So you have a location for your Haunted Attraction. You have a story line and lots of creative ideas flowing. Now you are ready to approach the issue of room layout? How big should your rooms be? And what shape? Is there a way to use the placement of the walls to increase the effectiveness on the attraction? With a little creativity, the room configuration can add a great deal to your haunt. Atmosphere, crowd control and staffing issues all come into play when you start determining the dimensions of your room construction.

Be creative with room size.

Using small rooms will give a haunted house a claustrophobic feel. Accentuate this with your use of props and scenic artwork. Paint exaggerated shadows and crowd wall spaces with bookshelves and such. Smaller rooms are also easier to staff. If your groups are self-guided, a series of smaller rooms provides visitors less chances of creating mischief in your house. Smaller rooms cause the patrons to pass through them more quickly. If you expect to attract huge numbers of customers, a series of scaled-down chambers can help keep the stream of patrons flowing through the house at a good pace.

Conversely, throwing some larger rooms into the mix disorients the guests. More space means more opportunity for surprise and confusion, and can be particularly effective as the last room of the show or exit room. Large rooms offer your acting staff more space and flexibility, in which to stretch their acting muscles. It's a good idea to have at least one cast member in every large room to keep an eye on what the guests are doing, both to monitor behavior and to control the flow of patrons through the show. If for some reason you need to slow down your throughput, a few larger chambers can be quite advantageous.

A room doesn't have to look like a box! Give yourself the freedom to use different room shapes. Hexagons, elongated triangles, circles, anything can work. Putting your guests in a room that does not look the way they expect a room to look will confuse and distract them, making the resulting scare that much easier.

If you cannot change the shape of the room, then experiment with varying the ceiling heights. Building a chamber with very high walls adds a great deal to the haunted experience! Floors can offer even more opportunity to confuse or disorient your guests. Be careful, however, not to do things that could cause opportunity for injury. Steps or uneven floors in the dark are unsafe. Mushy flooring materials such as a mattress might feel neat to walk on, but it is both a trip and fire hazard. While experimenting with floors, be sure to keep in mind handicapped accessibility and stay clear of emergency exits. Considering these regulation issues before you begin can prevent many headaches further down the road.

Build your rooms with a clear idea of what is going to be happening within those walls. Incorporating props and actor spaces during the planning helps the room construction take form. A clear vision of what the room will eventually be used for will simplify and focus your workload.

Be creative...just be safe at the same time. Accidents can never be 100% anticipated, but a dose of good sense is always a useful tool. Avoiding the use of easily breakable props, sharp corners, and flammable materials. These considerations will make your haunt a much more enjoyable experience for both your staff and guests.

Room design may be one of the most rewarding parts of fashioning a Haunted Attraction. The size of your rooms can assist with the pacing of your show. The shapes of your rooms can ad atmosphere and disorientation to the experience. Variety, creativity, and safety are the key instruments in your layout toolbox; keep them close at hand. And let your room ruminations run wild!

Dusti Lewars haunts with Skeletons In My Closet Productions in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is both a lead actor, and in charge of costuming for Grisly Gothic Gables, the company's main Haunted Attraction. She can be reached via Email at: elionwyr@onix.com