Haunt Weekly

Send us Fan Mail

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're taking a look back at our season so far. With our Halloween season about halfway over, we decided to take a look back at the season so far and reminisce about the 8 haunts we've visited and what haunters can learn from them.To be clear, these aren't full reviews as we post those on Garbage Horror. Instead, we intended these to be summaries and some possible takeaways for haunters.So far it's been an excellent season and, though it's still got halfway to go, we're really excited about the rest of it and are equally excited to share the first half with you!This week's episode includes:

Conference RemindersBrief Coverage of the News Story From MinneapolisThe Mortuary Haunted HouseRise13th Gate / Necropolis 13Fright TrailChamber of HorrorsHouse of ShockLafitte Fire Department

So take a trip down our recent memory lane and, maybe, glean a few lessons for your own haunted attraction!

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

We're pretty sure most people have figured out what the focus of this week's episode is. It's about the FearVR story and, to be frank, we don't have any good answers here. Still, we talk at great length about the story and how our industry made international news. But that's not to say that there isn't other news to cover. We have a similar story from Home Depot and a potentially offensive prop there, Five Nights at Freddy's has a new haunted attraction and several other haunts are opening their doors this year following years of struggle.But as many haunts open, we want to offer our thoughts and condolences to those impacted by flooding in Iowa, including the good people at Panic Park in Cedar Falls. We hope you are able to return next year and really scare the pants off of everyone.This Week's Episode Includes:

Conference RemindersHalloween Haunt: Knott's Berry Farm shuts down Fear VR attraction Home Depot pulls Scary Peeper Creeper from stores in Canada after complaintsFive Nights At Freddy's Is Getting A Haunted House Experience, Because Of Course It IsCatharsis, a new haunted house experience, is coming soon to OrlandoPensacola haunted house gets second chance to scare after last year disputeThe Lafitte Fire Department wants to scare you ... with haunted houseHaunted house closed for season because of flooding

All in all, this is one episode that you do not want to miss!

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

When it comes to actors, every haunt wants to know three things: Where to find them, how to train them and why they stay or leave.Japes Palles may not be able to help much with the first item, but he has 14 years of experience with the other two. This includes finding their strengths, finding the best role for them and, most importantly, keeping them happy so they stay through the season and come back for the next.In this interview, we sit down with Japes and we talk all about training actors, finding the right role for them and helping them grow to fulfill their potential. We go over some of his key rules for making a scare work, including what to scream at customers, and the shocking truth about most haunt actors: That they aren't actors.Japes is also kind enough to share a story from his time as an actor that he never tells his students (because it violates his own rules). AllThis week's episode includes: 

Background on JapesBasics on Training ActorsWhat to Look for in ActorsHow to Find the Right Role for an ActorHow to Create a Culture That Keeps Actors Loyal

All in all, this is one episode of Haunt Weekly that you do not want to miss! Special Guest: Japes Palles.

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

It's that most wonderful time of the year, the time where haunts are opening up and we get to go to a few of our own! That, however, means buying tickets and, for a lot of the haunts, that means buying tickets online. Unfortunately though, buying tickets online isn't aways the smoothest experience it can be. In an ecommerce era, we are an industry that often leaves their online ticket sales as an afterthought.So, in this episode, we provide some alternatives that make it easier to get set up with online ticketing and not only improve your customers' experience but, hopefully, make a lot more money in doing so.This week's episode includes:

Conference RemindersThings We Have About Online TicketingWhy Haunts Should Want to Encourage Online OrderingOptions for Online TicketingHow to Make the Online Ordering Process a Good OneConclusions

In this episode we discuss multiple providers including Haunt Pay, Fear Ticket, Ticket Leap, Interactive Ticketing, Flavorus, Tickera, Ticket Tailor and Event Espresso. Check them out and see which one (if any) is right for you!Also, check out our current test site and leave your feedback! 

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

This week on Haunt Weekly we are revisiting our Women in Haunting series but this one is a bit different. Our interviewee this week e is local to us and had a very negative experience with her attempt to enter into the haunt industry.While her experience is certainly not every woman's, as we've learned from the other interviews, but hers is unfortunately common and it's an experience that keeps many women out of the industry.So, in this episode we'll be sitting down with "Cricket" (who asked us not to give out her real name) and going through her experiences with the industry and what she thinks can be done to make it more welcoming to women everywhere.Also, in this podcast, we promised we would provide the link to the test site. You can access the site by clicking this link. Please bear in mind that this is very much a work in progress and there are a lot of bugs that are obvious. Still, you can see the general direction we are looking at going but also remember that could change drastically.Not all of the episodes have been put on it and most of the pages are still blank, though we do have our conference list up as of this writing.So let us know what you think! You can either leave us a message on our Facebook page or via Twitter, or you can use the contact form on the site, which should be up momentarily!

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Yes indeed, it's another episode that's divisible by four and that means it's time again to do the news!It's a bit of a downer this go around as we have stories of one major haunted attraction that will be shuttering its doors in the new year and another popular one that won't even get to open this season. However, we do balance it out with news of one attraction that's opening after a long slog and yet another that's being funded, in part, by its local government.All in all, this is a busy news show this week so kick back and relax as we go through the news.This Week's Episode includes:

Conference RemindersDisney's California Adventure Park to Close Tower of TerrorHaunted Web of Horrors (Memphis, TN) Will Not Open This Year'Doomocracy' to Be a Free, Political-Themed Haunt in New YorkHellsGate in Lockport, IL to OpenUniversal Adding VR Haunted House to Halloween Horror NightsBoston-Area 'Haunted' Mansion to Become Haunted AttractionWoman Sexually Assaulted During Organized Ghost HuntCavendish Government Contributes Funds to Open New Haunted HouseMassive Dubai Indore Theme Park to Include Haunted AttractionErebus in Detroit Announces Casting CallArtist Using Virtual Reality to Preserve Dark Rides

On that note, while this episode is certainly a heavy one, we hope it's useful to you and your haunt!

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

To pay? Or not to pay? That is the question.As haunts across the nation begin to recruit actors the question about pay will inevitably arise as actors and owners alike will try to decide what they want and what is best for them.The truth is this: There are haunts that go both approaches very successfully. However, it's important to choose the approach that works best for your haunt and then build your haunt accordingly.Bear in mind, we're not discussing the ethics of unpaid haunt actors in this podcast. That may be a different topic though. Instead, we're just looking at the practical elements of the decision and choosing what may be the right approach for your haunt.This week's episode includes:

Conference RemindersAdvantages of Paid ActorsDisadvantages of Paid ActorsAdvantages of Unpaid ActorsDisadvantages of Unpaid ActorsWhich to Choose?How Much to Pay if You PayAlternative Approaches

All in all, this is a controversial decision that will have a major impact on your haunt...

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

This week on Haunt Weekly, we are returning to the subject of women in haunting and have a great conversation with Neena Collins of the Scareatorium in Columbus, OH. Neena's story is, in many ways, not the typical one for a haunter. Though she was brought into haunting by dating a haunter, one who would later become her husband, she said she wouldn't have likely dated him if he knew where he worked.Still, it's good thing for everyone, including the haunt industry, that she didn't know at the time as she's now a 15-year veteran with a great haunt to call her own.So what has her experience been with haunting? What can haunts do to attract more women into the industry? We ask these questions and many more of Neena!Thank you Neena for a great conversation and if you are a woman in haunting and want to be featured on a future episode. Drop us a message on Facebook and let us know!Finally, in more tragic news, as residents of southeast Louisiana have been impacted by a truly historic flooding. Though we are safe in New Orleans, many friends and fellow haunters have not been so fortunate. The local newspaper, The Times-Picayune, has a great list of charities working in the flooded areas and ways that you can donate to show your support. Please, if you have a moment, consider doing so.

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

We run one haunt, we've acted in several and we've been through countless. The vast, vast majority of our haunt experience has been completely safe, wonderful and fun.This is not about those experiences.There have been a few times that the horror of the haunt got a little bit too real. Whether it was unsafe props, overly aggressive actors or just poorly-thought out construction, there have been moments we were genuinely worried about our safety when either working in or going through a haunted attraction.So join us for this trip down memory lane as we go through some of the biggest real-life horrors we've seen in our years of haunting and either recoil at the horror or, at the very least, get some lessons about what not to do in your haunt.This week's episode includes:

Conference RemindersTales from Two Haunts we Visited as CustomersOne Haunt that Actually Injured Me as a CustomerA Haunt that was Unsafe for Its Actors (But Corrected Itself)A Scare at the Haunt We RunSteps We Take to Be More SafeGeneral Thoughts About Why Some Haunts Are So Unsafe

All in all, this is one episode you do not want to miss!

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Yes folks it's another episode divisible by four and that means it is time to do the news!We ended the show a little bit early this week. misestimating the amount of time we needed to talk about each of the stories. However, it's still a VERY busy time for the industry as we're learning about new haunts opening up and what attractions to expect at some of the big events.This week we also have a trio of movie-related news as we have information about Ghostbusters, Freddy v. Jason and Suicide Squad haunted attractions as well as tons of other haunts preparing to throw open their doors.So kick back and enjoy a slightly shorter episode this week as we cover the news and it's all pretty much good news this time around!This Episode Includes:

Conference RemindersNew Haunt to Open up in Deactivated WarshipOcean City Gets a New Year-Around HauntGhostbusters Gets the Haunt Treatment, Just Not in the U.S.Universal Announced Freddy v. Jason AttractionSix Flags Announces Suicide Squad AttractionFright Dome in Las Vegas is Hiring 400 ActorsSoap Factory's Haunted Basement Turns 10 and WiIll ReopenAlabama Home Haunters Purchase Roadside Attraction in Kentucky

While this episode might be a wee short of our usual length, this is definitely one that you do not want to miss!

Get in Touch and Follow Us!

Facebook: @HauntWeekly
Twitter: @HauntWeekly
YouTube: @HauntWeekly
Email: [email protected]