Well Halloween is over and I’m sure a lot of you have been to haunted houses across the country over the past few weeks.
My wife’s employer sets up a haunted house for charity every year (with the typical guide leading you from room to room) and employees could volunteer to build and run a room in it. Some were lame (snake charmer guy sitting in a corner trying to scare you with wooden and rubber snakes) and others were inspired (50" tv sitting alone atop a pedestal showing video of creepy guy wandering around the room your in, guy walks up to the camera so you get a nice close up (like The Ring) and the same guy pops out from underneath the TV. :eek:
Next year my wife wants me to help her build a room and we are looking for some of the best ideas out there.
Seen any really good haunted house “rooms” this year?
Not this year, but quite a while ago.
When I lived out in Salt Lake City, it seemed that the city was FILLED with “Haunted Houses for Charity”, each with one or more spotlights out front. They really, seriously got into this, and went out of their way to set up impressive sets. Your admission of a couple of bucks did, inded, go to a charity. The staffers and performers were volunteers.
They set up a Frankenstein’s Lab filled with working discharge equipment – Jacob’s Ladders, Tesla coils, lots of things that gave off vivid purple spraks and lots of noise and ozone. You could feel your hair stand on end when you walked near the stuff. And a Frankenstein in full makeup on the slab.
My first haunted house was the best one I’ve ever been to, by far. Toward the end, there was a completely dark stairwell covered in some sort of squishy fabric that just felt…weird to walk on. And the stairwell narrowed as you climbed it. And a chainsaw guy jumped out at the top of it.
I can only imagine the place closed down due to someone being horribly injured.
There were a few good ones at the haunted house I went to this year. One I thought was inspired: the room was pitch black, walls, floor, and ceiling. All you could see were loads of glow-in-the-dark masks hanging on the walls. Except, of course, that some of the masks were being worn by actors, all in black and standing very still, so you couldn’t pick them out until they jumped at ya.
The whole thing started, of course, like this: we were led in and told to watch a video that explained the rules (don’t touch the actors, they’re not allowed to touch you, listen to your guide, etc.). On the wall behind us was a painting of a house dripping with blood. As soon as the video ended, the painting (which was painted on a plywood panel that was part of the wall, not on canvas) dropped down with a crash, revealing Mr. Crazy Guy with a chainsaw.
By the way, you can bypass that “the actors won’t touch you” rule by setting traps in the hallways. Make a panel so that when they step on it, an air cannon gives their legs a quick blast. Completely harmless, but very unexpected.
And don’t forget to start things off right: as soon as they step into the haunted house, have someone SLAM the door behind them with great force. We’ve got you now, oh yes my pretties…
There was a room in our local “family fun center”'s haunted house that was pitch black…as you came in you heard the faint sounds of a train (the place itself happens to be up against train tracks)…then it got louder and louder. All of a sudden you see a train on the wall in front of you and are blinded by a light, plus a blast of air.
Scared the bejeezus out of me, the way they did it. I’ve not been back 
There was an old abandoned hospital building that had been set up as a haunted house. You took a tour through several floors, but since it was so big, not every floor was decorated, so you skipped those.
The best room was as you walked through the kitchen, then down wooden stairs into the cellar. They had decorated the cellar into a vampire den, with giant bats hanging from their feet over your head as you walked down the stairs, and ‘sleeping’ vampires tucked into the corners of the whole room, strewn about. It gave a great atmosphere of “These things could wake up at any moment.”
My favorite part of this was not actually part of the room’s theme. One of the characters, a girl dressed in a doll’s dress, was wearing a porcelain doll’s mask with a crack going down the length of the face. She just stood there at the top of the stairs and stared at you as you walked past her. I was the last in my group, so halfway down the stairs, I looked back and she had moved to the top of the stairs and just stood there staring at me. It was very creepy, but I have to admit…I was sooooo turned on. (what does that mean?)
Last night I was at an incredible haunted house. Among the many good rooms was the Insane Asylum, which featured a strobe light and a body hanging from a noose on the ceiling. Then, this freaky looking woman pops out and shrieks hysterically, “I’M NOT CRAZY!!! GET ME OUT OF HEEEEEERE!!!” in the faces of everyone who walked past.
Then there was the blood-covered redneck who ordered us to “squeal like little piggies.” And one of the girls in front of me said, “No thanks, I’d rather not get ass-fucked.” Heh.