Increasing Realism in your Attraction

April 16th, 2011

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By James C. Boyer

Over the last 15 years I have traveled rather extensively across the country and visited numerous Haunted Attractions. In that time I have seen few of what I would call “E Ticket” attractions, (an old Disneyland designation for the top level rides), a few dozen adequate but hopeful events and far too many substandard or less than average Haunts. The best attractions have several things in common, but one element that stands out the most. Realism! The best Haunted Attractions all seem to have vast amounts of detail incorporated into the scenes that helps to suspend the patron’s disbelief.

The debate 1 often hear on the Internet is, “Why should I include so much detail? If I’ve done my job right, people will be running scared through the attraction and will never notice the little things.” It is my belief that even if our guests don’t notice the details, their subconscious mind perceives and registers all of these factors internally, creating a far more intense overall impression of our attraction.

When most owners create a bedroom; they will put a bed, a night stand, maybe a lamp or wardrobe and think they are finished creating the look of a bedroom. Guests see this and are likely to assume they are supposed to be in a bedroom, but subconsciously they know the scene is staged, fake and unreal. They feel out of place and begin to expect something even before it happens. Their eyes see bedroom but their mind senses something contrary. If we add a few details, such as an alarm clock on the night stand, a few dirty clothes on the floor or in a hamper, some picture frames and box of tissues on the dresser, paintings on the wall, a curtain to simulate a window, a mirror over the vanity and a shelf with a few keepsakes, knickknacks or books, we now have further defined who may have lived in the room.

If it is a child’s bedroom, then you can add a few stuffed animals or toys piled in a corner. A robe draped over the edge of the bed, some slippers on the floor, an old paperback book, bottle of pills, glass of water, ashtray and reading glasses on the night stand changes the occupant to an older adult. Adding a television, record player and telephone can help establish the time frame of the scene and tell us if the bedroom is supposed to represent the past, present or even the future.

With attention to detail, we don’t just suggest a bedroom, we completely convince our guests that they have entered a bedroom, no nagging doubts, warning bells or subconscious clues that they are in a manufactured environment.

Whenever possible, lighting should come from natural sources, (called practicals), such as a lamp on the night stand, a night light in a out of the way wall plug, or from a ceiling fixture, (each on a dimmer to control brightness). The television in a corner can be tuned to static and have the room bathed in an eerie, dancing ambient light.

The details don’t have to cost much. Everything added to the room described above can be obtained very easily and cheaply, or by cleaning out our closets, storage or garage. An old bookshelf, a trashed dresser or wardrobe someone tossed away will fill an empty corner of the room and now our guests know without a doubt they are in a bedroom. Their eyes see it; their minds perceive it and their subconscious drinks in all of these elements even those they don’t consciously notice.

Manipulation of reality is the first rule in magic, film, art, advertising and other media and a high level of detail does a great job of mental manipulation on our guests. Did the rabbit appear from thin air? Can dinosaurs really run through Los Angeles? Is that miles of landscape or a two dimensional painting? Do I really need another cell phone, a new detergent or a sleeping pill like the commercials claim?

Another benefit of this level of detail is the wonderful and unexpected trick it can play on the brain, of altering perception. Our perception always tempers reality and colors our memory of past events. Sometimes it can even create elements and events in the memory of the viewer that didn’t really happen. The guest’s perception of what happened, coupled with personal memory and impressions can cause a guest to swear that they saw something, or something happened inside that room, that is entirely constructed from their own imagination.

When the guest remembers the event later, your attraction will seem so much grander in memory than it could ever approach in reality. The greater the level of detail, the greater the guests’ immersion into our manufactured environment and the higher the degree of willing suspension of disbelief will be on the part of viewers. It’s that allusive and fleeting factor that makes great movies, believable. All these elements resonate on a subconscious level with our guests that can’t be measured; and the great thing is that it doesn’t take a lot of money or time, only a little more effort and a dash of ingenuity, haunts currently operating, simply by incorporating some logical design elements and the little extras that keep our patrons coming back year after year.

As Haunt owners we have to weigh the goals for our attraction within the constraints of our fiscal limitations. Our imaginations often outweigh our budget, but rather than temper our imagination we can learn to control our spending with creative design. For most of us, trying to incorporate all of our initial ideas into that first haunt, we find that our finances dissipate rapidly. Compromises in design are made in order to fit everything we initially wanted to include, and our attempts fail on all levels. We envisioned a graveyard, a mausoleum and old abandoned house and once we start building we end up with a few scattered tombstones, a half finished mausoleum. Our house has one or two rooms with some detail mixed with lots of dark hallways and few design elements. We want a genetics lab with cages, laboratories, genetic mutations, and escaped creatures. We build and detail the first room or two, run out of funds and the remaining haunt is filled with black walls and store bought costumes.

A better approach involves choosing our theme carefully and deciding ahead of time what we can and cannot afford, then developing the details around these elements we feel are indispensable. If you want a genetics lab but can’t afford all of the ideas, start with some rooms that resemble office space, such as a real lab would include. Begin with a lobby, have a secretary’s desk complete with phone, computer or typewriter, desk pad, pencil cup, wall clock, desk chair. A water cooler, file cabinet, a potted plant, inspirational posters, calendar on the wall, table with scattered appropriate publications and a few guest chairs. The use of logical and commonplace design elements will save funds for the more elaborate lab rooms. Filling a room with elements that belong in our theme yet, can be obtained for little to no money, add to the overall illusion of a laboratory, immersing our guests into our vision, and thereby creating a willing suspension of disbelief. All of these items can be found at goodwill, the dump-sites at any apartment complex near the end of the month, in junk yards, or at retail store closings and a myriad of other sources.

As far as scares, the possibilities are endless. Tension is created by the numerous hiding places; under the desk, behind or even inside the file cabinet. Have a secretary or lab technician burst from hiding, into the room butchered, bleeding then dying on the desk with the words, “It’s to late, they’ve escaped… they’ve all escaped.” Your guests have been drawn into the plot and become increasingly curious, “What’s escaped, what happened to this person, what will happen to me?”

The next rooms are filled with office cubicles, or industrial areas, storage rooms with shelves of supplies or row after row of specimen jars. Fill several rooms with empty cardboard or wooden boxes stacked in disarray and labeled creatively to hint at what types of experiments have been performed. An actor hidden amongst the boxes provides some scares along with a pneumatic prop or two.

Now you can present the pride of your haunt; the first of two or three extremely well detailed rooms. These could include the lab scene, animal cages, or a morgue that houses the failed human and/or animal experiments.

If you can’t afford those great genetically mutated human experiments, use body forms covered by flame retardant vinyl, black plastic or a white cloth splattered with blood and stuffed with chicken wire to resemble a distorted human shape on a lab table. One mutated appendage visibly hanging out from under the bag or sheet will cause people to imagine what is hidden beneath the sheet. Don’t forget the bloodstained walls, hand prints and some supplies spilled on the floor, as a hint of the brutal horrors that had occurred here. Don’t just stain the walls red and throw a body part or two on the floor, telegraph what happened in the room and set the stage to tell the story of your room in the details. A fluorescent light can be flickering overhead; the broken cover hanging precariously from the fixture. Add a lab table with the microscope and various test tubes and equipment and a trash can spilling fleshy garbage from under the partially closed lid. Hang blood stained scrubs or lab coats on the wall or a coat rack and next to a wall clock are periodical charts, lists of employee duties, security levels and signage warning of biohazards clearly visible. A warning beacon lights the room to show a refrigerator in the corner and the shelf full of reports, books and documents from past experiments that round out the display.

This highly detailed room is followed by a few filler rooms, dark hallways with flickering lighting, ripped apart chain link fencing or sealed lab doors before entering the next highly detailed room, filled with cages -animal quarantine. PVC pipe painted properly with an undercoating of black and dry brushed with metallic overtones can make incredibly realistic and inexpensive cages as well as numerous other items, including prop frames and static skeletons. This room is a great place for a few of your best props mixed with several created monstrosities built and carved from spray foam, yak hair and chicken wire.

As your attraction and your budget grow, you can add more complicated elements and room designs that fit into the final vision. By starting smaller and utilizing a grand sense of theme and design you can still establish your ideas within a plausible financial framework while gradually expanding your reputation, word of mouth and customer base. After a few years of successful operation, you can begin to include the animatronic mutants, falling walls, butchered S.W.A.T. style containment teams, high tech machinery, or whatever new and more costly elements originally envisioned that your early budget would not allow.

Of course these are just suggestions, the point I hope to illustrate to the reader is how with very little effort, or money you can add extremely high levels of detail and believability. An implausible environment housed inside a downtown shopping center, becomes a convincing genetics lab. The great thing about this concept is just how little monetary demand is needed to accomplish great detail. As mentioned previously most if not all of the items necessary to create such overwhelming detail can be obtained with a little effort from thousands of sources. Most of the items needed to create the illusion of reality can be had for free with some creative searching, leaving the bulk of your revenue free to purchase that devastating animatronic you desperately want to add to your attraction, better or increased advertising, paying well-trained actors or to expand your venue. To those who think detail is not important, take a look at the haunts with longevity; all have high levels of theme and detail. What is more impressive? A brilliant animatronic placed inside a relatively empty room with little detail, or a room saturated with detail and design elements, that houses a simple yet convincingly costumed and well integrated actors or special effects? What brings guests back each year? Long dark hallways painted black with a few Bucky’s and random black robed actors in store bought rubber masks hiding throughout, or a lavishly decorated environment with clever scares, great theme, great story lines and dedicated actors in simple but effective makeup and appropriate costumes. Time has in the past and will continue to prove the concept that the greater the quality of product, the higher the value and the stronger the impression on our treasured customers. Walt Disney understood this concept probably better than anyone, and his success reflects his attention to detail and commitment to his guests’ experience. We too should strive for the same level of dedication to our unique and limitless art form and our responsibility to amaze and entertain our invaluable patrons? With ticket prices to some attractions approaching those of theme parks, our customers deserve an experience of comparable quality and entertainment value? A little attention to detail can go an incredibly long way toward establishing our industry as a viable, professional and valuable entertainment source and can elevate your attractions from a simple diversion to anticipated destination.

James Boyer is a professional magician, the founder and owner of Lycanthrope Arts and Co-founder of Wolfe Enterprises.

This article originally appeared in Haunted Attraction Magazine issue #49