Something Different in the Darkness: Original Theming In the Haunt Industry.

During my days of rampant visits to haunted attractions of the Halloween seasons past, I visited many a haunt that kept their theming very simple.  A haunted trail or haunted house would be just that.  Walking amongst a dark wooded area or musty walls where all sorts of different creatures, mutants, axe murderers and witches would jump out at you.  No backstory.  No background.  No theme.  Just a good old fashioned free for all.  And I'm fine with just that.  I can see where haunters like to keep their options open and don't want to be bogged down with a set theme.

But, I will say this.  I have to admire haunters who decide to put a theme to their haunts in a bid to think outside of the box.  If you're a big enough entity to afford the licensing of some big name horror movies and characters, you've got a leg up on the competition.  Great for you.  But, there are plenty of haunters out there that bring their own stories and characters into their haunts and that is where I'm particularly impressed.

Lets take a YouTube look at some haunted attractions that put together their own stories of the macabre into haunts.

TheDentSchoolhouse On YouTube (subscribe and give them a Like.)

The Dent School House in Cincinnati Ohio is an actual old school house that has been transformed into one of the midwest's best known haunted attractions.  It's based on a backstory where a psychotic maintenance man went on a murder spree quite awhile back.  Now his ghost and those of many of the students haunt the walls of the old school.

Inside The Magic  On YouTube (subscribe and give them a Like.)

Not all of the Haunted Attraction houses that appear at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights can be themed around their usual franchised staples (Walking Dead, Halloween, The Purge).  They do still step out of their comfort level to bring attraction fans houses from outside of the box.  One such haunt was based off of an old Hispanic legend of La Llorona - The Weeping Woman.  The ghost of a beautiful woman who drowned her two children.

Them Park Adventure On YouTube (subscribe and give them a Like.)

Knotts Berry Farms Theme park's Halloween showcase, known as Knotts Scary Farm doesn't have any access to already existing franchises or licensing that its competition has.  So all of their haunts have to have original theming and storylines.  This one featured is a pretty original idea.  We've become accustomed to the ghost searcher reality shows that have become commonplace within our pop culture.  This haunt brings you on one such paranormal investigation where everything goes horribly wrong.  This show has some pretty over the top (of your head) special effects.  Can you brave Paranormal Inc.?


That will be it for today.  Until the next time, keep your eyes in the back of your heads during the season of dark magic.  You never know what is keeping their eyes on you!

Stay vertical.

Zangz.