# Unusual haunt ideas



## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

We know (and mostly love) the standards...the haunt classics. What I really like are the unusual/atypical haunt concepts that I feel would work but haven't yet seen. One such just occurred to me as I am watching an old Haunted History show. Such a cheesy phrase, but the ideas came flooding in. The Spa for The Supernatural (mwahaha). Please let this become a thing. Forget demons and ghosts in a prison.... Let them take over a spa. Pedicure hell...acupuncture...facials... Why Isn't This A Thing Yet????

The scenes and tactics for such a haunt could be too much fun. Someone call a cosmetology school and convince them to do this as a scholarship charity haunt. And post pics.

Do you have any other relatively untapped concepts to maybe inspire the rest of us?


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

This is a great idea. It could either be creepy. I'm thinking about a manucurist using nail files for torture. Or it could be a dark comedy type of haunt. Demons getting a facial!

I was also recently thinking about a haunt set in a computer lab. Creepy IT personnel. Or laptops sprouting legs. Nanobots invading the creepy IT personnel. But then I wonder if someone has done something like that already? Has anyone ever heard of something like that?


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

Fumbling around the internet, I came across the old movie Maximum Overdrive. Why isn't this a haunt? Ok, not running people down with trucks....but our gadgets and tools turning against us, with actors as victims? Could work, with chingos of pneumatics.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

^There was a Twilight Zone episode based on the idea of household gadgets going after the guy who lived in the house. I believe it ended with a car pushing or scaring him into a swimming pool.


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## ocalicreek (Aug 1, 2013)

Personally, I find those mechanical fortune telling booths VERY creepy. Since they've been used in film and television plots, perhaps others do also. 

So what if your haunt began on a carnival boardwalk, circus, or old penny arcade set, and the fortune teller gave out a sinister fortune, warning folks to leave before it's too late...however your tour guide disregards the warning and leads the tour onward...

Circus acts gone wrong, or a haunted circus that travels to a town and vanishes after Halloween? Probably been done before, but there seems to me a wealth of creative options to mine in that vein.

Galen


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## WickedBanshee (Sep 9, 2013)

"Circus acts gone wrong, or a haunted circus that travels to a town and vanishes after Halloween? Probably been done before, but there seems to me a wealth of creative options to mine in that vein"

"Something Wicked This way Comes!"  Yep been done...but still VERY awesome idea!

Not really into the tech terror thing, but I know it freaks out a lot of people.

....maybe...no...can't think of any that scare me.


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## Toothpaste (Oct 9, 2012)

Underground complex abandoned by a corporation and built in the 60's. The purpose of the complex was assumed to be a nuclear fallout shelter but the real purpose was unknown since the corporation went out of business. 

The government purchased it shortly after the practice of deinstitutionalization was put into wide effect in the 70's. 

Select members of institutions across the country were hidden in this complex, which was designed to sustain itself for a decade. Little was released regarding the corporation but it is known that the complex was modified to sustain itself through nuclear power, cooled by an underground river.

The assumption was that the inmates would likely not survive the entire decade, as no additional care beyond providing medical supplies was administered by the government. 

Today, the complex is owned by Drakkar Deepwater Research Inc. The complex is currently shut down but tours are given a few times a year. 

The haunt starts as a guide leads you through an underground tunnel into the beginning of the first scene. In this scene, behind a pair of opened, massive metal doors, lies the facade of a street. Storefronts line the sidewalk, with one serving as a check-point further into the complex. 

Once the group moves into the first scene, the lights dim and the door is shut behind them as a figure scurries away through one of the store fronts. The guide tries to open the door to no avail. The guide then panics and tells the group they have to search for an exit. Searching around, they will find the way to move on. 

Progressing to the next scene, leads to a corridor, passed the old check-point, lined with a few doors. The group must decide where to go. Only two or three doors are unlocked. As the group shuffles in, the guide zips ahead to be killed. The group will catch up and find the guide dead within a scene but not in the path of walking so they cannot interact easily. 

Basically the group needs to go through the complex, eventually encountering humanoid creatures who live here still but are warped. Scenes include a bio-research area clearly active by Drakkar, a long, dark tunnel through an aquarium like set-up with a "mermaid" actors inside, as well as normal housing scenes.

Obviously the haunt doesn't need to actually be underground but the illusion should be passing into underground. 

If guests go into the wrong areas or mill about a combination of roamers, loud noises and lights getting every dimmer try to urge them on. Just a quick idea!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

How about a Terrifying Tailer Shop where the clothes are not made to fit you, rather you are made to fit the clothes?


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

You have a devious mind Roxy! 

And Toothpaste, I think you have been thinking about this for awhile. What about having the people on the "tour" sign a check in sheet at a security desk and giving them visitor badges? 

By the way, has anyone been to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia? That would make an excellent haunt. The masks with the bone spurs and things in jars. Very creepy! (If you haven't been yet, it needs to be on your to do list.)


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

I thought of two more. The Nutcracker. The beginning with Drosselmeyer is already creepy.
And nursery rhymes. "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and zombies came tumbling after."


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

RoxyBlue said:


> How about a Terrifying Tailer Shop where the clothes are not made to fit you, rather you are made to fit the clothes?


I can see it now:
Misfits
Tailor to the Scars.

A twist on this already twisted idea is that the clothes are made of you/guests.
With the tailor showing a variety of "materials" and carcouses in varying stages of being skinned for new "material". The tailor could be measuring out on bodis (deade or alive, like he/she would for a normal suit. You can mark off body parts with cut lines/guides for when the tailor starts to actually skin them. The personality should be friendly and jovial but thinking nothing of skinning human bodies. Wearing a blood spattered smock/apron, gloves, etc. would surely make him/her all the more creepy.


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## Toothpaste (Oct 9, 2012)

deadSusan said:


> And Toothpaste, I think you have been thinking about this for awhile. What about having the people on the "tour" sign a check in sheet at a security desk and giving them visitor badges?


That would be great too, help the segue from reality to fantasy. I literally came up with the idea as I wrote the post, although it took a bit to write.

I'd love to do a more medieval/Nordic fantasy themed attraction ala Skyrim.

Roxy's idea could make a for a really gore laden experience! Clothes could be sewn right on someone, limbs could be broken and re-attached to be shorter, bodies warped to match the visage of certain outfits.

It would be sweet if the haunt was circular and in every scene there was a window, peep-hole or other portal to look into the center, the workshop of the tailor. See a shape cutting, skinning, sawing, etc... with every scene moving you closer and closer to the center.


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## Toothpaste (Oct 9, 2012)

I love this thread idea, btw. We need more people posting.


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## Lord Homicide (May 11, 2012)

Toothpaste said:


> It would be sweet if the haunt was circular and in every scene there was a window, peep-hole or other portal to look into the center, the workshop of the tailor. See a shape cutting, skinning, sawing, etc... with every scene moving you closer and closer to the center.


Now THAT is a great idea! Full of suspense.


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## Sirius (Jul 18, 2009)

And tailoring you to fit the clothes doesn't necessarily mean cutting. If your favorite style is too large, you might need to be stretched, inflated or injected with something, or even be equipped with some spare parts from other patrons for the perfect fit. Now, the whole process can seem a little uncomfortable, so don't forget to introduce some satisfied customers who are so thrilled with their new look, they will _fervently_ try to persuade your guests to step up for a fitting.

Susan's idea made me think of expanding on a theme I've played with a little. What about a whole twisted Mother Goose book come to life(or death)? "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And all Humpty's nickels and all Humpty's dimes... didn't help Humpty stop bleeding in time."


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## Toothpaste (Oct 9, 2012)

Crazed Mother Goose who turns normal people into fairy tales through some very painful means?!

I can imagine a very gross Humpty Dumpty, his skin stretched over a porcelain shell, face in a constant state of agony. 

The wolf in Red Riding Hood, a man with this jaw and nose removed. A wolf muzzle fused to his face, he cannot talk and will only be returned to normal if he devours Red.


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## BrightBlack (Sep 12, 2013)

I'd get a kick out of seeing one set in a pet shop. Zombie and ghost animals, people being eaten alive by gerbils.... hehehehehehehe

Parrots screaming for help.... maybe a few mutated animals.


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## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 11, 2010)

I've always thought that a haunt inspired by Mike Mignola's 'Hellboy' comic book series would be a lot of fun to do.


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

Brightblack - I love the pet shop idea! Creepy, potentially gross and funny.

And speaking of shops, what about a grocery store? Can you see the meat department? Gives new meaning to rump roast. Your produce department could include biologically altered vegetables or mutant produce that was watered by nuclear waste.


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

Not as fantastical as some of the ideas I am seeing, but I would like to see a ghost hunter tv themed haunt. Somewhat similar to B&W themed rooms I have read about... but where everything is some variation of black and green, like on so many crappy night vision camera ghost hunting shows. It seems that we have now been conditioned to equate IR views as "did you just see that thing move? Knock twice" moments. Years back I thought of how cool it could be to buy a bunch of cheap IR viewers to issue out to guests. Then I remembered I am not rich. SOooo the next best would be to study those bad tv shows (that I still have on in the background even though I mock them) and try to recreate the effect in a walkthrough by way of green LEDs and green and grey paints. Make it a low light haunt (my favorite kind). I think guests would love it. I imagine many would go into Oh ****e Mode within the first room. Pop a simple green lens onto a weak flashlight and set them loose. A few reflective "eyes" on props and actors, and there will be no need to have actors yelling to get shrieks.

Please... someone with a multi-haunt thing take this idea to try in a smaller haunt and tell me how it goes. Maybe not as the main haunt, but as a unique experience to go alongside your main haunt.


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## Saruman of Many Colours (Sep 11, 2010)

Toothpaste said:


> I'd love to do a more medieval/Nordic fantasy themed attraction ala Skyrim.


Agreed. A Norse mythology-themed haunt would be epic. So too would 'The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga' from Russian folklore . . .


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

Here is one that came to me while trying to clean out the garage and playing with boxes of props. Not as a whole haunt, but as a room in any haunt.

Take all of your crappiest props for one scene and have an actor play the role of a haunt enthusiest gone insane while trying to make the haunt "just perfect". I think many of us have lived short bouts of such mania. If done right, I think the guests could be confused and a bit unnerved for a moment while they try to figure out if the scene is real or not while the actor is ranting and flailing their arms, maybe shouting "Where is that @#$!! staple gun?! Who took it??!!"


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## Sirius (Jul 18, 2009)

That one have me a shudder, Murray. If there was a haunt just for haunters, it would be filled with scenes like that.


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## Will Reid (Sep 2, 2013)

xx


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

Sirius said:


> That one have me a shudder, Murray. If there was a haunt just for haunters, it would be filled with scenes like that.


Why, thank you. 

I am thinking that if a guest walks into a scene where there is a bloody operating table and an 18 yr old doctor yelling at them that they shouldn't be there, the guest still knows it is an act. But let them enter a room with an overweight guy in a black print t-shirt, tattered shorts, and with sleep deprived eyes... armed with a roll of duct tape, screaming "I'm not ready yet!!! You aren't supposed to be here!!"", and the guests might really experience the fear of needing to run from the crazy person.


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## RandalB (Jun 8, 2009)

MurrayTX said:


> ........But let them enter a room with an overweight guy in a black print t-shirt, tattered shorts, and with sleep deprived eyes... armed with a roll of duct tape, screaming "I'm not ready yet!!! You aren't supposed to be here!!"", and the guests might really experience the fear of needing to run from the crazy person.


I've had that nightmare Murray....

RandalB


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## deadSusan (Jun 26, 2013)

Murray you are a deep thinker!
What about either a fishing or hunting haunt? Corpses and almost dead fishermen impaled by Asian carp! Have the darn things flopping their tails in body cavities. Maybe an underwater scene with an octopus tearing a diver's limbs off?
What about a crazed bear capturing campers and hanging them from trees?!


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

I agree with the need for more tentacles in haunts. Hell...everywhere. And where someone may be ready for a werewolf actor, I doubt they are ready for a death-by-carp scene. Sadly that would be too unbelievable in the SW where I am. But Florida and Louisiana haunters...jump on that!


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## Will Reid (Sep 2, 2013)

xx


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