# Prison Theme?



## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

My Local Boy's and Girl's Club wants to do a haunt with a prison theme. The actors are mostly young teens from the club.

What they are describing to me is a bunch of rooms people will be walked through by a guide. It seems pretty lacking in scares.

Anyone out there ever done a successful prison theme? Any ideas?

The rooms currently considered are a reception area, jail cells, a mess hall, a gas chamber they will have to walk through, a mad lab, and a boiler room. I don't know that these are set in stone. They won't even clear out the rooms they are using until Sept 28.

Anyway, I'm hard pressed to think of scares unless the prisoners break out. I'm open to suggestions.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

My thought for the boiler room - if there is a furnace in it with a glass window, set it up so that it appears there is a fire going inside it (glowing red lights might be sufficient for the illusion). Have an actor inside made up to look severely burned who screams and pops into view in the window when patrons enter the room.


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Thanks Roxy. I'll see how the boiler is set up.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

They might consider changing the gas chamber to the electric chair, with someone being "electrocuted" in the chair who, while being "shocked", leaps out of the chair at the visitors. Shy of having the inmates as zombies or something of that nature, I don't see a great connection to Halloween or a haunted house. If you/they make it a "jailhouse of the damned" or something like that then you could put all kinds of famous/infamous criminals in the jail, and from many different periods of time and geography.


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## BioHazardCustoms (Aug 5, 2009)

I work in a prison. The scariest thing about my job is when you come in and they roll the big door closed behind you. The loud slam when it connects to the jamb will make anyone jump. If you're wondering what I'm talking about watch a couple of prison movies.





This video is cell doors, but it is the same concept.


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## hauntedyardofdoom (Nov 6, 2008)

How about an insane or violent ward? You could have prisoners in straight jackets, a lobotomy scene, padded cell... Then you could simulate that the prisoners have gotten out of their cells. Play a loud alert or siren and flip on the red emergency lights. Slam the doors off to seal off their escape. You could have a scene where some of the inmates are slaughtering a guard.


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## DemoniaD (Sep 17, 2012)

Here's one idea I have:
Have a prison guards as the guide, bring the groups in to a reception area for a briefing from the warden about how the prison houses the worlds most dangerous criminals,safety precautions, etc. Then lead them through the cell area.-prison guard mention horrendous crimes each commited as they stroll past. The prisoners can be reaching out for them, rocking in straight jackets, some cells could even have obvious dummies in them. As the guard leads the group to the next area (prison morgue perhaps) one of the imates can attack the guard, alarm go off, cell doors open and the group has to run through a short dark maze to escape the crazed prisoners.


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Lots of interesting ideas. Thanks, everyone!


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## SuperGamecube64 (Sep 26, 2012)

It's all about the ambiance. And psychotic undead prisoners convicted of murder. 

Last year at the haunted house I work with, my position was inside a cage. It was really dark, so I'd lean in the back corner against a wall so they thought it was empty, then I'd jump onto the fence like a spider mountain and shake it violently will laughing like a maniac. I made a girl pee in her pants, literally.


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have brought them to the team and incorporated what we could.
Besides a "gas chamber", we have an electric chair room.
The electric chair room is about 12'x12', and has a big box in the back all painted gray with dials. There is a "power failure" light flickering on the wall. The chair is kind of in the middle, with a spirit store control panel (about 12" by 6") that lights up and makes noises when activated.

I took the suggestion of having an actor pretend to be a prop - bag over the head, plastic hands, mechanical motion - then pop up at them. For some reason, the actors insist on screaming and writhing. Then they jump out of the chair. The end result is the whole scene is pretty flat, with both the actors and patrons bored by the room. No one is surprised, no one is scared. Why won't they try the "actor as prop" thing? No idea. They just don't. I'm only trying to help here.

So, I'm thinking we had better put another "scare" in there and use the obstinate chair victim as the distraction. There is nowhere to hide in the scene, but I was thinking maybe i could hide another actor behind some black plastic on the wall behind the scene. All the walls are black plastic. The fire marshal did give the approval, BTW.

I would like something other than someone popping out and screaming. I was thinking about squirting water on them, even though it makes no sense in the context of the scene. At least it won't be lost in the screaming from the prisoner. Maybe someone could pop out with a squirt gun. Maybe it would be better if they did not see the source of the water.

If I had something loud and sparking like a Tesla coil maybe I would use that. 

I'm open to other scares - particularly tactile scares - that would be cheap and quick. I have no time to build or order anything. 

Once again, I turn to the ingenuity of the community for ideas.


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