Thread: Haunts Based on Books

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Ever think of doing a haunt based on a novel or series there of?

One I believe great haunts could be derived from:

Necroscope series by Brian Lumbley

I like the idea but it would have to be something mainstream for people to get it.

Originally Posted by BadOleRoss

I like the idea but it would have to be something mainstream for people to get it.

Stephen King, then. He's mainstream enough. Have different areas based on his novels. It, The Shining, Christine, Children of the Corn (novelette in the collection Night Shift), etc. By the way, I loved the collection Night Shift. Lots of good ideas in there (Lawnmower Man, Jerusalem's Lot, Gray Matter, One for the Road, The Mangler, etc., etc.).

I think you are onto something. I like the idea mysef. It would me fun to set up as well.

Originally Posted by BadOleRoss

I like the idea but it would have to be something mainstream for people to get it.

Or you could draw attention to a series that isn't too mainstream, but people would get interested.....besides, certain scenes need no explaination.

Cool idea.

Agree on Stephen King; with such mass appeal, any King theme would be instantly recognizable.

Something that would be interesting if you had the know-how, would be to go with the Overlook's garden theme from The Shining. In the movie version, there is a hedge labyrinth. This was director Stanley Kubrick's doing and differed significantly from what King described in his novel (there were other major deviations from the book, including the absence of the important hotel boiler metaphor, something which led to King being disappointed with Kubrick's effort). In the end, it is a great movie, just not what King envisioned.

In King's book, the Overlook's garden is dominated by large shrubs trimmed to look like various animals. At several points in the story, the animal-shrubs appear to be moving, although never when anyone's looking. They only hear the bristling of the branches and leaves and, when they look back, believe the animal-shrubs have moved closer and become more menacing. I remember reading this back in high school and finding those sections particularly terrifying.

If you look up the passages in the book, you'll see what I'm talking about.

A couple of artificial shrubs done up like animals, blended in with the existing shrubbery, and armed with a gear motor/motion detector setup that provides for very slow and subtle movement, might be pretty darned scary.

You could add classic elements like a Jack Nicholson mask/dummy peering through an axe-shattered door with axe in hand, a bunch of pages with "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." tacked up around the front door, maybe a little kid doll sitting on that plastic go-kart somewhere on the lawn, twin girl dolls standing in front of blood-soaked fake elevator doors, etc...

I don't have the time nor energy to do this, but do plan to be extremely jealous if someone does.

JD

I don't believe you have to choose a mainstream book because then your guests would get an all new experience - a story they have never heard and scenes they have never seen before...You really don't have to go mainstream as long as you don't publicise that you borrowed the ideas from a featured book...unless that was your intent.

Originally Posted by Freak 'N' Stein

I don't believe you have to choose a mainstream book because then your guests would get an all new experience - a story they have never heard and scenes they have never seen before...You really don't have to go mainstream as long as you don't publicise that you borrowed the ideas from a featured book...unless that was your intent.

I think you should give credit where credit is due, plus avoid plagerism.

I find the strength of Reaper's idea is that the theme is recognizable. That is why Stephen King is such an appropriate starting point. Otherwise, all you are doing is building a display and looking for inspiration somewhere. That's pretty much what we already do. In other words, if nobody recognizes the novel implied by the theme, then they'll just see it as another Halloween display. That seems to defeat the purpose of the whole idea.

Basing a Halloween display on a novel is, however, not plagiarism. Moreover, unless you are charging people to look at your display, you are not receiving any material gain.

The copyright owners would nevertheless likely be in a position to shut it all down if they wanted to. I'd be willing to bet the probability of that is about 0.0000001%. The chance that would be followed by a suit would be 0.000000000000000001%

Based on the above math, if you decide to go with a novel-based theme, buy a lottery ticket at the same time; sort of a long-short with neutral financial implications. In other words, should the infinitesimally remote chance you get sued actually occur, the infinitesimally remote chance you have the winning lottery ticket will more than compensate for your hefty legal bills.

In my view, this comes down to personal ethics. If you are ethically uncomfortable going with a theme based on a novel, put up a small sign that says "With thanks to <name of author>".

JD

Sounds like a great idea to me!! Last year, in our circus theme we had a rotating clown mask that has three scary clown faces on it. Everyone who saw it, especially the teens, said, “Hey, that’s Pennywise!” Then they’d stare intently at it and then back away...lol. I was somewhat surprised that the teens knew that movie. I guess just about everyone knows Stephen King. I think people would really enjoy recognizing what they’ve seen in books or on the screen translated into real life! I really like it as a theme idea!!