Terra's Lair

Alrighty, here's my next edition of blog posts that may help you build a better haunt.

Seven Layers of Scare

Gurus of interior design follow basic rules in designing a great room. Christopher Lowell came out with a blockbuster book called the Seven Layers of Design. In haunting, we also use basic rules to make a room truly scary. I'm gonna call them Terra's Seven Layers of Scare:

One: Art Direction and/or Theme
Two: Walls, Ceilings and Floors
Three: Main Scare (and it's sound)
Four: Accents
Five: Lighting
Six: Atmosphere
Seven: Touch and Smell

First, let's look at an example of a room that shows many of these layers:



This is a room at The Darkness, a professional haunt in St. Louis considered to be one of the best in its immersive, detailed haunt rooms. I love how you feel like you are looking at the outside of a gas station but really, you are inside a building.

Now, let's look at the layers more in depth. They are in numerical order because you build one and then the other.

One - Art direction and/or Theme: I covered this in my previous blog post. This is the foundation of the design of your room. Pick a theme and use consistent art direction to keep the design elements unified.

Two - Walls, Ceilings and Floors: Okay, the first area you want to decorate is the perimeter of the room. Wall design is the most important. It tells the viewer where they are. A garage (brickwork), a boiler room (rusty pipes), a mansion (peeling wallpaper). To convey the message even more, you can also decorate the floor and/or ceiling. In most garage haunts that's not easy to do, but if you can, it will help.

Three - Main Scare: Here's the whole reason you are doing this... to scare the heck outta people. Pick a scare that fits the room you are designing. Here's a neat picture of a super-scary hallway:



I love this picture because it sets the scene perfectly for a good scare. In this case a hidden scare in the hallway would be my best bet. You don't see anything but you dread that it's there. I would simply have an actor rap on the wall as they pass by. Not all scares have to be visible at first. The scare must fit the room design.

The scare also adds impact if it has a matching sound. A moan (zombie), squealing (rats), roar (monster).

Four - Accents: Okay, you've got the art direction, the walls are made, the scare is ready...now let's anchor it. Accents help tell the story. In the first picture you see a broken telephone poll. Just that one accent says that the monster has been rampaging. Accents can be chairs, pictures on the wall, dripping pipes, tossed trash, barbed wire.

Five - Lighting: Lighting makes or breaks a room design. I've seen awesome rooms but they were too bright, or too dark or didn't spotlight the right things. Lighting can be used as an accents (like the lit window in the first picture) and it can also be used to distract. If you focus the lighting on a static prop, the viewer will look at it, but you've just set them up perfectly to scare them from a dark corner.

Six - Atmosphere: We've now built up some great layers of scare but now let's set the mood. Sound is the best way to get into their head. Currently, I'm designing a zombie apocalypse in an industrial setting. The soundtrack that will really convince them they are in a factory is here: http://poisonprops.com/media/mp3/CD109.mp3

Can you just feel like you are there? Adding a sound layer, to me, is essential to making the room believable. Now, don't forget other ways to add atmosphere. Fog is terrific to make the person feel like they are somewhere else other than your garage or front lawn.

Seven - Touch and Smell. If you really want to get under their skin use all of their senses. So far we've used sight and sound but throw in touch and smell and you just may put them over the edge. A tickle on the back of their neck from hanging threads or the smell of decay.... just too fun!

Well I hope this helps in building up the scares in your haunt.

I want to leave you with another great example of a well-designed haunt. This is from The ScareHouse in Pittsburgh: