In the 1950’s, the minimalist “modern” architectural movement was all the rage. Clean lines, boxy shapes and flat roofs characterized the style, which made it “un-cool” for people to live in the ornate turn-of-the-century Victorian homes. What were once lavish mansions were falling into disrepair and abandonment.

To keep children from exploring and playing in these dangerous old structures, adults would tell scary stories about what might be lurking in the dark shadows within. From these stories sprang urban myths and tales of terror more frightening with each telling. Dark and decaying buildings across the land became known as being haunted! These natural pre-detailed Haunted Houses with weak, creaking floors were a fire marshal’s worst nightmare, but the Jaycees and other organizations took advantage of their history and in the early 1970’s converted them into what we know today as the October seasonal Haunted House.

Today, most of these structures have been reclaimed by restoration or met with the wrecking ball. Those that remain will cost a large amount of money to bring up to present day fire, safety and zoning codes. One example of this is the Barn of Horror at Frightland, an October event on Route 13 in Middletown, Delaware. This 150-year-old dairy barn survived the ravages of time and the fury of cannonballs during the Civil War! Today, the old barn is losing the battle to natural decay and rot.

Less than 50 feet away from the Barn of Horror used to stand another 150-year-old structure called the Ripper's Barn. In 1999, just before opening, an electrical short started a fire. In only a few minutes and in front of thousands of patrons who were about to enter the Haunt, the whole structure burned to the ground! Although no one was hurt, the Delaware State Fire Marshal ordered a sprinkler system to be installed in the other two Haunted Attractions on the property before opening the next season. Without the added sprinkler system, the attractions would not be allowed to open. Sprinkler systems are not cheap, and the cash expenditure took a great deal of the funds that were planned for new props and scares that year!

Another disadvantage of building a haunt in the old barn is that the structure is settling and completely uneven. Each and every panel and wall had to be custom built to fit its location! The oddball widths and lengths in and around the milking stalls made things even more difficult to stay within local fire and safety codes. This time-consuming operation interfered with detailing the scenes and adding scares, and made changing the pathway configuration nearly impossible.

From a business standpoint, the added expense in bringing the barn up to code was greater than the income it was producing. That, paired with the loss of the Ripper's Barn, placed Frightland in a tough position. They needed to replace the attraction to get the ticket price back up to where it was profitable, but the building officials had become increasingly tight on the codes! Several options were discussed, but the decision was made to create an attraction without a roof. In the event of a fire, this “open air” attraction would not hold in smoke, and therefore would not require a fire suppression system or smoke detectors.

 The open-air attraction that Frightland chose to start with was a corn maze. A very popular format for summer attractions around the country, it seemed natural to haunt one in October. In early summer, the corn is “cross-planted” to increase the plant density. Once the corn has grown to a foot tall, a maze path is cut through the field by a 4-foot-wide bushwhacker pulled by a tractor. Providing there is no drought and the corn does grow, by September the corn stalks will be tall enough to detail and prop out the scenes. In November, the farmer cuts the corn down to use as chicken feed.

What seemed like the perfect solution had one fatal flaw: When you scare someone, they tend to take off running. In a Haunted House the walls are (or should be) built strong enough to withstand the average weight person slamming into them at a dead run. Corn stalks, on the other hand, will not even slow down a child, much less the high school football team. For two years the corn maze started the season as a fifth attraction, but it never made it past the second weekend!

The corn maze was a venture that just did not work out as a nighttime program. Frightland still has a daytime corn maze, which is great for young children and their families who could not handle the event at night.

Frightland still needed a fifth element, one that would last the entire season. Taking the code-bypassing aspects of an open-air maze a step further, they decided to build a “hard-walled” outdoor attraction. Starting with a crushed gravel base, the staff built one-sided plywood panels to configure the attraction. Unlike the barn, each panel could be built in full 8' x 4' dimensions without cutting each to fit the sagging barn walls. An outdoor hard-walled maze can be as large as you have the space for, and can easily be changed and rethemed to give the patrons something new and exciting each year!

The main disadvantage to the outside maze is weather. No one is going to be pleased traipsing through several acres of mud while being chased with chainsaws. Actors and props alike will not hold up well under heavy rain; it’s a good idea to build small open-sided shelters for protection.

Frightland could have built the maze out of barn board, scrap lumber and shipping pallets, but they chose to invest in a better quality wood so that the panels would last longer. While they could have used “treated” lumber and plywood to make the panels last even longer, the cost was prohibitive. (Note: OSB or plywood with waterproof “marine” glue will hold up best outside. The panels should be painted or treated with a weather resistant paint on all surfaces.)

Anytime you are using lighting or electrical fixtures outside, ground fault breakers should be used at each outlet, and all electrical equipment should be approved for outdoor use. The electrical power can be provided by generator or a permanent hook-up with the city. If this approach proves to be too costly, there are alternatives. Many corn mazes provide flashlights or glow sticks to patrons to negotiate the maze. Tiki-torches, 55-gallon drum fires and fire pits can provide lighting as well; just be extremely careful not to set the corn or maze walls on fire, or let the patrons do it for you.

James Jones is better known as “Crazy Jim” at Frightland in Middletown, DE.

By Ken Pitek

Just what is “blacklight, and now can it be used in a Haunted Attraction?” Blacklight is a term used to describe light in the ultraviolet or UV spectrum. By definition, ultraviolet light cannot be seen by the human eye. However, when exposed to UV certain substances will produce an ambient “glow,” and therein lies its usefulness in the art of Scareology.

There are two basic types of blacklights, incandescent and fluorescent. The incandescent type uses a hot wire filament to produce light and the fluorescent type uses an electrical arc through a gas filled tube to produce the light. Most light bulbs produce some UV light, but the glow effect is not as apparent due to the abundance of light from rest of the spectrum. Just as you create red light by placing a red filter or gel in front of a white light source, a blacklight filter is used to eliminate as much light outside of the ultraviolet spectrum as possible. UV filters are a very deep dark purple, so dark that the bulb looks like it is black when it is turned off. (Hence the name “blacklight!”) It takes a very bright light source to produce enough ultraviolet light to get through the filter, and because much of the light produced is held back by the filter, a great amount of heat is created. The brighter the light, the more UV produced and the more non-UV light can be filtered out, but the brighter the source, the more heat that is built up in the bulb. This heat creates both a safety hazard and decreases the life of the bulb. Great care should be taken to ventilate blacklight bulbs for longevity while insulating the bulb and fixture from contact with anything that could melt or burn.

All but the most expensive blacklights available today produce both UV and some non-ultraviolet light. Most of this non-UV light is violet in color, which is only moderately sensitive to the eye. A room lit only with a blacklight source has enough visible light for patrons to get around while still having the feeling of being in the dark. Adding strategically placed items that glow creates a state of uneasiness in patrons, and can be used to set them up for a good scare.

The incandescent blacklight comes in several varieties, from a 75-100 watt bare bulb with a standard screw base for $3.00, to a 400 watt Fresnel (pronounced “fer-nell”) fixture for $3,000. A screw base incandescent blacklight is convenient to use, in that will fit in any conventional lamp or ceiling fixtures. Unfortunately, these inexpensive bulbs are not much more than purple light bulbs, producing very little UV light, too much visible light, and way too much heat. The expensive incandescent blacklights are, well, expensive!

For most Haunters, the fluorescent blacklight provides the best effect, quality and convenience at reasonable prices. These can be purchased as bare bulbs (or tubes), bulbs in standard fixtures and sealed systems with non-replaceable bulbs. The sealed system is less expensive than a standard bulb with fixture, but if the ballast fails or the tube burns out, the whole fixture is thrown away. A fluorescent blacklight tube can be used in any fluorescent fixture, provided the wattage rating is appropriate, bulb length is correct and the sockets are compatible. Compare prices to determine which system is more cost effective for your application.

Fluorescent blacklights comes in a wide variety of lengths from 6 inches to 8 feet, and prices too varied to mention at locations all over town including; Spenser’s Gifts, Radio Shack, Home Depot and even Walmart (not to mention the seasonal Halloween stores). New in the last few years are fluorescent blacklights designed to fit in a standard screw base fixture. These come in both the 11-inch “ring” style florescent that would fit under a lampshade, as well as a style no larger than a standard light bulb, similar to those high efficiency screw base home lights. Their availability and wide variety of size and shape, coupled with the fact that they are very low in wattage and seldom get too hot to touch, is the reason that the fluorescent blacklight is an industry standard.

Scary Blacklight

So just, how do you go about using blacklight in your Haunted Attraction? This is limited only by your creativity and imagination, but here are a few general guidelines to get you started. Keep in mind that the glow effect caused by UV is most visible in the dark. The darker the better, so keep lighting other than by blacklight to a minimum. If you do decide to use your blacklights outdoors, remember to keep your fixtures protected from any moisture. Rain or even moderate dew can not only ruin your fixture, but can cause an electrical short that could be very dangerous. A sealed system blacklight comes in handy when moisture is a factor. Using blacklight outside over large areas is where those expensive incandescent blacklights come in handy. A standard florescent blacklight will lose effectiveness at 10 to 12 feet away from the tube, while a 400 watt incandescent can create the glow from 150 feet away. In some cases it may be more cost effective to use one high-intensity incandescent rather than 50 tubes and fixtures.

Place your fixtures so that the blacklight hits the object to be illuminated on the side that will be in view from the public, rather than from behind. This generally provides the most effect for any given amount of light, and the closer the light is to the object the brighter the glow will be. Objects that you want to glow will standout better if placed in front of a dark background (a flat black is usually best) rather than a light one. Try to place the fixtures so that no one will come between the light and the prop. Actors or patrons blocking the UV will diminish the glowing effect. Locating the fixture at ceiling level provides the best coverage and minimal interference from people and objects in the room. Place your blacklights where they will not be a hazard, or easily broken. Most electrical codes require a clear plastic sleeve (available at Home Depot) on all florescent tubes within 8 feet of the floor, so that if the tube is broken, the glass and toxic chemicals in the bulb will not rain down on anyone below. When placing the blacklights, plan out how you will get power to them. Fixtures outlets and electrical cords should be secured with wire ties and out of reach of both actors and patrons. Do not place lights where someone could trip over them or their power cord. It is better to forgo an effect than risk having someone injured.

The blacklight looks bright purple when it is on, and many everyday items such as clothing and dental caps glow under UV. The white cotton shirt or bright orange jacket on a patron walking though the room in a may distract the rest of the group from what you want them to look at. Leading your victims into a room lit with blacklight with nothing else in it will give them the opportunity to show each other their shoelaces and laugh at their teeth before sending them into the room with props you spent hours making glow. If possible, try to screen the blacklight bulb from the view of the patrons and the patrons from the effect of the UV.

Glow Stuff

By now you have probably spent a lot of time looking at the first picture, and I bet you are wondering just how I got all those bottles to glow so nicely. The first step is to find some really neat looking bottles. You can always use old empty perfume bottles, or just shop around; many stores have a great variety of odd shaped decorator bottles. But how do you get them to glow? Take for instance the bottle at the lower left (as well as several of the other bottles pictured). All I had to do to make this one glow was fill it with tonic water (on sale $0.79 for two liters). Tonic water glows a very nice whitish blue color when exposed to Blacklight! Make certain that you buy real tonic water, seltzer water will not work. Also, Tonic water is carbonated and can build up considerable pressure under some conditions. You should always use it in an open container or leave the bottle open for a few days before sealing, to let the carbonation escape (an occasional gentle shaking will help speed this up).

You may be thinking that the other colored bottles are just tonic water with food coloring. Unfortunately, using food coloring to change the food coloring absorbs the glow. The same is true for using tonic water in a colored bottle; the only color you will have any luck with is a blue bottle (the closer it matches the color of the tonic glow the better the results).

The other colored bottles are a little more difficult than the ones filled with tonic water. As I mentioned, fluorescent paints look very nice when poured into a bottle of your choice. In this case I used water-based paint and mixed it with water and save some money. I have found that if you use as little as 10% paint (by volume) and 90% water, the glow is nearly as bright as with pure paint. The glow color of the paint is not always exactly as it looks in white light. Always check your colors under Blacklight to be certain the color is what you want. If you are planning to use a colored bottle, try matching the glow color to the color of the bottle; this should give you a fairly good glow.

There are many commercial glow-in-the-dark products available to the Haunter, and while these do indeed glow very well under Blacklight, the choice is limited and the products tend to be somewhat boring, cartoon like and lacking in detail. With a little experimentation and some imagination, you can come up with your own ideas that not only look better, but are also far less expensive to create. Remember that a prop has its greatest effect the first time someone sees it. If you use a store-bought prop it is unique to you and about million other people, but if you build your own prop, it is one of a kind. So, what do you do when you find the perfect prop but it does not glow in the dark?

Almost all laundry detergents contain whiteners, which leave a residue on fabrics. Fortunately for us, these whiteners also glow nicely under Blacklight. If you want your prop to glow in Blacklight, just paint it with liquid laundry detergent. The brands that states they do not contain dyes seem to works best. In the picture above you will see a glow-in-the-dark Petite Pete skeleton; just to the left of it you will see one painted in liquid detergent (I used Tide® Free). On the left side of the picture; just behind the green bottle, you can spot a regular white skeleton without the detergent. The skeleton painted with detergent glows with a very dramatic white color.

Keep in mind that the detergent coat can easily wash or rub off, and after handling, and you could wind up with it on your hands. Be careful with this application, especially around your eyes. To prevent or at least reduce this rubbing off, you can coat your treated prop with several light coats of spray varnish or lacquer; make sure to use very light coats to begin with to avoid washing off the detergent. You will also want to make sure the clear coat you use does not contain any UV blockers, which would keep the UV light from reaching the detergent.

Another item many people use is glow in the dark paint. These work very well under Blacklight, but tend to be rather expensive. I have found that most any paint which claims to be fluorescent or neon will glow nicely under Blacklight. Fluorescent paints are available at any local craft store. There is also a glow-in-the-dark paint, which will hold the “glow” for a short time after the blacklight or white light is turned off. This “Phosphorescent” paint is useful for many effects, but is more expensive than fluorescent paint. Two of the bottles in the first picture have this paint applied on the exterior, (The one with rings just to the right of the green bottle; the other at the lower right).

Another variation of fluorescent paints are those that are invisible in white light and glow only under UV. This gives you the ability to paint ghostly faces portraits in the room that appear when a blacklight comes on. This paint is more expensive than normal UV paint and will have to be ordered. “You can get the same effect using the same color of fluorescent and non-fluorescent paint. Paint the background with the non-fluorescent paint and then paint your message with the fluorescent paint. Use jagged lettering to help hide the edges, and when the black light comes on, the message will appear.

With these effects in mind, there is a “strobing” blacklight available from some manufactuers, that can simulate a lightning strike of UV light. (Note: flashing on and off of a regular fluorescent light fixture will burn out the ballast.

You may start to think, “If all these things glow so well, I’ll just mix them all together and have a super glow.” Sorry, but it does not work. As you can see from the picture above, they do not mix well, which gives us another opportunity for an effect. If you fill your container part way with tonic water and then slowly squeeze in some fluorescent paint, you can achieve a layered effect. This can be seen in the pink and blue bottle just to the left of the liquid laundry detergent-coated Petite Pete. When first poured in, the paint tends to float on the top. After some time it will settle to the bottom, maintaining some of the layered look (the bottle pictured had been sitting for over two weeks). Try to pour your bottle in its final location, as any agitation will break up the layered effect and just give you a powdery look at the bottom.

I am sure that you have seen the numerous “thing in a bottle” props available at the local Halloween store. These are usually some form of an alien, eyeballs, body parts or whatever, in a jar with water, making them look like lab specimens. By adding some food coloring to the water you can get a ugly color that will definitely add to the effect of the prop. However, if you are planning to use your prop in a Blacklight environment, simply fill your bottle with some tonic water (after you have let it go flat), creating a much more impressive effect.

Another use of tonic water is “glowing gelatin.” This is a fun material that can be molded just as you would mold a gelatin desert, only it survives a warm room much better, and of course, your finished product will glow nicely under Blacklight. To make this, you need tonic water, unflavored gelatin and access to a kitchen. Simply prepare the gelatin according to the package directions, but instead of tap water use tonic water. I like to use a little less tonic water than the package calls for (about 25% less); it makes for a more durable finished product. You can add a little food coloring to change the color of the finished product, but it does seem to cut down on the glow substantially.

There are numerous other everyday items which also work well for Blacklight effects. For instance, potato flakes seem to look quite nice under Blacklight (I use Hungry Jack® brand). I have also found modeling clay and cordage that work nicely. I have included a list of some of my favorites at the end of this article; most can be found at your local grocery or hardware store. The list is by no means all-inclusive, I am sure you will be able to find many others on your own. My suggestion to you is try everything you can get your hands on under your Blacklight (especially if it claims to be fluorescent or neon) and see if it glows. Experiment, be bold, use your imagination, and try to come up with an idea no one has thought of before. Then you can have a truly original, one-of-a-kind prop.

One final warning; while most Blacklights sold for home use are safe, there are some commercial models that can be dangerous. These use what is called short wave UV, (as opposed to the more common long wave UV) and are used for scientific and medical use and not meant to be used where there will be any degree of human exposure. Be sure to check the warnings on any lights you may buy. It is also a good idea to expose yourself and others to Blacklight in reasonable doses; even so-called safe UV lights can be unhealthy if one is exposed to them for many hours a day, over a period of many days.

A few things that glow under Blacklight

Item Glow Color
Tonic Water Bluish White
Some Laundry Detergents Bluish White

Cheese Cloth Bluish White

Ritz Whitener Bluish White
Potato Flakes White
Fluorescent Paint Varied
Some Cosmetics Varied
Highlighters* Varied

Quinine Water vivid blue/purple

*You can soak your highlighters in water until the ink leaches out into the water to make a nice Blacklight-reactive fluid.

Ken Pitek is a telecommunications specialist with Southwestern Bell and Home Haunter in Northbrook Illinois. Ken's Halloween decorations get more elaborate each year, which has lead him to author the soon to be released book Tips From The Crypt. If you have any questions about this article, or suggestions for the book, feel free to contact Ken at tipsfromthecrypt@ameritech.net.

Glowing fog

For those of you using a water mister to make fog at your attraction, try filling them with Quinine water. It glows vivid blue/purple in UV light and can be purchased in bulk at a local restaurant supply house.

The Pit

By  Joseph M. Meils

“It was this- my chin rested upon the floor of my prison, but my lips and the upper portion of my head, although seemingly at a less elevation than my chin, touched nothing. At the same time, my forehead seemed bathed by a clammy vapor, and the peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose to my Nostrils. I put forward my arm, and shuddered to find that I had fallen to the brink of a pit, whose Extent, of course, I had no means of ascertaining….”

-E.A. Poe
“The Pit and Pendulum”

Some scares seem to be ingrained in our DNA, you cannot escape reacting to them. Most of us have had terrifying dreams of falling from a great height, and psychological tests on infants have found that this fear, of being on an edge, of plummeting down from high above, is innate. Not a learned behavior, but one that is programmed into each of us either by nature or the collective unconscious. In extreme cases, it is called acrophobia; the fear of heights.

In 1997 Kurt Hopkins, fellow haunted house designer, came up with an illusion that preys on this fear for The Castle of Fear in Denver, CO.  The basic idea for the effect is entirely his, and I want to thank him for his permission to write this article on it. Once the basic effect was set up, several of us kept adding little details to perfect the illusion. When “The Pit Effect” debuted, The Rocky Mountain News reported on it in their annual review of local haunts, “The pit was nothing less than heart stopping.” During our run that year, we actually had people refusing to cross it. I myself, working another room nearby, could hear the gasps, exclamations, and occasional outbursts of colorful language from people as they came upon it.

The Pit Experience
The way audiences experienced this effect was pretty straight forward. They would come out of the previous room, and ascend a short ramp, onto a raised platform, the light behind them fading away until they were in near total darkness. As they took a step forward, lights would suddenly click on, far below, revealing a pit yawning beneath their feet. Sometimes, its edge was right below where they were about to step! Most people would leap back, their hearts in their throats. After a moment, they would realize that there seemed to be a clear covering over the hole in the floor. Most, at that point, would carefully side step the hazard. Others would realize the trick, and walk across it. Others simply refused to move, hypnotized by the well that they had almost fallen into.

Smoke and Mirrors
Like so many great effects, the Pit is fairly simple. It will take an outlay of several hundred dollars, but since it is an effect that you can reuse year after year, the cost and effort is well worth it. “The Pit” is really just a 45 degree mirror, looking down an empty crawlspace beneath a raised platform. Over the top of the viewing hole is a sheet of ½ inch thick Lexan. By keeping the area of the crawlspace nearest to the mirror in darkness, and lighting only the far end of it, the edges of the mirror disappear. People could not take their eyes away from the image of the bottom of the “shaft,” seemingly five stories straight down. Better still, when they finally gathered up the courage to step over it, the clear plastic would inevitably creak, as though it were about to give way. There was no real danger; we had tested the Lexan with several other large, bearish men, standing on it. A total of over a half ton! In this description the design utilized a raised platform twenty feet long. However, it is possible to replicate the effect with fewer materials on a lower budget.

Getting Started
The Pit begins with the creation of a raised platform, a four foot, by four foot, by twenty foot long wooden box with a simple 2x4 structural framework. Cross members on the walkway were spaced every 18 inches on center and were reinforced with vertical members wherever possible as in fig. 1 (Note: Check with local codes for spacing of structural elements.) A floor decking of ¾ inch plywood covered most of the top of the box an 1/8 inch thick sheets of Masonite covered the sides. The inside of the box was painted to look like ancient stonework. Assembly was made with 3 inch deck screws for the structure, and inch long screws for the sheeting. At each end of this box we built a ramp to the height of the box. Our ramps were 12 feet long to pass local code, (to be ADA accessible, this ramp would have needed to be 48 feet long). Please check with your local building inspector to see what will be required in your area.

The Mirror
Next, we built a stable bed for the mirror to rest on. We were using an acrylic mirror, so it needed a ridged bed to lie on, to avoid any funhouse-style distortions. This bed was a simple frame of 2x2 lumber screwed together into a framework, and skinned with ½ in ply.  We had measured the interior of the platform, going from the upper corner, and down 45 degrees. This diagonal line gave us the approximate length of the bed. Once completed, the bed was mounted it in the upper corner with only a pair of screws. This way, the bed could be raised or lowered slightly at the floor end with bits of scrap wood, for final adjustments. The mirror was obtained at a local plastics company for about $40.00. Once we had the bed’s length and width, we had the people at the plastics company cut the mirror to size for us. Acrylic plastic is wonderful, inexpensive material, but its very brittle, and if you try to cut it on your own without proper tools, you will end up with a badly cracked and fragmented surface.

The Lexan
While we were at the plastics company, we also purchased our Lexan window. By far, this is the single most expensive part of the entire effect, but well worth the price. Lexan is a transparent, almost unbreakable polymer. Although we got the stuff to creak by stepping on it, we were never able to outright break it. We purchased a single sheet of the stuff, and had it cut into two four foot by four foot sheets. The second sheet was in case the first one became too scuffed and scratched to see through. After drilling screw holes around the perimeter about every four inches, we mounted the Lexan on top of the platform. We used a countersink when drilling the holes to avoid a trip hazard. The Lexan was raised up to the level of the 3/4 inch plywood with1/4 inch spacers, so that the two surfaces were flush.

Lighting
On our first attempt at this effect, we thought that we would have to light the entire length of the crawlspace in order to get the maximum impact. Not so. What we it more effective light only the end of the box away from the 45 deg. Mirror. The lack of lighting near the mirror helped to hide its edges. After several hours of experimentation, we found that a single clamp light, located at the far end of the crawlspace, angled away from the mirror, gave the best effect. A cooler light, something in a shade of blue was chosen because cooler colors help the eye perceive something as receding, while warmer colors flatten out the effect.

We rigged the clip lamp to go on and off using a simple timer relay. It was hooked to a photocell, so that the light would go on for ten seconds each time the beam was broken. After that, the pit light would stay off for 20 seconds before being able to be triggered again. It kept people from simply standing there, bottlenecking the haunt.

Sweeteners
During the first week of operation, we ironed out a few problems, and also found a few things we could add to help “sell” the effect. The first thing we added was a pair of fake windows on the floor of the crawlspace. They were not nailed to anything, they were simply laid there. By giving the eye something it recognizes as being part of a vertical surface, the brain had a harder time “flipping” the image to see how it was being fooled.

Latter we added a dummy on the floor of the box. First its neck in a noose and then its arms seemingly shackled “over” it’s head. Again, the brain interprets this body as hanging “down” with gravity, making it more difficult to see the truth.

About a week later, we found a second mirror, that happened to fit inside the crawlspace perfectly, at a yard sale. We removed the props from the box and mounted the second mirror at the far end of the crawlspace, away from the Lexan/mirror. The apparent depth of the pit was immediately doubled, and although the groups could now see their own reflection at the far end of the pit, they couldn’t tell what it was. Their reflection, dimly lit, was now 40 feet away. All they could see was that something was moving down there.

If you are a high volume haunter, invariably, you will encounter someone who has a major phobia about heights. A bypass corridor and someone stationed near the effect, to lead true acrophobs around the effect would be warranted. Another annoyance is that some people will attempt to break the Lexan window looking down. There is very little danger of them doing so, provided the edges are properly supported and fastened. However, if they are persistent enough, they may cause damage to the frame or the flooring. Again, this might be a good area to station someone nearby, to “shoo” the group on to the next room.

This effect is a blast to both build and to watch how various people react to it. It became a regular topic of conversation in the Haunt break room and we began to collect stories about how various patrons would react.

Any fear that we as Haunt designers can tap into and traumatize our patrons is well worth utilizing. The innate fear of heights and of falling is right up there in effectiveness with the fear of the dark and the fear of smelly chainless gas powered fume generating noisemakers.

Joe Meils is a lifestyle Haunter, having worked various Haunts in Illinois and Colorado since 1980. Currently he is living in Conway, Arkansas, where by day he is the technical director for the Snow Theater at UCA. At night he becomes the evil genius of “Goblin Grove,” a five-acre Haunted Trail located on his property. Currently, he is preparing to start a small latex prop and decoration business, called “Boojum Studios, LLC.” Contact Joe at BoojumStudio@aol.com