# Old hat



## BlackwhipsAngel (Sep 16, 2012)

Over the years it seems that many houses do something that is done everywhere or that has been overdone to the point it seems boring as watching paint dry. 

For me it's 80's Horror Movie guys - Freddy, Leatherface, Jason, Norman Bates/ Normans Mother, etc. and yes I do mean guys in the male gender I don't see any houses doing any of the few female horror characters.

What is old hat for you?


----------



## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

I've noticed a LOT of "Asylum" themed haunts lately. I know crazy people are scary, but I'm getting burned out on Haunts that use the Asylum theme, and then have a mishmash of scenes that have nothing even remotely medical in them. At least have one scene that has something to do with a deranged doctor or escaped inmate.

I've also seen a lot of prison themes lately that don't have a single bar anywhere in the haunt. I work in a prison, and trust me, there are bars EVERYWHERE, as well as steel grating over the windows, and enough sodium vapor lights to illuminate 3 football fields. If you are going to do a prison theme, even if it is a prison escape theme, make sure you have some barred windows and doors to show off, please.


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Someone menacing people with a chainsaw - overdone:googly:

Looking on the bright side of things, I will say regardless of theme that it's nice to see people doing anything at all. Most folks here are likely find themselves in the position of being the only one on the block going all out decorating for Halloween. It would be nice to have a little more company sometimes.

Oh, and graveyards are never overdone, because that's what we do and we're very tasteful:jol:


----------



## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

RoxyBlue said:


> Someone menacing people with a chainsaw - overdone:googly:


Agreed.



RoxyBlue said:


> Oh, and graveyards are never overdone, because that's what we do and we're very tasteful:jol:


I agree, Roxy. That is the foundation of the Halloween industry. We all started building our displays with cemeteries.


----------



## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I'm in the group that Roxy mentioned that would love to see anything in our neighborhood. I mean come on people, you can spend a couple hundred dollars on Christmas, can't you at least put some skeletons in the windows and throw a few pumpkins in the yard. But if you're talking about haunts I have to pay to go through, since I'm spending money, I have a right to complain. Women as victims. Don't men ever stumble into a crazy person's lab? How about a man cowering in a cage with blood splattered dames cracking the whip? And I have to agree about the chainsaw. When you are in a haunt and hear a chainsaw crank up you think, "Oh here comes the obligatory chainsaw chase. How about you get there, and a guy with a leather apron is juggling them, like in that insurance commercial? Now that would scare the crap out of me. They don't really have to be sharp. I don't want to see real blood.


----------



## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

I started with the classic gothic look of skellys and ghosts and tombstones an will stay with it. I guess I am not really going for a scare, but more of an atmosphere effect since this is for a party. I do agree with the fact that much of what is done is getting old and way over done. I am not really sure what direction scare haunts can go in.


----------



## The Halloween Lady (Aug 18, 2010)

I love it all!!!! I like anything that celebrates the holiday and strikes fear, I mean brings joy to the heart of others.
Frankly I get giddy when I see that someone... anyone has taken the time to decorate! I recognize that peoples taste, style, abilities, and budgets vary greatly, so I am I just thrilled to see any and all efforts to keep this wonderful holiday not only alive, but growing.:biggrinkin:


----------



## The_Caretaker (Mar 6, 2007)

I just go for a creepy ambiance with my cemetery, just now adding animatronics


----------



## BlackwhipsAngel (Sep 16, 2012)

And I now am hanging my head in embarrassment. I didn't specify that I was referring to Haunts one pays to go through, with actors, rooms, all that jazz.

Yard haunts, the few that I've seen where I live - love them and the stuff in them never seems to get old I've seen some very creative stuff done with a few store bought props, fabric, and a masochistic attitude.


----------



## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

I hate, hate hate when way over 1/2 of the haunt consists of leading you through an unlighted maze with 2 or 3 scene rooms thrown inbetween more unlighted maze just to drag it out. A tiny bit of maze is ok but Just get me to the scenes already!


----------



## Lambchop (Jan 28, 2011)

At my home haunt, which involves a fairly large party, funny costumes are what is over done. And in my opinion, have nothing to do with Halloween. I go to all the effort to haunt my home and some one shows up dressed in a terd costume. Go figure. Well thats just my opinion. I love all things Halloween but funny costumes just don't fit for me.


----------



## DreadKnightswife (Oct 16, 2011)

In our area the vortex tunnel and the forever "fall" pit are way over done at professional haunts. Let's face it one of the scarriest things is the unknown, if you go into a haunt and see Freddy, Jason, or Leatherface you know them you know what they do but if you just aren't sure what that unknow clown, or crazy girl, is going to do in my mind when they do something scary it's more so.


----------



## ZombieMa (Jul 16, 2013)

I think the reason there are so many people using 80's characters is because that's what was really scary to them when they were kids. I never got to see any of those movies when I was a kid, but my husband still talks about how great they were and gets excited when someone's using characters from them.


----------



## N. Fantom (Sep 8, 2011)

Top hats and black robes. I believe they have their place with a few characters but people just want to throw them on everything.


----------



## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

Freddy. Jason and Michael Meyers don't scare me. The bad guy who is immortal and no matter how many times you kill him or cut him up he still gets up and kills everyone except the one girl who didn't show her naked bits.

Nope, give me Norman Bates anyday. He's way scarier than the other guys because he could really exist. I was living in Milwaukee at the same time as Jeffrey Dahmer. That was freaky.


----------



## wandererrob (Aug 8, 2007)

Chainsaws and clowns. Mostly chainsaws. They mostly annoy me because they are:

a) so completely overdone and cliche

b) usually completely out of place/out of context.


----------



## Troll Wizard (May 3, 2012)

I always thought that the 80"s was the "Decade of Hair"? LOL! 

I guess I'm more of a classic kind of guy, I like the standards, you know.....Dracula, The Mummy, Werewolves (there, there wolves)...okay I just had to say that. Things that go bump in the night. There are a lot of haunted houses that I've gone to over the years and paid good money to see and they are pretty much all the same.

Way to much fog, so you can't see or breathe at times. The same old jump out and try to scare you by screaming in you ear at the top of their lungs. Really cheap displays of just guts and gore. And the usual air that blows up in your face as you step on some pressure plate. Oh yeah, then there is the one person in costume that seems to think they have to follow you everywhere within the haunt till you leave. 

I guess that's why I don't go to them anymore year after year, but just occasionally now. And usually I have to go out of town, say about 60 or 70 miles to see one. I would rather see people's local yard haunts and donate money or canned goods to a worthy cause. :jol:


----------



## Dr. Maniaco (Sep 7, 2012)

Bone Dancer said:


> I guess I am not really going for a scare, but more of an atmosphere effect ...


I agree. A startled scare is momentary, and usually ends with laughter. That's what you get from Freddy and Jason and the like. And that's perfectly fine. They are icons that people associate with the holiday. But they don't do it for me anymore. I'm more of a "creepy" guy. (Wait, that didn't come out right) Atmosphere and a feeling of unease that lingers well after your gone, that's what I'm after. And "old hat" doesn't give me that.


----------



## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

Lambchop said:


> At my home haunt, which involves a fairly large party, funny costumes are what is over done. And in my opinion, have nothing to do with Halloween. I go to all the effort to haunt my home and some one shows up dressed in a terd costume. Go figure. Well thats just my opinion. I love all things Halloween but funny costumes just don't fit for me.


I think you mean tasteless being used as if it were funny. And I cannot agree more. Since when is vulgarity a costume? That takes a lot of imagination. I guess some people never mature past the "poo poo" stage of childhood.

As to overdone, blood and stray body parts. Not very original or scary. Been there, done that, saw it in the movie. Yawn.


----------



## Mortuis (Aug 13, 2013)

Strobe lights that serve no useful purpose ("that's what you're _supposed_ to have in a haunted house!") and badly done stretchy spider webs. Oh, and stretchy spider webs in orange, green, purple and black.


----------

