Thread: Traffic control in haunts

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This question is for those who have visited or made their own haunted house.

I had my first haunted garage last year and I'm trying to make it better for next year. My biggest problem was that people went through too fast. I guess its a psychological thing - they were afraid to stop and stand still because they were afraid something would jump out and scare them. As a result they missed out on some of the best things. For instance, my favorite area was a mad scientists lab. No one really stopped to look.

Are there any tips or tricks for getting people to stop when you want them to for a few seconds, then continue on? I would like to have an animatronic skeleton that would give a little speech when you first walk in. I would like people to stop and listen to it before moving on. I'm afraid that if I go through all the trouble of making it, no one will stop and listen to the whole thing. Any ideas?

Any way you can have a tour guide (or a couple if you have big traffic)?

another trick is to use scareactors infront of them to slow them down. It worked when I went to the haunt at the Queen Mary this year, because the ones to the sides and front rushed you through the maze, but the ones up front made you slow down and take a look around, but as long as your skellie intro isnt over a minute or two people will definitely stop and look. But the tour guide is also a good idea. Have any pictures or drawings of your ideas/layout for next year. I might be able to help further with those. Hope this helps!

Good help is hard to find. I only have a few people helping out. My wife ditches me to take the kid trick or treating, so its left up to me and a few kids. I did think about a guide, but it would probably have to be a 12 year old. I'm not sure how good a job they would do plus I might need them inside the haunt. The kids are also somewhat unreliable and I'm not sure how many will actually show up on the big night. I would love a technological solution if possible, but I can't really think of one.

Thanks for the input

Well.

As already stated, put the animated things out front to scare them from the front, not the sides or rear. This causes them to jump back, and wait until it resets before they proceed. It's a natural reaction.

Obscure the vision. either pitch black, or various light effects can make them not know where they are supposed to go next. This makes them slow down and look around.

Or a maze.

I had a similar situation. This is how I solved it. I spent a lot of time on my front porch. So to actually get the adults to take a look around, I had them to sign a guest book. While each one was signing, the others were able to see what all had been done, before moving on to the next stage.

Now on the tour, I led the group and really realized, I had to be the one to go slow, and not rush the group on through to the next scare.

I ran into the same issue. I had made ~40 gravestones for last year's haunt, a couple of them pretty intricately engraved, others with bits of humor for those paying attention. along with other bits and pieces. People just walked right through, ooh'd and ahh'd a bit but never stopped to really look around. I'm not quite sure how to slow them down a little and get them to look around.

It struck me odd though because when I used to do this at my parnets' house when I was younger, people actually stopped to read the gravestones. I had hoped for that here but thus far, no dice.

I like the suggestions about scares in front of them that stop them though. I've got a couple of ideas lined up for this year, but I may now rethink their placement in order to get that slowing effect. I only had 30 kids last year so huge traffic isn't a concern.

My graveyard is separate from my haunt so as people are standing in line or as they walk up to the house, they have the time to look at the whole front yard.

As they move through the haunt we have a combination of 'dead' areas or areas where they can catch their breath a little bit before moving into the next area. Our actors don't let them linger too long, though.

We also use the technique already discussed, scare them from the front or put a scareactor in front of them to slow them down or act as a tour guide for the scene in front of them.

It also helps to have a good person at the gate. Our first room is a witches den and we're lucky enough to have a couple of friends who do a wonderful witch act. It stalls the patrons and gives a few minutes between groups to reset, but is also very entertaining for those left waiting.

Use better framing. Framing is the technique where the events occur IN FRONT of or AROUND the guests, not beside them. See the attached diagram:

help is hard to find. three years ago i had 23 lined up to help after asking about 200. the week of halloween they dropped out fast. some didn't even bother to tell me, i just found out because i contacted them for this or that. i ended up with one adult and 13 kids. i had to not use one room in the haunt. two years ago i relocated to a new town, and my 10 year old grandson found 11 friends to haunt. only one of these didn't show. this last year my grandson was 11 and he had 13 friends help. i find the kids love it and are more reliable. they do a pretty good job. even better this last year. about the tots, one thing i find is they hate to wait to go through. if you can move them through faster so they don't have to wait so long, they won't be in as big of a hurry. i would start a group through and when i was about half way, my grandson would start the next group. this way we kept them moving a little faster. but one still must remember they are still 12 year olds and so things are going to be as 12 year olds are.