Haunt Weekly - Episode 420 - November/December News

[0:23] Hello everyone i'm jonathan i'm crystal and this is haunt weekly a weekly podcast for the honor to track your entertainment industry whether an actor owner or just plain aficionado we aim to be a podcast for you and we return to you this week with episode 420 nice and unfortunately is an episode fortunately it is an episode of his life for that means it's time to do the news but unfortunately the industry wasn't kind enough to gift us some pot related stories for this one so screw y'all y'all are just y'all just terrible y'all are no fun for our 420 i'm just saying but anyways um we definitely do have a surprisingly large amount of haunted attraction news to cover this week as we sort of get back on the ball and back on the rhythm them from things we're going to get into that in just a minute but please do take a minute before you do so before we get into it check us.

Introduction and Announcement

[1:22] Out at all the places we exist we're hauntweekly.com hauntweekly on twitter hauntweekly on facebook hauntweekly on youtube and you can also find in youtube.com slash hauntweekly i always forget that one is our youtube channel please also find us wherever you get your podcast from and pay special attention to the facebook page facebook.com slash hauntweekly as that's where we occasionally do live recordings and are getting back into it um so yeah so let's sort of take things in a bizarre order here and first things first we want to talk about the work we did on our haunt last week or more specifically when i say we i mean crystal because let's just be realistic here she was the one that went out there and did it But, well, I was literally trying, it's a long story.
But anyways, I was trying to do something else and it ended up running way over.
And so you ended up finishing before I made it out there. We'll just leave it there.

[2:18] But Crystal, what did you do in the haunt this week? So we have an old, if you came through the tour, actually with HauntCon or any of the times that we've opened for Haunter.
That is true. We had an old slam wall that had a giant stopper because it was basically saloon doors that hit a stop wall.

[2:44] Very giant saloon doors. Yeah, very giant saloon doors. That is true.
And then we had turned that stop wall into a platform for a bed for the past couple of years.
So I tore all of that out. Yeah. All the way back to one freaking side of the doors because.

[3:07] Smart people that we are in the past, put the hinges on, put the thing in place, and then put a wall on top of the hinges.
So in order to finish removing that, which needs to be done because it's not a standard size, that's part of the reason we built the new one this year and in a better location for it.
Yeah. A big part of the motivation for the new one was that the old one didn't fit in a four-foot by four-foot frame system at all.
And as we've realized, as we've been going through it afterward, it was built like five and a half feet.
Yeah. It was built like we clearly built it to fit a space without any concept that it might be moved or repurposed or need to fit into a grid.
Well, and one of the things that we found when we were looking at it was that it originally was not a slam wall.
No. It was originally a disappearing wall, which that makes a little more sense for the weird length, but not a lot, because we could have made it any length. Yeah.
But we chose, for reasons unclear, to make it five and a half...

[4:19] I think it's between five and five and a half feet. It's a very random measurement.
Yeah. It's part of the proper facing.
And what it may have been, that may have been the width of the cloth that we used. Yeah. I bet you that's what it was.
Yeah, when we made it a disappearing wall at first. Yeah. And then we repurposed the disappearing wall into the slam wall when we built that.
And why the slam wall sides were different sizes? I have no fucking idea.

[4:46] Yes, past us was a thing to be studied.
I know why we did things like put the hinge on the outside and then put a wall up against it. I know why we did that.
Yeah, because we didn't have a wall in the original design, and then we decided to put a wall the next year.
Yeah, that was just year after year planning and putting things on top of one another. Yeah. Yeah.
We would, and we put the hinges on the outside to make it easier to swing that heavy-ass door.
Yeah. The direction towards the stopper. So that way the actor that was running that could do it over and over and over and over again. Yeah.
And not strain themselves.
So I know why we did some of these things, but I have no idea why the doors are two very different sizes. No. Like, not even close.
No. Like, one's maybe two feet and the other one's three and a half. Yeah, exactly.
It's way off. It's at a glance, you can tell it's off. You don't need to have the magic eye.
No, for measuring shit.
And this is something that we've been talking about for a while, though.
And I think what we're doing is we're making us sort of a pact with ourselves to every week, get out in the haunt and do one project that takes between one and two hours long.

[6:09] And the reason for that is if we can do that every week between now and about September, that's about 30 to 60 hours of work. Yeah.
And then we can do... And a lot of projects done. Yeah, that's a lot of projects done.
Basically, what we learned in this past year was that we can't count on August to be cool enough to work. Right.
And that this shit takes a lot longer than we had remembered from three years prior. And we're a lot older than we were. Exactly.
We used to plow through, be up to 4 a.m. every night. Yeah.

[6:48] And it's easy to talk like that when you're in your late 20s, early 30s.
But now that we're in our mid-40s. Well, and I think after a pandemic also, I think the pandemic really changed the way I sleep in general.
I think it changed the way everyone exists. Exactly.

Setting Up a Timetable for Haunt Projects

[7:07] Like everyone got a little more sedentary and I know we did.
So yeah, those are all factors, but the realization is we need to do something along and along and along.
And the easiest way for us, and we know this from doing other projects that we've worked together on like this is just to set up a sort of a timetable.
And every week we say we're doing one thing.
It will take between one and two hours. And if we have a little extra time, maybe we'll scope creep it a little bit, but one to two hours, one thing, and it's just one bite-sized goal.
And if we achieve, you know, 25 or 30 of those over the course of the year, that should leave us with significantly less to do come September, October. Yeah. That's the hope.

[7:51] I'm not saying it won't be crazy. I'm not saying there won't be a lot to do.
And I'm not saying we won't goldfish this shit and give ourselves more to do come that season.
Yeah, well, I mean, basically, I already have my goldfish idea. Yeah, I know you do.

[8:06] Because I will be making a lot of detail things, and I will just make more.
And that way, we don't actually scope creep, and it still looks fine.
Yeah, and that's one of the things is we're actually doing tentatively.
Well, I think we've actually settled upon this part, and it's not really a spoiler for anything.
Okay. But we're doing something, we'll say, from Victorian era.
Yes, the aesthetic will be from that era. Yeah, the aesthetic will be from that era.
And so we need lots of doodads and doobobs and binglebobbers and things like that from the era.
And we're going to have to make those, whether it's out of wood or foam.
We haven't really nailed down.
And then we made out different things, honestly, depending on where they go and how they're used.
Right. Right, but the first thing's first. We've got to get this stuff that we built a long time ago out of the way so that we can finish putting in the visual breaks that we started last year and that worked so well in the first Half the Haunt.
We basically need to flip it and do it on the other side. But basically, come February, March, don't be surprised if a lot of these weekly updates are, we made more dingle boppers. Yeah.
Because that will actually be a significant part of what we have to do.
But, yeah, right now we're going to be doing, I would say, layout work is the main thing we're doing.
Yeah. And I think next we're going to be removing that wall that was blocking the door.
Mm-hmm. Get the door off so we can finally get that cleaned out.
And then possibly move a couple of other walls.

[9:32] But basically, we're trying to do structural stuff that we have to do before we can start really building the haunt part of the haunt. Yeah. Yeah.

Introducing a Request and Recap of Previous Episode

[9:42] So, yeah, that's what we're doing right now, and that's how we're going to be doing it. And we'll be keeping you up to date, too, as we do it right here at Home Weekly.
Okay, the other thing I wanted to put in a request with you guys is about last week's episode.
I know a lot of y'all skipped it, because none of y'all know who George Patience is, even though I didn't sign homework.
Yeah. I get that. It was a weird episode for us. And every year we do one of these dalliances where we do something a little bit different.
Not necessarily haunted attraction related at all.

[10:14] This is one of those times. But I really, really, really think that was a great interview.
And I really hope that... That if you're able to find the things that were mentioned in it, that you will let us know.
First off, I think you should listen to the interview. Because it is an amazing interview.
It was one of the best interviews I think we've done on this.
And it was definitely one of the craziest.
Yeah, it was wild. I did not expect this to take all the twists and turns that it did.
No. Over the course of that damn near hour with George, it was absolutely nuts.
The story of the song I Hate Xmas is even more batshit ludicrous than I thought it was.
Yeah, and going into this, the only thing we knew was there was a person named George Patience that made a video called I Hate Christmas and disappeared.

[11:08] Yeah, just disappeared after making it. Like, we weren't able to find anything else about him.
And Jonathan's very good at research. Yeah, I research the hell out of things.
And basically, yeah, so we couldn't find anything. But through a series of fortunate events, we managed to get a hold of him. We managed to get him on the podcast.
And it is a great interview. And also, just so you know, we damn near had a heart attack with his podcast.
Because Mr. Patience requested that we use the phone for the interview.
Not a big deal. I have a VoIP system with my business. So I had a business line. It has call recording.
I was fine with it. It just meant we couldn't do it live. So we didn't do a live episode, which we usually do our interviews live.
But I was okay with that because this was a very special interview, and that meant more to me. It was getting it done. So we record it.
I'm sitting there. We're sitting there recording. We talk for about 55 minutes or so.
Yeah. And the actual call was like 59 minutes or so. It was just under an hour.
Or less like the five minutes cut off between the two ends.
Yeah. And what made the 50-minute episode.

[12:14] We hang up, and then I immediately go to check the call recording, and it wasn't there. Yeah.
Yeah, we freaked out for a while. I shit myself because we checked like a half a dozen or a dozen times during the call that it was recording.
And the good news is, obviously, it did record. It just took a while to process all that data and get it online. It just took a few extra minutes.
The quality ended up being great. I was very happy with it. But, yes, please do check out the previous episode, George Patience.

The Call Recording Mishap and Urging Listeners to Tune In

[12:47] It is an incredible, wild interview.
Absolutely insane. And also, especially if you are in the L.A.
Area, especially if you are familiar with archival stuff like this, like a lot of the stuff I would describe as archival in nature.

[13:03] See if you can help him find some of his musical legacy.
Because he is offering some pretty generous amounts for some of it. Yeah.
And also, you know, just some crazy stuff there that is somewhere in the ether. We have no idea where.
Alright. Well, our final weekly thing, or final thing, well, no, not our final thing, we're getting to the news, is every week we ask a question of the week, and last week, my last week, I mean four weeks ago. A month ago.
Because we had 16, which was a news episode like this. We had 17, we had JAPES on.
18 was the anti-Christmas redux to introduce George Patience.
19 was George Patience, and then is this. Yes. So, a month ago, we asked you all a question, which was, have you had anything in your haunt stolen or vandalized?
And this is what they all said.
The Imaginarium Sanitarium, which we have been to, had stuff happen.
This year, projectors were taken, and last year it was costumes and props. That sucks.
Craig White said the doorbell on the front door. That's just a weird, random thing. Which a couple of people took credit for stealing in the thread.
Oh, okay. Because, you know, anyway.
Erica Carl said, Someone stole their Ouija board off of a table.
You know, shit you wouldn't think people would need to steal.

Unconventional Security Measures to Reduce Vandalism and Theft

[14:29] Daryl Plunky said, Yes, but we're thinking of switching to rebar corn stalks and hanging bodies full of bricks to reduce vandalism in those areas and wiring 110 volts to a metal plate to the ground and the other end to the props to reduce theft.
At this stage in my career running Home Weekly, I can't tell what's a joke or what's serious anymore. So I'm like, okay.
It just kind of rolls off as the problem. That's not the craziest shit I've heard this week, it turns out.
No, and you know, it would definitely deter theft.
Yeah, bolts jolt, turn and kill. So, I mean, anyways. And finally, from four weeks ago, Brian Page said, early on had an excavator at the haunt.
Someone used a truck to push down the front gate and steal it.
A friend had put a skeleton dressed in a construction gear on it the night before. Thieves stopped them.

[15:24] So, basically, the skeletons stopped the thieves four feet away from the excavator, and they left without stealing anything, because they were fucking scared of skeletons.
Of a plastic skeleton, of which there's 8,000 at Home Depot. Yes.
Which, I mean, and that's not the cast's version. I completely believe it.
That's just how people's minds work. Yeah.
It's a bit like how, you know, when you've got 18 billion hairs on your head, you run your finger through them, and it's all great. But the minute one is out, it's like, ah, get it away, get it away, get it away.
The skeleton's not where it should be, is what I'm saying. It's creepy.
And the skeleton should not be in the seat of an excavator. At least not, you know, the purposes of excavating.
So, yeah, I thought that was pretty interesting.
But this week's question of the week, what horror movie, or I guess we should also expand it to video game, too, do you think should be made into a haunted attraction? Please let us know.
HauntWiki.com, HauntWiki on Twitter, HauntWiki on Facebook, and YouTube.com slash Haunt Weekly.
Please, please, please let us know.

Upcoming Halloween and Party Expos and Conferences

[16:28] All right. Well, the other thing that's going on right now is that it is time for us to do the confidence reminders. And we haven't done in four weeks either.
Yeah. But anyways, so we'll just get started on that. And Crystal, will you kick us off?
January 23rd. It is Halloween and Party Expo. And that's the 23rd through the 25th. Sorry, in Las Vegas.
Nevada at the Mirage. Hundreds of vendors must be a qualified business in order to attend. It's not open to the public.

[17:01] HalloweenPartyExpo.com for more info. All right, then February 9th through the 11th in Daytona Beach, Florida.
It's HauntCon 2024, the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront, featuring a costume ball, dinner, and a show, and much, much more.
HauntCon.com for more details. March 7th, it's Transworld's Halloween and Attraction Show, 7th through the 10th. I really want to put those together.
Anyway, in St. Louis, Missouri at the America Center feature.
It's a pre-show bus tour. Party at City Museum. Also host a Christmas show.
Ha Show, H-A-A-S-H-O-W.com for more info.
And finally, April 12th through the 14th, it's Fear Expo Live in Owensboro, Kentucky, Kentucky, the Ellensboro Convention Center.
Free admission has the Ultimate Haunt Tour featuring six different haunts, costume contests, and more.
Fearexpolive.com for more information.

[18:01] Alright, so a lot going on. We're getting ready to kick off Haunted Conference season, it sounds like.
Yeah, and it makes sense, you know.
Alright, well on that note, as we have said repeatedly at this point, now that we're almost 20 minutes into the episode, it is time to do the news.
And we're starting off with a serious one, and luckily this one's not too heavy of an episode.
Right, but this is just an update. Yeah, it's just an update.
It's not new news, necessarily.
But anyways, the headline reads, Haunted Attraction Owner Pleads Not Guilty on Sex Assault Charges.
This is an article by Stephen Devine at thechaffernews.com. I have no idea how to pronounce that, I just realized.
And links to all of our stories are in the description, just in case we forget to clearly indicate where they are from.
They will all be there. um john schwartz the 37 year old owner of scare usa haunted attraction um has pleaded not guilty to four charges against him um he has been charged with repeated sexual assault of the same child third degree sexual assault exposing genitals to a child and causing mental harm to a child two of the three charges were dropped due to a statute of limitations having expired but But the others are ongoing. Yeah.

[19:20] I realize there's a math problem there. That's on me. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was four. Okay.
Two of the four charges were dropped. Yeah, two charges. No, two of the charges against them were dropped previously. They might be the ones that are continuing. Yeah.
So it's like two of the six or whatever. But, yeah, this is obviously a very, very frustrating, sad story.
And this has been the latest in a long line of haunted attraction.
Not necessarily a long line. That's probably a gross exaggeration.
But it always makes the news. And so it feels longer than it is.
And honestly, from, you know, talking to people, it's not as long as it probably should be.
Yeah, that's the real problem. Yeah.
Yeah, the real problem is, like I said, we've not done necessarily the, yeah, and this is a haunt in Wisconsin, by the way. It was what I was trying to remember.

[20:23] Yeah, I agree with you. It's sad, it's frustrating, but like you said, it is just an update.
We'll be following this as this moves through the court systems, and we will see what happens.

Promising Update on Art the Clown Video Game and Haunted House Experience

[20:33] Yeah. Okay, moving on. All right. Art the Clown, Video Game, and Haunted House Experience.
Plans are getting promising update from Terrifier Creator.
This article is by Grant Hermans at Screen Rant.
And...

Terrifier Series Creator Plans Haunted House Video Game

[20:53] Basically, Damien Leone, the creator of the Terrifier series, has announced plans to create a video game in a haunted house based on the clown.
Hmm. I wonder if this is where you got the question of the week from. No, not possible.
Nope. Nope, none. Totally impossible. That's what I'm talking about.
But it was part of an interview for Screen Rant for the release of Terrifier 2, which I have heard great reviews from.
We enjoyed the first one. Yeah. I mean, okay, I will admit I don't fully understand why it became such a big thing.
Because I remember watching it going, that was pretty cool. That was fine.
It was good. I didn't think anything bad about it. I thought the villain, Art the Clown, was reasonably creepy.
And it definitely had one memorable death scene, the original Terrifier, that is.
And I just remembered it being a solid film and moved on.
But apparently it became a cult classic kind of behind my back.
And then Terrifier 2 came, and now it's looking like it's going to be a whole bigger universe. Terrifier universe, so to speak.
Yeah. And both, you know, games and haunted houses are growing markets for horror villains.
Traditional ones from film going into that. Yeah.

[22:10] There is a third film is planned. and he did say that whether they move forward with the Haunted Attraction and the video game plans may hinge on the success of that film. Yeah.
Which that seems kind of weird because it seems to me like Terrifier and Arthur Klein and all that was like hot like when Terrifier 2 came out.
Yeah. That was when I couldn't fucking dodge it.
Yeah. It was all over. I stepped on my front porch somebody hit me in the face with a copy of Terrifier 2. It was brutal.
Okay, maybe not quite, but the point remains, it was everywhere.
So it seems like that would have been the moment to really launch the campaign for those things.
But I also can see wanting to wait and make sure this has some longer legs.
Because, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know what goes into building a haunted house.
It seems like they could have had one available this year.
But I also understand that rights negotiations take a while.
There's a lot to do behind the scenes. and I'm someone that works in copyright I fully understand why these things take so long. Yeah.
There's so much to figure out. People don't think it. People think it's just sign the line and walk away. No. No. It is not.

[23:22] So, yeah. But that said, honestly, I think art could make a great haunted attraction.
Yeah. I do, too. And, you know, the person who plays art has been on the circuit for going to conventions to, you know, fan expos, basically.
Everyone says, really nice person. Huh. One of the nice people to meet.
I'm always glad to hear that. I hadn't heard it, but I'm very glad to hear it.
Yeah, so it seems like, you know, it's going to be one of those things where his attitude towards fans is also going to help the franchise. Yeah.
You know, I am, like I said, I think Art the Clown, I think Terrifier series in general would fit a haunted attraction.
Well, I am not sure how it would play into a video game.

[24:15] I don't know. I think it would be fun.
I think I think it could be but I mean I also didn't I mean like like I was so excited that the tick got a video game back in the day and then realized wait a minute how do you make a video game with someone who's not invulnerable yeah you know I'm thinking Slender Man style game but where you're the killer.

[24:43] That could be fun, where you play the Slenderman character and, like, pop around.
Well, and you already have games like the, um, shit, uh, it's not Friday the 13th.
Oh, yeah, it is Friday the 13th. Um, there's a new game where, like, it's a 1v4, where one person plays the killer.
Mm-hmm. And one, and four play the victim. Oh, like the Among Us.
Un, except it's competitive off-bound. It's asymmetric off-bound, um, competitive.
Yeah. Instead of everybody, yeah. Basically, one person plays Jason Voorhees and the other play his victims, the camp counselors, basically, and you try to survive the night.
So I think you could do something like that, too. And that's the thing they pointed out in this article, was that there are a lot of games that already kind of, like Dead by Daylight, that have already been doing these partnerships with horror villains where you could just slot in Art the Clown pretty easily.
That would be a great way to test the video game Waters, too, before launching it and developing a full new game.
I mean, Jesus Christ, I mean, he could just be a Fortnite skin.
I'm pretty sure we could learn something from that.

[25:47] Yeah, Art the Clown, the Fortnite skin, and his dance is just standing there and looking at you creepily.
Yes. Honestly, it might get me in Fortnite again. Yeah. Which I was only in for like five minutes, but I was playing it at one point. Yeah.
Yeah, we were. And then you got the thingy that you won in. No, I didn't. I never won. I never actually won a round. No, you did.
I won in Fall Guys. Oh, that's right.
On my birthday, I got a crown and Fall Guys on my 40th birthday at 11.45 p.m.
I just decided that's the best it's going to get for me in that game and never picked it up again. Nope. And I'm pretty good at that.
Yeah, you're very good at walking away from those things. When I realize I peaked at something, I walk away. I'm very good at that.
So, yeah, no, I think this could be very interesting for a lot of reasons, though. But I think this is great news, and welcome to the haunted attraction industry.

Spooktacular! Documentary Explores America's First Halloween Theme Park

[26:42] Yeah. All right. Well, the documentary Spooktacular, which I just love saying the name, really.
Spooktacular! Explorers, America's first Halloween theme park.
This is an article by HorrorFuel.com. Executive producer Tom Savini, a name I feel like I've heard before.
I may have known it, yeah. A time or two. Oh, yeah.
He was in that It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To movie.
He was. He actually was edgy, it's true.

[27:13] The movie is called Spooktacular! With an exclamation point, that's why you have to say it that way.
But it takes a deep dive into America's first Halloween theme park.
And the person behind it, namely founder David Bertolino.
And basically the journey he went through to get the damn thing off the ground and keep it going. It looks amazing.
Yeah, I'm sure that we will be watching it and like reporting on it.
When it comes out. Yeah, this is all just preview stuff still.
Yeah. But no, this looks really, really good. And I always love documentaries that really focus on what it takes to get a haunted attraction going and keep it going.
And what's really going on. Not haunters.
Yeah. You know, stuff like that. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm very, very stoked about this one.
And just Tom Savini. Seriously.

[28:11] Tom Savini could release a cookbook and I'd probably purchase it.
Oh that would be great with like the the the special effect okay now now i'm on a thomas savini cookbook yeah because i'm thinking about all the all of the things that people send me that are food related where food looks like you know people or make it like bloody runny eggs or something where you make the egg and it looks like this and you like shoot the dye into it so when When you cut into the yolk, it spills red. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Damn it. Tom Savini, new idea for you, buddy.

[28:51] But being the special effects wizard he is, that would be just amazing.
And the charcuterie board that's laid out like a skeleton with the meats being the muscle.
Oh, and yeah, you know the old thing about the peeled grapes feeling like eyeballs?
He could actually make them feel like eyeballs. Yeah.
That wouldn't be lame.

Halloween Comes Early with Terror Vaults: The Initiation

[29:13] Oh, man. All right. We've lost the plot horribly already. Yeah, that's fine.
Moving on. It's appropriate for the episode. Halloween has come early to a revival of Terror Vaults, The Initiation.
This is by Zahra Ishad at Datebook San Francisco Chronicle.

[29:34] The Initiation was a popular walkthrough horror show.
Is the sixth Terror Vault Haunt attraction at the San Francisco Mint.
It is produced by Into the Dark and launched by David Flower Productions, Nonplus Ultra, and the drag queen Peaches Christ.
Yeah, I think we actually covered, because of Peaches Christ, I think we actually covered it in one of the previous episodes. I'm not sure which.
Yeah. But I feel like we actually covered this before. Yeah, but it's an hour-long event.
It's an immersive experience, and it is returning February 23rd through the 24th, and March 1st and 2nd.
Yeah, one of the rules we kind of had to set for ourselves with this news episode in particular is not covering just regular haunted attractions opening during Christmas shows. Right, no.
In fact, we didn't even talk about Decompose. We went to a Christmas show.
Well, maybe that'll be our next one instead of the other one we were talking about. Well, no, we can talk about it then before.
We just got to remember to include it. Because I do actually want to talk about it. It doesn't make any difference because the show's over.
Yeah. So we're not promoting it in any appreciable way. But I still do want to talk about it.
But yeah, we had such a long intro anyway. It's probably better to just move that down since we can't promote it anywho.

[30:53] Yeah. But yeah, no, this is, from everything I've seen and read, this looks like something that's sort of bending what is and is not a haunted attraction.
It's playing with that space, doing things like, ironically, what was the vault? The vault. The Vault of Souls.
Vault of Souls, yeah. Yeah. I was like, the other vault! Yeah.
Why do they all name vault?
You're unlocking an experience. Man, yeah, bad wordle word is what I'm getting.

Unique Entertainment and Business Potential of Immersive Experiences

[31:26] What do you mean nothing? Actually, I would get the A.
But anyways, so, yeah, I like these types of things because they offer a potentially very unique both entertainment experience and business slash, you know, ticketing experience.
But, you know, I mean, yeah. And I really wish that there were more of these types of experience across the country, especially in the off season, because if you could produce an hour long show.
Fully immersive experience and charge what you charge for an hour long fully immersive experience that'd probably be a decent side hustle for the haunt yeah and you wouldn't need to sell a lot of tickets to no is the other thing because i'm going to assume i didn't look this up and i but i'm going to assume these tickets are not cheap a san francisco um is your first clue but be hour hour-long immersive experience at the mint there.
Why doesn't our mint do anything cool like that? I think that they've now turned the mint into a school.

[32:34] Yeah, I think there's still a museum in there, but I think it's only part of the building.
Yeah, this one's $70, so it's about half the price of the Vault of Souls. But still, $70.
I will say this, that is way more than the average haunt ticket.
Yeah, but not... But it's also not a bad price for an hour-long experience.
That's what I was trying to get at.
Yeah, no, the per dollar is cheaper than most haunt experiences.
Yeah, where we're sitting right now in the industry. So, yeah, I think they could actually go up on that price if they wanted to. Yeah, I do too.
Especially given, once again, San Francisco.

[33:09] Yeah, and if you're in that area or going to be in that area and want to go to it, into thedarksf.com to find out information about tickets.
But yeah, and I'm like you though. I really like the fact that, like, when is it open? February 23rd and 24th and March 1st and 2nd.
Two random ass weekends in late winter slash spring.
Yeah. And apparently I shouldn't do notes while watching the Christmas Horror Story.
Okay. Because I didn't see the read more past the read more.
Oh. well what do we need to know then uh well there's a fang bang uh bar in it specialty top cocktails and that uh you can upgrade to purchasing a glow-in-the-dark necklace uh to signal consent for performers to touch you okay uh so yeah but i agree with you this could be a good side hustle Especially if you live in a place like, I mean, New Orleans, San Francisco, Charleston, South Carolina, New York, Boston.

Haunting as a Lucrative Side Hustle

[34:15] Tourist places. Tourist places, A, but also places with spooky histories.
Yeah. Yeah, if you have a ghost tour in your town. You probably can pull something like this off any time of year.
Yeah. And if you're in a smaller town, I would totally base it around historical figures.
Oh, yeah. Maybe even get with the local historical society and combine the two. Thank you.

[34:38] And as we've discovered, a local historical study might just be one very passionate person.
Yeah, we're actually using some information we learned from that trip.
Yeah, the story we're tentatively working on, part of it is coming from conversations that we had with the local historical society.
Yeah. I.e. one very enthusiastic person.
Very enthusiastic person, I might add. Yeah. All right. Right.
This one is an article by Cooper Fox at B985FM.
This chilling New Hampshire haunted attraction is open year-round.
Operated by Mystery New Hamster, Monster Mash is a haunted attraction hidden in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. How hidden?
I hear you ask. Yeah. How hidden, you may say.
So hidden, you have to fucking geocache your way to it. Yeah, basically.
Because they're like, you've probably driven past it a thousand times and never seen it.
Like, that's literally... Well, I can tell you for certain, I have not. Yes.
I have not set foot in New Hampshire. Not because I hate New Hampshire or anything, I just haven't had the opportunity. Yep.
But yeah, basically, the backstory centers around Pro Fry's Bizarre Big Top, so it's circus themed.
The owners fell in hard times and then died and left it to... Yes. Yes.
So now you are going to claim your inheritance by going through it.
Which I think is weird that, you know, they would say that you're inheriting the place.

[36:05] Because it just feels a little off. It feels a little weird, especially if it's going to be a haunted attraction you go through with others.
Yeah. Because, like, that's great if I'm going through it with just you or by myself or whatever.
Because then I can put myself in that story. But if I'm sitting around with, like, 12 randos.
Well, yeah. I don't know. It reminds me of online role-playing games.
You're the chosen one. You're the only one who can help us, and there's 12 other people in the queue behind me to pick up the same fucking quest.
Yeah. You know what I mean? It loses a little of the punch, is what I'm saying.
Mm-hmm. But yeah, basically, the amount charged does change per season, which is something that's fairly common with year-round attractions.
And the hours do, too. Hours do, too.
So please look up the website. Look up the details there before you go.
And also do note they have escape rooms. Yeah. Mystery house escape rooms. Also, you know.
It is. You have to use GPS to find your way there. And at first I thought, well, that's silly.
But then I remembered the wild success of the vampire bar in French Quarter.

[37:14] Yeah. Which, I mean, is even weirder in that you have to find another bar first, then use the password, and then make your way to it.
It's weird. But I also can... But we did it.
And I even drank absinthe drinks, which I don't like licorice, so why the fuck did I do that to myself? I don't know.
If you like licorice, get some absinthe into you.
You'll love it. Yum, yum. Eat them ups. But if you don't like licorice, absinthe is fucking torture.

[37:44] Alright, moving on Okay, next up We have a feel-good story Yes, I love feel-good stories, do feel-good The Spirit of Giving Local Haunted Attraction Donates 50,000 to charities This is from The Fourth Size News And it is the House of Fourth Size Haunted Attraction That pulled this off They donated to 18 different.

[38:10] Charities charities yeah the county is forsyth f-o-r-s-y-t-h yeah the haunted attraction is forsyth f-o-u-r-s-c-y-t-h-e-s yes which is just a hell of a good pun even if spelling it is a nightmare but yeah they donated fifty thousand dollars to various local charities and yeah this is what i love to see yeah they're They're the ones open at the local county fair.
And we've talked about them several times before on news episodes because they get great news coverage. Mm-hmm.
So, yeah. For doing things like this. Yeah. And honestly, if you're doing things like this, you deserve the great news coverage.
So, if you are doing this and you're not seeing Haunt Weekly talk about you or your local media talk about you.
Yeah. Press releases. Maybe we should do another episode sometime in the not-too-distant future about how to do press releases.
Yeah. because I know we did it way way way back yeah we did a but hey things have changed things have changed a lot since we did that episode because I had to change how I do it but also I think it would be good.

[39:21] To just do a refresher on it because this is an area I think haunts need a good brush up on alright well a central New York, no not New York, North Carolina NC not NY why, Jonathan.
Haunted House was named the state's attraction of the year. This is by Chloe Rafferty at CBS 17.
The Grantville Haunt Farm won the award in the center of the state, basically. They were nominated by the Grantville County Tourism Development Authority. That rolls right off the fucking tongue.
Yeah, but I was I found it interesting that their Tourism Development Authority in Grantville is the one who nominated the haunt.
Not the haunt itself or one of their actors.
And this is another good example of what can happen when you are in the good graces of your local governance. Yeah.
Because we talked about haunts elsewhere this episode in other news.
What happens when they end up falling out with local government?
Yeah. And I get it. Sometimes local government sticks and they're being unreasonable.
We talked about the whole one about the local government trying to buy the haunt out at an unreasonable price in an eminent domain.
And, yeah, sometimes local government's in the wrong.
Don't get it wrong. Don't get me wrong on that. But a lot of times, haunts are the ones being the dicks and flouting the local government.

Haunted Attractions Boost Local Economy

[40:37] And because of that, the local government does everything to work against them.
But if you're in the good graces, this is the type of thing they will do for you.
Yeah. And whenever they interview the haunt, they're like, we had no idea that we were going to change the economy of the county we're in.
And that's what they've done. Yeah. They've improved it.
That's something I would absolutely say haunts need to understand.
You definitely change. Yeah. The number of diners you and I have eaten at.
Oh, yeah. That we never would have even slowed down for. We spent a full day in Mount Carroll.
Yeah, Illinois. We ate several meals there in multiple different places.
We never would have even been able to put Mount Carroll on a map without Ravensbrunnen.
Yeah, exactly. And also Fright Trail in Lafayette.
Yeah. We ate a couple times there at diners nearby.

[41:29] We never stopped in Lafayette. There's nothing against Lafayette.
It's just at a weird point in the trip where we just don't feel the need to stop. Yeah.
It's, once again, nothing against Lafayette. But no, that's the thing about haunted attractions. They have a knock-on effect to help other businesses. Mm-hmm.
And I think we, as an industry, maybe not so much like our industry organizations, like the Haunted Attraction Association does a great job hyping this, but the individual haunts need to get better at hyping this. Yeah.
So, yeah. And I think it's also really interesting because this is a drive-in, drive-through haunt. It is not a traditional haunted house.
And that's very cool, too. But, yeah.
And the county official said it serves as the anchor event for Fall in the County. Yeah.
Dude, this is great stuff.
Yeah. This makes my cockles tingly.
This is great stuff because, you know, like I said, this is what happens when local government and haunted attractions work together and support each other.
Yeah, and apparently it's been going on for nine years, so way before other people thought about drive-thru haunts. Yeah, that was the bit that surprised me.
It was like, nobody was talking about drive-thru haunts in 2014, 2015, in that area. No.

Discrimination Against Home Haunts

[42:45] All right. All right. Well, this is a fucking fun one. Yes, it is.
Let's talk about home haunts getting discriminated against.
So, West Allis Haunted House, Novak Manor, which we had talked about this previously, because previously they had received notice that they were violating an ordinance and had to shut down their yard walkthrough slash home haunt.
And this is from Sean Gallagher at WTMJ4, Milwaukee.
I've got TMJ issues. Yeah, exactly. I know.
But that's not how the article starts out. No.
The article starts out by talking about Candy Cane Lane, which is a Christmas event. Why would we talk about that, Crystal?
That's weird. This is Haunt Weekly, not George Patience Weekly or Christmas Weekly.
Why are we talking about Candy Cane Lane?
Well, it's a 39-year tradition that found itself in jeopardy because of what happened at Novak Manor.
Because they had to put out signs for the first time stating that visitors were not permitted on personal property.

Novak Manor: Rezoning or Relocation?

[44:04] Because that's what had to happen at Novak Manor. Yeah.
You know, and basically the Novak Manor was told that they had to rezone their home as a commercial space.
Which was never going to happen. Or move to a commercial space.
And the enforcement of this ordinance would essentially end the Halloween tradition. Yeah.
Candy Cane Lane, even though they put up the little signs and were trying to comply, people still went on their personal property, still took selfies.
And so the Novak Manor people approached the city council and said, hey, this event literally is like 10 times bigger than us.
Yeah, yeah. I think that was literally like an order of magnitude bigger in terms of the number of people. Yeah, because Novak Manor gets 10,000 people, Candy Cane Lane gets 110,000 people. And let's be clear, 10,000 people is a fuck ton of people for a home haunt. Yes. That is absolutely insane.
But it is not approaching 100,000 people. No. I mean, that's just...
I don't know where these people are showing up for this shit, honestly. You know what? That is what I've learned this past haunt season.
And what I've learned is that people in small towns will show the fuck up for this stuff. Yeah.
I mean, they just will. And granted, this is apparently in Milwaukee.

[45:23] But still, I mean, if there's a fear there's not much else to do, people will show up.
Yeah. Even if it's just a perception, there's not much else to do.
But yeah. Yeah, but basically the owner of Novak Manor drew the comparison between the two and said, basically, why are you discriminating against Halloween?
Why are you being harder on our Halloween event than you are this Christmas event?
And the city council, to their credit, didn't realize they kind of fucked up and just decided to approve Novak House.
Yeah, so that they didn't have to change Candy Cane Lane either.
Yeah. So they both win.
Yeah, everybody wins in this. Yeah. There's no losers other than the city council, which kind of looks like dicks. Yeah.
But at least they, you know, figured it out before it was too late, you know, before permanent harm was done.
Yeah. All right. And then I do love this one because that's my plan if anyone ever gets too pissy about our haunt. Yeah.
It's just, but what about the Christmas haunt, the Christmas houses that are in the neighborhood to get somebody, people, you know, what about them?
We're only three nights. Those were a month long. Yeah.
Exactly. You know, Jesus Christ. So, yeah, that's something I've actually thought about before, and I'm glad someone else thought about it, and I'm glad this council listened.
Yeah. I mean, my God, I could just see the council going, don't give a shit, and then it's either got to become a lawsuit or something else has got to happen. But anyways.
All right. Well, we're getting on the homestretch right now.

Philadelphia's First Holiday Haunt

[46:51] I'm going to skip that one, actually, though. Oh, okay. Because that's just a haunt opening for Christmas, isn't it?
It's the first one ever in the area. Oh, okay. Then we'll just do that.
That's why. For one night only, Lincoln Mill to debut Philadelphia Area's first ever holiday haunted house.
This article is by Cherise Lynch at NBC Philadelphia.
Basically, Lincoln Mill haunted manor in... Oh, fuck you.
You many um is bringing the spooky season back they would they did their first christmas time haunt called a twisted christmas featuring santa krampus and other holiday horror traditions yeah and it's really weird because it's set in an old mill yeah um where the the leader decided to punish the workers and now the i don't know i think i would have to go to it to to get the story um yeah Yeah, well, I mean, the one we went to featured basically the night Santa went crazy.
Yeah. Without the shotgun. Yeah.
Yeah, well, stay tuned next week, basically, for that. We're going to talk more about that and why we're actually really fond of that show and what I think they did right.

[47:57] But, yeah, so this is, but you're right, what interested me, and I did notice this, was this is Philadelphia's first holiday haunt.
Yeah, exactly. Philadelphia areas.
And, yeah, that is wild. Wild.
I thought a Metro as big as Philadelphia would have had several of these by now, because we've had one for years. Yeah, exactly.
And it's just, that's why I included it. If you're the first one in your area, and you're not the only haunt in your area. Well, yeah.
Because, let's put that out there. We'll consider mentioning it next year on Haunt Weekly. Yeah. All right, next up.
All right. This is just a little funny thing.
I like funny things. Um, the house TD codes for December, 2023.
This is by Holly Alice at pocket tactics.
Uh, basically Roblox has introduced haunted house theme tower defense game.
It sounds like with, um, and I don't know.
The article was very short on the information.

[49:03] But you get characters and things for it.
If you like tower defense games and you listen to this podcast, you may want to check this out.
Yeah, and Roblox is something that's aimed at kids.
Yeah, there's a lot of weird about Roblox, and I admit it, but still.
Also, question, they dropped a haunted house tower defense game in mid-December?
Well, it was reported on, at least. And I think that the idea was that they were giving away the code to get the stuff in December that came out in October, like as a gift to the people who like it. Yeah.
That's my interpretation of it. Okay, that's fair. But still, very interesting thing.
And finally this week, well, one of the things we do like to talk about is alternate ways haunted attractions can make money year-round. Yes.

Haunted Attraction's Ski Lodge Christmas Pop-up Bar

[49:59] And we kind of end on that theme with a ski lodge themed Christmas pop-up bar opening at a haunted attraction near Detroit.
Basically, this is an article by Amber Ainsworth at Fox 2 Detroit.

[50:14] Located on the site of Hush Haunted House, this Christmas pop-up will feature a holiday pop-up bar based around a ski lodge that features food, drink, and hopefully other holiday cheer.
Yes. Know what?
Good on them. Yep. Not a Christmas fan? Short and sweet.
I think this is an interesting idea. We hear a lot about haunts doing Christmas shows, but we don't hear... And we hear about doing some holiday events, like turning it into what Rise is doing. We've got to get out to Rise at some point.
That would have to be this weekend. That would have to be this weekend.
But, no, you've got, like, Rise, which is doing the Christmas festival.
Festival, and also Darkwoods has their more straight-laced Christmas.
You don't hear about pop-up bars and restaurants.
I think this is really cool. Yeah. I'm actually really excited about this.
And I think this is, once again, year-round revenue, or as close to year-round as possible, is always a very good thing. Yes.
So, anyways, a quick housekeeping time.
We're late with this episode. This episode is going to go live Tuesday, though I'm going to have it dated for Monday.
Whenever I post it, so it'll show up as if it went live Monday.
I know, it sucks, I'm sorry, but it'll still be marked as unread.
But, next Monday is Christmas Day. Yes.
We will be posting an episode Christmas Day.

[51:39] Yes. Because we've already got a topic planned. We do.
And we'll probably record it either tomorrow or Thursday and just get it ready to go early. That way we can enjoy the Christmas weekend.
Such as it is. Such as it is. So, hey, that means our weekly update on what we did in the haunt probably will not be in that episode.
Correct. Because we will not have done it yet. We can't predict the future.

[52:05] Which is exactly what both yours and Ellie's time accounting asked them to do.
Yeah, please submit all your time accounting by noon on Friday for the week.
Motherfucker, at least five hours in the day.
I don't know what I'm going to be doing the next five. I barely know what I'm going to be doing the next five minutes. Yeah, well, and especially with mine.
Let's get the crystal ball out.
Well, especially. The crystal ball. Yeah, I know.
Because mine, I'm able to work flexible hours now.
So if I can't focus in the afternoon, I can take a nap. Yeah, and you might be working Saturday and Sunday.
Yeah. And I'll just shift those hours somewhere else. Yeah.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So, yeah. But basically, we can't predict the future, so that won't be in there.
But we do have a regular, good old-fashioned, non-Christmas episode of Haunt Weekly Common.

[52:52] Yeah, and I'm excited about this topic. Because it's like...
And it's kind of weird, because I'm the opposite of excited about the topic.
Because the topic is literally the most boring thing in haunting.
Yeah. But how to make it more interesting. So, stay tuned for what is the most boring thing in haunting next week on Haunt Weekly. Is it more boring than parking?
Oh, because that episode went gangbusters and I'm still not sure why.
Because, okay, because the thing is, I don't think parking is boring.
Parking is stressful as fuck at a lot of these places. It is.
And it's hard to get right.
Like, look, Rise, I love you.
Parking at Rise is stressful. Parking at New Orleans Nightmare is really stressful.
Yeah, because part of the fear of going there is, will your car be broken into?
Parking at the Mortuary. where all the local haunts are terrible.
What's the parking at 13th Gate's terrible? Holy shit!
Yeah, we don't have a good parking space anywhere. Oh my fucking lord, we don't. No.

Parking Comparisons: Rise vs Decomposed

[53:54] Decomposed has the best parking in the southeast Louisiana area.
Barely. I think Rise beats Decomposed barely. And I only say that because I've been to Decomposed now after it rained.
Ah, fair point. fair point that's a fair fucking point ah damn it but but none are higher than d no some barely pass yeah that's us trash shocking other haunts but they all know their parking situations are fucking i'm not telling you they're doing what they can with where they are they are the problem is where they're located there isn't parking in most of these cases but on that note everyone thank you very much for joining us sorry for the park dalliance in the parking randomly please though check out the parking episode of Haunt Weekly you can find it at hauntweekly.com hauntweekly on Twitter, hauntweekly on Facebook and youtube.com slash hauntweekly also please do check out last week's episode the interview with George Patience no it is not haunted attraction related we get one per year when we do that and this one was fucking worth it it was so worth it so please check out the interview with George Patience see if you can help this man find some of his, basically his legacy, his musical legacy can see yeah on that note everyone i'm jonathan i'm crystal and we will see you all next week with a boring plain ordinary vanilla episode of haunt weekly get excited see you then.