# Asylum Theme Story



## thealmightyzenk (Jul 7, 2010)

Ok, so I've been debating the theme of my 2011 haunt for a while, and I'm thinking insane asylum. I want it to be unique, and was hoping someone could help me with the story. It's gonna be crucial to the haunt as I always make a pre-show room or video that plays before people enter. I want it to be haunted, but somehow YOU also become "infected" and become crazy...any help would be Greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!


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## Moxlonibus (Mar 25, 2011)

*The Doctor was a very mild manored man...*

The Doctor was a very mild mannered man, when he first arrived here. Stayed late, always willing to help. He even did the nurses rounds a few times. He really seemed to enjoy this place.
At first the ribbing about his constant classical music was just that and nothing more. Then he turned very vengeful. Someone new would come through and before you knew it they would make a comment about his music. He started with that menacing glare that would be a total departure from his otherwise pleasant demeanor.
It got to the point that the music wasn't what he loved. He got to the point that the torture it inflicted, that's what he loved. That pleasant demeanor of his would only show when a tortured reaction was exhibited. Soon, no one could escape the music, he had it playing on the P.A. .
One day we pin pointed the reason for everyone's irritability. It was the constant drone of that damn Oboe. Every one of the songs had that low hum that became all the more obnoxious when you determined the cause...


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## daBOOhouse (Aug 4, 2010)

How about something like the local military base was sponsering experiments that release pathogens or viruses in the air conditioning system. Symptoms start with nervousness, easily frightened, slight paranoia and progress quickly to full blown violent torture and murder...

Of course, once the people move to the next room, the air comes on and a fog comes out of the vents...

Maybe, if you have the personel, even have a plant in the group that starts making interesting comments and going a little crazy.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

The reference to "plant" (as in 'person') in daBoo's post made me think "What about a back story involving an irresistibly fragrant plant (as in 'plant') that releases a toxic pollen which leads to eventual insanity for those fated to inhale its sweet aroma?"

The back story could begin with either a slightly demented scientist working alone or in a government-funded lab playing with the genome of poppies in an attempt to develop a biological warfare agent that (in the words of the Wicked Witch) was pleasing to the eye. The poppies are crossed with kudzu which (as anyone living in the south knows) is fast growing, invasive, and difficult to eradicate once established.

This controlled scenario goes wrong when a janitor who works in the lab sees one of the experimental plants and decides to take it home. Gentle in disposition but not gifted with smarts, his only thought is how pretty it will be in his garden.

The outcome is, as they say, inevitable. The plant grows rampant under his tender care and spreads uncontrollably. When the plants bloom, thousands of people are exposed to the toxic pollen and begin displaying aberrant and dangerous behavior. Now the lab is working feverishly to find a control agent.

As far as the haunt goes, with this scenario you could incorporate both scent and plants to suggest people are entering an area where they will become exposed.


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## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

Everything changed when Tabitha came to the asylum. Electric wiring sparked at random. The lights grew less and less reliable. Vents blew strange smells and fog after the sun went down. Soon the inmates complained of unkind whispers from empty corners and shadows that _slid_ wrong, always worse near the padded cell where they kept poor Tabitha drugged. The girl was afflicted with the delusion that she'd learned the language of the Ancient Ones, which was used to summon the world out of Chaos. The words lived inside her mouth, she said, and only crawled out after dark. Treatment after treatment proved ineffectual, even as the inmates screamed at night that their windows moved across the wall and doors gazed at them hungrily. When the doctors themselves found bloody handprints in impossible places and strange writing in the corridor that was only visible in moonlight, they tried one last treatment on pale, sickly Tabitha whose tongue grew black as coal: Electroshock, they claimed, would end the madness. They threw the switch at 7:25 in the evening, according to the shattered clocks.

Some say the inmates battled back ferociously, with kitchen knives and fire axes and truncheons from the orderlies' corpses. But the unleashed words of the Ancients consumed them soul by soul, ripping out psychoses and sculpting them into horrible animated shapes. The doctors got the worst of it though, rendered into rags and strands of flesh that stumbled and howled through the strobing corridors. Not that the treatment was entirely a failure, however - some say Tabitha, if you can find her inside that nightmare asylum, is quite comfortable now with the blackness that slithers from her throat and dissolves the world back into original Chaos.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

RoxyBlue said:


> The reference to "plant" (as in 'person') in daBoo's post made me think "What about a back story involving an irresistibly fragrant plant (as in 'plant') that releases a toxic pollen which leads to eventual insanity for those fated to inhale its sweet aroma?"


Which made ME think of the old Doctor Who episode The Black Orchid...










Black_Orchid_(TV_story)


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## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

What's the nature of the haunt? The longer the run, the more you can develop the "audience going insane" theme. My first thought is to start with the usual violent-crazyfolk scares, then transition to more surreal elements. When I think of insanity, I first think of hallucinations and delusions - seeing the unseen - and the nature of reality morphing and changing. 

"Seeing the unseen" to me implies optical tricks, things appearing and vanishing - projection tricks, Pepper's ghost, vanishing walls, laser vortex, invisible UV paint, etc. Gags that look ordinary until the light changes, then suddenly turn scary. (I've been plotting some scanimation and 3D zoetrope effects that I hope will pan out in that regard.)

Reality morphing implies shifting panels, Spandex walls, vortex tunnels, walls oozing blood, etc.


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## Darkmaster (May 9, 2009)

*Using a plant in the crowd*



daBOOhouse said:


> How about something like the local military base was sponsering experiments that release pathogens or viruses in the air conditioning system. Symptoms start with nervousness, easily frightened, slight paranoia and progress quickly to full blown violent torture and murder...
> 
> Of course, once the people move to the next room, the air comes on and a fog comes out of the vents...
> 
> Maybe, if you have the personel, even have a plant in the group that starts making interesting comments and going a little crazy.


Having a plant always works. We did this one year and the people freaked out. Our plant was literally was pulled out of the crowd and dragged away. We heard the comments "Hey, they're not supposed to touch us".


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## thealmightyzenk (Jul 7, 2010)

The haunt is mainly for a bunch of teenage kids. We also have a good number of parents and adults going through too. So basically as far as the haunt goes, balls out scary is whats expected! Haha and were just building a new 3400 sq ft machine shed that were gonna use for the haunt, so space is DEFINITELY not an issue, except maybe having too much of it...hahaha. I was thinking I could maybe put tables and music and stuff into part of the building, with food and drinks and such. I would try to theme it with the story, and guests could wait for the haunt in there. I was thinking I would bring groups of 10 or more in at a time, and they would go through the pre-show room first and be told/shown the story, then they'd proceed down a dark foggy hallway, and into the "waiting are". I'd then put groups of 3-4 through the haunt from there.


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## thealmightyzenk (Jul 7, 2010)

*Asylum Preshow Help*

Hey everybody, just started planning the 2011 haunt and I'm trying to figure out a great way to kick off the tour. I usually do a pre-show room and I seem get compliments on it every year. Some even claim it's the scariest part of the entire haunt! Anyways I'm wondering if any of you guys have some crazy ideas for the pre-show room. I want to tell a creepy story about the abandoned asylum and the patients still wandering the halls and also have the guests become "infected". I'm thinking a recording or video, but also cool elements and effects in the room that will be very memorable. Really no idea is too crazy! I have time and can probably figure it out or modify it to work if its a good enough idea. Thanks for your input and time! You guys rock!!!


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## austenandrews (Aug 22, 2010)

What backstory did you decide on?


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## STOLLOWEEN (Apr 13, 2008)

Can't wait to see what you come up with in terms of an Asylum theme...I'm switching to an Asylum theme this year also...complete with a detailed back story.


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