Thread: How much is too much?

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I am giving my haunt a complete overhaul. The last few years it has been primarily startle effects such as monster in a box, trash can traumas, etc. I tried to cater to the younger TOTs. However, this year I am thinking about adding more gore. My question is, "how much is too much?" Are several bags with dismembered bodies too much? Fake blood splashed on the walls? Or should I keep it the way it is and just liven things up a bit? Thanks for your input.

You could keep the haunt the way it was and just add on to it with another area. Then you could have two different times for TOT's like "just cruisin'" from 5-7 and "full throttle" from 7-9.

I have seen that some people from here have dual times for their haunts as they step it up a knotch and open the other area(s) for the older TOT's and adults.

Just my .02 cents worth.

Sigmon's idea is great and alot of haunts do that - offer separate hours for little TOT. I would say go with what you'd really like to do, just give warnings to the parents via signage that it may not be a good idea for kids under XX age or that it contains gore, etc.. Then it's up to them to take the risk and it's on them if their kids get too scared. As a parent, I'd prefer that. That way you can take it your own way and they can opt out.

Yes the lil ones do need to have some mercy....... now the bigger kids & adults- all bets are off !! When i did my friends house, we tried to keep it lite for the little ones & easily scared,
but at 8-8:30pm - hell on earth - if ya can't handle it, don't go in !
"Too much" just depends on the average crowd you get. If it is the young ones mostly, then ya gotta keep it cool, have to give them time to get a lil older before ya give them nightmares...
Of course if your getting the teen crowd, well .......... ya know

I'm ok with gore. In fact, gore was one of those things for me as a kid that I would ask myself, is it real, how did they do that. Got me going in a haunt. But, yeah you've got to tone it down for the kiddies. Just being a good neighbor kind of thing.

I think if you walk in a room or themed area and all you remember is nothing but a bloodly mess, that is definitely too much. I would ask a few outside friends or family members to give me feedback. Little TOTs may not mind it but many parents might. Best of luck to ya!

IMO, there is nothing inherently "scary" about gore. I think any "kid" older than 10 or so is desenitized to it. Walk into Spirit Halloween stores and see a whole wall of severed body parts, heads on hooks, etc.. Not really scary. Used as part of a scene, it can add a bit of detail, but overall (and again, IMO), it's a cheap trick that conveys lack of imagination. We have all but eliminated gore from our haunt, but go more for the atmospheric scare; darkness, sound effects, diversion scares, etc...
To have certain hours you cater to young kids and then other hours for older kids, you limit your audience. Not everyone of a particular age group can be there "when they're supposed to."
It's really a judgement call and you have to cater to your audience. If you get a lot of younger kids, then tailor the haunt around them. If it's primarily teens, then go a different route but again, gory is not necessarily frightening and the older teens/adults may find it simply boring. Look at the old horror films from the 40's and 50's. Suspense and scares but there was no gore. I prefer to set a mood where the patron, young or old, has a sense of apprehension of what "might" happen.
Lastly, as a parent, if I walked into a haunt with young kids and found blood spattered walls and body parts all over, I'd simply leave. It can be distrubing to young children who don't distinguish reality from our sense of what constitutes a good scare. I like to keep my TOT's coming back every year and a big part of it is making the haunt user friendly for everyone, including parents. You can have a killer haunt with some great scares w/o using gore. In your efforts to change things up, consider what is really scary; darkness, uncertainty, disorientation, etc..

I agree with jdubbya

We have a full range of TOT's here. Even though we live in a very small town, we get lots of them every year. I like to have it just a little edgy, but I keep in mind that we get a lot of little ones (I really have no desire to frighten them) However, we go out of our way to set tone and mood. A lot can be achieved with lighting, sound etc. (but I am sure you are aware of that already) As has been said already, your own judgement is best.

Thanks all. I think I will introduce some amount of gore, the question is "how much"? I was thinking about a body bag room with clear bags and dismembeed bodies in th bags. Too much for the little ones?

Even as a kid I had very steady nerves but seeing a bunch of dismembered bodies might have been too much even for me. I'd say that's more of a tween/teen on up display.