Thursday, October 24, 2013

[Graveside Chat] The Extreme Alone House and You

There's been a trend lately and during our recent visit to ScareHouse, the whole idea of these things got me to thinking a bit. I know, that's a dangerous thing to have happen but never the less, here we are.

Every year, haunted attractions try to ratchet things up to more insane levels. However, there's only so far that they can go before having to rethink things entirely. The even bigger problem here is that you can't go too far with this either. Why? They'd end up risking their core audience.

That's the dilemma which faces many in the industry. The solution being? Create a more intense and personal experience as an add on attraction to your main one(s) of course. In the end, it would have to be wouldn't it, I don't see any other way around that problem. So, that puts us where we are today.

Enter the Extreme or Alone House. While not for everyone, they do cater to a certain demographic that's looking for something that's more raw and extreme than your typical haunted attraction. I'm not one of them, as I have other issues with these things as whole but I get that there are people out there who do. However, both the general public and haunt owners still have to be very careful with them.

These types of attractions generally take things very, very far. Some of them will end up restraining you or put you in direct physical contact with their actors. They'll break down the barrier between what's real and what isn't as you endure a very physical and psychologically demanding experience through them. Again, they're not for everyone but for many it's exactly the kind of thing that will get their blood pumping.

It seems that everyone from Howl-O-Scream Tampa to ScareHouse and even smaller events such as Haunted Hills Estate are getting into this game over the past few years . Some with entirely dedicated haunts, some with add-on attractions and other with just special nights where this takes place. Most of these haunts have either started with the concept, like Blackout, or have spent the time necessary in order to prevent truly horrible things from happening. Some, however, will not have done this. 

Most of these experiences that have been around a while, or at least done properly, are carefully crafted and rehearsed for months before they ever open. Not only is this absolutely necessary, but it just makes sense. You need to know exactly what's supposed to happen and in the order they're to happen so that if something were to go wrong, it's easy to figure out the when, why and how of it.

You may be asking yourself, "If most places are taking the right steps, why even write this at all?". The answer to that is simple, over the past couple of weeks or so, several haunted attractions out there have started to advertise these extreme experiences. Nothing wrong with that on the surface. However, considering that we're right in the middle of this year's haunt season, it's a bit unnerving to think about.

How many of these places have put the time and effort into not only the preparations for this style of attraction, but made sure that the actors being placed in them are experienced and trained properly as well? After all, this isn't something that you just jump into because you've seen the success other haunts are having with theirs. As I've said above, this takes careful planning and plenty of preparation time to accomplish in the right way.

So, unless you've really put in the time to train your actors and have rehearsed the events thoroughly, it probably shouldn't happen. The general public probably shouldn't attend them either as they likely will end up being a bit off and that can lead to problems. Ones that the haunts and paying public  probably don't want to deal with at all.

How do you know if a haunt has just started one of these? It's tough to know for sure as websites may not be 100% accurate with their info. However, I do know that places like Busch Gardens Tampa, ScareHouse, Haunted Hills Estate, Terror Behind the Walls, the Blackout haunts and a few other big names definitely have done it right. Mostly this is through my own questions to them and information being offered up by their creative teams that has led me to that conclusion.

So, if you're iffy about one of these types of events, you should do the same thing. Ask questions and find out just how they've gone about constructing these experiences for you. If anything seems sketchy or just off, pass on it! You'll probably thank yourself later when looking at it in hindsight.

However, as the general public you can only do so much. The rest falls on the folks running these things. So, if you're an attraction owner, think about this one long and hard. Don't just toss it together because you see the success and reviews that other places are getting. You can wind up in a world of hurt and drag others down with you if you haven't thought this out.

Overall, these experiences can be really great and a welcome addition to the industry as a whole, just as long as they're done with the proper due diligence that they require. Again, it's only going to take one or two incidents that reflect badly to put a serious hurting on not only your reputation, but that of other attractions as well. Let's not go there with things, alright? No one wants that to happen and you definitely don't want to be cause of it either.

Happy scaring out there and as always, keep it here or follow along with us on Twitter @KitsuneHazard and on Google+ for all the latest updates, news and more from haunts all over the US!

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