I'm really excited now

I'm really excited now. Before we started last night, I gave the spooks a bit of a pep-talk and they really came through. I think we have the haunt ready to scare just about everyone now. I'm still doing some tuning on the sounds - our new soundboards are like a massive story problem and everytime I try to track something down I start to get a headache.

All the props are now working like they should be and most of the actors have had a chance to go through the house and get to see what it's like.

Here's what that process is like. First, it can only be done on a slow night - like Monday or Tuesday - you let 1-3 rooms of actors go through the house (ones that have someone that can cover for them). Then you let the next batch of actors go through. At Crypt of the Reaper, things are complicated by the fact that we have 2 haunts - so we have to add a second rotation to allow both sets of actors go through both haunts. You'd think that they'd be nice to each other - but when the actors go through they do all the stuff that the most annoying customers do. Interrupt the actor, try to go through the exits, ask stupid questions, turn on their cell phones, and just about every other rude thing they can think of. It's great for me because I get to see who's really good - most of the actors have a hard time keeping in character - keeping to the story is a real chore when your friends are trying to get you to mess up.

I want to mention one of our actors here. I'm going to bucher his name, but I still need to say something. Marcello Mendez has been working at our Buckingham location for a few years. This year his family moved to Thornton and he still made sure he was here for the start of our season. Last night, he got a call from his aunt (who gave him a ride to the haunt) saying that her car was broke down - and he didn't say a thing to anyone about it. As we were leaving I asked him where his ride was - he told me he was going to walk home. After asking everyone that was still there, I gave him a lift to Federal so he could take the bus North to his home. I also called a couple of the other haunted houses up North and Chris at The Asylum told me to give Marcello his cell phone number so he could come in for an interview.

I had to beg Marcello to not come back to Buckingham to work at our haunted house. He said he wouldn't feel right, not working at our place after all the great times he's had there the last few years. Marcello is a typical actor at our haunts. These guys love scaring people. They love acting and putting on a show. Believe me, they aren't doing it for the great pay. Every year they carve a hole in their jobs and lives and put in long hours, lose their voices, see old friends, and make new ones in the dark.

All our workers are great people, most of them should quit smoking, but that gives me something to complain to them about. I just want them to know that we love and appreciate them.

Getting the "Vision Thing"

If you're reading this, please send me a reply or I will definately start to believe I'm talking to myself here.

More effects made it from the "get done" list and onto the "completed" list last night. There is one automated scare that I have been having a hard time with. I spent an hour or two lurking behind the culvert in the cemitary hunched over my laptop programming the control computer. Unfortunately the solution to why it isn't working is still eluding me. I think it lies in the pile of snarled wires behind the old fireplace.

One of the biggest problems with creating a whole new theme for a haunted house is conveying "the vision thing" to the actors. Most of my efforts last night were spent getting actors away from their scripts and explaining to them that scaring the guests is more important than the lines on the script. I tell them that a haunted house is a lot like a 30-second stage play performed thousands of times over and over. It's not that important that you deliver the lines the same everytime - it's important that your actions and words invoke the same (or a better) reaction everytime. When an actor "takes over" a part and creates a better charicter - one that was only hinted at in the script - that's when I get excited.

One of our actors did that last night, now I've got to work on the rest of them. When I get 4 or 5 of them rocking - we'll be getting out the mops (more on what that means in later posts).

Opening Night

Wow! Opening night was quite an experience. The actors were a bit rusty, but towards the end of the night they seemed to be getting their parts down and came up with a bunch of new scares and ideas we hadn't thought of.

On anther note, I'm beginning to wonder if our haunted house is really haunted. Several of the motion sensors that should only activate when people walk by were going off all night long. Looks like I'll be putting in some long hours at the haunted house trying to track down the problem... but what if my fears are correct - and the house really is haunted?

There is one more spooky thing that happened last night. The power grid I setup for the sound system overloaded and I had to reset the breaker. Before opening - three of us spent like two hours setting sound levels and I thought that after we reset the breaker (and I rerouted the power) I'd have sound levels all over the place. Instead, the sound levels had changed, but they were better than we had set them in the first place - dah dah dah dah (insert Twilite Zone theme).

New Theme

This year the haunted house (the high-tech one) at Buckingham Shopping Center has been completely revamped.

The last two years were incredible with our 25th Hour theme and we were really appreciative of the great reviews you gave us, but we felt our annual customers deserved some new thrills so we completely changed the flow of the show and reimagined the haunt presentation for the 2005 season.

Our new theme is The Crypt of the Reaper. The concept is that you are visiting THE crypt where The Reaper (you know the guy who collects souls) keeps some of them for his own reasons. You are challanged (shortly after your soul is taken) to try and get through a set of tasks. If you survive all the tasks - you have a chance to redeam your soul. Of course, this whole story is all just an excuse to scare the *&$% out of you - and we think we've added a few great new scares this year that will do just that.

For those of you that are into trivia, try to find the Big Trouble in Little China and Beetlejuice references in the haunt . We really hope you like the hard work that has gone into the new scares and effects we've created this year. No doubt, you'll see the other haunts trying to copy some of them in the next few years, but you'll see them here first! We put four of those projects into just the first area. If you don't catch them all - I suppose you'll just have to come on back for a second time through - at least I hope you'll want to.