Opinion Needed

Ok, that calls for a totally different answer, We did a hay ride one year and the best scare, which suprised me because I thought everyone would get it as Jeepers Creepers was big that year, we had a row of scarecrows and the last one was a live one dressed like JC guy with an ugly mask jumped down just when the ride rolled by and he jumped into the wagon with them. The screams were beautiful. Another one, there is a light pole along the trail but a tree would work, we had a truck next to it like it had hit the pole (put the hood up, etc.) the first thing they saw was a little kid holding a ballon just kicking his feet as he sat on the tail-gate, just a little blood around his mouth, then the ride past on and we had a dead body hanging out the truck window, blood dripping down the side of the door he was hanging out of, and a clown sitting on the hood with a butcher knife. Got good reviews on that. We also had 3 witches around a fire in a large cauldron with little kids in cages screaming for someone to help them and let them out. Just a few of some of the things we did. A hay ride is hard because you can only use open sites so you have to really be creative on your scares. Good luck, let me know what you decide to do at each site. I would be very curious as we may do hay ride again next year.

I think it might be a bit freaky if you planted "victims" on each hayride...people who were dressed normal, got in line with everyone else(or snuck on in the chaos that ensues when people finally get to board the hayride buggy). then at some point far away from the starting point in the middle of a field the tractor stops, the driver shuts it off, gets down and runs off into the field. A few seconds later actors burst from the fields using whatever manner of scare tactics you want (chainsaw, machetes, whatever) and after terrorizing everyone, they "select" a few people "randomly" from the group and "violently" haul them off into the fields...their screams still lingering...

At that point one of the spooks who had just participated in the whole melee and dragging off of innocents returns...informs the rest of the group they have "special plans for the rest of them" and starts up the tractor and drives off with them...

Or something like that...

-EEric

Well i will give away the first scene that i know is written in stone. As the tractor pulls up to the beginning of the trail he will pull up to two black doors that are boarded shut and guarded by two people in brown monk robes. The driver signal he wants to pass and one monk goes over to an old rusty dinner/church bell and rings it twice then they open the doors to the opening scene. Its a half tunnel with a stage overlooking the front of the tractor, half tunnel i mean with black tarp about 4 feet tall to each side and behind them sit 3 propane flame barrels that "satan" controls from on top the stage, he also has 2 flame barres up top with him. He gives his creepy speech about how they have come to his "swamp of sorrows" and how he will send them thru the trail of their worst fears and nightmares. Then the roof and sides which we have rigged on a pulley system encloses the tractor very quickly as another satan appears down with the tractor and now has a snake with him wandering back and forth with the trailer. The driver then cranks the tracto up and continues to thru the trail. Like i said this is the beginning scene and i will be coming up up with many, many more please tell me what you think

The idea of "plants" within the ride is a fun one. They can either give the other passengers a scare, or they can just be there to rev up the tension and excitement. They can also scare the passengers by getting pulled out of the trailer at some point.

Something that always gets me are the "scare tactics" style scenes. For instance, you set up a scene that suggests one event -- witches, a cauldron, and some torches -- but then you scare the hell out of everybody with something that seems like a spontanious event, like one of the witches bumps into a torch and catches on fire. (Please, this is just an example). A person running around on fire will scare the sh*t out of people.

I don't know if I'm explaining this that well, but scare through misdirection is great. When you think you saw somthing, but you're not sure, and you have to ask the other people around you, "Did you see that?? Is that dude okay?"

That'll get the football players.