Thread: The good witch

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I would like to know if anybody has a good witch at their haunted house. We have a good witch that greets all of the visitors at the main gate. When she encounters young children, she will alert the "monsters" that we have a young child coming through. This way the "monsters" know not to jump out and scare the younger ones, allowing them to enjoy the haunted house on a milder, less scary level. In special situations she will even walk them through the path pointing out the scary things before they approach them, thus letting them be ready for the monsters and less scared. One of the favorite things the youngsters like to do after they go through is to wait with the good witch at the front gate and listen as their parents and older siblings go through the "regular"haunted house and scream. They often giggle and refer to their parents as chickens and babies. Very cute! The kids also like to pose for pictures with the monsters.

No, my hubby brings them through and downplays the scarey stuff. Then I sit back and activate the props when the parents are near and then the kids laugh while their moms jump. lol

We had to do something similar years back when I ran a free haunted house for a charity event. With such a limited budget we had to use A LOT of psychology due to the contraints. Sufficed to say with that and everyone's enthusiasm we out did the local pay haunts according to several comments we got.

And not knowing how bad (good) it was towards the beginning we had several wet themselves and crying adults being escorted hastily out.

So yes with myself being in the first room we devised a system where when the young ones coming down the initial corridor were spotted, we would pass along to the actors the kiddos were coming and we toned it down. But we still gave it our all on the "adults". LOL

Last year we set out a sign that said Spooky 6 -7 pm, No Mercy 7-10 pm. Well, it generally worked by having the real younger kids come early. But, there were a few that were willing to go for 'Scary'. Hubby (vampire) ran the front and he asked if I could do it. I already had everything ready to go so I said "No problem." Due to my set-up, a group goes through the haunt one at a time and all the scares are controlled by my remote control. So hubby would ask the next group, "Spooky or Scary?" and then tell me. It worked out really good. By about 8pm everyone wanted 'scary' so we stopped asking. I loved that set-up so we will do it again this year.

Those sound like some great ideas. I don't have actors at this point in my haunt career, but maybe some day if the number of ToTs continues to increase.

we don't have that but it sounds like a great idea. And what Tera did last year with the sign is also a great idea.

Wow Taz, sounds pretty similar to the setup we have. My buddies wife mans the gate, taking tickets and giving the house rules. If there are little ones she alerts one of our "roamers" (actors not assigned to a specific area that roam about) and they will warn others to take it easy on the next group.

One thing we are adding this year is a cheap light that we can give to little ones that the monsters are scared of. When they get scared they simply shine the light and the monsters will cower and flee, giving a sense of control. Upon leaving the final gatekeeper will collect the light to use again.

I have for the last several years been letting people come by anytime during the week before halloween to have sneak peeks and bring the small kids thru. This is also a good time to let people come by and walk leasurely thru and take a good look at all the small stuff they would normally miss going thru at night while being scared by actors.
Letting people thru during the day does not spoil the fun for them at night, because I have so many actors( usually 20-30 per night) the night time experience is so different! my non scary time is anytime before 7o'clock. After 7 is absolutly 'NO-Mercy". I have it clearly written on all my flyers and internet connections like F/B pages.
It works for us.

I AM the good witch.

for about 10 years i had the haunt and then an -all scaredy cats welcome room. the haunt was for scares and the other room was where there were just pretty decor and a previous haunt that had been video taped being aired. when we moved to where i live now, we have done it different ways, this year the two young men stood outside the door, and when it was the kids to be scared, they just quickly slipped inside and got into place. worked out real well.