# How to do an 'outdoor' haunt?



## imax

For the past 5 years, we have ran a very successful indoor haunt out of a 13,000 sqft warehouse in the heart of our city. Prior to that, we ran a successful haunted forest for 9 years. We are embarking on a new chapter in our haunt life (we are buying land!), and I feel like we have a problem that maybe some of you can help us out with.

We've never ran an 'outdoor' haunt. I'm not entirely sure I've ever been to one, either.

Now... I know what you're thinking. WHAT ABOUT THE HAUNTED FOREST? 

Welllll, the problem with that was that it was a show that was built like an indoor haunt, it just didn't have a roof. We had a big maze. We had all the normal 'indoor' scenes - bathroom, attic, living room, bedroom, crazy things. One year, it was an asylum (why not? It was an indoor haunt built outside). Every scene had trees in it or near it.

Due to various reasons, this time around on our new venture, we don't want to go that route. We have the resources to build buildings if we want to do indoor themes. We also have lots of room (and woods) to work with and do outdoor haunts, but I honestly have no idea what an outdoor haunt consists of! I don't know if I've ever SEEN one!

So, my challenge to you is this:

If you run a haunt that operates primarily outdoors, what kinds of things do you do? I'm interested in photos, videos, discussions on how outdoor haunting is different than indoor, etc.

I'm sure with enough time I can come up with some messed up stuff, but with the post-season blah, I need a jump start with the creativeness.

Thanks in advance... 

-- Ian


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## RoxyBlue

A good place to start for ideas is to read jessjaja's thread about setting up a haunted woods:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=30164&highlight=haunted+trail


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## Abunai

I popped into this thread ready to give some advice, because our haunt is an outdoor one. After reading your original post though, I guess my haunt fits into your category of an indoor haunt built outside; lots of rooms, decorated and set to look like indoor rooms. 

Are you looking for what kinds of displays fit better in an outdoor theme? 
If so, some thoughts that come to mind are graveyards, the Headless horseman (on his horse), werewolves coming out of the woods, Blaire Witch type things, hostile aliens hunting humans, (oldie but goodie) zombies, etc.


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## imax

I'll check out that other thread, Roxy, thanks!

Some of the things that I have questions with outdoor haunts that come to mind are:

1) What can you do with an outdoor haunt that would be impossible/impractical?
2) How do you keep people interested as they move though a larger space that has less?
3) How can question 2 benefit a scare, or help to setup a scare?
4) How do utilize your actors so they cover multiple scare spots, but they don't have to run around all night long?
5) How would you approach the trail/maze design?
6) What if you wanted a fully outdoor experience, with no sheds/shacks/buildings along the way? (meaning, guests don't enter the structure)

-- I


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## Fate

This is just me spit balling but i think one of the best things is to keep people guessing, with such a big space people dont know whats out there. maybe have some props that make people think they could be real people, then you mix in actors. At a camp one year they had a haunted trail, they did a lot of jump scares including firing a shot gun (blanks of course) which really scared people.


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## Screaming Demons

Check out Haunted Overload.


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## spinwitch

Just a short note now (I have to go to work); I'll write more later. We do a "haunted trail" for a natural history museum. Unlike Haunted Overload, we have to tear it down after Halloween. We also have a pretty low budet. Our trail is about 1/4 mile long, and is popular enough that we run about 1,000 people through a night.

The first hint--don't be afraid of dead space. Most people are frightened just by being out in the woods at night. It's OK to have up to 150 feet with nothing but a bit of light from witch jars--it really seems to build up the tension.

More later.


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## goneferal

spinwitch said:


> Just a short note now (I have to go to work); I'll write more later. We do a "haunted trail" for a natural history museum. Unlike Haunted Overload, we have to tear it down after Halloween. We also have a pretty low budet. Our trail is about 1/4 mile long, and is popular enough that we run about 1,000 people through a night.
> 
> The first hint--don't be afraid of dead space. Most people are frightened just by being out in the woods at night. It's OK to have up to 150 feet with nothing but a bit of light from witch jars--it really seems to build up the tension.
> 
> More later.


I love haunted woods! We have a really fun but sparely done one locally tht is put on by a fire department. The dead space is perfect. I'd suggest putting a few scare actors in those spaces that just amble upon groups going through and then turning on them like zombies or something. My husband and I visited Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights a few years ago and they always had a few ghouls that would either join along and scare the crap out of us, or, the best scare was after a group exited a big scare, there would be one ghoul that would jump out after everyone thought they were safe. We ended up jumping at our own shadows after a bit.


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## fontgeek

People's senses are a powerful tool/weapon, don't be afraid to exploit them. Introducing sounds and/or smells on their own can help trigger the imagination for most people.
Posting a story or "history" of the trail lets the guests build the tension themselves as their imagination fills in the blank spots or open spaces in your trail.
If these are guided tours you can plant actors in each group that goes through.


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## ryschwith

Random thought based on wild speculation and absolutely no experience:

I would think an outdoor haunt frees you from certain constraints of a building. Mostly walls, and by extension the need to have a set path that your guests take. What if you just give them a destination and an incentive, and then let them wander? "Turn in your ticket stub at HillBilly Jeb's haunted moonshine shack for a free drink!" Maybe give them a crude map to direct them toward your best scares, and scatter lots of smaller scares throughout for people to stumble across.


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## fontgeek

ryschwith said:


> Random thought based on wild speculation and absolutely no experience:
> 
> I would think an outdoor haunt frees you from certain constraints of a building. Mostly walls, and by extension the need to have a set path that your guests take. What if you just give them a destination and an incentive, and then let them wander? "Turn in your ticket stub at HillBilly Jeb's haunted moonshine shack for a free drink!" Maybe give them a crude map to direct them toward your best scares, and scatter lots of smaller scares throughout for people to stumble across.


There's a few problems with that plan.
Where do you put your actors, props, effects, or scenes when you don't know if, when, and where your guests will show up?
What do you do about security for your guest's safety, and that of you staff and props? Wandering through the woods in the dark with no trail is an accident (and lawsuit) looking for a place to happen.
Good luck getting any kind of approval or coverage from the fire department or insurance company.


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## Troll Wizard

fontgeek said:


> People's senses are a powerful tool/weapon, don't be afraid to exploit them. Introducing sounds and/or smells on their own can help trigger the imagination for most people.
> Posting a story or "history" of the trail lets the guests build the tension themselves as their imagination fills in the blank spots or open spaces in your trail.
> If these are guided tours you can plant actors in each group that goes through.


_*I would have to agree with "fontgeek" here on the fact that areas of dead space can play havoc with one's mind. No sound at all can create certain senses in one's brain and way of thinking.

Then a simple rustling of some branches and a twig breaking can turn up the fear factor almost a hundred fold. The idea is that you will already have people with a heighten sense of reality because they are already expecting something to happen to them along the way.

They just don't know what it will be or where it would be coming from.

I would also say that you really can't have your guest running every which way here and there. Like your inside haunt there has to be some organized guide or pathway for them to follow. What you don't want is someone getting lost out on your property or getting injured. 
*_


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## hauntedyardofdoom

fontgeek said:


> There's a few problems with that plan.
> Where do you put your actors, props, effects, or scenes when you don't know if, when, and where your guests will show up?
> What do you do about security for your guest's safety, and that of you staff and props? Wandering through the woods in the dark with no trail is an acident (and lawsuit) looking for a place to happen.
> Good luck getting any kind of approval or coverage from the fire department or insurance company.


Even if you were to be able to safely confine them to an area that they could freely walk around, this idea probably won't work out too well. Think about throughput. People will hang around longer as they decide where to go next and they'll linger and get confused. People need a clear direction of where to go next.


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## Haunted Bayou

This might be a good reference. Eric is a busy dude these days, but you might be able to pick his brain if you have questions.

Creating the Black Woods Thread


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## Frozen and Haunted

As a relatively new haunter (on a fairly small scale), I live in the frozen tundra of Minnesota and mostly we worry about our props standing up to rain/snow. So we stay away from any kind of paper mache, don't put out anything fabric till a few days before Halloween, be prepared to have to repair/replace webs or tombstones, etc. We put up a huge web last year, it got so stretched out by wind and filled with leaves that I had to take it down and redo it. Not a huge deal but time consuming. I know that's pretty basic info, hope it helps.


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## joker

This will be our 3rd year of not doing a haunt. We've only managed to find a space every other year for the past 5 years, but being on/off is no fun.

We're considering buying some land and trying the outdoor haunt until we can build or find that the outdoor type haunt can work.

I've got tons of panels a 35' semi trailer and plenty of motivation, but like you I've never done an outdoor haunt or been to one. 

My fist thought is a corn maze, but I've never grown corn either...lol. Maybe a hayride. My biggest concern is safety for our guests.


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## Verdandi

New to the haunt world, sort of but we have our own acreage that is heavily wooded, and I can tell you that one of the biggest obstacles we face is the land itself. You have to make sure your paths are clear and free from tripping hazards, and monitor the paths year round. We had a wash out that took out half of our path and we had to re route a few months before we had the trail. Weather is a big one, but also the animals that naturally inhabit the area. We have deer that move through and you wouldn't think they'd be a problem but they can be very curious and flighty. We've had to reset a prop here or there that was a deer/ raccoon/ squirrel victim. Also keep an eye out for plants that aren't actor/guest friendly. We had a lot of thorn bushes we had to remove and we also have to keep an eye out for poison ivy and poison oak.

We're planning a zombie themed trail this upcoming year, but have done just a random scares through the trail, a chainsaw man, witches trying to get children to come "play" scare crows that walk.. etc. One other thing we do is with each group we try and tell a story, or series of stories to really get them thinking about what might lurk in the woods. Just to help get their imaginations going.


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## shmoman

We've been running an outdoor "haunted hollow" for 3 years now. Because of the nature of the property we use we only have temporary scenes setup every year because we have to clear everything out every year. Because of this we try and go as minimalist as possible, so we give the idea of an area without actually building a complete room people have to walk through.

We also have a big problem with visibility and people being able to see some of the scares while they were in line, or after buying tickets to get in line. We fixed that by putting up a green mesh material that blocks the view up where people walk which kept our scenes open, but still preserved the scares.

Examples of scares we've put together:

People disguised as trees and bushes that jump out at people. (I got a Ghillie suit 2 years ago and it's my favorite scare to be a bush. I got an animated pumpkin mask for it last year... awesome.)​
We had Pirates and built things that looked like the bow of a ship, a poop deck, and had a cannon that we could fire next to guests (the cannon was a big metal pipe we shot a shotgun blank through)​
We set up a big grave yard and had Zombies. We used Pallets for the fence around the grave yard, looked pretty good.​
Stick tunnels. We create a tunnel out of sticks and cover it in ivy and other green stuff and when it dries out it looks freaky and then you have your actors come through the walls.​
Scarecrows. Some actors, lots more not.​
Spiders. Webs everywhere with a giant spider on a zipline that flew out over the guests.​
Roanoke Colony. Look up the History, it's creepy. We just had an empty area that looked like people had up and left. And that was it. It was in a really dark area and was creepy.​
Donner Party. Again, Look up the history and you'll get it.​
phew! alright, I'll shut up now. Good luck!


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## AtmosFX_Jen

I don't know if this might be helpful, but my company makes some pretty cool holographic effects. I like the idea of leaving people alone with their senses in the woods. Dark woods = the scare basically scares itself (or something).

But using a mesh you could project a ghost or slasher villain or whatever onto it off in the distance or even right along the path for a sudden scare. Site is in my sig.

Whatever you end up doing, the best of luck!


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## DarkTiki

I also second looking at Haunted Overload. (Also Kersey Valley Spooky Woods, and Headless Horseman).

Most outdoor trail haunts are set-up as a string of areas (called "scenes"). A scene would typically contain a set (possibly a small building), props, sound, lights, and actors. Then there is typically a section of empty trail between one scene and the next (sometimes containing a random actor scare from behind a tree). The trail leads people from scene to scene, totalling anywhere from 10 - 30 scenes. The final scene is typically the largest and best.


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## DarkTiki

If you dont mind me asking, how much land did you buy?


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## medusa53

I have done an outdoor haunt for over 20 years now. I can think of all kinds of advise for you. 
1. Have a marked trail. You don't want people just walking around lost in the woods.
2. DO NOT for any reason use fire in your woods!! We hung oil lanterns one year; tied them up really secure and rather high. A customer took out a pocket knife and cut one down and was carrying it with them. We caught him pretty quick but couldn't help thinking ..what if he'd dropped it!!?? Go to the dollar tree and get some small LED lights (the ones that are around 2" round; like those tap /push lights ), get some empty 2 liter soda bottles and cut the top few inches off the top of them, punch holes around the bottle rim, add string, put LED in bottom of bottle, and you have a cheap source of light that lasts for many hours. A more impressive, but more expensive effect would be to place the LED lights inside a plastic Halloween pumpkin and hang from trees. Dollar tree has many forms of LED lights; push lights, clip on lights, lights that are bendable. The sky is the limit. 
3.The woods are your scare.If people see a scene; they KNOW there is a scare coming. If you want to put anything out there, put up a spider cave they have to walk through. Use dummies or small props for diversion so your actor can get them from the other side, from behind, or from above. And remember, the group usually always puts the brave friend in front so have you actors get the middle or rear of the group.
4. I've tried things like having groups look for clues, hidden objects, etc.. I have only had it work one time. These people are way to focused on getting the heck out of the woods to stop and look for anything. Really not worth your time or money.
WOW, I could use up several pages here with answers. Post a few more specific questions and I will answer as best as possible.


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## Beck Farms Doe Run

We do a haunted trail/hay ride, which we actually take 20-25 people at a time, hate to say hay ride for insurance reasons, so it is a trailer that has sides on it with straw bales in the center for seating, the insurance will allow this. we do use a lot of dead space in between the scenes we have staged and use outdoor solar security lights at each one, the sound effects we use during the dead space keep the riders on the edge not knowing what to expect next, it works for our intended reason. Happy Trails to you!


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