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Theatrical Terror's John
Burton
BYLINE: Leonard Pickel
INTRO: Joe Jensen
It was a dark stormy night with all the trappings of
a bad slasher film, lightning, thunder, and trees bent by
the pounding rain. When out of the storm walked John
Burton and his enforcer Don Moore. They were here to do
business, scary business, and business they would do. To
say that they take no prisoners is an understatement
(they never waste a single body part). What? You say that
you have never heard of him? That is because unlike other
so-called design-consultants, John does not own his own
event. Like the thunderstorm, John rolls in to town, does
what he needs to do and then leaves! John is a hired gun,
a nail-gun that is. Each year he goes out to the highest
bidder, and what they get for that bid is much more than
what they bargained for. I sat down to talk with John and
Don, (John's partner in slime), in the midst of the
storm, before they got onto the 'gore' at hand. I prodded
him into telling me some of his favorite scares. He
quickly rattles off five or six previous designs and then
says, " My favorite has to be the one I am making now."
This statement, while being a great sales pitch, is from
the heart, because John pours his soul into each project
and makes it his own. John seems normal enough. After
all, you need to have your feet firmly embedded in sanity
when creating such insanity. What surprised me most about
John, was his knowledge and insight. Working with John is
like having a library of Dementia Horror tricks at your
fingertips. There is not a single gag he does not know,
and he is able to use that library of arcane movie facts
to enhance the theme of the attraction in a most
terrifying way. A kitchen scene for this year's show was
missing something, "So which do you want on the stove,"
asked John, "Jiffy Pop (Screams), or the pet
rabbit in a pot (Fatal Attraction)?" Obviously
John enjoys his work, and I thank god that there is work
like this for him to enjoy. I could not imagine what he
would be doing if not this. We opted for the pet rabbit.
Well, the storm is ending and a fog has descended around
our shop in Crystal Lake, Illinois, the fictional home,
John reminds me, of Friday the 13th's
Jason. On his way to the truck, Don, (better known
as TOG, 'that other guy') quips about going out to find
Mr.Voorhees and show him what haunting is
really all about. With one last look at the set they
are working on, John makes a few mental notes for
tomorrow's Home Depot run and then turns disappearing
into the mist. Looking back at the inspired mayhem they
have just created I wonder if it is really a good idea to
follow them into the night's fog. Tonight I will sleep
with a light on! Joe Jenson,
Nightscape Productions
For the past 28 years John Burton has been
creating Haunted Attractions, for some of the biggest
haunt names in the industry, over 40 events to date. To
call simply call him a "designer" would be to diminish
what he brings to the table. For he not only designs the
show, but he builds it, props it, directs it, acts it and
often he even runs it. John's insatiable love for the
haunted holiday is legendary. As a child, he haunted the
front-yard and garage of his Orange California home, with
the guidance and encouragement of his loving parents G.
T. and Barbara. John took a leading roll in the planning
and construction of what over the years became an
extremely elaborate home display. Neighborhood children,
John's own age, were often too frightened to come to
Burton house for Halloween treats, and could not make it
all the way to the door, even when accompanied by a
parent. A spooky decoration veteran by the age of 12,
John designed his first haunted house for the local
elementary school's spring carnival. An immediate
success, by the second year the young Burton's creation
was responsible for half the carnival's earnings. This
early success firmly planted in John's brain that he
could make a living "Messing people up for life!" It was
then that his profession would be that of a
pscareoligist, and he never looked back. While still in
his teens, Burton and his younger brother Joel, created
haunted houses and other Halloween events for a various
youth groups in the Orange County area. This experience
led to John's first commercial production as a volunteer,
the Campus Life Haunted House in 1977, while John
was still in high school. Soon to follow was work with
the Shawnee Oklahoma Jaycees in 1982 and the
Orange County March of Dimes in 1986.
"One night we wanted to get video tape following some
people going through the show. We selected a group of
young ladies to be our stars and got the camera ready. To
the dismay of my brother the cameraman, these girls were
so frightened that they took off running at the first
scare." One of john's favorites, the video shows the
actors popping out to empty rooms that the girls had
already blown through, and fleeting glimpses of the tail
end of the group, when Joel could get close enough to
catch them. Before long, John had collected enough props
and scenery to produce his own October show. Now all he
needed was a location and some cash for advertising. He
found both in a joint venture with Peppers
Restaurant and in1988 the two companies opened the
Chambers of Horror in Garden Grove, California.
That same year John started a production company of the
same name, but eventually changed it to Theatrical
Terror, which better described of his wide array of
talents. John looks back at the four years doing the
Chambers of Horror fondly, "One year we built a 17' tall
Egyptian Pyramid that the people had to go through.
Inside, there was a mummy attacking an archeologist. We
just had a typical boo scare in there, but people were so
caught up in the scenic decoration that they were not
expecting the scare, it was the most talked about room in
the house." This one experience shaped all of John's
designs that followed. Creating Terrifying Illusions
of Reality Although, Burton has worked closely with
every aspect of haunted production, his strengths are
conceptualizing the project, and designing the layout.
His greatest asset, however, is set decoration. That
inherent ability to take something we see everyday as one
thing, then flip it, paint it, detail it and assemble it
to create something else never seen before. "Reality is a
very important part of creating a good scare", says the
39 year old Burton, adding "that since the humble
beginnings of the haunted industry the sophistication of
people who attend these attractions, has changed
drastically." John's detailing is deep and articulated,
and much of it is made up of worthless junk. He uses
things that have never been together before, computer
guts, car doors, tubing, open metal studs, and turns them
into an altered reality for the theme. "Reality can add
more sophistication than one could imagine," states
Burton, "By making the situation seem real, the
imagination creates a real feeling of fear, and the scare
can be more intense." It was during this time that John
met, Don Moore. Little did they know the roller coaster
ride that the future held for them. "Don has been a
silent strength for me, sometimes doing the impossible in
a very limited amount of time," credits Burton, "You
don't hear much from Don, except the sawing or a
hammering in the background. He doesn't speak much at the
shows, which is why some refer to him as 'That Other
Guy.' So I gave him the nickname 'TOG!" John credits his
sanity to Don for standing by him through the loops and
corkscrews of the past ten years. In the early years,
John worked in various capacities off-season to support
his haunting habit, but always somewhere that he could
learn useful techniques. He worked in nightclubs to learn
lighting and fog; he did construction and remodeling and
learned woodworking and carpentry. Working with a
gunfighter team John learned pratfalls and stunts. He
worked on local stage productions and learned promotions
and prop construction. A graduate of the Video
Technical Institute, John perfected his skills in set
design, staging, and acting, and even did some film and
video work where he picked up make-up techniques and
special effects. In June of 1990 John would put all of
these skills together into one project at the Marriott
Hotel in Anaheim, California. The American
Physical Therapists Association was holding their
annual convention and John was contracted to design,
build and decorate the Halloween themed Ball complete
with Haunted House, for the one-night event. In one
24-hour period he and his crew of 20, decorated the
14,000 square foot grand ballroom, assembled and then
operated a 17 room haunted house in the adjoining
ballroom. Not only was he able to pull off this seemingly
impossible task, but it was a smashing success. In 1993
John was hired as the show and art director for the
House of Terror in Huntington Beach, California. The
show was selected as the "Official MTV Haunted
House" for their Haunted House Party that year, and
both John and his attraction received national exposure.
"People say that everyone gets their 5 minutes of fame,
States Burton on his career, "For me it seems to comes in
2-second intervals!" In 1995, Burton designed and created
Industrial Nightmare (As spotlighted in Issue
11/12) in an old warehouse in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Owned by Glen Lewis, this 28,000 square foot
event, just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky,
was rated #1 by area newspapers in its first year. In one
room of the show, John conceived of a gangway across a
floor opening into the basement. Fluorescent liquids of
various colors spew from various broken pipes and
crevasses, pouring into large vats below. The 'Pit' as it
is called, is John's favorite room, and a perfect example
of the power of reality. The shear size and volume of the
space creates an overwhelming spectacle, and defiantly
suspends the disbelief. John returned to Jeffersonville
early in 1996 to rework the show into a multi-element
event, adding the Mayhem Museum, Carnival of
Carnage, and the Maniac Maze in 3-D, the
world's first 3-D haunted attraction. In the early 90's
there was a resurgence of movies in 3-D using polarized
lenses. During this time, John got the idea of utilizing
the technology in a walk-though. After several inquires
the concept was shelved due to the expense of reproducing
the artwork. "Then I was walking down the isles of the
IAAPA Convention in 1995, and came a cross a company
selling what they were calling 3-D glasses. The second I
tried them on, my mind raced with the possibilities." The
glasses were the result of a new technology called
ChromaDepth ™ and they solved the lighting and cost
problems that John had run into with the previous system.
"In 1996 I did some experiments using the glasses on some
signs at Industrial Nightmare. The results were amazing,
and when I showed the tests to Glenn Lewis, we
immediately started working on a separate attraction to
use the technology. That year, event was featured on the
Sci-Fi Channel's "Sci-Fi Buzz," because of its
Burton designed alien theme. He also consulted with a
second event in the area, Nightmare Forest, in
Louisville, Kentucky, which was Johns first haunted trail
type walk-through. A Haunted House in 3-D?
Remember the old 3-D glasses? One lens had a read gel in
it and the other had a blue gel in it. It usually came
with a comic book that looked like the printer messed up
the registration on. But when you looked at the page with
the glasses on, your brain would superimpose the two
images and the drawing would jump from the page. The
latest advancement in this technology is quickly
spreading across the country and Haunted Attraction
Industry. John Burton is credited as the first to adapt
this new technology to the Haunt Industry in 1996. The
Maniac Maze at Industrial Nightmare was the first Haunted
Attraction utilizing the ChromaDepth™ glasses.
ChromaDepth™ is a patented technology for lenses
that uses the wave lengths of light bouncing off of
colors to make them appear closer or farther away than
they really are. Blue surfaces seem to drop below the
surface 4"- 6" and red surfaces seem to hover 4"
–6" above the surface. All other colors fall
somewhere in between, and buy blending and mixing the
color, even curved surfaces can be created with 2-D art.
Ultraviolet (UV) paint illuminated with a UV fixture
(Black Light) is the most widely used example of this,
because the vibrant colors make for a stronger image.
Ed Edmunds of Distortions Unlimited in Denver,
Colorado wanted a Haunted Attraction like no other. He
had a vision, of transporting the patrons to a completely
different world, the world of Brutal Planet. Ed
was not satisfied with the 1995 production, which Edmunds
himself had directed, and the show was moving to a new
location. Ed needed a gunslinger to pull it off, and in
the summer of 1996, he called on Theatrical Terror, and
John redesigned the unique event from the ground up.
Editor of Fangoria Magazine, Anthony
Timpone stated in the 1997 October issue that "Once
you begin your walk-through of Brutal Planet, you are
immediately taken back by builder John Burton's awesome
sets, which outdo any Charles Band or Roger
Corman movie to say the least." After going through a
transportation tunnel, you enter a streetscape of
abandoned cars and rubble. This central area is traversed
several times as you duck in and out of the various
buildings on each side of the street and other patrons
ahead and behind you become themselves set dressing as
they shuffle along. The result of this new approach was a
"best all-around" haunted house rating for Brutal Planet
by the Rocky Mountain News. On the move again,
Burton received a call in 1997, from Ray Kohout,
who was looking for someone to enhance the military
themed sets of two new Silo-X installations
destined for Boston and Chicago. John and Don were
brought in for 22 days in Boston and 16 days in Chicago
to create realistic sets for these attractions. Two
publications in Boston rated Silo-X above any other event
in the area. For the 1998 season, Joe Jensen of
Hades Haunted House hired the team of John and Don
to assist them with the creation of the Science of
Fear a new multi-element event slated for the
Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago,
Illinois. The terror team was brought in to conceptualize
the project, enhance Joe's room designs and add more
realism to the set treatments. This new event will
feature four separate attractions. Extreme Scream,
a frightening homage to slasher films, definitely rated
PG-13 for violence and Gore, (right down John's alley);
it includes a doctor's lab complete with dismembered
patients reassembled for by the 'good' doctor with
various fasteners from Home Depot! A more family rated
attraction is called Wild Dreams In 3-D, themed as
a psychedelic tie-died 70's rock video. Going to the next
step in this new technology, John is experimenting with
lights as well as paint to achieve the 3-D effects. A
G-rated haunt for the 'not so brave' among us will be
Tomb Town, and of course Hades Haunted House itself,
themed as Aztec or Inca ruins the show is a "best of"
collection with Joe bringing back favorite room designs
from the past 20 years. Where will John go next? Where
ever the wind blows him, "I've been through two divorces,
driven from the Pacific to the Atlantic, had all my tools
ripped-off and slept in a coffin or two, but I still live
for that next haunted gig. Through all the ups and downs,
the thousands I've made and thousands I've lost, there
are many rewards that few men have." John's 17-year-old
daughter Barbara thinks what her Dad does is cool. She
can handle the scariest attraction without even a flinch,
which makes her dad proud. It is not very often that you
meet someone who enjoys what they do, like John Burton
does. "Scaring the yell out of thousands form coast to
coast is a high in itself," muses John, "I love standing
at the exit door of the attraction watching and listening
to the reactions. It's been a hell of a ride, but seeing
all those terrified faces makes it all worth while!"
Flashlight Tag! Just a big kid at heart John
Burton uses games and play to decrease stress and to
stimulate creativity during installations. A favorite of
these is Flashlight Tag. Sometime after the walls of the
show are up and burn out starts to set in, everyone takes
a break from whatever they are doing. Each player is
issued a flashlight and divided into two teams. Tools and
obstacles are removed from the hallways and all of the
lights in the building are turned out. Even cracks of
daylight are sealed up. (If this is impossible, just
crank up every fog machine until you can't see anyway.)
The game is basically laser tag with flashlights and the
rules can be as simple or complex, as you like. Running
in the dark is never allowed, nor is anything else deemed
dangerous! The object is to have fun while blowing off
some steam. When the game is ended you may be surprised
at how much more gets done!
John Burton, Joe Jensen and Leonard Pickel will be
three of the keynote speakers at this year's IAHA Haunted
Attraction Seminar
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Issue 26
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