This blog will have a few purposes. First, it's a place to ruminate about Halloween, the haunted attraction industry, and related matters (I've already done this a little). Second, once we get closer to opening a haunt, it will be a way to track our progress and give teasers before the opening. Finally, this provides a nice forum to review haunts, as well.
I should probably state my policy up front. I'm not in this to trash anyone, so I don't intend to write negative reviews. If I attend a sub-par haunt, I just won't write about it. (Or at the very least, I could write generalized "what to avoid posts" that amalgamate experiences from a few bad haunts without naming names or giving identifying characteristics.) After all, this isn't consumer reports - I don't feel that it's my duty to review haunts for prospective customers. Coming at this from a perspective of a future haunter, I'm more interested in ideas: What have others done well? How have they inspired me? What is it about the superior haunt that makes you leave saying, "DAMN! That was good!" The good haunts usually have quite a lot to offer in the inspiration department, and this is what I'm interested in writing about.
This year, due to the birth of my first child, I probably won't be able to attend more than a handful of haunts. But I've visited 50+ within the last few years, and so I could go back and write about a few of those experiences, as well. Are there any haunts in the Virginia/North Carolina area worth checking out? Do you have any haunt reviews you'd like to share in the comments section?
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
A crisis for Halloween
The Halloween of today probably isn't what you remember it being. They say that nostalgia often enhances the virtues and clouds the flaws of your memories, so I am trying to be realistic about how much of what I remember of the holiday is true and how much is wishful thinking.
But the way I remember it, it was an affair that lasted from when the daylight was fading (5ish) to when you could no longer convince people to give you candy (for me, usually about 10 - 11). The streets were usually packed with kids and most houses gave out candy. It wasn't always great candy, although there were those mythologized houses which gave out the full-sized Snickers, which were worth revisiting four or five times with different masks. My parents remember getting a lot of trick-or-treaters when I was a kid, and the number slowly declined as I got older.
Some areas of the country even have a bastardized version of Halloween, usually called Beggars' Night. They "celebrated" this in the small Wisconsin town in which I lived for t
wo years. It took place on a Sunday (regardless of when Halloween actually was) . . . in BROAD DAYLIGHT! It was difficult enough for me to make my elaborately decorated house look cool in daylight. But it must have sucked to be a kid. No wonder the my friends' kids were all totally disenchanted with the concept of Halloween by ages 8 or 9 - it was pretty lame. All the sneakiness, the danger, the spookiness had been sucked dry. Removing the celebration from Oct. 31st (and renaming it) was also a subtle, quasi-religious attempt to distance the holiday from its roots - to "de-evil" it, if you will. My town wasn't the only one - Des Moines has apparently been doing this since the 1930's.
This is why I feel pretty strongly about a topic that most adults don't give a second thought to - a supposed "children's" holiday. But some of my fondest memories are of Halloween. I expressed more creativity and cunning in service of that holiday than all the other holidays put together. If some people feel compelled to fight when they feel Christmas is being encroached upon, why not do the same for a holiday that matters most to us?
What are your fondest memories of Halloween? What's it like where you live - still a good time or a shadow of its former self? Do you have to deal with Beggars' Night or something equally lame?
But the way I remember it, it was an affair that lasted from when the daylight was fading (5ish) to when you could no longer convince people to give you candy (for me, usually about 10 - 11). The streets were usually packed with kids and most houses gave out candy. It wasn't always great candy, although there were those mythologized houses which gave out the full-sized Snickers, which were worth revisiting four or five times with different masks. My parents remember getting a lot of trick-or-treaters when I was a kid, and the number slowly declined as I got older.
Some areas of the country even have a bastardized version of Halloween, usually called Beggars' Night. They "celebrated" this in the small Wisconsin town in which I lived for t
wo years. It took place on a Sunday (regardless of when Halloween actually was) . . . in BROAD DAYLIGHT! It was difficult enough for me to make my elaborately decorated house look cool in daylight. But it must have sucked to be a kid. No wonder the my friends' kids were all totally disenchanted with the concept of Halloween by ages 8 or 9 - it was pretty lame. All the sneakiness, the danger, the spookiness had been sucked dry. Removing the celebration from Oct. 31st (and renaming it) was also a subtle, quasi-religious attempt to distance the holiday from its roots - to "de-evil" it, if you will. My town wasn't the only one - Des Moines has apparently been doing this since the 1930's.This is why I feel pretty strongly about a topic that most adults don't give a second thought to - a supposed "children's" holiday. But some of my fondest memories are of Halloween. I expressed more creativity and cunning in service of that holiday than all the other holidays put together. If some people feel compelled to fight when they feel Christmas is being encroached upon, why not do the same for a holiday that matters most to us?
What are your fondest memories of Halloween? What's it like where you live - still a good time or a shadow of its former self? Do you have to deal with Beggars' Night or something equally lame?
Monday, July 20, 2009
If this is your first time at Fright Club . . .
Hello. And welcome to Fright Club.
When I was a kid, I loved Halloween. There was something about being sneaky, dressing up, and getting candy which made me think that this was the best holiday ever. It was sort of like an evil version of Easter in which you actually earned your candy through DIY spirit (I usually made my own costumes) and pure chicanery.
I also loved how seriously some adults took Halloween. In particular, there was one neighborhood in which someone by the name of "the Doctor" would put on a yearly Halloween show for trick-or-treaters and on-lookers. One year, dressed as a mad-scientist, he turned his wife into a Frankenstein's monster. Great fun. It inspired me to craft my own neighborhood haunted house, which, due to unreliable friends and poor planning on my part, had to be cancelled at the last moment. It was a bit embarrassing to have to go outside and tell the line that I couldn't hold the haunted house. But at the same time, I felt a thrill because at least there was a line!
Flash forward to adulthood - I typically go to a few haunted houses a year (in some years, 4 - 6, recently a few less). Because I've moved A LOT recently (6 times in 7 years), I've gotten the opportunity to sample the best haunted houses in the Midwest and Southeast. I've been dreaming of what my own haunted house would look like, if I had the chance to go back and do it right. I've been slowly working on props and schematics and collecting print and web resources. I've been running the occasional low-budget haunted houses at local churches I've attended. I've done all of this with one goal in mind - to create my own professional haunted house and wow people like I was wowed all those years ago. I won't be ready to open one this year . . . or next . . . but eventually, I'll be able to return to that childhood haunted house of mine that never opened.
What are your Halloween stories? Why are you at this site and why do you love this holiday? What are your own dreams for the perfect haunt?
When I was a kid, I loved Halloween. There was something about being sneaky, dressing up, and getting candy which made me think that this was the best holiday ever. It was sort of like an evil version of Easter in which you actually earned your candy through DIY spirit (I usually made my own costumes) and pure chicanery.
I also loved how seriously some adults took Halloween. In particular, there was one neighborhood in which someone by the name of "the Doctor" would put on a yearly Halloween show for trick-or-treaters and on-lookers. One year, dressed as a mad-scientist, he turned his wife into a Frankenstein's monster. Great fun. It inspired me to craft my own neighborhood haunted house, which, due to unreliable friends and poor planning on my part, had to be cancelled at the last moment. It was a bit embarrassing to have to go outside and tell the line that I couldn't hold the haunted house. But at the same time, I felt a thrill because at least there was a line!
Flash forward to adulthood - I typically go to a few haunted houses a year (in some years, 4 - 6, recently a few less). Because I've moved A LOT recently (6 times in 7 years), I've gotten the opportunity to sample the best haunted houses in the Midwest and Southeast. I've been dreaming of what my own haunted house would look like, if I had the chance to go back and do it right. I've been slowly working on props and schematics and collecting print and web resources. I've been running the occasional low-budget haunted houses at local churches I've attended. I've done all of this with one goal in mind - to create my own professional haunted house and wow people like I was wowed all those years ago. I won't be ready to open one this year . . . or next . . . but eventually, I'll be able to return to that childhood haunted house of mine that never opened.
What are your Halloween stories? Why are you at this site and why do you love this holiday? What are your own dreams for the perfect haunt?
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