Thread: Haunt themes, good idea or bad?

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I'm wondering if I should give my haunt a set theme for next year. If you think I should, what would be a good flexible theme so I can reuse my props? Give me your ideas please!

thanks,
the halloweenie

I have been to haunts that have one theme through out and haunts that have a different themes in each space.

I think as long as each space has it's own theme.. whether or not those themes connect to each other....you will be fine.

And if you really want to do 1 set theme for the entire haunt... choose a theme now for 2-3 years in the future, outline what you need for each space, and start building and purchasing those items.

Originally Posted by propmistress

I have been to haunts that have one theme through out and haunts that have a different themes in each space.

I think as long as each space has it's own theme.. whether or not those themes connect to each other....you will be fine.

And if you really want to do 1 set theme for the entire haunt... choose a theme now for 2-3 years in the future, outline what you need for each space, and start building and purchasing those items.

Thanks, propmistress, if I was to choose a them for the next couple of years, what would you sugest?

My husband and I are in the process of planning a run down... horror filled hospital themed haunt...
there are so many different areas in a hospital that are really scary...and easy and affordable to stage

For example
lab, morgue, operation room, psych ward, maternity ward (zombie babies anyone?), emergency room, gift shop, cafeteria, security station, nurses station, doctor's offices, waiting rooms, chapels, pharamcy, storage, facilites/maintainance areas.

You don't need a lot props... hospitals tend to be extremely sparse in order to keep clean up easy...
You just need evidence that violence occured....
pools of blood
bloody drag marks
Bloody handprints and smears
bloody tools
old bloody clothing and bloody sheets

And you need a couple of appropriate props
most of them medical related.

Even the clothing for the actors is cheap and easy to find...
bloody lab coats
bloody scrubs
and bloody patient gowns.

I have been thinking about this and planning it for a while.. so if you are interested and need any more ideas just let me know.

That sounds great, how are you thinking of labeling the rooms so people know what room they are in? How would I incorporate props such as, th midnight countess (animated bride) and animated flying witch (name explains it )

If i had those props ... I would change the theme to haunted hospital (like the movie frighteners).. and stage the hospital like the violence had occured in the past... or is occuring now and has also occured several times in the past.

I would make the countess a ghost.... either a victim (a bride killed on her wedding night) or a mourner (mourning the loss of her groom and doomed to wander the halls forever)..... and I would use lighting to make her appear and diappear

I would cover the witch in fabric and turn her into a ghost... if the broom stuck out to much... I would try to make it look like a bloody weapon..
from flying witch... to homicidal ghost.

I would have ghostly footprints appear and disapear down hallways...
Ghostly Footprints

I would create "old news reels" about the violence that happened before at the hospital.. and have them playing on tvs on loop.... with some tvs just static.

I would also create a couple of newspapers and have them lying a round... at least one on the violence that caused the hospital to close and another one about the hospital reopening.
(if you want the hospital to reopen)

I would have tapes of screaming come on and off....

Bright flashes of light, sudden bursts of cold, fishing line hung from the ceiling so it felt like someone was brushing past you as you walked by.

I would have faded chalk body outlines, and frayed police tape, old brown stains everywhere where the blood had been

Or I would use glow in the dark paint to create smears, handprints, drag marks, splatters ect. ... (since old blood glows under black light)

I would place empty containers of bleach and cleaning fluid around... to indicate much of the violence has already been cleaned up.

I might even board up some rooms of the outside of the hopsital...

If this sounds interesting let me know.. I am sure I can come up with a million more ideas..... lol

Themes can be good but, they can also be limiting.
Many things can be universally used no matter what. It's good to be flexible & try new things for themes, etc. If you stick with the same theme year after year, risk boring patrons. My haunted maze has a fall back theme- dark & scary!

I have never liked the idea of a theme haunt. This locks you into a certain theme and limits what you can do and cant do. A popular theme would be Pirates.
I have never done a theme for this reason.
Let me take you through a virtual tour:
The victims walked through a hallway as the tour guides explained the rules.
They walked into a room we called smoke and mirrors lit up with black lights and strobe lights. We had a couple ppl hiding in corners. (to do this room over we would omit the strobe lights) a fog machine and many mirrros finished this room. They walked into the boiler room and were met by two girls singing 1-2 Freddy's coming for you etc.
Then Freddy came out of the corner...this worked very well.
They walked out in our patio and were met by a demented dentist.
Then a mauseleum with many vampires this worked out better then I thought.
A playground area with cornstalks and very creepy kids.
Welcome to the Funhouse!! nuff said noone wanted to go in the funhouse BEWARE of clowns. Always effective. We had a clown with a chainsaw.
And last they ended in the farm with scarecrows and a meeting with leatherface.
All in all very scary we made more then one person cry, I can bet at least one person peed their pants.
I will always go with select rooms rather then a theme.

This was our first year of themed haunting, and we chose to do so because after 4 or 5 years of running a general haunt, we felt that things were getting a little "samey".
We enjoyed the challenge and judging by the response from our visitors, they enjoyed the change.
This year our theme/title was "The Awakening". It was a living dead/zombie theme and had a background story revolving around a few central characters that appear in our haunt every year and that our visitors have come to know and fear.
We got to experiment with new props, new scares and new effects, and basically took our haunt to another level. It was great fun.
I fully intend to stick to a themed haunt next year and am planning a Vampire human blood farm theme, which will allow me to devise new shocks and play around with different lighting effects and music.
I agree with Propmistress that a themed haunt really needs plenty of planning...maybe a year in advance, but there's no reason why it should be limiting.
Most of your props could be incorporated into the theme with a little planning and maybe a little modification here and there. The ones that can't......well maybe you can take a little pity on their miserable latex hides and give them a year off.
The themed rooms idea sounds good, although I've never used it. Sounds like a good way to incorporate all your props together in your haunt, but still keep a sense of structure and at the same time leave scope for experimentation and change.

I prefer themed haunts, myself.

Our last one, we ran for the last 6 years now. It took me a good 3 years before I felt it was anywhere approaching decent. At 5 years, I was growing tired of it. Now, we're looking to transition into a new theme, which I expect to take at least 2 years to fully incorporate.

I'ld sit down, look at what you have, and make a list of what themes interest you the most. Somewhere, there will be a happy medium that can incorporate both them and existing props.