We set the day for a Friday night about two weeks before Halloween. We pulled up to the venue and saw nothing but teenagers and younger kids. At the ticket window was a list of rules for the haunt, the one that jumped out was "do not touch the actors, they will not touch you". At this point even though we did not verbalize it to each other, both of us were thinking that this was going to be lame and it was only afterwards did we share that.
The line was short enough that it didn't start until inside the 'lobby' of the building, this was an indoor haunt. We walked in and again, with the exception of a couple who were probably about ten years younger than us, we were the oldest living things in sight.
After waiting awhile it was almost time for us to go in the haunt. We were escorted from the lobby into a dimly lit room where an older man probably in his late sixties or early seventies was serving as a doorman. The couple similar to our ages was taken back at the same time. Before allowing us entry there was a pause and the older man looked at me and asked in a very low and serious voice "What do you think is in there?" I said " A lot of people wearing make-up". He paused a second before saying, again very seriously, "Maybe". I thought to myself "Really? This guy is trying to work a forty something year old man? C'mon now!"
He opened the door behind him and we proceeded in. It was very dark and the corridor was very small, only about five feet wide. We weren't able to walk side by side. We went straight ahead for a short while. After rounding a corner we soon encountered our first actor. He jumped straight out at me and grabbed the sweatshirt I was wearing. I was disconcerted and immediately thought of the sign near the ticket window. I said very firmly "You're not supposed to touch me!" He just laughed. We proceeded on, but I hadn't been expecting to be grabbed and was thrown for a loop. My adrenaline started going at that point because if that guy wasn't going to follow protocol I couldn't say for certain what was going to happen.
The haunt was really well designed. In addition to the cramped feeling from the small corridor, the walls were designed so it was impossible to tell where one panel ended and the next began. So a person couldn't tell ahead of time where the actors would jump out from and they came at a pretty good clip. The costumes were good and they had an excellent blood fountain.
When we got out, we buzzed about it as the drive back to my place started. I was a little peeved about being touched, but let it go. In hindsight it really made the whole event unpredictable and more memorable. Not too long after we started the drive back to my place I turned to my brother and suggested we do another, right now. He wasn't up for another that night and I didn't press him because he gets up way early to go to his job, but he said "I can come down again next Friday". He did, we went to not one but two that night (including our first haunted corn maze) and so it began. Doing them has really become something we both look forward to as summer recedes. It is number one on my bucket list to work in a haunted attraction as an actor. I know it is not as easy as it would appear to work in one because they are in there for a long time, but I still think it would even more fun than going through as a customer.
That first one was the only one where we didn't see a decent number of people our age.
I kind of got a taste for what it would be like to work in one back in 2012, during our second year of doing them. We were going through a haunted corn maze and somehow I got ahead of my brother. I got to this wooden structure that had these body bags hanging by chains from the roof. The way it was set up you had to push the prop body bags aside in order to keep going forward. I decided to stop and wait for him before going through. These two twelve or thirteen I'm guessing year old girls came along before I could take a few steps back from the body bags. They must have thought I worked there because one of them looked at me and asked "Are those real?!". I thought that was pretty stupid, real body's? C,mon now. As nonchalantly as I could I put both my hands at the bottom of one of bags and swung it towards the one who asked the question while at the same time saying "YES!!" I stopped short of it actually making contact with her, but there was enough slack in the chain to get it close enough to cause her to scream. Thinking about it now puts a smile on my face.
My brother took a break from going to any in 2013 because he was ultra busy, but we just went to our first one of the season this past Friday. It was a haunted corn maze. Three things happened that have never happened to us before. First, their was this part where the customers had to pick between two doors to continue. My brother was in front and started going through one door. Just for thrills I told him I was going through the other door and bolted through it. I did it so fast that he didn't have a chance to protest and I figured the two paths would eventually reunite, as I said we had been temporarily separated before . Well, they didn't and with the exception of some moments running into other customers, we each went through the second half of the maze alone. You know it's not like either of us get actually scared, but walking through by yourself is a different animal. You know that everything that is set up and all the actors lying in wait are coming for you and you alone.
Being alone resulted in the other two firsts. When I was walking along I got jumped, lost my balance and for the first time fell down. Afterwards my brother confessed that while he was temporarily walking with another two people an actor jumped at them all with a 'chainsaw'. The other two people started running and for the first time in any of the haunts, my brother started fleeing as well. The primal 'follow the herd instinct" got to him.
We loitered around the exit of the maze for a few minutes, discussing what had taken place. The exit put you back on the same path that customers used to enter the haunt, so people were walking past us. A pack of kids came along and the last one stopped. He was pretty young to be going through in my opinion, fourth or fifth grade tops. He looked at us with wide eyes and asked "Did it scare you"? My brother, being an emotionally warped cretin, smelled his fear and chose to add to it . "Oohh, it's a bad one!" The boy said "Nnooo" (seriously) and I wish I could describe the dreadful tone in his voice. I tried to elevate the kid by chiming in "You'll like it". It didn't work and he looked like he was about to crap his pants as he reluctantly marched down the trail.
My brother has told me a couple of times that he had to take a breath and say to himself "I'm not going to hit anybody". Good advice for anybody going for the first time and the actors start popping out.
In Washington state the haunts, at least none of the ones we've been too, don't allow the actors to touch the customers. I know that is different than in other states, my Aunt went to Terror Behind the Walls in Pennsylvania and said she was grabbed left and right. I haven't made up my mind whether I would like that to happen to me on a regular basis. There is this one called Blackout in New York and Los Angeles that I've seen footage of on the Travel Channel. You have to be 18 or over to go in and everyone has to go through by themselves. It looks to me like the actors use the customers to fulfill some S&M/B&D trips so I'm passing on that one, but we've talked about going to some of the other ones shown on the Travel Channel.
It is probably unlikely that I'll get to very many of the ones out of Washington. I know this post has been longwinded
but I'd love to hear about your experiences with haunted attractions, if you've worked at one or even if it's just been one you've run at your home.
