Transcript
Speaker: You are listening to the Inverted Creative Podcast. I'm Allison. I'm Jen. I'm Brian. I'm Mikhail. And I'm Nate.
Speaker: Happy spooky season, guys.
Speaker: He's scary. don't know. i'm feeling some... ah Some thrills, chills, and spills right now. don't know about y'all. I definitely am. Oh, it's definitely chilly.
Speaker: And thrilling. And spy nice spill spilly? Very spilly. very spy This podcast is always spilly. Well, when you when you think inverted, you tend to spill things. This is true. Yeah, gravity works. yeah gravity only way It's like that that old like Montu or Alpengeist Pepsi commercial or something. i don't know if y'all know about that one where like he rotates the glass the whole time during the ride, doesn't lose anything, gets off the ride, a cute girl asks him what time it is and dumps it over himself.
Speaker: I have not seen that. have not seen that. Okay, I'm going to go on. Dang. I was thinking gravity is a state of mind, but know. like that. I like that. Yeah. I like that. I had that shirt once upon a time.
Speaker: I still do somewhere. i think I might. I don't know. It definitely doesn't fit me anymore, but I might still have it in my wardrobe.
Speaker: Well, welcome. We have a special guest of Joey from Thrills, Chills, and Spills podcast, as I almost mess up the name of your podcast. It's hard. hi everybody. TCS. Hi, Joey.
Speaker: Yeah, TCS. Just call it TCS. Hi, guys. I feel so inverted right now. yeah Yeah. And maybe a little later, I'll feel creative. Yeah. Heck yeah.
Speaker: vice I was totally about to say something, and then that just made me completely lose my train of thought. Oops. Now you have to think inverted. Yeah. I have to see things from a new perspective. Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know what I was going to say. You have to get creative. Yeah, we thought it would be fitting to have someone from our our favorite spooky podcast help us talk about Halloween things.
Speaker: And I reached out to all four of you and everybody was traveling. Except for me. So now you're stuck with us. Yeah. And we are fittingly recording on the first day of like ah real spooky month, which is October. so Welcome to October. Even though this isn't going to drop until the 12th, I think.
Speaker: We're getting real close to Halloween then. Yeah. Even closer. yeah It has been spooky season for me since ah September 4th. So I feel like I'm already like way into it. but I was going to say, by October 12th, Universal will damn near finish spooky season. They don't believe in socially acceptable spooky season. let Disney and Universal start in like August now.
Speaker: yeah yeah i'm like It's still yeah summer. it's It's pretty crazy. i can't get into the fall vibes. There's that much demand for it. Yeah. When it's 97 degrees out, it's hard to get into the fall vibes. That's the struggle. It's too hot.
Speaker: Orlando's always like that, and it's rough. Oh, yeah. yeah
Speaker: um Oh, and speaking of when this... Okay, so this episode drops on October 12th. So if you are listening to this on the day that it drops, today is the last day to vote in the Inverted Creative of Awards. Go vote.
Speaker: Go vote. Yes, if you haven't yet. We've actually gotten a good deal of re responses so far. Go vote for my nominations, which I'm not going to tell you so they don't know. Go vote for ones I nominated. um You know I did not rig this because Taryn is not up for Best Ride soundtrack.
Speaker: Wow. This is shocking. Is Helix, though? Helix is nominated. Helix is in there. um What is up for Best Ride soundtrack? There are six of them that got knocked.
Speaker: enough nominations siren's curse fly will to hilda helix ride to happiness and stardust racers oh interesting okay it's all all uh listener nominated yeah some of those are on ride and some of those are not so yeah it's very open interpretation i wish circuit breaker had been open longer because i feel like that one could have made it you know what should have made it terren
Speaker: But I did not rig this. It is not in there. It is up for best train design, though. It does have a nice train.
Speaker: I agree it does. With a couple others that do not deserve to be in there. That's all I'll say on that. I forget which ones are even in there. Oh, best train design? Chekawani Beast, Mechledon, Terran, Wildcat's Revenge.
Speaker: Oh. Listen, I went off of nominations. What can I say? oh yeah No, i'm I'm not saying anything. yeah okay
Speaker: Yeah, me neither. Yeah, we know
Speaker: what kind The one that y'all have thoughts on is not the one that's losing right now. We'll say that. I know the one that's losing, but I'm not going to say anything. I'm actually curious which one you think is losing.
Speaker: and was it Has it changed since the text the photo you sent me? I don't remember what photo I sent. Yeah, you showed me last night, and I'm pretty sure it's the one I saw last night.
Speaker: It's probably still losing.
Speaker: Granted, I could also just edit this out if I wanted to. but No, but this is fun po this is fun podcast conversation. yeah It's been very interesting seeing the results come in, because some of them are very close. Others are very not.
Speaker: which I guess all of them are either close or not, but... Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, they're usually... It'll be for it will be fun to see the results. It'll be fun to call out... call To call out the people who made certain ones win.
Speaker: Nate, yes, that is the one that is. Yeah, I thought so. Which is disappointing. think that's the same as last night. Yeah. Yeah. I should not be losing, but what do I know?
Speaker: i just run this thing.
Speaker: Anyway. get off um Anyway. Yeah. if If you are listening to this on October 12th, go vote. If not, sorry. Check out the results. as so Results we'll post on October 19th episode.
Speaker: Yeah. For our two-year anniversary. Aw. Nice. You guys are on a similar timeline, too. Yeah, we are Ours is in November, I think. But yeah, very, very close.
Speaker: Now, is that like the anniversary of the first time that y'all did like a spooky themed episode on Drunk Riders? Or was that like your first like thrills, chills, spills episode? That would be our first ever, like the four of us recording together as the spooky spinoff, as we were called for the first two episodes. Oh, yeah. And then it became a thing. I actually remember that.
Speaker: Yeah. I've been enjoying listening to the episodes, even though I don't do much with halloween horror nights yeah same here we definitely get heavily into spooky season especially now that we're in it but yes hopefully some of the off-season content is is interesting because we try to cover other special events and just do random fun stuff so yeah i like the trip report ones are good too yeah i try to travel You travel never. What? Try. It's not today.
Speaker: ah Well, when you're flying standby, it kind of is try at times. Yeah. To be fair. But and yeah, this weekend I'm trying to do a a not coaster trip. I just wanted to see if I can get to New York City and see some shows. So we'll see how that goes. oh nice Yeah.
Speaker: I've been trying to get back to New York City for so long. Oh, mate. I've been like once and I did not get to see very much. It's it's a wild place. We did the World Trade Center Memorial. That was really the only thing That's very somber there. Yeah. yeah But definitely worth visiting.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. We'll go back. I want to go actually spend a couple days in New York at some point.
Speaker: it's It's another world. Right. Yeah. the first The first time I went, i i my brain didn't want to believe it was real when I when i first saw it. Yeah.
Speaker: I went, first time I ever went to New York, like the city, it was literally, mark i think we left to come back home on March 2020.
Speaker: You know what happened around there. Yeah. Oh. I got out of there ah right before that. it was the last pre-COVID things I ever saw was like in New York City, Manhattan.
Speaker: And American Dream Mall, of course. I was supposed to go spend a couple days in New York that summer. There was going to be a Buzz Bars event, I think, at American Dream and somewhere else.
Speaker: Hershey? don't know. We planned a whole like week and a half long trip around it and and included a couple nights in New York and then that never happened. And I have yet to do it outside of going to Adventureland.
Speaker: What shows are you going to go see, Joey? TBD. um i am Broadway is very expensive. So I will be utilizing the lottery and the rush systems to see if I can get cheaper tickets for some things. But in terms of our topic, I might be trying to see um the Stranger Things play, which is a little spooky and has like cool special effects to it and stuff. I guess it's the sort of pre-story, like a pre- Henry story. So that could be interesting to see.
Speaker: um There's a couple other ones that are on my list, but um if that one works out, that'll be pretty cool. I think that one is ending soon, isn't it? Yeah. I want to say like sometime in January.
Speaker: So it is it is yeah going to go away. So it's on my list because of that as well. I don't know if it'll tour. I mean, sometimes shows like that will, but ah we'll we'll have to see. You know, I've never seen stranger things.
Speaker: I've seen Stranger Things. So when I did the Horror Nights house for that in 23, I was completely blind. Yeah. had no what was It's probably even more confusing. Yeah, wasn't that season four focused? So like hyper specific to what happens? Season three, I think.
Speaker: Season three came out in 19 because that's when I started watching it, I think. Because I was in college still. Oh, that's right. We skipped a year. i forgot about that. Literally all I can tell you about Stranger Things is the phrase, the upside down, and there's a character named Eleven.
Speaker: That's two things about it. That is literally all I know about that show. Those are true things. Oh, and Scoops Ahoy exists. but Yeah, it does. That's an interesting thing to know about the show.
Speaker: That's literally all I know about Stranger Things. Ice cream. Well, there's a lot of Scoops Ahoy brings. It introduced one of the main characters. to be but yeah it does Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: But still, it's... Well, probably there's memes from it. There's memes from it, so... I have seen, conveniently, everything up until halfway through Season 5.
Speaker: so Would you stop before they release the second half? um No, I... um i got I got to...
Speaker: ah Yeah, halfway, like, literally episode four of... The halfway point. I know what happens at the halfway point. Yeah, yeah. I was about to say it, but i was like, let me not. oh Yeah, yeah. But, um... Big thing happens the halfway point, and then... Yeah. yeah And then I just...
Speaker: You mean a mid-season? I didn't have Netflix anymore. Let's put it that way. Do you need Netflix? I was going to be like, is it because you weren't thrilled with the progress of the season? Because that was like one of the worst reviewed seasons of the whole thing. And you know, speaking of like horror nights and stuff and Halloween events.
Speaker: They have been doing the Stranger Things houses in Orlando, like after every season. And previously, it's been like one of the most popular houses at the event, like with, you know, 90 minute plus cues.
Speaker: And this year, nope It's because the show, I think. I have to wonder if it's because the season wasn't very liked comparatively, and it's just really, like, queue time-wise. Well, okay, so, like, because I know this is, like the third um like, the third Stranger Things house that Universal has done.
Speaker: arm Like, ah i have I have heard of it having, like... still like crazy long lines but like i've always heard that the like historically the stranger things houses just haven't been like compared to the other houses of each year just haven't been up there in like the top you know oh yeah three or top five or like like i mean on the historically because of the show but like outside of that you know like the actual just like objective quality of each time they've done a house hasn't been that great Yeah, and that's one of those things that you'll see like somewhat migrate over the course of a season, but i mean, I would say overall, like I think you know people who are familiar with NIP will still migrate towards it, even if they've heard like maybe it's not as good or whatever. So, i yeah. But in it I think people just weren't as interested after season five to to get another Stranger Things house, because, yeah, I mean, i've so I've seen him like two hours before. I know the first year, I think it was...
Speaker: I can't remember which first year that I went was, but that year I remember like strategically we were like, okay, we have to do like stranger things early because it's going to get such a long line. And this year that's not so much a factor for that house comparatively. Yeah. Stranger things was the first house that we did in 23. I kept like,
Speaker: ah really like just loose notes of every house that I did. Cause this was my first time ever at Halloween horror nights. Yeah. And I don't do haunted houses. So this is my very first like universal haunted house.
Speaker: And I put underwhelming. I know nothing about the show and said hi to one of those characters. Yeah. Those are my notes for stranger things. Well, even for people that know the show, they're underwhelming. So.
Speaker: I wonder if a part of that is because they made they made like all of the fans wait like three years before dropping season five, and eventually people were just like, you know what, I yeah just don't feel like waiting anymore. I still have yet to go to hollywood horror or Halloween Horror Nights, and i I want to get there, but I feel like every time I'm excited for a house, that ends up being one of the worst ones. Like, Stranger Things and Fallout from last year, I heard, was not that great. In fact, when was the second house? Was that 23? Because that's year was in. I think it was 23. That was the second one, yeah. Yeah, so I have no memory of that house.
Speaker: yeah hu That doesn't surprise me. i don't either, frankly. I do, okay, I remember, like, one scene, which is, like, the guitar flying one, because it wasn't executed that well, but... I vaguely remember that, but had no idea what the ah context was. yeah You would hope that would be the best executed like scene in the house, because it's probably the coolest scene in that in that scene. I super vaguely remember that scene.
Speaker: Yeah. One thing that I'm noticing is so historically, and there's not been that many, but it is very difficult to adapt a TV show to a house compared to a movie to a house. Because when you think about all of the plot lines, all the locations that there are across the course of a season,
Speaker: cramming it all together and trying to make it make sense and like trying to pick the things that people want to see is really difficult and i think that's part of the reason why the houses from tv shows have just not hit as well because it was the same thing with fallout to me it was like the stranger things problem where like you're looking for certain things and they don't do all of them and then some of the ones that you think are like iconic moments aren't executed at like the scale that you would expect and it's So that's, yeah don't Maybe don't try to keep doing TV shows And stick to movies for for houses Because, yeah Actually, I think um Allison, your reaction to the Stranger Things house Is probably somewhere along the lines of The reaction I had to the Last of Us house From that from that year as well That's another one that I like wanted to see so bad don't think I did that one I don't remember having that visceral Of a reaction to anything in it either
Speaker: Yeah, and that's another one that was like people were excited for. And it had long lines because of the IP, but like overall for HHN fans, it was not a very well-ranked house.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I did 8 out of 10. I did not do um Last of Us or Blood Moon was the other one I didn't do. Oh, darn. I missed Last of Us that year because we were dead tired, but Blood Moon was amazing.
Speaker: Yeah, i I gave up. i'm like, I've had enough of my first Fortnite experience. I want to go soak in a hot tub. Like with Fallout, I'm a fan of the video games. I have seen the TV show, which is pretty good, but I would have been disappointed because it was TV show based and not like video from any of the video games. game based So i don't know.
Speaker: and That might have been easier to adapt, but yeah, they... It probably was, yeah. They were pretty clear they were doing the Amazon version, so... Well, I think the video game would be easier, or any, pick any of the, like, five five or six Fallout video games, and you can just set it in that location and then make your own house because, like, you can do whatever you want in the game. It's, like, kind of, like...
Speaker: sandbox like open world. So like you don't have to follow a plot. You can just take all the characters and stuff and make it look like the game and do whatever you want with it, which I think would be way more creative and way easier to adapt personally.
Speaker: but Yeah, it's ah it's a really interesting consideration when you think about like the creative behind a haunted house and how different properties get approached, not only by HHN, but by any haunt, really. um Because I think about houses that are vibes-based versus houses that are trying to tell a story. um And Halloween Horror Nights is really...
Speaker: one of the only events out there is it's like consistently trying to tell stories um to where you can actually sort of follow a plot line through the house. um And obviously they have a higher budget, they have set design, they have more actors. And so they're an off often they're casting people that look just like, you know, whoever's in the original IP. um And so they're able to do that.
Speaker: But i don't always find the plot and storytelling ones effective. I think it's really difficult to convey a storyline through a haunted house. yeah And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. And so sometimes I end up wanting, like preferring ones that are more just vibes based. Like there's not really a story, but there is placemaking and there is, you know, an atmosphere that's being created and that it's in it like a place to explore, but not necessarily to follow a a storyline through.
Speaker: Yeah, there's always so much going on. And like I'm focusing on everything else around me and I can't focus on a plot line. Especially if it's something I'm not familiar with. When you place the people just in a scenario or just like a scenario-based scene...
Speaker: seen and then just play on the strategic placement of scares, I guess, then you can get creative with like how they like with quickly they they um ah how quickly the light they appear and like how you can build tension within um within one scene or like how one scene transitions into another and stuff. When you're telling a story, when you're telling a story i i feel like...
Speaker: Like that kind of active application of, you know, creativity within the scares becomes a lot more rigid. There's lot less that you can do because you're adhering to one through line.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, you have to copy what's already been done. Exactly. Well, I mean, like even even if you're just like making it... Even if you' not even if it's an ah an original storyline as opposed to following an IP, you just like you kind of just narrow your your opportunities down, I feel like. For sure.
Speaker: Unless you you know specifically craft a story to you know to be able to up um allow for those opportunities. But um yeah, i don't know.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, one thing that's been really interesting to see this year is the first year that I've attended both. um It was my first at Hollywood Horror Nights um and then also doing the same houses in Orlando.
Speaker: And one of the things that you notice is the Hollywood version of HHN does storytelling a little bit more like it's being filmed almost, which kind of makes sense considering like where it is and the kind of talent that you have um there who is like acting in these mazes. um But there, there are...
Speaker: scenes being acted out in the houses. um Like, for example, in Stranger Things, I guess, spoiler alert, there's like a scene where um the mom comes out with like a wine bottle and she's fighting off a Demogorgon. So in the Orlando version,
Speaker: it's just a pop-out scare from both of those characters with like a flash and an audio. Whereas in Hollywood, that whole scene is being acted out acted out and she has dialogue and the Demogordons like reacting to her and they play off of each other. And it lasts for like, you know, 15 seconds at least of time that you're like watching the scene be executed. And the same thing happens in Sinners. Like there's a scene where a vampire gets shot by one of the main characters and it's all acted out. And like you see him shoot her and then you see her reacting to it and everything. We're again in Orlando, that was more of a jump scare setup. So it's really interesting to see like the different ways that you can do storytelling. And I've definitely seen in regional haunted houses as well.
Speaker: um Some of that type of storytelling where it's more of a scene being acted out as opposed to like just a jump scare. um And I had written down that like, When you think about scares, like there's there's really kind of three types of them. like You have ones that are are setting the scene, setting the atmosphere. So it might not even be somebody who's like actively reacting to you or like trying to scare you, but they are creating a creepy atmosphere in some way. um And a lot of times this is done like towards the beginning of a house. There might be a character that's welcoming you in or like telling you to go away or Something like that. But they're not like, you know, trying to jump out at you. And then you have the jump scares, of course, which every pretty much every haunted house is going to feature that. um And then, like I just said, you have actual scenes in some cases that are like being acted out to either further the storyline or to unsettle you in some way by what's happening.
Speaker: um and And all houses are a combination of those elements, which is always interesting to see like what somebody picks to to kind of prioritize. And HHN usually sort of balances those out. Some houses will lean more heavily towards one than the other.
Speaker: um and you see the same with like regional haunts, what kind of scares they prefer and and how they set it up. It's very interesting. is' interesting It's interesting to think about like um how...
Speaker: Universal Orlando would cater theirs, like like in reference in reference to the like the three types of three types of scares like you mentioned, like it was like how how Universal would cater their houses um and like utilize each of the three and the and the like frequency with which they would utilize each of the three compared to how Universal Hollywood would would do would do the same thing for their houses according to the level, like, the the like the um amount like basically the volume of audience that they get. With with Orlando HHM being so much busier, i would think, it'd be interesting to think, it interests it's interesting to think about like how much that affects what they feel they need to apply in each house so they can aid in throughput.
Speaker: basically. right That's definitely a factor. Yeah. Because at least in my observation, I mean, Hollywood, it's still very popular, but just not quite as popular as Orlando. So, I mean, they were, it was not a conga line the whole time. Basically they were actually pulsing groups through not small groups. They would pulse through like 25 to 50 people, but then they would stop and, and let it kind of start flowing naturally before letting more people in. And so I think, you know, the setup of those scenes and and all of that kind of is better facilitated because of that pulsing that's happening. Whereas in Orlando, you you think they sort of- just can't do that.
Speaker: Yeah. Like you lean towards the jump scares just because of the volume and it's a conga line the whole time. And you're just, yeah, you're having to like pack as much in as you can to to make sure that people kind of get to see everything and aren't necessarily getting as much time to like observe and take it slower.
Speaker: They're kind of, you know, beckoning you forward and being like, keep it moving and yeah and all of that kind of thing. So um and that's something that for me is always a detractor of the Orlando event. um And something that I think about when I think about haunt design in general is that.
Speaker: the vast popularity of the event forces them in some ways to like make it less scary or make it, make it less guest friendly in a way, because going through a conga line, like you'll see the scares happen in front of you um because you're trying to move through efficiently. You'll miss some.
Speaker: um And so, and also to me, like, the Actors are more able like to efficiently scare you in like a little tight-knit group that's going through where they have a break in between. um And I've often found that with the regional haunts that I visited. like Some of them just are really effective at the jump scares because they're pulsing people through. And like it's a kind of routine pace, and they know I'm going to get a gap, and then I get the next group, and I can hit them every time that they're coming through.
Speaker: um The biggest thing to me, just from a flow perspective, is when the conga line stops. That drives me nuts. Because, like, you lose all your forward momentum just standing here waiting for the people in front of you to move. And, like, the scenic around you you've already seen. And if there's a scare there, sometimes, like...
Speaker: The HHN actors, I feel like they don't even like have visibility to the flow of the people that are coming through. And they're just hitting a pedal and jumping out repeatedly. So they'll just keep doing it you're like, okay, bro. like i I've seen you like three times now and I've come here. um So yeah, it's that that's definitely a detractor for me. just and And there's not much they can do about that. I mean, the popularity of the event kind of mandates...
Speaker: the conga line situation there. And like, if you didn't do that, the lines would all be like three hours, um which sometimes they get up that high anyway, but, but still so yeah, that's why like I do end up preferring like elements of local haunts, even if like the budget's not as high and the sets aren't as amazing. Like if you get sent through in a small group, you can have a lot more like intimate experience where you feel like you got to experience everything it has to offer in one go.
Speaker: um Whereas at HHN, sometimes you're like, oh, I think I got a bad run or something like that. And then you go through again and you're like, oh yeah, I did miss a bunch of stuff. I think part that's like why I really want to do one of the Conjuring houses that are some of the parks. um I got to do behind the scenes of that last year at Carolines and like see kind of all the set design that they do. And they talked us through like the flow of the story.
Speaker: And the conga line is such a detriment to me. And that's part of why i don't get a huge amount of enjoyment of houses. because I can see everything that's about to happen. But I think conjuring would prevent that for me and would probably scare me.
Speaker: Yeah. So we're putting you to the test with conjuring. if If we end up doing that, yes. I got to pay for it now. It didn't take a lot of convincing. That's what's scaring you the most. right I will for a lot of money for for podcast content. I will do it. Yes. Yeah. so for the pod yeah I'm scared of spending money on it.
Speaker: Yeah. i I'm potentially going to go to Carowinds in like two weeks and try this as well. I'm really, really curious to see like if we think the the price that we pay is worth the experience that we get. um And if it really does feel like more intimate and everything. And I know that like upcharges, you know, that's like something the whole industry is. How can we get more money? How can we increase our in-park spend? But at the same time, like I understand that the demand model of this like storyline driven house that you're going through slowly and like I understand there's a capacity limitation there. So like I get why you would need to upcharge something like that. So i'm really curious to see like if that type of thing continues, um if it's successful for the parks, like they're able to pay off
Speaker: kind of the whole house budget itself just by this upcharge which it's not crazy i think at carowinds it's like 20 bucks or something like that um but it is just one house you're like hmm what am i gonna get out of this very interesting i just googled king's island it says 15 to 25.
Speaker: Yeah. That's what about to look at. It's not egregious. And when you think of like, you know, for example, regional haunts, I'm thinking of Netherworld that I just went to recently and they have two houses. um They are both very long and and different than what HHN is. um But the pricing for that, I mean, we went on the cheapest day and I think it was about 40 bucks and it can go up to like $2.
Speaker: 60 plus on the busy days. So you think about like, you know, 60 bucks for two houses, that's 30 bucks a house. Compare that to HHN, which is like 100 bucks for 10 houses.
Speaker: a It's, it you know, like the smaller the sale gets, you're still kind of having to price it, you know, a little bit higher just for your running costs. So.
Speaker: Yeah. I just, I remember Kings Island and all that being like free, And so that's my hesitation, but I understand what they have to do.
Speaker: or like holiday world that has the one house that's the same every year and it's really not good at all, but it's still funny to go through sometimes. They have a house. It's very entertaining. It's entertaining from a, this is the worst like attempt at scaring someone ever, which Holiday World Family Park, like, yeah. But um I think the worst part of it is like, there's one of those things that they blow up and you have to like squeeze through. yeah Like that doesn't actually scare me, but it's just like annoying to squeeze through that. i'm i'm not a huge fan of those, but.
Speaker: Yeah. There's like ah there are mirror maze and there's like a not to spoil it, but it's been there for like 10 years. So, um, uh, there's like a ah carnival like clown kind of stuff. And then there's like a beehive thing that you walk through. And I think it ends with the mirror maze, the clown, like appearing in it. It's, uh,
Speaker: Yeah. It's good thing. It's free. And it's the only that one for sure. i would be mad if I had paid for that, but it was yeah entertaining to walk through since it was included. Yeah. Parks definitely seem to be moving away from the, we're including this with the mission model. We saw that with six flags. um Yeah, I think. And the sea world parks have been moving away from it. Like Tampa's a separate emission Orlando's is um I believe Bush gardens Williamsburg is still included with the price, but their, their season passes are also more expensive. Yeah. Um, so I think it kind of depends on the regional market, how they're, they're managing it. But I'm trying to remember if the, the former palace parks, cause we went to some of them, uh, if that was included, I'm pretty sure it was included with admission. So, but we are definitely starting to see like more and more parks jump on the, this is a paid thing to get in the houses at least.
Speaker: Yeah, and they can they can get do it because people will still pay for it. And, you know, it also lightens the crowd, so it's maybe not a net completely negative thing anyway. Yeah. I mean, when I think about just the sheer logistics of doing them, you start to realize like it's not only that you have to staff it with all of the actors, but then you have like a stage manager who's in charge of them. Potentially people who are doing like costumes and makeup related stuff. People who are doing like fog machines and maintaining lighting. And then the operations people who are just managing the queues.
Speaker: And so like when I think about especially Six Flags and how they're basically giving away the gate for free, like there's so many free guest tickets and the the the passes to get in the gate are cheap.
Speaker: um it It doesn't surprise me that they're starting to be like, hey, these Halloween events are a expensive to operate and be popular. So why aren't we charging a little bit more for people to get in? I'm okay paying, you know, 10 bucks for a night.
Speaker: if it's going like directly towards making that experience better. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Joey, what were some of like the best experiences you had between the two HHNs this year? Like what were the top, Ooh. So I've talked about this on TCS, but um one at HHN Orlando in particular just absolutely wrecked me this year in a way that I have never been wrecked at HHN before.
Speaker: um You know, i've I've heard like, and I i think this people this happened for people at the... um I can't remember it, but it was Kelly's Top House that year. um And it was an IP. I can't remember the name of it. There was this red curtain hallway with just ping pong scares. And I remember her saying like how she got got. And that happened to me. Like, I mean, the first room that we walked into, they hit me and then and they just ping ponged me the whole rest of the way through the house. And I was just, I was shook. I was like, I've never gotten a run like that here before.
Speaker: um And that one was, yeah, in Cybergoria. which is sort of themed to AI robots gone wrong in the future um at this laboratory where the laboratory is set up as like, we're going to cryogenically freeze you.
Speaker: And then we're going to wait into the future until we figure out like when we can make you mortal and then we'll wake you up and make you a mortal. well, obviously something goes wrong.
Speaker: Like the whole earth is in some storm, like the environment's collapsed and the robots have woken all of the people in the pods up and they're like, okay, we, we figured it out. The way to keep you immortal is just by taking parts of your flesh and melding them into our robot bodies. And so like the whole house is just them like doing that and like sawing appendages off and like sticking them on themselves. And, It's pretty wild. That's a wild storyline. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: um And honestly, like, for HHN, it's set wise, it's not very impressive. Like, it's very, it's very dark and very oppressive. um But oftentimes at HHN, you'll see like, verticality and these grand facades, which are very impressive. And I love that. Like, I love seeing those. um but this house just had the most ridiculously effective scare i've ever had there so i was like wow that was so much fun it'll never happen again like the timing that you need to to get that there is like you know so particular was gonna say struggle to even think of like what the scares would have been like in a situation like that mm-hmm in terms of what they were trying to aim for like because it i mean that it just that just sounds more gross to me than anything yeah like the idea behind that house but um
Speaker: It was mostly just, you know, it was very environmentally oppressive, for lack of a better word. Like, it was very dark. You know, the halls are all like this sci-fi looking metal and like rust everywhere. And there was like water dripping in places. And all the robots were very effectively disguised into that background because they're metal too. So, you know, they're just coming out at you from all different angles. Yeah. The body horror element of it is more like integrated into the robots themselves. You don't see too, too much of it like actually actively happening. Like actually happening. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Like there was a there was one room with some like legs hanging off the ceiling, but...
Speaker: Yeah. um And what else? um On both coasts, the Ozzy Osbourne houses have been very impressive. um Just super fun. um They've been repeatedly successful with adapting a musician's work into a house. I did not get to experience it, but I heard that the Weekend House previously was one of people's favorites that year, if not their favorite. um And you can see why, right? Like when we talk about TV shows and like how much plot there is and trying to pick and choose what you want with a musical artist, it's so much like of a kind of open book. You can pull from anything. um And it's so interesting how the two different coasts have completely different creative teams and they chose different elements.
Speaker: So yeah. The one in Hollywood was sort of based on Ozzy's life and aspects of his life um kind of starting from the beginning and going through. And then a one in Orlando was based on his albums and his album art. So like each section of the house was based on a different album. And you can see like the crazy train and things like that as you're going through So both had very different approaches, but super cool set design. Obviously, like the music is playing as you're going through. So it's it's a vibe um and some really effective scares in there, too.
Speaker: Those are kind of the ones that are that are on top for me this year. Also, both coasts had really good Hellraiser houses. Very strange movie if for the people that have seen it, but um it adapted well to a house because there's like an element of a labyrinth in the movie. So they they obviously put that in there. um And it's also kind of like a B-horror film. Maybe I shouldn't say that, but like it's It's kind of a little bit silly and campy at times with the way that they are like pulling on people's skin and everything. So some of that stuff, you're like expecting it not to look amazing. And, you know, so it's it sells it.
Speaker: Kind of feels like a good segue into a our main topic for today, which is kind of designing our own haunts. And that was kind of ah how I posed it is like, what if we could design our own haunt for a park?
Speaker: what what themes would work for that and like what coaster themes could work for a haunted house. yeah This is inspired by an episode. Definitely some of them. Yeah. um As we record, this episode is not dropped yet and I haven't even edited to remember what we talked about in it. um But Konda and the theme of Konda and like snaking through like the tall grass, turning that into a haunted house.
Speaker: was kind of the inspiration behind this episode and also halloween horror nights today dueling dragons house in 23 and that was the house i was most excited for because i love dueling dragons and that would have been cool do i know nate you had an idea kind of similar to ozzy do have an idea do you want me to start with that one yeah sure I don't necessarily have a lot of like background with like, I don't have a lot to provide compared to some of the other ideas I had with this one. But um having seen the success of Ozzy this year and then the weekend house years ago, um i think ah Metallica would be like a really good idea. Just, you know, they've got,
Speaker: For Whom the Bell Tolls, they've got ah Inner Sandman. i mean, all their songs kind of match a Halloween vibe. Like they're really big on my Halloween playlist um every year. And I feel like once again, you could take kind of their discography and create a pretty cool house like they did with Ozzy.
Speaker: um Like I said, I don't have necessarily any ideas. I'm not as big of a Metallica fan as some people are, so I can't like give specifics. But since the musical artist ones work pretty well, i think I think Metallica would be a good one for them to look at doing. ah Probably probably h hn specifically, um but that would be a pretty cool one see.
Speaker: Is it weird I kind of associate Metallica with zombies solely because of the um opening credit scene of Zombieland? No, that makes sense. i can What is that song again? i friend investment Is it? Okay. i thought I thought they might have used that song.
Speaker: It's been a while since I've seen Zombieland. but Well, good news. It's on my list for us to watch this year. Yeah, true. i will i will gladly watch that movie again. It's very fun.
Speaker: Yeah. um The one house that I always really wanted to happen, and maybe I can pitch this to Universal Creative somehow, I want a Legends of the Hidden Temple house.
Speaker: That would be fun. Crossing a moat, having temple guards in there, having the shrine of the silver monkey, and then the anxiety of putting that together properly as a 10-year-old. The facade could just be Olmec.
Speaker: Yeah. having allac there're having Like there, having the different... like You can have some barracudas in there and some jaguars and monkeys. and Yeah. Maybe not iguanas. You can put iguanas, but it won't be very intimidating. If they're cold and they fall of the trees on top of you, it might be scary. it is It is Florida. That's actually a super fun concept in general, just to think about like a game show gone wrong. yeah Yeah. But just like even kind of the lore behind it Like this, the kids always getting scared by the temple guards jumping out at them. That brought up to a more like adult level. Right, right. Would be.
Speaker: Really cool. Plus like the nostalgia for. think everyone who watched the show is an adult now for sure. So yeah. I mean I grew It was one of my favorite shows growing up. I only really saw reruns.
Speaker: I think. So you're also like much younger. Yeah. I was going to say me and I also know that show original. Yeah. ah
Speaker: Nate's a baby. Yeah I am. But i have seen i have seen the show. I've just not seen a lot of it. I didn't see it when they were actually making it back in the day.
Speaker: Looking back, it's so like low quality. but and That happens. You look back at child shows, you're like, wow, this was actually not good. But I watched the crap out of it. Yeah.
Speaker: Or watching Guts and being like, man, these kids are so athletic. And watching it now, I'm like, oh my god, you're terrible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have no room to talk though. I say people are terrible when watching like American Ninja Warrior and I couldn't do any of that. so True. Or wipe out.
Speaker: But yeah. um I didn't thought of that one. Also, side note, Blue Barracuda is always and forever.
Speaker: I don't have a team. Yeah. I can be recruited. Blue Barracudas. I had like ah ah like a hierarchy of like who I always wanted.
Speaker: Who's your least favorite then? um Orange Iguanas. Okay. Same probably. did they lose a lot? I don't know. I just didn't okay just didn't like them. I probably just didn't think Iguanas were ah very cool team.
Speaker: No, probably not. So it's blueberry kudas, silver snakes, red jaguars, green monkeys. I should do it in order that they always announce them on the show, but I missed something. Purple parrots. There we go. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Green monkeys, silver snakes. Bring a back memory as well. Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I like how our first two examples were not roller coasters. No. Yeah. mean what i Actually, none of my ideas are technically roller coasters. That's true. Well, I guess technically one of them is.
Speaker: I've been trying to rack my brain and think if a park has ever actually done that. Um... And I've only come up with two. So like Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Hallow Scream event has a haunted house built underneath escape from Pompeii.
Speaker: um And while they didn't like it name it. Yeah. Yeah. um There was ah right now it's called like Bloodline or something like that. um It's been themed to like a billion different things over the years. Yeah.
Speaker: um But one of the years they did do like a tie to the Pompeii theme. And it had like, um ah like the volcanic eruption and fire like and burned people aspect to it, which was pretty cool.
Speaker: um And the other one I thought of was Dorney parks, haunt event um built ghosts in the machine, which has a thematic tie in to um iron menaces backstory, which is actually um super cool. um And they kind of like, they basically built them around the same time. So they like knew that they were going to be able to do that. I don't know how many other parks have an opportunity like that, but I think that's super, super cool to just have like a house that sort of lives in the area that it belongs in, in the park. That's really smart on their part.
Speaker: And it's very... like I got to walk through it in the daytime. The lights were off. And I was like, dang. That was like kind of unnerving with no actors in it. Just walking through it. So I can imagine. it's And I've heard that it's like a very effective house. And well done Dorney.
Speaker: I did not do it when we were there. So... I don't know if this is a stretch or not. But... um One year, Kings Island, before they condemned it, had in Son of Beast Station had like the Wolf Pack, which I don't know if that was supposed to be Son of Beast or Beast related, but it was in the Son of Beast Station. And that's the only time I've ever been in the Son of Beast Station.
Speaker: And I remember that's Wolf Pack. You can kind of be the Beast. I think the Beast is usually imagined to be more of like a kind of bear or Sasquatch kind of thing than a wolf. But I don't know if that's related.
Speaker: But that could have been one maybe. Yeah, that could easily be. I mean, that's one that I had on my list. And when you think about like the creator for that, it's again, it's kind of open book because we don't really know exactly what the beast looks like and you yeah interpret it so many ways. So like when I think about it, I think of an outdoor house actually like through the woods. um And I think about starting out like with a village facade and the people in the village are like, oh, we have to go attack the beast. And as you're going through, like you're getting scared by some of the villagers with like pitchforks and stuff. And then eventually at the end, you start to encounter like the beast itself.
Speaker: Yeah, would that would be cool. You could really tie in like the beast and mystic timbers into one. Yeah. On attraction. Yeah. You could. Like mystic already has the what's in the shed built in with the.
Speaker: if The three different. Yeah, bats, snakes, and a tree. Yeah. Yeah. Throw a beast in there. Maybe it's just what's in the King's Island woods because you have so many like opportunities there. Yeah, diamondback and banshees. You've got bats and banshees and yeah snakes. yeah Maybe this is why people love King's Island hot so much. Aliens. That's true, yeah.
Speaker: And then you've got three racing Mini Coopers.
Speaker: I actually don't know much about KI's haunt, but you would think that the um ah what's that called? Area 15 area would... That's not what it's called, is it? ah Area 72. Okay, 72. I'm thinking of something in Las Vegas, but yeah. That whole Area 72 is very... Yeah. wolf yeah It's very conducive to a house. like You could theme yeah a house very easily around that sort of like sci-fi, aliens, conspiracy theory. There is one back there.
Speaker: Is it? Yeah, there is one. Alien Abyss, I think it is. Okay, okay. They like open that gate along Racer, right? Is that where it goes? something like that. Yeah. And like I walked around in that area the other night. We went um up first night of Haunt and I literally just walked around. I didn't ride anything. I just filmed and checked out the different scare zones and stuff. And they used to have like more like roaming scare actors in that area. And they really didn't this year.
Speaker: That's a shame. Yeah. Yeah. Cody Mall was good this year, though. A lot of their ah previous houses, which they've brought Slaughterhouse back a lot, but there's like a lot of them that don't like actually relate to anything they have themed in the park, which is kind of a missed opportunity.
Speaker: um Probably, in my opinion, the worst... Haunt attraction I've ever been through um was at Kings Island. It's called Oculus. It was completely pitch black. And all you did was like have your hand along the wall the whole time to like feel different things.
Speaker: i thought that was terrible. I don't want to touch things. And also it was dark. yes so But yeah, like they they could definitely bring more ride stuff into it, at that that whole park. but yeah just are I remember Alton Towers used to have a um used start used to have a haunted house called Subspecies. which was, i i think, i I've not been to Scarefest myself, so like i I never experienced this. it was it was It was a house during the Scarefest event for like five years, but it was it was loose maybe loosely themed around like the imagery of Nemesis, or just show you about Nemesis.
Speaker: um so to all the from From everything that I heard about it it was it was quite easily like the most... I guess, like, quote-unquote intense house that they had, actors could actually touch you and stuff in there, where ah where in, like, other houses, I don't think... I guess, recalling from other people's, like, reports on it and stuff, the the as actors didn't touch you in in other houses and stuff. In this one, they did. and if i remember correctly like i think at one point i think at one point they lined you up on a wall basically that had they lined you up in front of like a line of doors on a wall and like actors could like basically like just open like any of the doors behind you and just like drag you into like other hallways into the in in in the whole like network and stuff, and you had no you had no idea if if you if you know an actor was going to choose you or not, naturally. um
Speaker: So like it was very much like... It it seemed like it was anyway. it seemed like it was very much playing on just like the tension build-up to like those kind of moments, and then just bombarding you with you know like different scares and stuff. And actually, like as I said, I don't know if the touching was like on your shoulder. I heard some things about like them touching like guests' ankles and so and stuff like that. And um yeah, it seemed very much... At the at the time, right at the at the time, like...
Speaker: you know, how long is it? went from 2015 to 2019. So, like, around that time, I was, like, Halloween events were a hard no for me. Like, I was just, like, I would hear people talk about this thing and I would just be like, absolutely not. I'm going nowhere near the place. Like, during Halloween.
Speaker: But now, I'm, like... that would be that would be fun to get drunk and do. I think. Yeah. That whole park is full of opportunities to take the mystery theme and turn it into... I mean, you think about Wicker Man, and that already reminds me of Galkin that was at HHN recently. um And, like, Smiler, I mean, that one is ripe for the picking. like Yeah. Yeah. like I asked Mike what he would want to theme ah Haunted House 2 and he just said Nemesis or Smiler.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah hu Even Oblivion. Even Oblivion you could do something with yeah with that. feeling like I feel like Alton Towers just is a on attraction. Yeah. Like the park. Yeah.
Speaker: Did she like let you into the castle and on your own hecks with a flashlight? Yeah. Yeah, the Vekoma Madhouse Hex, that's another one. Obviously, Subterra is tied into Nemesis, but... Yeah, I was going to say that. I wonder if the Madhouse manor. Oh, is it really? That's fine. yeah, yeah. It should be.
Speaker: Yeah. um I think it's called The Attic, I think. Okay. Or maybe another one. I know there's definitely one in there. a car remember the name, though. yeah We also loved the whole of TCS loved the Curse of Alton Manor dark ride there. Oh, yeah. So good. Turning that into a house is so good in it. I really enjoyed that one. Except for the spider. was going to say, okay. I really enjoyed that dark ride. It was really cool. Until the spider came around. didn't like that. don't like big spiders in my face.
Speaker: yeah yeah that was like ah one of the scariest dark rides i've been on like i couldn't believe like how effective it was it was really cool i think it might be the scariest dark ride i've ever been on yeah it's awesome and then there's me i'm like i was not scared at all once i mean i don't know that i would say i was scared i just am recognizing it as there's nothing more scary that i yeah you know Unless you consider like riding the Indiana Beach one and not sure if it's going to catch on fire. Yeah, that's pretty scary rode that thing while it was actively sparking. so yeah It does that a lot. yes I did not ride that because of it. so it yeah um that That house in the manor was called um the Attic Terror of the Towers, which ran it ran from.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, it had a similar timeline to subies to ah subspecies, um but only it started in 2019 and ended in 2024. So it seems like it seems like they cycle out um ah houses like every five years, depending on like if they're popular or popular enough to reach five years.
Speaker: um Yeah. And then bring in some new ideas, which is always a good way go, would say. Uh-oh. say buto Do you know if they do scare zones and such as well? and they do a couple are They do a couple of scare zones. I think they i they i think they change those out. or some that They might have some years where they don't do any at all, but they change those out. I'm not sure i not sure which ones they're running this year. You can see I'm so well prepared for this episode. um But, yeah.
Speaker: it's It seems like... um To be honest, in in general, it seems it seems like, ah especially among UK enthusiasts anyway, the demand for a certain level of quality amongst Halloween events seems to be much higher than amongst US enthusiasts or just US parks in general. um I mean, I have i have a few friends who um have a few friends who love the... um A few UK friends who love the like Halloween events, both at parks and at and like but like the the regional like farm events and stuff like that. um
Speaker: And they have... like i mean no And rightly so, they have extremely high standards for yeah for like how intense um ah scares are, for how how well the set design is done. Yeah.
Speaker: And like how how um attractions are operated and stuff in terms of pulsing versus like having conga lines running through them and stuff like that. um So it's it's it's always interesting to hear their perspectives on what they fit what they think would work for different houses, depending on the venue, depending on if it's up ah at a park or a farm attraction or something, and like depending and and like their views on like which IPs work yeah and their creativity around original Halloween attractions and stuff.
Speaker: That's interesting. I never really even thought about Alton Towers having a Halloween event, but like I feel it's a park that is very well suited for one. Oh, yeah. Scarefest is one of, if not the most well-known theme park Halloween event, I would say, in England. okay And if it if it falls below par, like in terms of um in terms of what people expect of it, people get very vocal about it and
Speaker: they have that like they They seem they seem to granted, I've never been. i haven't I haven't been to it. um So just really just observing like people's reactions to different things and like how they receive the event each year. It seems as though they'll have had like a few years here or there where they really set the by that set the bar high for themselves. yeah And people are like, oh well, you can't drop below this now. like yeah This is what this event is now. Well, I mean... It sounds like it's the HHN of England because if it really is like the premier haunt event, then it has a following. Maybe not in terms how busy and stuff. Sure, yeah. Like a volume of people, but yeah. But like people are following it and has fans and stuff like that, then you know that like it's it's built itself a community. I mean, the only other one that I've heard of like being a big thing in Europe is the one at Wallaby Holland. I've heard crazy things about their haunt event being...
Speaker: super popular and they have like upcharge houses where like you said they can touch you and do weird stuff I know that Erica Dorman's done some of those and has talked about like I think there was a meat packing plant one and she got like strung up to a board or something like that and you don't know yeah oh my gosh that's wild they definitely do some crazy stuff over there too oh yeah European haunts are built different yeah yeah not that I know from personal experience but from what I've heard yeah i've never been to a haunt in europe but i do remember at at twos and free i wasn't sure if i was gonna bring this up or not but i think it fits here um they have like a i'm pretty sure it's a permanent like haunted attraction up by storm the dragon legend it's like five bucks us s and um i think you have to sign a waiver because they do chase you and can touch you and um that's one of the only haunted attractions i've ever like
Speaker: sprinted out of at the end i was still running my friend my friend and i were still were so scared at the end we were being chased we ran straight out the door and we were back in the midway luckily it was not a crowded midway there were not a lot of people there we just ran out in the midway we were like oh well we made it we're alive like It was that intense. Like they were like reaching out at us. they I got touched a couple times and there's a dude like literally chasing us with like an ax. I was like, I'm, this is crazy. I'm not built for this.
Speaker: um So yeah, I like, we sprinted out of that, hit the doors wide open. like a Scooby-Doo kind of scene. i yeah And there we were in the midway. We're like, Oh, that was fun. i've dollars well still yeah There does seem to be like i European parks in general seem to have that more often, like a year round haunt. Because I was just in Italy and like Magic Land had two right next to each other. I did both of them.
Speaker: um And there was one at um Movie Park. that's That one you didn't have to, it wasn't even an upcharge. It was just included with admission that you could go through it. And that one was super detailed. It was it was crazy. i was We don't have a lot of instances of that in the in the US, like a year round haunt so in a park. Yeah.
Speaker: I have to shout out um your experience guide, the YouTube channel, um formerly um Pleasure Beach Experience. So they go they get to as many um they get to as many hallow like Halloween events like throughout as they as they can like throughout the country, throughout throughout England, throughout the... um the Halloween season. um And their um vlogs and like coverage of Halloween events is always super fun to watch because um they they have a couple a couple of them like hate like like hallowe like Halloween mazes. like Not like hate as in like they'll never do them, but yeah like they're they're the ones... like Actually scared. They're in contact with all of these different
Speaker: like places to like do vlogs and and do coverage and stuff. So the scare actors at them like always like always know who to pinpoint and who to target like as soon as soon as they come through and everything. and um So England has this one um this one Halloween event ah called Horror at Hinchingbrook House.
Speaker: which at one point, I'm not sure if this is true um now, but ah i'm I'm pretty sure at one point you had to sign like some kind of waiver before going through it, not to bite on the whole 13 marketing or anything, but um I'm pretty sure at one point you had to sign something before like going through it and stuff, because of like the degree to which the actors will like come into contact with you and and do like all sorts of different things and stuff. And if I'm remembering correctly, it's like a fifteen like maybe 10-15 minute long like whole walkthrough and everything. And like the sets look like the sets look ridiculous. like They look they look like grotesque in probably in probably like the best ways possible.
Speaker: And it's full of just like like actors coming at you with chainsaws, with like whatever else and like full on chasing you through like because because it's it because it's at this at this huge house and like some parts of it inside and some parts of it outside so at some point you know actors are just just straight up just chasing you for like a solid like 15 20 seconds with with like chainsaws and stuff but speaking speaking of just running out of ah of a house yeah we just busted out of it yeah yeah
Speaker: That actually reminds me. check out that Check out their coverage. Your Experience Guide on YouTube. They've got ah they've got a a few different vlogs from like previous years of horror, Hinging Brookhouse. Some of the most hilarious ah Halloween like content you'll find on YouTube is so funny.
Speaker: Well, we were talking about European parks that have ah haunt attractions all year round, and I can't believe it's getting brought up again, but Gronelund, lo and behold, Gronelund had one, and we we did that one. is This is all is your version of, for those who for those who are unaware, Block Zone is. Yeah, right. You know what? Just Gronelund the park. But ah i can't I can't remember if it was an upcharge, because I feel like...
Speaker: feel like we literally were talking to an employee and then they were like, hey, come back to this later and we'll let you in. like I wasn't like doing anything like media or anything. like filming I mean, I was filming the park, but Yeah, I wasn't doing anything special, but I feel like we got into that one didn't have to pay for it.
Speaker: I don't know if it's always like that or not. But it was pretty scary, too. But we had just we had already done ah Norway Tues and Freed, so like we were already well-adjusted. So I don't remember much about that one because I don't i don't think it was nearly as as terrifying.
Speaker: but yeah So it wasn't Insane but scary? Yeah, well, Insane was across the park, actually. get out yeah Yeah. and Well, Insane was there. You could see it once you exited. Because it's a very small park.
Speaker: Insane has become the new Talented Dorney Park of this podcast. i mean yeah Yeah. saying I mean, we still have Talented Dorney Park. But insane and the word insane is like a is like a ah landmine like if you say it it's over.
Speaker: But yeah. um Yeah i I like that Europeans or European parks have those like kind of year round those are pretty cool. i'm I'm not thinking of any US parks that I could think of that have that. so Well, ah Indiana Beach, actually, that has that walkthrough one, that House of Frankenstein. Frankenstein, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, it's not a great one, but it's it's pretty fun to walk through if you've never done it. is on Is the one at Lisaburg, is it Hotel Gaston or something like that? is that a Is that like a Halloween walkthrough or is that just straight up a haunted house? um Oh, I think I went through that. don't recall that one.
Speaker: I think it is. there i know I know it's a scare attraction of some kind. Yeah, it wasn't like... I'm trying to remember. I think it was mostly like animatronics. I don't think there were many live actors in it. But I do remember like that we went through it and it was not an upcharge. It was just like part of the park.
Speaker: Right. We love Liseberg. Yeah, indeed. It's such a good park. It was a great park. Love it. I did not do whatever haunted thing that was. I don't think I heard about it when I was there. Maybe I missed something.
Speaker: I don't typically go out of my way for haunted attractions. Now I feel like I have to because I have a podcast about it. I'm like, this and it's probably terrible. I don't know if you've been to Susan Freed yet, but... and Not yet, so that's on the list now.
Speaker: Definitely get that one on there. it i was I ran out of that house. Yeah. There's definitely some events I'm excited to get to at some point, and sometimes it's just fun to discover like regional ones that you didn't know existed. i mean, there's a lot of them in the U.S. that I think Mikhail was talking about, like farm ones. I mean, yeah, in the U.S., a lot of farms will just be like, what do we do with this land? And they're like, let's put a house on it.
Speaker: um Like the Trail of Terror one that we did up in New England, while I wouldn't say it was like one of the scarier ones I've done, it was so long. It was like a mile through the woods, just walking and walking. I think it took about 50 minutes to walk through the whole thing. um And yeah, was that was crazy. And then um there's one near Kelly called...
Speaker: Lehigh Valley Screen Park and it's like really well done. And like you take a hayride and it has houses with indoor and outdoor sections and special effects. And sure, it's not like, you know, set design level of HHN, but there were some really good scares in there, I have to say.
Speaker: Yeah, Indiana has a couple of notable ones. And I think about it. I should probably go try them out. But um Indie Screen Park has um like advertisements all over Indianapolis. I'm like, I've never done it. I've never done it.
Speaker: um And then growing up, I remember hearing from Evansville, Indiana, which is one of those big small towns. Like, it's it's big if you live near it and you're in a small town, but it's not big.
Speaker: They have two places. One of them's at the courthouse, and I can't remember what that one's called, but then they also have one at the old prison or old jail that's in Evansville, and it's called the House of Lecter.
Speaker: and um i as a kid heard it all the time but was a pretty big scaredy cat so i never i never went and did those i'm sure they're pretty good i should probably go try to do those too at some point but yeah there's couple in cincinnati that are unique that i want to do um one of them is dent schoolhouse which is like in an old school house and that's one that mike's cousin has been a part of for like eight years now okay um So I want to get them on the podcast if we can at some point to talk about it. But then there's also one on the river. I think it's on a boat called the USS Nightmare.
Speaker: Ooh, that's fun. Yeah. Love unique atmosphere. I think it's actually on the boat. Isn't um Land of Illusion kind of in that area too? That's like Dayton area. Oh, Dayton. Okay, I was going to say. Because Caleb and Bethany just went to to Land of Illusion. Yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about that. I need to go some year.
Speaker: Come on up. Yeah. Come to Ohio. I love Ohio. It's great. ah He said with so much enthusiasm. It's me and Allison always telling people, come to Ohio. yeah Hey, it worked for Nate. That's a haunt.
Speaker: Ohio itself is a haunt. Come to Ohio. It's an Ohio-themed haunt, and it's like, oh, a corn maze. That's basically what it is. I was about to say, every scammy is in a corn maze. Yeah, a corn maze full of King's Island enthusiasts. I don't remember if I said this before we started recording or not, but corn maze with KI enthusiasts and then small market sports teams. Like being a Browns fan or a Reds fan, like that's pretty terrifying. Oh, geez.
Speaker: $40 for parking. Oh, yeah. And it's $40 for parking. That scares me enough to turn around. I'm like, nope. Yeah. yeah um Luckily, I haven't encountered many haunts. Like, the regional haunts know that you need to park for free so you can go to it. because Yeah. um Yeah.
Speaker: That reminds me, I did want to ask, like, in your experience of haunted attractions, not just at parks, but just in general, what are the things that, like, you you want them to have?
Speaker: um Because for me, like, HHN is missing some of those aspects. um And, like, to build a really complete event, I think there's some, like, elements that you'd be looking for to have all together in one place.
Speaker: Not a conga line. Not a conga line, for sure. That's top of the list for me. Yeah. Pulsing people through the houses, having a more independent experience is super fun. Especially like, we were just at Fright Fest over Georgia.
Speaker: um And the group that I was with, um we kept, there kept being like teenagers right behind us. And, you know, they do that thing in the queue where they're like bumping against you, making all this noise. And, you know, as soon as they go in the house, they're just going to start screaming at everything. And it's annoying. So we literally like ask the house attendant. We were like, can we just because they do pulse there. But we're like, can we just go in our group and not put us with them? She was like, OK, so we got to go through on our own. And it does make a big difference to people that are around you and everything.
Speaker: I just like pretty elements. pretty scenic design for sure yeah yeah covering as much like preventing a breaking of immersion as much as possible is like i know it's like on some level you gotta have safety things like exit signs or something like that but like yeah covering as much of those elements as you can um to make it feel like you're somewhere else like somewhere maybe you shouldn't be or you know like give you that spooky feeling that's probably the main thing for me is just like keeping it all immersed i want I don't want to see like a like go through it and see the side of a pole barn like wall on one side you know like kind of just exposed or like the black curtain with the fluorescent light spilling from behind it yeah and you're like no ah yeah or like very obviously like curtains just there to separate you from that room so you can't see what's next like find a better more creative way to do that yeah for sure
Speaker: Yeah. you We were just talking about, um yeah, to to to build off that point, don't think we were talking about talking about earlier, but just um being able to balance, like, because it's obviously, like, theme parks are in such an IP-centric space nowadays. I think the the ability to come up with original original mazes, original ideas for scenes and stuff is It's so important because um you don't want to
Speaker: you don't want to trap yourself in the box of just doing something that conforms to one to one IP and um kind of limiting your control. creativity in terms of like the types of scares you can do within that sort of universe. Which I always think... i I will say, I always think HHN does a great job of obviously giving you given like people like the IPs that they want to see and stuff. And the ones that they might want to... that that that That they might think that lend themselves to houses. But then also...
Speaker: you know, like earmarking those, the um like that number of houses to just like original houses and original ideas and stuff. Yeah. I think that's really important to make sure you have that semblance of original ideas to room on but really open up the possibilities of what you can do with the maze.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely having some of the sandbox mode houses where it's just we throwing all kinds of things at the wall and just coming up with anything or they can be more fun. I mean, like generally over the years, I have trended towards preferring the original houses over the IP houses. and I think part of that too is just with IPs, you have an expectation, if especially if you've seen it already about what it's going to be, what it could look like, what the scenes are going to be. And then you could end up disappointed having not experienced some of that. And I think, unfortunately, even though it's an incredible film, Sinners is kind of having that issue this year um because people are not kind of finding what they were looking for in that house or the scenes that they wanted or or things like that.
Speaker: Um, And that is pretty common. Yeah, it's a trap that you can much more easily fall into when you don't yeah when you don't give the kind of representation to a certain, like, beloved scene that people will be, like, expecting and wanting and stuff.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, and then the other thing, too, is just the element of surprise. Like, part of scaring you is putting you in an unfamiliar environment. And if it's straight out of a movie, you kind of know what you're going to be in. Whereas if it's an original house, especially the way that HHN describes their originals, Sometimes they describe it in a way and then experiencing it is not at all like the one sentence description they gave you. And you're like, oh, wow, this is super cool and not what I expected. And that's part of the surprise of experiencing it that makes it fun. Yeah, I was going to say that can be intentional. That can be entirely intentional to lead whichever guest down one path of thinking.
Speaker: and then completely be able to turn things around at like a certain like plot twist kind of esque moment, like in the house. My favorite house when I did HHN in 2023 was Darkest Deal.
Speaker: yes like kind of Kind of because of that, because it because there were so many like unexpected, just like basically changes of direction, for lack of a better term. the um And just the uniqueness of tying in the concept of a musician that's so thirsty for fame and success and turning that on its head and selling that musician. Makes deal the devil. selling this all so to speak and the way they set that up I just thought was so cool and creative while then also being able to basically have full control over what direction we want you to think this is going to go and then you know just doing a full like 180 sometimes and stuff
Speaker: Yeah, that was definitely one of the houses that has balanced the storytelling versus like scares and thematic elements really, really well. um Because it wasn't an overly complicated story, but there was enough of it there that you were still kind of following along. And that was that was really well done.
Speaker: Yeah, I had that one ranked at number two on my list for that year. What was number one? Yeti. Oh, Yeti. That's an element that we haven't talked about, which is like Halloween is camp sometimes, you know, like it's and that house was like the jump scares were good and sometimes but also it was just very silly. And and sometimes that's part of it too. and And I always like look for that. I feel like this year they don't.
Speaker: They should have just said that that the alien house was going to be camp because it is like effectively. They tried to sell it as being super scary and it's not. And I'm just like, if you had, I would have been like more on board with this because the aliens look so silly. they have like these big bulbous masks and everything. and you're just like, this looks exactly like, you know, like the movie aliens. And so um I was missing a little bit of that. Although the HR blood and guts house this year does have that camp element to it, which is fun to see.
Speaker: um and you'll often it's funny because like it can be intentional or unintentional and sometimes that regional haunts if it's not well executed you can be like oh i see your cheap jason mask or whatever you know yeah i'm wondering if that's why i like the yeti house so much is like i'm very aware that the suspension of disbelief does not work on me so that's why i think i don't get scared in houses because i always just like look at these scare actors and i know they're actors and i alwaysm always just like what's up yeah
Speaker: And so I guess that might be part of why I don't get scared. Maybe that's why I like Yeti. Yeah, I could see it. It was just more fun. It was, yeah, it was very silly.
Speaker: But still, still like well done. Like the yeah the set design and everything was still there. is just silly. Yeah.
Speaker: um i'm I'm looking at my list of kind of other things that, you know, if I were building an event, what I'd be looking for. One of the things I wrote down, which is a big factor this year at HHN, some of the houses open at 2 p.m., which is so early in the day. It's still so bright. Yeah. Middle of the afternoon. Yeah.
Speaker: part Part of a Halloween event is is it being dark. Like it should start at sunset or after to be an effective experience. um And the only other time I've experienced one that had control over that, which was really interesting, was um the Horror Nights house in Vegas.
Speaker: Because it's in a warehouse. And even though there are four mazes in there, the entire like midway is also indoor and highly themed and obviously dark. So they control that even if it's 2 p.m. It's dark in there. um And that was a super cool thing. So like both of those things combined, the fact that you want it to be like dark and atmospheric. And then also you want your...
Speaker: kind of midways and central areas where you're not in a house to still have a vibe to it. You want to see like fog, fire, cool lighting, um decor out in the non-house areas as well um to kind of like Nate said, it's not even just in the houses, the immersion, but the immersion of the whole event. Like, does it feel like Halloween everywhere and not just like, because sometimes at HHN, which is again, a kind of a detractor to me, the cues are unthemed. Like you're just walking through switchbacks. it with sound stages and the feeling that you're at HHN goes away, which you have that when you're out in the scare zones in the park with the lighting and the fog and everything, but you completely lose that in some of the cues, unfortunately. um And so like I grew up going to the Busch Gardens Williamsburg Hallowscream event and I think probably not as much anymore, but back when I used to go there like years ago, that was really effective. Like they decorated the whole park so well. There were scare zones all over the place. They always had tons of fog, like all of every single lighting fixture in that park got changed to be like a blue color or like ah a darker color. um And it was just cool to see this like overlaid over the whole park. And there was really nowhere you could go that felt, oh, this is a normal section besides maybe Land of Dragons. But um everywhere else was just like,
Speaker: What they did with the with the England ah land ah for Howl or Scream, turning it into just a celebration of Jack the Ripper. um like And then having like, not celebration is the wrong word, but you know i mean. But like yeah and turn it ten in the turning the ah Union Jack flags into wanted posters. Oh, so cool.
Speaker: Yeah. It was so cool. And that one's been around for like 10 years maybe now, that Scare Zone. But like it's so smart. It's like a perfect tie in to the England area that you love to see like parks taking advantage of. i already have this. How can i twist it and make it work for a Halloween event?
Speaker: The Scare Zones were my favorite part of Howl of Scream when i ah when I worked there in 2018. Yeah, the Scare Zones were easily my favorite part of of of the event that that year at least. Yeah.
Speaker: They were so well done. The houses were kind of eh. But the schedule was super well done. Yeah. Let's see if I have anything else.
Speaker: I think that's about it. um I do like um a combination of indoor and outdoor experiences, which is something you don't get so much at HHN. But I like, particularly at that Lehigh Valley Scream Park and some of the other regional haunts I've done, it's really fun to do a house where like part of it is indoor and part of it is outdoor and you kind of like are interwinding between the two. Like I remember there was one part where you go through like a barn or something and then you walk out of the barn and you get dumped into a corn maze and you're walking through that, but the house isn't over. You go back into another building and like there was more of it. And and that's kind of a fun like way to intertwine it.
Speaker: Of course that only works at nighttime, which luckily this place was only open at night. So yeah. Yeah. Halloween Horror Nights can never Right, yeah. With their 2PM houses. Yeah, I don't even know that they have anywhere they could set up an outdoor house. Like, ah I don't know. HHN Hollywood tries to do it with the Terror Tram because they bring you to back lot area that's like you're normally part of the studio tour. And they bring you down there and you're walking around outside. um So that one doesn't open till later when it's actually dark out. But it's not...
Speaker: It's not really a haunted house. It's more of like a walkthrough experience, kind of like a scare zone in a way. It was it was interesting, but I didn't love it. I think at Orlando, like the all the plate I feel like all of the backstage areas where they could do an outside attraction, they're using as space for catapulting queues. Exactly.
Speaker: For the houses that are there. They're probably like, we we could try to do it here, but then where would we put all of our cues? Yeah. flip Just flip it one year, put the cues in where the house usually is, and then put the house outside where the cue usually is. The cue is at a soundstage and then the house is in the parking lot. That would be cool. Brilliant.
Speaker: yeah I'd be interested to see it, though. Frankly, their set design is so good. like It would be cool to to see something different. Yeah, and all the um all of the areas, both the sound stages and the queue line areas, they're all like on the outskirts of the park anyway. like it's not it's not like It's not like it'd be intruding on on anything that's going on like within right park areas, like where scare zones might be and stuff. Yeah.
Speaker: they could They could do something like that. I kind of wonder if... um Because i i know they I know they have they they have the whole 10 houses every year just purely because like to be able to, for lack of a better word, house that many people going to the event every night and stuff. But i often I often wonder if they could if they could afford to do... like just a few less houses to then be able to use that space for like you know things that things that we're suggesting, like maybe out make out outdoor attractions or um ah more space for you know keep it keep like including the queue lines within like the thematic sort of like identity of each house and stuff. i wonder if I wonder if that's something that they could afford to do.
Speaker: But then at what point does that become like a detriment to capacity, like overall capacity? Yeah. Like for each night and stuff. that's they yeah That's the tough part they're having to balance right now. is just like gosh It just gets so busy. um And then the other thing is it's you know the regional haunts don't have to deal with this that are on their own property, but like you have to operate this park during the day. And so a lot of the backstage areas that are being used are literally like a road that like the backstage cars are driving on during the day. and then they have to like close it down and be like, okay, it's HHN now. Get out of the way. you know Yeah.
Speaker: that was particularly apparent in Hollywood. There were literally like barricades that were like a narrow little la lane when it first opened and there was still vehicle traffic going. And then later they like widened it up and we're like, okay, now we're going to shut this road down. It was, it was pretty wild.
Speaker: That's yeah. That's something I hadn't thought of. It was just like, how do they, yeah. How do they make people just having to do their jobs like during the day until it turns into age and then it's like, Mm hmm.
Speaker: That's definitely like a big advantage to, you know, having your own space for it. And like, that's why it's so cool that the one in Vegas has its own space to be it all the time. And you have this central area that's so themed and fits, you know, the it's it's themed to like a warehouse of old HHN stuff basically so you just everywhere you look around there's just old set pieces and like where like warehousey looking things and it it really works well it doesn't sound like amazing but with the lighting and and the immersion in there it really works well um and again like there's some parks that do that well and and make the whole park feel like that atmosphere and some that don't
Speaker: it's It's tough. It's tough to do it. and Like all these parks are having to convert over at some point in the day to spooky season time. And um you want it during the daytime to still be like family friendly and stuff. You see HHN doing things like putting like canvas bags over props that have like blood and stuff on them during the day. And then later they pop them off.
Speaker: That's funny.
Speaker: um I do have a couple more ideas of things that I could go over. for it. One of them might be a little bit of a deep dive on it, but I won't make it terribly long.
Speaker: um Yeah, a couple more ideas I had on like what to put in a haunted house that I would like to see some point, or of them may never happen, but... um ah The first one I'll bring up is Uncharted, which I did think is technically a roller coaster because there is an Uncharted coaster at Porta Ventura.
Speaker: It is. um So that one is technically roller coaster. I'm talking more about either... I would talk about the video games or the movie, um which I think Universal could do if they wanted to. But it's been, i don't know. I think it's been at least five years since that movie came out. So I would be really surprised if they ever decided to do it. Also, that movie owned by Sony, is it not?
Speaker: Oh, is it? Yeah, it is a Sony movie, isn't it? Yeah. Okay, so probably not Universal. But then, doesn't PortAventura have something to do with Universal, or am I wrong on Not anymore. Not anymore. Not anymore, okay. So then so then maybe this won't happen. It won't happen at Agen. PortAventura needs be the house.
Speaker: Basically, i don't know if you've never played the games, they are very, very linear. They're not open world games at all. But the whole point of it is mixing like treasure hunting with ah like kind of mythology and pirates and like explorers and conquistadors and everything. So there's plenty of caves and booby traps and there's mountains and ruinous landscapes that you could put in.
Speaker: in particular at the end of the very first game of Uncharted, spoiler for an almost 20-year-old game, I think, um there is a curse of one of the treasures that they open up that basically it turns into this like smoke when they open it. And if you breathe it in, you basically get turned into this zombie kind of character. And having those running around and in the second game, there's like these large...
Speaker: native like yeti creatures that can chase you. I think it would be something where you wouldn't have to pull from it like a TV show. Like you would have more movie or other source material capabilities where you could build something that wouldn't just be predetermined.
Speaker: I think you can make it look really cool. And I'm a huge, it's my favorite video game franchise ever. So I would really freak out and I would have to like immediately, buy a ticket to wherever it is and go as if this were to ever happen.
Speaker: I'm surprised you haven't been to Port Aventure yet to rent it, honestly. I know, it's up there on the list, but I just haven't gotten out there yet. um And from what I've heard about people who have ridden Uncharted, it seems like they could do with putting something else in box. Probably. i'm i'm sure I won't and walk be... Yeah. From what I've heard, it's very much a coaster in a box. and I will say, though, queue is very well done. But the ride is... Oh, okay.
Speaker: The queue, you can put a haunted house in. It's like a cave. Yeah. I may like the queue a lot more than the ride itself. And back in high school, I think, like... three or four times I was Nathan Drake for Halloween, which he's not him. that He himself, the main character of the game is not scary at all, but um still like, yeah, it would be, be really cool to see that. um If it's a coaster in a box, it's a coaster in a box. I'm still probably going to love it. Probably not the ride, but it's a bucket list coaster.
Speaker: and It's a bucket list coaster regardless. Yeah. Really fun roller coaster as a roller coaster. Okay. Well, that's good. That's good. At least. Yeah. um To hear. But if anyone out there wants to put together a good ah Uncharted themed house, please do it. i will spend my money and go there.
Speaker: um So this other one I have written down actually brings up a little bit of Six Flags history as well. um So I'll start with that. But um back in 2015, so 11 years ago at this point, I didn't even know anything about coasters at this point, really. um But I was a huge Call Duty player.
Speaker: And that was the year that Black Ops 3 came out. And they had a zombies map, because most of the Call Duty games have a zombies mode. called Shadows of Evil. And to promote this game and to promote that um like part of the game, they entered into a deal with Six Flags where Six Flags Magic Mountain re-skinned Apocalypse, basically. They did an overlay of it to be Shadows of Evil, um the ride, instead of like Apocalypse, which I do think is really cool and had a lot of potential um to be like a full house.
Speaker: um But i guess the the extent of it was just doing an overlay on the ride. um And since I didn't know anything about Six Flags Magic Mountain or Apocalypse back then, I don't know how it went over and and what exactly they did the ride. But Shadows of Evil would be incredible. It's set in like the nineteen forty s in like a noir style um kind of noir films esque background, um, where they take like these four individuals that have done bad things. I've also, um done two, like a couple of them for Halloween. I'm going to lie as well myself. Um, but there's like a boxer, a cop, um, a burlesque dancer and a magician. And they've all like done these bad things. They get transported and there's zombies everywhere. And then there's a
Speaker: There's a beast with like tentacles. It's really large. there's a giant mouth. And um having that 1940s film noir style background would be the coolest idea.
Speaker: Um, but any call of duty zombies theming in a house, um, they've got characters that people know, like Rick Tuffin and Nikolai, um, and tank Dempsey. And like, they could take those guys, make a new part of the storyline to like multiple, like probably six games at this point, have these guys in them, um, as the zombie characters. And they, they, they've, they've been dragons before. There've been other mythological creatures along with the zombies.
Speaker: Um, and the zombies are known to like break part of the wall and come through it, which would be a great element for a haunted house. um They reach through, they chase you down, that's part of it.
Speaker: um There's war-themed zombies, and yeah. um I can kind of get into Call of Duty all day long, but I think it was cool that they so did the overlay on Apocalypse back in the day, but I think they could do way more with that, and if Call of Duty ever wanted to...
Speaker: I mean, even with Six Flags, if they wanted to partner with Six Flags again, that would be something I would i would love to see. Like, that that would just be... There's a lot of potential there, and it would be really cool.
Speaker: um That's kind of my my two really exciting ones that... The more I thought about it, I'm like, man, I really can talk about this for little while. But, yeah...
Speaker: yeah Those would both be cool. I do have a note about there's a, which this might actually just make me mad. So maybe I won't talk about it. um There's a musical called ride the cyclone, which the whole basis of the musical, the basis of the musical is what makes me mad because I feel like it stirs.
Speaker: fear among like the general public that doesn't need to be there on, Oh, if I go ride, well, the Coney Island cyclone or any other coaster, I'm going to die. Like these six, like these six, high schoolers did in this musical. And I tried to listen to it once on Spotify and I just got angry at listening to it. I'm like, this is just making people scared for no reason of a coaster, but, but taking, you know, ride the cyclone and making that a house, uh,
Speaker: As long as it doesn't make me mad, I guess it would be really cool to see as well. um But, yeah. I guess that's that's my little creative addition to, after brainstorming it for not that long before we started recording. Yeah, when you texted me ten minutes before saying you hadn't written any notes. It was like, I have not done anything this evening. Like, I forgot to think about it.
Speaker: But I came up with some stuff, I guess. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. more than why i came up with yeah Well, as I started thinking about those two examples, um it became like, oh yeah, I really could.
Speaker: I really could come up with something on these. We do have a couple of listener comments. Thank you to those of you who submitted responses. ah la um wa wa long plum said, backrooms walkthrough, which I have not seen backrooms. I have heard things.
Speaker: I've not seen backrooms, but I've seen the Blair Witch Project, which kind of like operates on the same approach in terms of a horror film. Does it? I've actually not seen the Blair Witch Project, so.
Speaker: from I mean, from what i've heard about backrooms, it it sounds very similar to Blair Witch Project to me. So without without getting into spoilers, the back rooms is the whole point of it is to get you unsettled. Like that's what it's not scary as in jump scare or anything. It's it's taking ordinary things and making them just look progressively more and more wrong as you get into this like labyrinth of never ending, you know, uncomfort, discomfort, discomfort. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: That's the Blair Witch Project. Yeah, so its um to me, the Blair Witch Project, having not seen it, is more of like a kind of like a hoax of like this like... Well, i mean i may I mean just in the sense of it's playing on, like, on suspense. Discomfort? Unrest. Unrest. Just ongoing. Just ongoing. Tension building.
Speaker: Just unrelenting, just, like, suspensefulness and anxiety throughout the entire movie until, like, right until the end. It's just, like, it's no jump scares, no nothing. Just straight, just build, build, build, build build throughout the entire film.
Speaker: there can't yeah There can be some jump scares in... Well, in the Backrooms movie, there are. But um like the Backrooms was obviously like Reddit internet lore for a while, and Kane Parsons made his YouTube channel and all that.
Speaker: But like the whole Backrooms and liminal space idea is really cool, and I think it would be very fun to like yeah do a walkthrough. No, that would be really cool to In the sense of trying to turn it into a like haunt attraction, it could...
Speaker: very easily fall into the very boring kind of category. Cause if you don't think you're lost in that progressively getting worse and an unsettling area, which actually one of the liminal spaces is in the Heathrow airport. I'm pretty sure there's an airport hotel in Heathrow that like is really unsettling, but, um,
Speaker: I don't know. it could It could be a cool idea, but like it would be fun to walk through. i just don't know how in-depth you could go with the scares on it. It definitely couldn't it definitely couldn't work at a busy event like... like like No, I don't think it would work at HHN.
Speaker: Yeah, I HHM does to me struggle a bit with the suspense and psychological aspects of it because yeah, like you said, there's just too many people going through it once and the jump scares are often like triggered with like sound effects. So they're not super quiet like there's there's not a build up to it necessarily because it's already loud in there. um But I don't know. i I could still see them doing it just because it was a popular movie. They could do it. And if if they add enough of the like, there are creatures and things in the back rooms, I think they would have to modify it a bit to pull it off.
Speaker: But I think it would be missing the original vibe of just something familiar yet incredibly unsettling. Yeah. Uncomfortable. I forgot to bring this up earlier, but...
Speaker: One of, this is so funny, one of the like scariest experiences that I've had wasn't even technically a haunted house. It was an escape room, um but it had like a horror theme to it.
Speaker: um And it it was an escape room that had multiple rooms to it. And like you were opening secret compartments and there was another room behind it and it was very dark and And they were like triggering the lights to go off and banging on things to scare you at times. And like, when I think about that, the reason why it was scary was because, well, first of all, yes, like you were just in there with your group and it was like, I think four of us.
Speaker: um So just, you know, having a smaller group of people, but the, the, what it was really about was the suspense of not knowing what was going to happen. And when you walk through, especially with a conga line, you know exactly where you're going. You're just following the person in front of you. But even in like post houses, you kind of, the trail is suggested to you enough for you to follow. And so you're never like in a free flow environment.
Speaker: um I think that some of these houses do exist out there, but that like, that would be one of the scariest experiences for me is to have like, this is a haunted house.
Speaker: We let you in, but there's no path. You're just exploring just and you don't know what you're going to find. You don't know what's around the corner. That is the kind of like suspense and like, what am I going to find that would freak me out? Because if there's no path, it's all undefined. Like, am I supposed to be opening doors? Like what's going to happen if I open this door? Like when you think about all of that, that's when it starts to get psychological.
Speaker: Yeah, it could be really cool if they put like open area time limit, but you don't know how much time is left. i'm Like they're timing you, you buy like 30 minutes or something, but you don't know how long it's been in the 30 minutes.
Speaker: I don't know if they take your phones in an escape room usually or not, but you might have to do that. if People would look at their watch and be like, oh... yeah I'm not 100% sure how it was executed, but I'm pretty sure Thought Park had something like that called Saw called saw Alive. um Which... i i know i never I never did it. It wasn't at the park for very long. I'm not 100% sure if it was a year-round... Well, I mean, like it's not a year-round park, but you know i mean? Just like... like operational throughout the entire ah season or if it was just for Halloween but I'm pretty sure it was a type of escape room like yeah but in a building right next to Saw the Ride obviously themed to Saw movies um
Speaker: i can only I can only imagine operated in the same way because I think it was an escape room-esque kind of attraction. So yeah you're in there, probably with your own group, um trying to solve your way through the scenario rather than just following a linear path yeah through the attraction. Which I've always thought, in in just like in escape rooms in general, if I'm having to... I suck at escape rooms in like anyway...
Speaker: ah Like I'm terrible at them. um If I'm trying to figure out like whatever, whatever puzzle or situation i' that I have to figure out in order to get out of this room while, or, or just like this, this, this venue space while also like, like uncovering things that could jump scare me as well. That like just, this not it was ten just not yeah this is not happen.
Speaker: but But, yeah. I just looked up that Saw Alive thing, and it says, unfortunately, Saw Alive closed its doors in 2018 due to health and safety concerns regarding the attraction sinking further down into the lake. Yes, yes, it was sinking. Oh.
Speaker: Yeah, unexpected. It was literally right on the edge of the land that the park used, like, where it was surrounded by, like, its lakes and stuff, um right next to right next to Saw the Ride. And it was, yeah, it was literally sinking into the lake. Yeah, that's kind of an unexpected ah reason for closure right there. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: You gotta read the second half of Wum Wum Wum. Yeah, sorry, I lost my tab with the notes. I'm doing too much research. um I looked up that Heathrow Airport Hotel. What the heck? Yeah, I know, right? It's so creepy looking. I've seen videos on Instagram of like a flat Kanye West face just like chasing the camera around. like it That's one of those weird liminal space memes.
Speaker: Okay. oh Yeah, i they exist. ah Yeah, the other half of Lom Lom Lom Lom's comment. I love Hershey doing the last hour lights off for the coasters. Yeah. that is I didn't know they did that. I didn't know that was a thing. That's kind of fun.
Speaker: More parts of it. that does remind me That does remind me of, um I don't know if Bush Gardens Williamsburg still still does this, um but in 2018, they had scare actors jump onto empty seats in coasters and be scaring people on the coasters.
Speaker: That's actually something um Solar Coaster brought up. What if there were scare actors on coasters? That would be really cool. I did not read. You're not the only one thinking about that. I have seen it before. think Busch Gardens Williamsburg did it a long time ago. They did it in 2018. Oh, did they really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I was operating Apollo's Chariot, we would have scare actors on the exit side of the train just be looking around for empty seats. Single rider line? March right onto the train, sit in the empty seats, and be like, hi. of people in the train it's a great way to sell on-ride photos yeah i mean i'm sure there's some people that like find that scary i personally wouldn't find that scary i would just think it was kind of fun oh it'd be hilarious i'd want i'd want them to sit next to me to me that that's more about like the sort of immersion of like oh we're at an you know we're in the scare zone and like they're even getting on the rides like they're everywhere yeah they've escaped
Speaker: color i'd be I'm literally just like picturing that. It was so fun. i like i I have multiple times I was just like, I wish I could just get on. ah Like one of my odd vivid memories from like Fright Fest over Georgia when I went like all the time because I went to school 20 minutes from Six Flags.
Speaker: I was like waiting in line for ice cream or something. And a zombie just like walks in and goes up to the counter and like looks around and grunts and then walks out. that What?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I like when ah scare actors kind of explore into the areas a little more like that. Oh, yeah. And especially on a ride like Apollo's Chariot as well, that just, like I mean, like it goes oh all the way away from the park,
Speaker: Which at night just makes for like among the best night rides in in like in the entire park. and you've and You're in there in the dark at night and you've got this scare actor saying whatever to you during the entire ride.
Speaker: Just like whispering in your ear during the whole ride. Chris Leonard said need a dropper tilting floor in the house similar to a dropper tilt track.
Speaker: I don't know how well that would work. I don't get in houses that do that. do what the netherworld does that oh it does yes so like there's this part of the pathway that you it's tilted upwards you walk out on it and then it drops but and it like goes down to a downward angle and it's kind of wild like i am surprised that they can get away with it was gonna say how how are they how are they like gaming the system of like liability or like health and safety i don't know I mean, to be fair, like that this pathway that you're walking on, it has high handrails.
Speaker: So like you have things to brace against when it happens, but it's not telegraphed really, unless you see it happen before you walk onto it. Like I got caught off guard by it. And I was like, okay, that's kind of crazy.
Speaker: Like how big of a drop are we talking for? it Um, ah double feet or something probably four to six feet. Yeah. I mean, yeah yeah, the whole table just goes like, boom.
Speaker: smaller than some coasters I've been on. Yeah, it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. So it's it's it's out there and it's been done. And then they also have the elevator gag. So like, um obviously it doesn't go anywhere. But at the beginning of their second house, you walk into an elevator and, you know, it's acting like it's going and then oh no, like it's it's dropping and the whole thing like bounces um as if the elevator has fallen.
Speaker: Tower of Terror. The Indiana Beach House of Frankenstein has a tilt floor. I mean, a bit of a spoiler if you haven't done it, but like you you won't know where it is until it happens. This whole episode is spoilers.
Speaker: Then you think you're going to die because it's at Indiana Beach. You're like, oh, I'm going to die. Right. You're like, oh, God. that way yeah Was that actually supposed to happen or is this place going to die? Right.
Speaker: is As far as I know, it is supposed to happen. Yeah. that's That almost makes me think of like combining funhouse elements into a haunted house. Because like so many funhouses have those tilty floors or like the ones that yeah spin. or like They have so many different fun things.
Speaker: Oh, that reminds me of a queue line at a European fair. I think it was in France. I was trying to get on the ride, which was a scary ride. it was like a scary dark ride. But in order to get in line, like the queue line, you were walking over water and you had to like walk on these pegs and there were rollers on it and um like tilting, like rotating floors.
Speaker: And on on top of like trying to get through the line, going through that and going through chains and all this stuff, there was a guy with a chainsaw chasing you through it. and Like to get on the ride. It was it was like, i how is there not a lawsuit on this yet? That's the epitome of the European Fair Circuit. like Right. I mean, no I was like, this would exist for approximately five seconds in the US s before someone like filed a lawsuit.
Speaker: Yeah. A while.
Speaker: ah Laurel said dead rides in dead theme parks everywhere. We are living it. That is very ominous. I mean, yeah we were I keep calling the past few years the coaster apocalypse. Like we are we are seeing the death of a lot of rides and parks right now.
Speaker: yeah that's Yeah. Somebody should just buy Six Flags America and turn it into an urban exploration horror thing. That would be cool. yeah i would be that would be if That would be a fun campy idea though. You go through a haunted house and and X2 pops out. Oh my god. Too soon, Mikhail.
Speaker: I'd be here for it. Ooh, we closed your coaster without warning you. You want to see me do it again? No, no. literally two is Two is too many. The end of the house is just... Bet me I won't do it again. Go on, bet me. but The end of the house is just the Instagram post. and yeah We are now closing.
Speaker: Yeah. Can I even get a post even after they like tore it down? I think so, didn't it? Oh, I have no idea. i don't even remember them acknowledging Kingda Ka, like ever. So I could be wrong, but yeah. On the walls, there's just Reddit speculation comments and some stuff.
Speaker: Yeah. And
Speaker: they're turning Wildwave into a warehouse. yeah Yeah, that's the haunted house, just walking through the data center that replaces yeah in in you In UV light, like in Monsters, CGA, you're next.
Speaker: oh Don't remind me. hu Don't remind me. you know, being scarier if they use the wrong form of your in there.
Speaker: My next what?
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, goodness. We kind of read solar coasters already, but I'll read it again. Make walkthroughs free with admission. We kind of talked about that and why it makes sense to charge for them.
Speaker: And then what if there were scare actors on coasters? We did talk about that as well. like One of my favorite things at Cedar Point is the Cutthroat Cove because there's never a line for it and you just go through it and it's in its own like dedicated space. Yeah. you can't read the Maverick.
Speaker: Yeah. And there's always a pirate asking me if I have any rum. Yeah. Yeah, that one's fun, because you can like just interact and talk with yeah I've never been any sort of scared there. I'm just ready to talk to the people.
Speaker: Yeah. mean, there's some that are like hiding in the darkness. but Well, yeah i went through it you and I went through it last year, didn't we? Did we? Probably. I don't know. i think I'm pretty sure we did. we talked I wouldn't be surprised, but I just don't remember. Yeah. I've been to Cedar Point in October a lot, so I think I've walked through it every time.
Speaker: I think it's literally like the anniversary of our cabin weekend. So it could be. Yeah.
Speaker: So I think that brings us to the end of the episode, guys. Thanks, Jen.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, when she's not here, I have to say i think I think you just need to start saying it when she is here, too. Just beat her to it. No. No, I told her already. I've already told her. I said, I'm never going to take it when she's here. But I might be like, i might be like hey, Jen.
Speaker: Say the line. Next time she says it, I'm going to be, thanks, Nate. She starts saying it, and then you just jump in for I think that brings the end of the episode.
Speaker: Wow. Thanks, Jen.
Speaker: And then also say thanks, Jen, before she finishes. yeah That's what she would say to her line. She's, thanks, Jen. Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, goodness. this This makes me want to actually like go do haunts now. Yeah, actually, I do want to go I will now pay for the King's Island ones. So next Thursday? Yeah, i'm sure.
Speaker: yeah I think that's our plan. Yeah. And that's why we're still a week ahead on episodes is so I can have a Thursday off. Yep.
Speaker: That works for me. Cool. Well, thank you for joining us, Joey. Yeah, thanks for having me. I guess if you want to hear more about all this spooky stuff, come come listen to Thrills, Chills, and Spills.
Speaker: If I can remember the name my own podcast. That's there right? Thrills, Chills, and Spills. We have like some social media or stuff, but I don't really pay attention to that. so It's on Spotify and other places. that i will link it I will link stuff in the description. Okay, yeah. We just recorded some like pretty long ones about HHN Orlando and Hollywood. And um I think our next episode will be covering some of the other regional hunts that we've been doing. So like I just did over Georgia and that the world will kind of go into more depth on that.
Speaker: Your guys' recent episodes have been good. You guys were the second podcast I ever listened to after this one. Oh, really? That's kind of crazy. still don't listen to a lot, but now I have a set of them that I do listen to. It's all the Buzzbars. It's the Buzzbars extended universe. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: um My brain just died. I'm surprised that we made it two hours, I'll be honest. Did you shout out Patreon? Not yet. I'm getting there. okay i want to make Okay. I want to make sure we didn't forget. No. of course How can we forget our Patreon? We will not ever forget.
Speaker: also did literally right before we started recording post a video from when I worked at the boarding school and got to help set up a haunted house. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Organized a haunted house. That's fun.
Speaker: Yeah, strap GoPros on kids' heads and send them through. And all the faculty, a bunch of the on-campus faculty were the scare actors. i believe I played the chick from the ring for the first year.
Speaker: Second year, I was hanging and ah banging on a window as kids walked by. So that was fun. That just reminded me, one of my favorite things has to be seeing professional athletes go through haunted houses.
Speaker: ah like scam yes and stuff I've seen videos of basketball players at Halloween Horror Nights and going through the houses and just turning into children basically So just imagine that just imagine the imagery of like a six foot ten guy just turning into a terrified little child.
Speaker: That's how it was with with the school haunted house is like all the basketball kids stuck together. Like we sent them all in like groups of like five or six or something like that. And we sent all the basketball kids together.
Speaker: ah They were the ones that screamed the loudest. yes that checks out I will i will send you that link too so good but yes thank you to our Patreon supporters thank you to Chris, Jeff, Alexander, Barbara and Nick for your support we love you yeah i think we're getting Jen a new microphone so thank you Patreon heck yeah but yeah love um any other closing spooky thoughts a boo yeah yeah
Speaker: That was great. yeah Thanks, Nate. You're welcome. Well, me matt they're there hashtag keep thinking inverted or something that.
Speaker: Joey doesn't know his podcast. I don't know my stupid closing lines that I've done for 70 episodes almost and I still have nothing more creative. ironic Keep hashtag thinking spooky. Right. That's ours. Stay spooky. yeah That's a lot easier to remember.
Speaker: Anyway, we will see you guys all next time. Bye.
