# Nyctophobia Haunted House 2010



## Eric Striffler

I just uploaded the behind-the-scenes video of my very first Haunt to YouTube and I've been really excited to share it with you guys, so check it out below if you'd like!






Although I've built exhibits in another haunted attraction over the past few years, Nyctophobia is my very first Haunt in the sense that it's a brand new attraction that I created that isn't a part of an already existing one. I think for a first year "test-run" effort, it came out fantastic.

We also got a nice write-up in the local paper, but it's no longer available online because they've changed their website or something so I pasted the article below if you want to check it out!

I thought of you guys many times while editing this video so I hope you enjoy it! 

- Eric

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*Local Filmmaker Offers A New Take On An Old Haunt*
_By Michelle Trauring_

For years, Eric Striffler said he knew he wanted to change the face of haunted houses on Long Island. Now, he is finally watching it happen.

The 19-year-old's exclusive haunted house creation, Nyctophobia, is booked solid-and it isn't even built yet.

All he would share about this one-weekend only experience is that it is located somewhere in Eastport, and that it has several ground rules.

One, visitors must go through alone, with only a glowstick to lead the way. After all, nyctophobia is the fear of darkness.

Two, visitors must be able to crawl and maneuver through the pitch-black, medically themed maze.

And three, and perhaps most importantly, visitors must have an invitation.

"This is going to be unlike any haunted house on Long Island," said Mr. Striffler, "No chainsaws, no monsters. We can scare you more than that with real life."

The 360 visitors who will brave the house next weekend, from October 21 to 23, received the secret location via e-mail after applying for a spot at nyctophobiahaunt.com. Mr. Striffler isn't charging any admission and doesn't expect to turn a profit. Instead, he's hoping that if the event is successful, he can do it again in future years with an eye toward making money.

The 360 slots only took a matter of weeks to fill up, Mr. Striffler said.

"I'm not sure these people know what they're getting themselves into," he said with a chuckle. "If I was going to open my own haunted house, I thought there was no point in doing it if wasn't going to be different than what anyone here has seen."

Mr. Striffler, who is something of a haunted house connoisseur, said he has visited every haunted house he can find on Long Island for over five years-and he tries to hit each of them on their opening nights. He also visits three houses in New York City annually, and has traveled as far as Missouri, Ohio and Florida to visit "haunts," as the houses are commonly called in the business.

After digesting what he liked and disliked about the houses-while processing a slew of his own ideas-Mr. Striffler has decided to fight against the standard haunt industry by slashing typically high prices, shaking up the experience and slowing the tours down.

"I think a lot of people who run haunted houses want to torture you and scare you to death," Mr. Striffler said. "Even though that's what I want to do this year, for sure, my main goal is to make this a great experience, one that isn't rushed and just like every other."

Mr. Striffler, who earns an income off of his popular YouTube channel, is covering the cost of the haunted house himself, about $20,000.

"Everyone probably thinks I'm crazy, because I'm not making money this year, but I'm thinking toward the future," he said. "And, really, there's just more to it than money. There's heart behind it."

Mr. Striffler's love for anything haunted dates back to his days volunteering at Camp Pa-Qua-Tuck's Spooky Walk, an event to raise money for the Center Moriches camp for special needs children.

But as Mr. Striffler reached high school, his scare tactic ideas outgrew the family-oriented walk. He began to entertain the idea of opening his own house, manifesting in his 11th grade digital media class, when, for an assignment, he designed a business campaign for five haunted houses in one. Nyctophobia was on the list.

"So it's like, I actually came up with this years ago, and now I'm finally doing it," he said. "The tagline-'The only thing worse than being alone is finding out that you're not,'-is even in the project's radio ad that I did. I never thought that this would ever be something physically existing."

But for right now, the house only exists as 100 4-by-8-foot wooden walls stacked in his garage. Mr. Striffler said the actual construction will begin today, and it should take him about three days to complete, if he estimated correctly.

The house will have a familiar layout of walls and sheets like many other haunts do, but it is what's behind them that counts, Mr. Striffler said.

"We'll see how many people don't make it through," said his father, Stephen Striffler, who has helped his son along with the project.

Nyctophobia has taken over the Striffler household-between the walls piled up in the family garage and a set of mannequins donning latex gloves and surgical masks looming in their living room.

"Nothing surprises us anymore," said Eric's mother, Cris Striffler, "but we couldn't be more excited about Eric's haunted house."

Never having built his own haunted house, Mr. Striffler said there was only one way to make sure his scare tactics worked, and that was by testing them on his family.

"He's gotten me a bunch of times," said his sister, Jillian, 18. "But there's one I won't forget."

Mr. Striffler said he had imagined one idea perfectly in his mind but couldn't decide if it would work in the dark. He convinced his sister to be his guinea pig in the garage.

"I tested it out, and she had the perfect reaction," Mr. Striffler said. "I'm more into the psychological scare, but this was definitely a startle scare, right there. It's the spot in the house where I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to wet their pants, which is just a physical reaction."

All three of his family members are going to make their way through the Nyctophobia experience, which will last at least 20 minutes, Mr. Striffler said, longer than many of the other houses he's attended.

There will be cameras planted throughout the house-shooting in night vision-to capture reactions that Mr. Striffler will edit together and post on his YouTube channel.

"Haunted houses are my second passion," he said. "My main thing is filmmaking. There's no correlation, I guess, but it's always great to bust the people who are trying to act all cool. We can see you. They say, 'You didn't scare me.' Actually, yes we did."

While haunted houses themselves don't scare Mr. Striffler anymore, he said he does have some fears of his own.

"You'd probably expect someone who does this kind of stuff to be cool and collected through haunted houses, but I jump out of my skin-only because I get startled so easily," he said. "But as far as getting scared goes, I'm one of those people who turns the lights off in the basement, thinks there's someone behind me and runs up the stairs. That and heights."

Mr. Striffler said he has high hopes for his house in the future and thinks it will be a success-and wants to keep it free as long as he can.

"At the risk of sounding extremely cheesy, I hope you can feel that there's heart behind it, as opposed to just money," he said. "This haunted house was made because I love it."


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## Warrant2000

Looks like a great time. Now that Halloween is over, can we get the full version?

Great video editing also.


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## Eric Striffler

Thank you! I may put up a video of more that happened inside but only after I figure out what we'll be keeping to use next year, I don't want to spoil anything that we might use again!


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## Spartan005

Thats awesome Eric! I love the idea of blindfolding them in a van and driving to the actual location lol. If you do this again next year, I'll be there.


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## STOLLOWEEN

Making guests go through by themselves puts a whole new spin on the "haunted house"....people are brave in groups but isolate them and I bet you really instilled some fear...cool concept and great video...good luck next year!


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## GOT

I hope you kept the statistics of what percentage of people couldn't make it all the way through. That would be good advertising for next year.


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## debbie5

Dude, you must have sold a ****LOAD of candy bars on the bus to afford that....If (when) you open your own business, please let us know so we can invest. You are an evil genius.

That is an amazing concept: to go thru alone. Even better: make the arrival point (where van disgorges the people) enclosed on the sides like a loading dock, so no one can see where they are at all.


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## Dixie

I just can't stop thinking about this haunt, and how bad it feels knowing that I would probably have been one of the ones that chickened out at the last minute - knowing that I was alone. And how MAD I would have been at myself for MISSING it!!! Alone!!! Eeeeek!


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## Eric Striffler

Thanks a lot for the feedback on the video, I'm glad you're all enjoying it!

GOT: I followed a girl with my night vision camera and she said the safe word to leave! I FILMED IT! I'm so happy because it's basically next year's commercial hahaha!

debbie5: It definitely did cost a good amount of money, but it was completely worth it! If I could have the event be free every year and fund it with advertisers and sponsors I would. I'm going to look into that, because making it free is just so awesome 

Dixie: There actually were a few people who asked to leave and then had their friends tell them they were missing out by not finishing and we let them go back in if they wanted to!


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## Jaybo

This looks like a truly creepy haunt. Very nice! The only downside to this setup would be the logistics of trying to move the people in the van and keeping wait times down. Maybe if you had multiple paths through the haunt and could deliver more than one group. This would be a great higher end boutique haunt that could be added to the newer scream parks that are popping up all over the place.

I really like what you have done here. Bravo!


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## JohnnyAppleseed

Indeed an interesting haunt concept and love the video!


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## IMU

Pretty FREAKIN' awesome! Love it!


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## Eric Striffler

Jaybo said:


> The only downside to this setup would be the logistics of trying to move the people in the van and keeping wait times down.


Since we kept it limited this year, the wait times were never too bad. We had two vans going back and forth all night so that made it smoother as well. It did get a little backed up when we got slammed on Saturday night, but when the actors at the front started to rush a bit I told them it was more important to deliver a great performance to each guest than to rush them through. That will always be most important to me. However, I'll have to figure something out for sure if I plan to open to the public AND keep it one-at-a-time next year!


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## Zurgh

Very well done. I'm sure you not only take full control of your 'guests' sight by clever use of lighting (and lack there of), but my guess is that you also make full use of there other senses as well. It is also commendable that you aim to keep the haunt free. Best of luck to you for next year.


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## NickG

this is a very interesting concept... well done.


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## DeathTouch

Ok that was an awesome video.


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## Eric Striffler

Zurgh said:


> I'm sure you not only take full control of your 'guests' sight by clever use of lighting (and lack there of), but my guess is that you also make full use of there other senses as well.


Definitely "lack thereof" haha, it's mostly pitch black throughout the whole thing and it's completely pitch black for more than half (once you lose your glowstick). And you're correct, we tried taking away their sense of hearing at the beginning by making the group wear headphones before they're taken inside. So basically while they stood in the "waiting room" to be let into the room where you get a glowstick, they all had headphones on and could hear muffled laughter (from the clown) and screams from further on in the haunt. It was pretty cool haha!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin

I love the style of the video. It feels very true and is probably the best haunt vid I've ever seen. I wish more people would take the time to put out such good videos. Thanks!


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## Eric Striffler

The Rotten Pumpkin said:


> I love the style of the video. It feels very true and is probably the best haunt vid I've ever seen. I wish more people would take the time to put out such good videos. Thanks!


Thank you very much!


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## beelce

how different and cool...!!


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## Haunted Bayou

The ultimate psychological scare. Take away the light, and the person has nobody to cling to.
I grinned the entire the video. You have people freaked just with the blindfolds in the van before they get there.

I do not like the dark so that haunt would probably have me on edge. I too would have argued with the clown over the glow-stick. "Really, I have to give you the glow-stick? Is this a joke?" The rest would be self-comforting vocals of "**** **** **** ****"!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin

Dang I just watched it again. It looks so awesome! Great job!


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## MorbidMariah

WOW. Super creepy and unique and just....wow. Way to go man. This is something seriously innovative and new to Haunting!


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## Eric Striffler

Haunted Bayou said:


> I grinned the entire the video. You have people freaked just with the blindfolds in the van before they get there.


Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!


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## Joiseygal

Great Job Eric! I love the idea of going through the haunt by yourself. I'm not one for getting scared at haunts, but I think driving in the van blind folded would of had all kind of things go through my head. What part of New York are you in? Also are you going to have it a few days next year? I would love to check it out!


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## KINGS CRYPT

Nice job on everything Eric! There seemed to be a lot of buzz over it going around, you definitely created something new and unique


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## Eric Striffler

Joiseygal said:


> What part of New York are you in? Also are you going to have it a few days next year? I would love to check it out!


We're located on Long Island, and yes next year we plan to be open a bit longer! I don't know that we'd be open for the whole month, but definitely longer!


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## ghubertu

Based on this professional video and your 'dark' genius, are you looking into film, be it director/creator/designer/editor, for the future... hope so. Amazing talent all around.


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## Eric Striffler

ghubertu said:


> Based on this professional video and your 'dark' genius, are you looking into film, be it director/creator/designer/editor, for the future...


Yes! My main passion is filmmaking, followed VERY closely by haunting.


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## fick209

That is incredible, and a whole new twist on a haunted house. If I lived closer, I would be there in a heart beat for next year. Awesome job Eric!!!


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## domoMKIV

I love it. Looks like a great job and also a lot of fun for everyone involved. I can't wait to see what you do next year, wish I was closer to the area so I could personally check it out!


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## Eric Striffler

fick209 said:


> If I lived closer, I would be there in a heart beat for next year.





domoMKIV said:


> I can't wait to see what you do next year, wish I was closer to the area so I could personally check it out!


Long Island IS home to one of the top haunted attractions (according to Haunt World), Bayville Scream Park. So if you happen to visit the list of top attractions and you hit that one, you'll be close enough to check us out  haha!


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## HauntCast

Very professional looking video, I thought I was watching reality TV. Nice work.


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## Dead Things

Great idea and excellent vid


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## FRIGHTGUY

Very interesting, great video editing. I have some family out in LI so hopefully we can check this out next year.


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## Eric Striffler

FRIGHTGUY said:


> I have some family out in LI so hopefully we can check this out next year.


Definitely!


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## scareme

Wow! What a great haunt. Is your staff all friends of yours? It seems they put in alot of hard work for you. I can hardly find people to help me pass out candy. Also, you have a very pleasant voice. Do you narrate alot?


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## Eric Striffler

scareme said:


> Is your staff all friends of yours? It seems they put in alot of hard work for you.


Yes, they're all friends! A handful of them have been working with me for years on the haunt we used to do, which was MUCH smaller in scale. I paid everyone though, because they did do a lot of hard work as you pointed out!

And thanks about my voice hahaha!


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## ScreamingScarecrow

Wow your teaser video was very titalating can't wait to see more of the haunting!


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## NytDreams

Excellent dream to reality story! It's driving me mad to not know what all was in there. I've always wondered about a 1-person through concept, so glad to see it actually done.  Amps the fear-factor up soooo much that way.

Keep up the awesome work!


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## hpropman

wow awesome job! can we please see the commercial for next year?


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## Eric Striffler

NytDreams said:


> It's driving me mad to not know what all was in there.


Believe me, I wish I could show more but I have to be strong and keep it a secret to make sure lots of our tricks are still a surprise next year!



hpropman said:


> can we please see the commercial for next year?


As soon as it's done and online I'll post it here on HF, but it won't be for a few more months!


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## weaz

Love the concept. There have been a few in my area that took you to a new location from a 'meeting' point and it really added to the disorientation of the whole experience. I wish I was closer to visit. Good luck in your future years!


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## Eric Striffler

weaz said:


> There have been a few in my area that took you to a new location from a 'meeting' point and it really added to the disorientation of the whole experience.


Really! Could you PM me the ones that did that? I've never seen anything like this concept before so I'd love to see where they're doing it around the country. And I agree, it totally throws you off when you think you're prepared haha!


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## Spooky1

I think you've got a truly unique haunt. Great job.


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## Eric Striffler

Spooky1 said:


> I think you've got a truly unique haunt. Great job.


Thanks a lot!


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## Haunted Spider

Wow, I like the concept of the haunt. It is truely unique and has a scare factor that most don't by going alone. I watched the video after seeing your inquiry about spiderwebs. I will post a response on that thread shortly. I wanted to see what kind of haunt you were doing to suggest the right web ideas. 

I don't want to rain on your parade at all but here is something to keep in mind. You made the news paper which means you are in the public spot light a bit. A local fire marshal is likely to stop by next year to say hi. If he does, you will have to be up on fire code, such as exit signs, extinguishers, and no black plastic hanging. I would hate to see this work of art shut down because of an angry inspector. 

Wish you all the best in your future haunting.


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## Eric Striffler

Spiderclimber said:


> I don't want to rain on your parade at all but here is something to keep in mind. You made the news paper which means you are in the public spot light a bit. A local fire marshal is likely to stop by next year to say hi. If he does, you will have to be up on fire code, such as exit signs, extinguishers, and no black plastic hanging. I would hate to see this work of art shut down because of an angry inspector.


Oh trust me, we know. The beauty of what we did last year is that since it was free and "invitation only" it was technically a Halloween Party, and fire marshals don't come to check out your house when you're having a party! This year though we're going to charge, and yes we will need to be up on all the codes. We've already scheduled meetings with everyone we need to so we can get to work right away!

And thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the video!


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## Eric Striffler

I updated the first post with an article that was written in the local paper about myself and Nyctophobia back in October! The link I had in the first post is no longer available, so I pasted the text from the article. Enjoy!


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## Ryan Wern

Fantastic job! I have not seen such an original concept. The thought of being sent in alone with a glow stick as your only light source, and then having it taken from you...way cool. Great job, good luck with next year


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## Eric Striffler

Ryan Wern said:


> Fantastic job! I have not seen such an original concept. The thought of being sent in alone with a glow stick as your only light source, and then having it taken from you...way cool. Great job, good luck with next year


Thank you! You have no idea how many people thought the clown was kidding when he told them they had to hand over the glow stick. Some of them refused to and we had to wrestle it from them once they crawled into the dark!


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## Bodybagging

Nice Haunt, Great Video...


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## Ryan Wern

Eric Striffler said:


> Thank you! You have no idea how many people thought the clown was kidding when he told them they had to hand over the glow stick. Some of them refused to and we had to wrestle it from them once they crawled into the dark!


So Eric, just WHAT was in the dark?? Care to give any details or is it a secret?


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## Eric Striffler

Ryan Wern said:


> So Eric, just WHAT was in the dark?? Care to give any details or is it a secret?


It was literally pitch black from that point on until some strobes toward the end to help you find your way. I can't give away much because we plan to use the ideas and build on them this year, but you can probably imagine some stuff based on that example haha.


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## Eric Striffler

Hey guys! I just started the 2011 thread for Nyctophobia. If you're interested, it's here.


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## Haunted_Radio_Commercials

*What did you learn?*

I love the passion you have behind this. Was the goal to make a profit or just for fun? What were some of the biggest lessons you learned on your first year?


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## haunt on hannum

awesome job


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