Haunted Attraction Magazine announces that we will no longer provide magazines as a subscription benefit to the Haunted House Association. If you received Haunted Attraction Magazine as a member benefit in the past you will not receive any more issues. Of course if you are a subscriber to Haunted Attraction Magazine, you will continue to receive magazines per your subscription.
We notified the Haunted House Association of our decision this week via email, a copy of which is provided below for the benefit of its members.

HHA Board,

After thoughtful consideration, I have decided that Haunted Attraction Magazine will no longer associate itself with the Haunted House Association. As such, I am not interested in an arrangement whereby I provide magazines to your members through the HHA and will not be providing any future issues. Of course, should any HHA member wish to subscribe, they may do so via our website www.hauntedattraction.com.

I have not come to this decision lightly. When I took over the magazine last year, I reached out to HHA in the hopes of building a mutually beneficial relationship and to support a burgeoning organization in the haunt industry. I made every attempt to treat HHA with respect and to provide an equal playing field for the different associations in the industry. I even provided HHA a two-page spread in my inaugural issue so that you could reach my readers. However, as the year progressed, I began noticing a trend in the HHA that I found disturbing. It appeared to me that HHA was taking action to benefit certain members over its other members.

The imbalance of content on the website favoring one vendor (which is well documented) was the first sign. I expressed my disapproval to Ben Armstrong, the HHA President but nothing was ever done. Then, the link to my website did not work and was never corrected. The imbalance clearly favored one vendor, which just happened to be owned by one of your board members. When I addressed this with the HHA President, I was told that HHA acknowledged the imbalance and simply told me that HHA “owed the board member.” The trend continued with a press release published by HHA extolling the reasons to go trick-or-treating this past season. The press release referred readers to specific haunted houses providing certain haunted houses additional exposure over and above the other members. Shockingly, one of these preferred haunts was not even a member of HHA.

There has been a clear pattern of behavior that I do not endorse nor do I wish to be associated with. HHA has demonstrated its lack professionalism and has shown great disrespect to Haunted Attraction Magazine and to the haunt industry throughout the past year. In my opinion, the lofty goals and promises that were established at its creation have been largely ignored and replaced with petty motivations. As a result of the manner in which HHA has conducted itself this past year, Haunted Attraction Magazine is withdrawing all support and breaking any ties with HHA. I am sorry that it has come this, but your actions over the past year leave me no choice.

Truly,

John Kennedy

FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #251 TO PREVIEW AT THE FIRST ANNUAL FAMOUS MONSTERS CONVENTION

LOS ANGELES, CALIF., March 11, 2010 – Famous Monsters of Filmland announces today the official launch date for the historical Famous Monsters of Filmland Issue #251. The collectable magazine will preview at the official Famous Monsters Convention to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 9-11, 2010. (read more)

After years of scaring people in the Pontiac, MI area, the Realm of Darkness is evolving and ownership has decided to auction many of the great props, structures, animations, etc that made Realm of Darkness such a great haunt. Now is your chance to get a piece of a great haunt! (read more)

Have any scary plans for Valentine’s Day? If you are near NYC you should check out the Valentine’s Event at Blood Manor Haunted House. I visited Blood Manor this past season and loved this haunt. In fact we will be doing an article on them soon. Great effects, solid acting, interesting characters, zombie strippers and LOTS of blood – what’s not to love? Trust me, if you visit Blood Manor, you will love the haunted house.

You may not normally think of Haunted House at Valentine’s Day, but what better way to spend your time than squeezing/being squeezed closely by your date? They are doing a tie-in with the Wolfman release too and offer guests the chance to win some cool giveaways.

Any other Haunted Houses doing anything special for Valentine’s Day? Tell me about it.

The new Wolfman movie is due out February 12th and I am anxiously awaiting its release but I am also managing my own expectations. The cast looks top-notch and the production looks amazing but these remakes sometimes fail to tell the story properly so I am keeping my expectations low.

With True Blood and Twilight being so popular, Vampires get all the attention these days in entertainment and Haunted Houses. Its understandable since Vampires have always been more popular and on top of that, Vampires are easier to costume and make-up for haunters. But what do you think? Will this movie be a smash hit? And if it is, will we see more haunted houses do something with Werewolves?

If you are interested, check out seven clips from Universal’s upcoming remake of The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt and Hugo Weaving.

The clips can be seen here!

If you are in the mood to get some Haunt this weekend, check out Molar Manor 2nd Chance just north of the San Fernando Valley in CA. I have heard great things about this haunted house and wish I could make it myself.

If you go this weekend shoot me an email and let me know how you liked it!