating an awesome scene and then just make actors come up with their own hiding spots, but that pretty much undermines everything that makes a haunt scary.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

There are basically two types of scares, though they are not independent of each other.
Physical scares: where you, a prop, or some physical attribute within your haunt startles the guests.
Mental scares: Scares that are more of a mental/intellectual process for the guests.
Mental scares would be having massive spider webs up when you know your guest is arachnophobic, the mental scare would be the webs brushing their skin and the spider dropping down in front of them. Physical scares are fun, but they tend to be short lived and if you use the same kind of scare over and over again, predictable, and eventually, boring. Mixing the two types of scares within your haunt tends to have the best overall effect. It's one of the main reasons haunters tend to use a theme or story-line for their haunt, it lets you focus the mental scares on an idea or theme so that your physical scares will have the most impact.


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

I don't have any suggestions for you but want to say I like the asylum theme.


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## Darkmaster (May 9, 2009)

Do you have anything playing in the background. Sound effects set the mood and play on the mind. Make a recording of people talking low, IE- a doctor talking about a patient, then have some, not a lot, people screaming, as if being tortured.

If room allows for it, you can have a hallway of doors. Some doors hinge the right way and then, here and there, put a door with the hinges on the doorknob side. This will catch them off guard and slow them down.
In the "wardens room" you can have a scare actor come in as a crazy patient looking for the doctor and causing a ruckus.

Just some ideas to work with.


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I know myself, and about several thousand other people, have gotten some real scares out of pregnancy tests. But I'm not sure how you could incorperate it. But it's just what I think of when people ask for real scares. That and police lights in you back car window. Shivers....


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol: I will leave this questions to the masters....however, my thoughts on really good scares always come back to the one, single person...alone...that is the ONLY way you get a good scare.....in numbers...we are safe....singled out...we are terrified.....


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

We got some really good scares with four people going through at a time so while single certainly creeps them out - if you place your scares well you will still get the screams. One of our BEST last year (got a scream from all but one group of four) was slamming a metal gate against the wall (a real clang and you had a sense of the vibration too) while the "guests" were walking through a particularly dark part of the haunt.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

One other big thing that scares everyone would have to be a falling wall or ceiling. With something that crashes on top of you, you don't have to believe a storyline, actor, or anything for it to be scary; it just is.


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

Dress as an IRS auditor.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

The Rotten Pumpkin said:


> One other big thing that scares everyone would have to be a falling wall or ceiling. With something that crashes on top of you, you don't have to believe a storyline, actor, or anything for it to be scary; it just is.


You do, however, have to be careful about anything actually falling on a guest unless you as the haunter want to experience the fear of a lawsuit.


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## Howlinmadjack (Jul 20, 2009)

One of my best tactics is to first make the people uncomfortable, one way I've learned works well is to glue nuts and bolts to plywood, and make it part of the path. Once they step on it, the usual reaction is to look down and try to see what it is your stepping on. This takes the focus off of their surroundings and gives the actors time to slide up and startle your marks. It can also be used in conjunction with ankle ticklers, hanging body parts that you they have to push through to get by, dripping water, and so on. As was previously stated, stimulate as many of the senses as possible to get a good scare.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

The potential for lawsuits applies to those things people can trip on, fall on, or stub a toe on too. I'd use ankle ticklers or maybe just puffs of air at their ankles to distract them from things that might brush their face or visually startle them.

Stuff falling on you?
Hope you have a really deep treasure chest for the lawsuits that will follow. There's no way the fire or safety authorities, much less the insurance people, would ever allow you to do it, or cover you for that kind of thing if you are doing it on purpose. Why not just pump in poisonous gas, that would surprise them too, then they can trip on the bodies of the people who came in before they did?
Don't give people crazy ideas that things like this are even thinkable. This is up there with fake razors (or real ones for that matter) are okay to put in treats for the TOTs.


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## Just Whisper (Jan 19, 2009)

You mentioned using body bags. In my haunt, I had 6 body bags, staggered down a hallway (I hope to add 2 more this year). It is the part of my haunt that scares people most BEFORE they even go through them. Many won't. Just to keep it fresh last year I added a little touch that no one was expecting. In addition to having my victim's arms or hands poking out of the bags, I hung a couple of heads in the midst of the bags, about face level. Imagine the ToTs surprise when they came face to face with that. The strobe light is a great idea. It keeps my ToTs from being able to clearly see to the other end of the body bag hallway, and also gives the bags a crazy flashing effect when they swing back and forth.
I love your asylum idea. I hope it comes out great.


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

My immediate thought about the things glued to the floor was rolled ankles and stubbed toes. I'm not sure I would go down that path. Maybe something that crunches under foot - like peanut shells or even bark chips/gravel just to change the surface. Safety Safety Safety. I'm always looking for the worst case scenario in everything to be on the safe side.


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## Troll Wizard (May 3, 2012)

Nothing scares people more at least I think, is plain old darkness. Not being able to see very well, but of course without people getting hurt. I mean you still want them to find their way around. It is the darkness that illuminate's Halloween (if you understand what I'm saying). 

It can make the hair stand up on your back, and can send shivers down your spine! It's the fear of not knowing, because you can't see very well. There is nothing more scary than looking out your bedroom window in the darkness and after straining your eyes in the dark trying to see, you realize someone or something is looking back at you!


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

Working with some major fears is always a good start...
Acrophobia - Fear of Heights
Claustrophobia - Fear of Enclosed Spaces
Nyctophobia - Fear of the Dark
Ophidiophobia - Fear of Snakes
Arachnophobia - Fear of Spiders
Trypanophobia - Fear of Injection or Medical Needles
Astraphobia - Fear of Thunder and Lightning
Nosophobia - Fear of Having a Disease
Mysophobia AKA Germophobia - Fear of Germs
Triskaidekaphobia - Fear of the Number 13


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

fontgeek said:


> Stuff falling on you?
> Hope you have a really deep treasure chest for the lawsuits that will follow. There's no way the fire or safety authorities, much less the insurance people, would ever allow you to do it, or cover you for that kind of thing if you are doing it on purpose. Why not just pump in poisonous gas, that would surprise them too, then they can trip on the bodies of the people who came in before they did?
> Don't give people crazy ideas that things like this are even thinkable. This is up there with fake razors (or real ones for that matter) are okay to put in treats for the TOTs.


Perhaps I should rephrase what I said in more detail.

The falling wall or ceiling gag, as seen at many of the country's top haunts (Netherworld, Bates Motel, Factory of Terror), is a mechanism designed to make it seem as if a wall or ceiling is crashing upon guests. However, before said wall or ceiling comes anywhere near close enough to strike guests, it is stopped by either striking a wood beam put in place to stop it or by reaching the end of a strong chain holding it up. This is a fantastic startle for essentially anybody walking through, as long as they see the falling object and don't miss it due to too much darkness (I made this mistake last year).

There are some obvious safety precautions one must make if he or she wishes to create this scare. Obviously, it's important to construct the wall from solid, durable material and to have a sturdy stopping board or chain. I would also reccommend a secondary stopping machanism in the unlikely event that the first fails. It's also important to keep patron's a reasonable distance away from the falling wall as it dose inherently move closer to them, so maybe add a prop or railing to keep guests from directly aproaching the wall. And as always with a haunt, it's better to be safe than sorry so take all the precautions you can.

As I referenced above, I have used both a falling wall (2008) and a falling ceiling (2011) in my haunt, and aside from the times that darkness and poor creative coordination prevented guests from seeing the ceiling, these scares worked great and went extremely well safety-wise.


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## graveyardmaster (May 14, 2012)

thats a tricky one,how about playing spooky music as the trick or treaters come up your path,i done that a few years ago it frightened the hell out of them!!


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## Frightmaster-General (Sep 9, 2011)

Here is a nice how-to: Click


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## ProjectFEAR (Aug 25, 2011)

Falling elements are great, but as another poster correctly mentions you HAVE to be sure of the safety. Use solid materials, make sure you've got a failsafe, and it should ALWAYS be actor-controlled so it can be quickly deactivated in the unfortunate event that something does go wrong.
That aside, here are things that I've scared adults with, on a shoestring budget.
1. Fog machines are cool, but you need to put stuff IN the fog. Mannequins in a bunch of fog is a great effect, if you've got a fake city street (but then again I work with a pro haunted house, so yeahhhh that may not work for you.) No worries, just put the mannequins in your yard! The reason that is frightening to people, is that whoever sees them can't tell for sure if they are real people. Now, put a few actors in the with them to stand really really still, and right when the ToTs get comfortable, have the actors lunge out towards them.
2 If you've got an indoor section, put up a room that just looks normal, no creepy props aside from maybe peeling wallpaper, or rotting wooden stuff like old rocking horses, chairs, desks, etc. Put strobe lights in the room and have them go off at random intervals, and have some really random loud sounds play when the lights go off; that way, ToTs will be walking through the room, and suddenly they'll be bombarded by loud noises, flashing lights, and actors jumping around them and getting in their faces. Have really good hiding places for the actors built in the the scene, that way after the lights come back on the guests can't tell where the actors came from, where they are, or when they'll come back. And have the "attacks" last for shorter time lengths, that way the guests won't know what exactly just happened to them but they'll know SOMEthing happened, and that will be enough to freak them out.
3. Sensory over-stimulation is a pretty freaky thing; for my 2010 haunt I had a "zombie virus" theme, so one section was a really narrow chain-link walkway going into a huge medical base. We had air-raid sirens going off, more fog than you can imagine, flamethrowers, people attacking guests from below, people shooting super-realistic capgun-style prop guns right in front of guests, the whole bit. The chain-link fence cage maze inside part of the tent had a roof, and there were infected patients crawling and jumping around on it.
Unfortunately I have since moved to a much more religiously conservative (and considerably smaller) environment, so I can't do anything like that again outside of the haunt I currently work for.

Some decent haunt ideas:
1. Walking right behind someone is really effective, especially in the queue lines.
2. Doing number one, while blowing air horns behind their heads. Caution must be taken not to direct the horn end towards the ears, but it is a very effective scare if timed properly.
3. Mental scaring is fun, and that's what's gonna leave an impression. You've got to expose your ToTs to a somehow over-the-top creepy, disturbing environment. You need to know the audience for this to work well, because to play on someone's fears you first need to know what they are. In point, little kids are not fun to do this to because this can cause problems for them later in life, but THAT DOESN'T matter, because it's only one night, right? Here's what scares people mentally (this is IMO, you should check your demographics and what seems to get to them for best results).
-Christmas-turned-slaughter, for example having a hideous Krampus, Belzchnikel, evil Santa, and some demented toy dolls for good measure. It's a little stale in the pro industry but it's just starting to edge its way into the home haunting circles.
-Have a made-up kids TV show, and have a happy jingle playing in the background, and then have actors dressed a demented dolls, toys, etc. run out and attack guests. Here's how my pro haunt did this last year; they had the first room in the haunt as a living room of a house, with a commercial playing on the TV for this certain heart-warming little kid's TV show; the next room was the offices of an FBI agent, who was investigating this TV show because several kids had brutally killed themselves while watching it (kind of a nod to the whole Lavender Town hoax that stirred up a lot of controversy in Japan and among the Pokemon community here in the States). After that, the rest of the house was just going through landmark places from the show like the main characters' house, the Happy Fields (which was a big astroturf room where the characters were killing each other). It was kinda like the whole Epic Mickey thing, where a happy place was turned evil. The colors and lighting we used was what made it scary, because like Epic Mickey we used dark colors and all the lighting was red. Me describing doesn't come anywhere near to being able to fully explain it, it was something you'd have to experience to understand......
sorry for the long post, I just felt like I should give you all the experience I have since that's such an important part of any haunt (the scaring, that is).


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## Hysteria17 (Jun 15, 2012)

I would use a lot of drop pannels if possible, those are always give a good scare and they're fun and easy to make. Also put scares in unsuspecting places. For example if you have a coffin instead of putting someone in the front of it popping out put them in the bottom of it. Theyll look in it, let theyre guards down, and boom out comes the actor. There are tons of good ways to get good scares, just be creative and safe!


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## chuckb0004 (Aug 30, 2009)

*Good Scares*

I have found that miss direction scares work time after time. Use something to get their attention, a prop, directed lighting anything to make them think a scare is coming from a certain direction then hit them from a different direction. This along with what other members are posting as far as audio, lighting setting the atmosphere up will get the scare you want. Also allow them to reset between scares this helps rebuild the anxiety for the next scare. If you keep hitting them with scares the brain has no time to reset and the scares will be less effective.


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

Be scary?


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

Lord Homicide said:


> Be scary?


Greatest. Answer. Ever.


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

Lord Homicide said:


> Be scary?





BioHazardCustoms said:


> Greatest. Answer. Ever.


LOL I don't know - it might be just me - but I think a slightly more descriptive answer was sought.....


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*A few more thoughts...*

I've been thinking about this thread and the general concepts of scaring people quite a bit the past few weeks, so I thought I'd share a few more ideas. Mainly what it all comes down to is creating a realistic and overwhelming environment and then hitting people with a good startle to activate fight-or-flight. Any startle will activate fight-or-flight for a split second, but the more stimulated the brain is, the longer it will take it to realize it shouldn't actually be afraid. In simpple terms, more stimulation = less rationalization = more fear.

- Also, power tools are scary! I'm always shocked when I exit a pro-haunt and I've only seen one chainsaw. I think every haunt, no matter ghow small, should utilize power tools more (as long as they're used safely!), and not just chainsaws. Skill saws, drills and air hammers all make great scares if used correctly!

- Stick with simple, proven scares and theme them into the plot line. I base most of my scares off drop panels, power tools, door scares, air scares, and quick runs from behind corners; and all of these always have distractions.


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

Headless said:


> LOL I don't know - it might be just me - but I think a slightly more descriptive answer was sought.....


Heh, I'm sorry but I just couldn't help it.

Eh.. blasts of air scare people.
- Blast air ankle high coupled with a horde of rats running and squeaking sound.
- Blast air neck high and play bat sounds...


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

Just Whisper said:


> You mentioned using body bags. In my haunt, I had 6 body bags, staggered down a hallway (I hope to add 2 more this year). It is the part of my haunt that scares people most BEFORE they even go through them. Many won't. Just to keep it fresh last year I added a little touch that no one was expecting. In addition to having my victim's arms or hands poking out of the bags, I hung a couple of heads in the midst of the bags, about face level. Imagine the ToTs surprise when they came face to face with that. The strobe light is a great idea. It keeps my ToTs from being able to clearly see to the other end of the body bag hallway, and also gives the bags a crazy flashing effect when they swing back and forth.
> I love your asylum idea. I hope it comes out great.


I did the same thing in my 2010 haunt with great results. I had 7 body bags hanging in a zig-zaging room with a strobe. AWSOME results


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