Haunt Weekly - Episode 424 - December / January News

[0:23] Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast for the Haunted Attraction and Haunted Entertainment community.
Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you.
And we return to you this week as the Arctic chill is making its way here slowly but steadily.
It hasn't fully reached us yet. It's supposed to get here in another 24 hours or so.
But yeah, supposedly we're going to see hard freezing temperatures, to which us New Orleanians say, fucking good.
It kills the mosquitoes. Exactly. They need to die.
I'm going to get a beer and watch the mosquitoes ride in agony as their pools freeze and their eggs crack.
It'll be a glorious day tomorrow. Yeah. But on that note, everyone, this is episode 424, an episode divisible by four.
That means it is time to do The News. And, you know, it's actually been a fairly quiet news cycle.
We have some depressing stuff. Yeah. Some uplifting stuff.

[1:22] But basically, it's actually been a fairly quiet news cycle.
And honestly, in January, that's probably a good thing.
Yeah, but it's also a little bit weird. Yeah. Because usually we still have some stories to catch up on and stuff.
It's just not happening this year. Yeah. And you know what?
Because I'm remembering the last time we had no trouble coming up with news stories in January was called the pandemic.
Yeah. So maybe we should count our blessings that we had a little bit of a struggle bus here.
Yeah. We're on the struggle bus for a little while here. But please, if you don't want to hear the news, that's fine. I understand we have plenty more episodes.
Go check us out at HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly on Twitter, HauntWeekly on Facebook, YouTube.com slash HauntWeekly is the YouTube channel.
We're at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podplay, or wherever you get your podcasts from. I don't handle that.
But, yeah, lots going on, and including a housekeeping update that I'm actually very surprised we get to give. Yeah, and we actually had two little housekeeping notes, but we'll do the one in the notes first. They're both there.

[2:28] Oh. You're not used to me putting in the housekeeping because I did.
I just put it in where the housekeeping note was. It doesn't matter.
Anyway, this is the big one.

Surprising Housekeeping Update & Landmark Status Achieved

[2:38] Yeah, this is the wild one to me. This is the one I'm going to be hung up on for a while now.
You might remember back in December, we did an episode about the song I Hate Christmas. We interviewed the musician George Patience.
This was our one episode per season where we take a divergence and go off the rails a bit. And it was wonderful.
Honestly, we learned so much about the history of this song.
And a lot of my questions were answered. A lot were not answered.
But the episode ended on something of a plea, I guess, a request.
Because George recorded all this stuff in the 80s. Yeah.
And he apparently recorded not just I Hate Christmas, even though that's the only thing that...
Is around now. Is around and easy to find now. Yeah. I should say.
But he had other music and he wanted some help tracking it down, including some of his old vinyl pressings.

[3:34] We may have actually found someone. Yeah.

[3:38] Craziest thing. This is wild. I mean, we're a small podcast.
We're a very small podcast.
And I did, when he put out the call, I'm like, okay, well contact some people we know that are in media archiving, which you have people in there.
And at least one of them is still checking into it. I know that.
So there's still angles to play there.
But I got an email yesterday, as we're recording this on Monday, I got an email yesterday from a random archivist who was wondering about the record, did a search for the name, found our interview, and he's using us to get in contact with George.
So I'm hoping those two meet up and connect and they're able to help each other out. Because he had a lot of questions about the film.
He's trying to archive it and put it in the database.
Exactly, and give credit where credit's due do for the different instruments and things that are in it he's doing awesome work and we don't know all that stuff so as i said we directed him to george yeah and but he has the vinyl record he has the seven inch vinyl yeah that's nuts yeah for him to just randomly have it and i mean been curious about it in the past you know month and a half yeah and why is he contacting in mid-january where it's like it's a little early for christmas yeah even even for the people that really love christmas it's way early but no it's so cool i'm so happy i hope those two connect i hope that they.

[5:05] Are able to help each other out and George is able to get access to some more of his music because it sounds like this might be the guy to talk to. Yeah.
So honestly, I'm very, very excited about that. When we started, when I first, I hate Christmas, and I realized how little was known about George or the song, I assumed it was just going to be an eternal mystery for me.
Yeah. That I was never going to make any progress on this.
Right. And then next thing I know, a year later, we're interviewing him over the phone for the podcast, and now this.
Yeah. It's just nuts. I cannot believe that two dingbats who have an anti-Christmas playlist managed to actually solve these mysteries somewhat.
Possibly connect people with, you know, long-lost materials that they created. It's crazy.

[5:55] Yeah. This is absolutely nuts. I'm really happy about it, and I hope that it goes well for them.
Them um the next item on housekeeping since we're having we'll skip and come back since i fucked up um as you put it in the show notes we reached a landmark that i didn't think is possible yeah we're now a landmark exactly so randomly online in a neighborhood chat they were talking about a fire somewhere in the neighborhood and somebody said it seems like it's close to bernie baxter yeah and a you know i would have just said the street name personally but they didn't know that they just knew us they knew us and yeah we we assured them it was not a fire that's in fact oddly enough even though i knew the incident they were talking about because we had a power flicker yeah and we did hear sirens we didn't even smell the smoke from whatever it was no the wind must have been blowing the other way yeah but whatever it was it was not near us or that close to us but But no, it's just a random post in the neighborhood, one of the neighborhood Facebook groups.
Yeah, I thought it was somewhere near Bernie Baxter just throwing it out casually. Yeah.

[7:10] Like everybody knew it, and I guess they probably do. Yeah.
So eventually we'll be one of those, ain't there no more stories.
Yeah. I mean, everyone does become one of those stories. I know.
But yeah, wow, that was crazy.
It is. So yeah, George Patience has been connected.
And we are a landmark now. Literally a landmark. Exactly. The literal, actual definition of a landmark is what we are now.
That's such a weird feeling, especially considering they thought we burned down.
Yeah, I know. Oh, Bernie Baxter burned down. Jesus Christ.

[7:46] Don't put that shit out in the world, man. No, don't put it out there.
We obviously are much safer than everybody expects us to be.

[7:56] Yeah, I mean, we got a lot of cleaning to do.
We got a lot of work to do, but Jesus Christ, it's not a fire hazard.
Well, speaking of work. Yeah.

[8:05] Are we continuing with our resolution? You know, we actually did a really good job this time around.
I'm very proud of it, even though it was genuinely just an hour.
Yeah. It was a difficult hour, and it was an hour that we had put off and kicked that can down the road multiple years.
Years yeah because the wall that we were worried about that's been in between other walls and like it's a weird setup it's like a t setup yeah um we were able to get it out without taking down too many other other walls yeah because what happened is we stopped using drop panels at least a lot um i would say five i mean let me say about 10 years ago yeah but we had all these drop panel frames and the way we build drop and every haunt does drop panels different yeah but the way we built them the drop panel frames were like twice the weight of any regular panel yeah they're really heavy between the extra thick plywood for the drop panel part and um the extra framing needed for the slide mechanism yeah because we use two by fours for our slides yeah and and our Our plywood for those is three-quarter inch.
Instead of the usual, like, less than half inch. I think we usually use, like, seven-sixteenths. Yeah.
So, you know, we had...

Beefy boy wall and the need for precise measurements

[9:27] So this was a beefy boy, and as you noted, it was... We had affixed it to the horse... The walls going the other way using the slide, one of the slides.
Yeah. Not the edges of the frame.
No. Which meant it was, like, kind of buried and sunk in a little bit. Mm-hmm.
And I don't remember why we did that, other than it was probably just us being in a hurry.
Well, and there's so many walls that have moved over the years that I think that the original spine wall down the middle was closer to it.
I think you're probably right. So we were trying to get her three feet.
Exactly. We were trying to get three feet exactly.
Yeah. Well, like 90% of the janky shit we do in terms of layout can be attributed to 36 inches.
Mm-hmm. 36 inches. We can't do this. 36 inches. as we can do this.
Yep, exactly. And how many times do we fucking say that to each other?
All the damn time. Yeah. So that wall has now been removed.
We are, we've also removed the last piece of OSB.

[10:26] That is the last section of OSB in the haunt. Our next project is to reinforce the walls that are connected to it.
We're connected to it because now they're just kind of free-flowing.
Yeah, but without anyone running into them, there's no real danger.
No, but it does make it hard to get to the washer-dryer because of the doors on them. So we're going to fix those. Yeah.
Probably next week. and after that I think we're going to dismantle the old slam slash disappearing wall.
Yeah. I think that's the next and probably the final demolition step.
Yeah, exactly. That feels weird to be in the final demo in January.
Yeah, we'll probably be done with demo before January's out.
Yeah. If we successfully reinforce those and take apart that and that's probably about two hours worth of work between them.
Yeah. So it'll be done. If we keep up our pace, it'll be done in two weeks time yeah that's not bad and we'll be done with demo in January we can start construction and rebuild in February yeah and one of the things and like after that I think the next step for us is to calculate how many new panels we need because we're going to need some.

[11:40] But depending upon what we can recycle, we may only need one or two.
But we may need more than that. So we're going to find that out.
Stay tuned. Hauntweekly.com, Hauntweekly on Twitter, Hauntweekly on Facebook, and elsewhere.
Let us know because we will be, well, don't let us know. We'll let you know.

[11:59] Why would you let us know what we're doing in our haunt? That's weird.
Don't be weird like that.
But no, we will be telling you what's up. Because, yeah, I mean, it is weird to have demo so close to done in January.
Yeah. And it is a good feeling because demo's always the hardest part for me.
Even though everyone's like, oh, it's so much fun to do demo.
Hey, we can't just, like, go in with a hammer and destroy everything. No, that was past us.
Past us did that. No, we have to try to salvage as much as we can.
Yeah. And you had an interesting idea, speaking of which, Because one of the challenges we've been facing is trying to put up, is that we have to take skins off to move a lot of these walls.

[12:40] Your idea, which I thought was kind of brilliant, was to take some of the scrap lumber we have and turn the inside of panels into shelves.
Exactly. I think that's a brilliant idea. We actually did that on our slam wall, kind of.
Kind of, but it... The idea's been explored elsewhere, but it's a good idea.
Yeah, and I think it'll work fine, and then we could put more kitsch stuff on it. And if we're doing the steampunky theme next year, that actually goes well with the theme.
I mean, steampunk has lots of shelves. Well, yeah, because you need shelves for all your gears. Or the random technology knick-knack bullshit. Yeah, exactly.
It makes perfect sense to me. Yeah, but it also adds the bonus of being able to have more points of contact for stuff to hang on the panel side.
You know. Yeah. So that's going to be nice. That's going to be nice.
I think that's a good strategy.
And we do have plenty of scrap lumber that's in that range. Yeah.

[13:38] Three feet, nine inch range that we need to make shelves. Anyways, so that's what we did. Some good progress there.
Every week we try to ask a question of the week, and this week we actually did.
Yeah. So, anyways, last week's question of the week was, what is your 2024 haunt industry prediction? Crystal.
Christopher Presley said, a scare actor is going to say boo, or fresh meat, or get out.
And Japes just rolled his eyes so hard in the back of his head Eddie is now legally blind. Please start the GoFundMe for Japes.

[14:09] Yeah. Don Garlick, one of our team, said, I'd like to see the return of the classics like vampires and werewolves. I'm kind of over clowns.
I've been over clowns. Yeah. Because I think, like, chlorophobia, we've said this before, it's either a phobia you have or you don't have.
And if you don't have it, you're just not going to be bothered by clowns.
I grew up watching Bozo and shit. I mean.
No. Clowns were an unfortunately active part of my childhood.
Yeah. Daryl Plunkie said, Most will make an improvement to their haunt. Actors will get better.
And unfortunately, some will fall by the wayside or get burnt out.
Support your local haunts, both local and ones far away, and all your actor folks.
Yeah, I definitely...

[14:57] I'm curious if we're going to see haunts, What I think could be happening, could be interesting here, is I think we're going to see haunts cutting back on the number of actors they have full stop. This has been a trend we've noticed locally.
And that's going to put greater pressure for actors to be of good quality and bring something unique to the table.
You're not going to have as many just filler bodies in a haunt.
Yeah, that's very true, especially with a lot of places having to pay a higher minimum wage.
Yeah, having to pay closer to a quote-unquote living wage, even though no one's going to earn a living wage being a haunt actor. No.
And there are some states that have different rules for seasonal work than they do for, you know. Check your local laws, kids, is what I'm saying. Yeah, exactly.
And finally, Chris Gay said, more of a wish than a prediction. Fair point.
For some new affordable Q-Line gag products to hit the market.
Bungee heads, zombie zappers, and clown horns are great.
But the element of surprise when they were new is worn off.
Hey, I do not like the, well, I guess clown horns, not train horns, though. I despise train horns with a passion.

[16:09] But, yeah, I do think there needs to be some kind of uptick here.
One of the things I've been seeing a lot of at haunts, in both online and locally, has been stilt walkers and tall costumes in general.
Have been a big, big deal. But, yeah, I think you're right. Some of the surprise has worn off on these.
And that's kind of one of the things I really don't like about this industry is we're very fad-driven.
Yeah. Once something becomes a fad in this industry, we will run that shit into the ground. Yeah.
Everybody gets it. Everybody, you know, probably buys it at...
If you want a history lesson on that, look at the escape room business.
Yeah. All right. Well, this week's question of the week is one that's connected to us.
Yeah. is what is the least likely place you've seen your haunt mentioned in the wild? Yeah.
I'm curious on this one. This one's going to be fascinating because, you know, we just mentioned ours.
Yeah, and it could be one that you work at or you own. Yeah.
Yeah, but where's the most unlikely place you've seen your haunt mentioned? Let us know.
Hauntweekly.com, Hauntweekly on Twitter, Hauntweekly on Facebook, and YouTube.com slash Hauntweekly. Leave a comment. We will read them all.

[17:29] All right, on that note, it's also an even-numbered episode, so we get to do the conference reminders.
And Crystal, start us off if you can. Right, January 23rd through the 25th.
Hint, hint, next weekend.
Yep, it's Halloween and Party Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mirage.
Hundreds of vendors must be qualified business in order to attend.
It is not open to the public.

HauntCon and HalloweenPartyExpo.com

[17:53] HalloweenPartyExpo.com for more info. And after that, February 9th through the 11th in Daytona Beach, Florida, it's HauntCon at the Hilton Dayton... Dayton?
Daytona Beach Resort. Jesus Christ, Jonathan.

[18:07] Bus tour will feature a visit to four different haunts. Haunted style luau, costume ball, comedy show, much more.
HauntCon.com for more info. Okay.
March 7th through the 10th, it is Transworld Halloween and Attraction Show in St.
Louis, Missouri at the America Center featuring a zombie showdown challenge, party at City Museum, and there's also co-hosted with the Christmas show, Haashow, H-A-A-S-H-O-W.com for more info.
If you've been to Transworld and not visited the Christmas show, I don't know how you would do that.
It's kind of hard to miss. I actually really enjoyed the Christmas show, too, even though I'm not a Christmas fan. Yeah.
You got to see a lot of... Honestly, the scariest thing at Transworld the year we went was in the Christmas show.

[18:51] It was the taxidermied reindeer singing on the wall. That was just fucking disturbing beyond all compare. I'm sorry.
Yeah. Yeah. Haunts that are doing the Christmas shows now need to go and look at the Christmas show at Transworld. Yeah.
I agree completely because some of that shit is genuinely creepy without haunters touching it.
Yeah. That is disturbing as fuck. anyways after that april 12th through the 14th in owensboro kentucky it is fear expo live at the ironsburg convention center free admission all pre-show ultimate haunt tour features a costume contest and more fear expo live.com for more information all right i think it would be fun at transworld to have some kind of challenge where the christmas folks and the halloween folks try to do a makeup or something like.

[19:46] Yeah. Swap. Get a Christmas person who does Christmas makeup to do a horror makeup and a horror person to do a Christmas makeup.
I also think it would be kind of fun, and this probably would be something the conference would encourage, like, officially.
Well, there's all those unofficial events going on. But I think it would be great to have a contest to see what is the scariest, most Halloween-iest thing you can find in a Christmas show. Yeah.
And what is the most Christmassy thing you can find in the Halloween side of the show.
Yeah. and that's true and you know i basically the reason i'm mentioning it is because um i met some of the people from the christmas side they wandered over into the the haunt side and they're like but i don't you know i have no use for the thing that you're trying to to get people to enter to win um you know i'm christmas i don't you know and i'm like.

[20:40] So you can still win it and find a way to use it you know i but i actually i mean oddly enough i think that was the thing i least expected to enjoy and ended up actually enjoying a lot yeah i really because i said i'm not a christmas fan there's a reason we interviewed george patience all right there's a fucking reason and but no i actually really didn't enjoy it because Because there's a lot of creativity and a lot of giant stuff there. I mean, so yeah.

[21:08] All right. Well, as we mentioned previously, this is episode 4 and 24.
Divisible by 4 means it's time to do the news.
And we're starting off with some sad stuff.
Yeah. It's an update. Yeah. So it's news that's already been out there.
Thankfully, it is not another news story like this.
Yes. But Kip Lynn Colasar, who ran Max's Revenge Haunted Attraction in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
And this story is from Gant News and Julie Ray Rickard.
But he has pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.

[21:52] It's interesting because the article also interviewed or was in the courtroom when the victim's mother and the victim were on the stand.
So there are, you know, there are some quotes in the article from them.
Yeah, this is definitely an article where if you have a trigger warning or a specially large sensitivity to this topic, you don't want to click through the article because we're going to couch more than they will. Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, but it does go into the long-lasting trauma that something like this causes.
It really, really does. And he was charged originally with 36 felony counts.
Yeah. He was arrested in 2021, which is, I mean, and it's so sad that I have to say the month he was arrested and what the haunted was.
Because there's so many of these cases we've had recently that you have to do that.

[22:51] Yeah. Now, according to testimony and according to this article, most of the incidents happened in a vehicle, but some did happen at the haunted house.
Yeah, they happened at the haunted house. He was high up in the manager role.
In fact, the opening of it shows how there's an article from when it first opened that shows him being on the ground level, you know, helping build it.
It's not clear if he's the owner or involved with ownership, but he was definitely one of the higher-ups, one of the managers of this haunt. Exactly.
Also supplied alcohol to underage actors, which that's one of the things, in talking about this, like Maddie Monster and everything else, that's like one of the warning signs. Yeah.
That something is amiss. Yeah, if you're seeing adults giving alcohol to kids, say something. And the thing is like this.

[23:46] Now, though it is technically illegal for a 21-year-old to give a 19-year-old or an 18-year-old alcohol, that is different than giving a 14-year-old alcohol.
Yeah. You know what I mean?
That's a big, especially someone who's 27. It's a big, big difference here.
It was obviously grooming. And that's one of the things that I've learned in this is if you see adults giving minors alcohol, especially in a setting where they are authority figures like this, tell someone, speak up.
Because if it were just alcohol, I wouldn't give a fuck, but it's likely not just alcohol. Yeah.
Go ahead. Sorry. And there was a second victim that was also part of the trial. Yeah. He was 16.
Yeah. But they were not quoted. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, he's been sentenced to 10 years in state prison on two counts of statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault on a person less than 16 years old, must serve three years consecutive probation and complete sex offender counseling.

[24:45] I found it odd that they didn't, he didn't meet the requirements for a sexually violent predator.
And I'm not sure what those requirements are. in the state that they're in. But that's just...
We've had this conversation before where the laws around sex offenders is just wonky and dumb in a lot of ways. Because any...
And that's one of the frustrations is people who moon, you know, do a college prank and moon someone can end up on a sex offender list sometimes easier than actual sex offenders. Yeah. And it's crazy.
That makes the list completely useless in a lot of ways. It makes that whole purpose of that completely useless.
So I don't know. I don't know what the laws are, but I am glad that this case is resolved.
I'm hoping that this helps bring closure to the victims. And.

[25:41] I hope we don't have more stories like this. Yeah. I don't like talking about these. They're uncomfortable. I don't either.
They're uncomfortable, but it's necessary. And that's all I'm going to say.
Okay. Now on to some happier stuff. Yeah, before we get back to the sad stuff.
Oh. But yes, Field of Screams. Eek! The Lancaster County, Pennsylvania haunt gave away 100 Christmas trees to those in need.
This was an article by Fox 43.
Basically the free fur trees will be available we're available on a first come first serve basis from 10 a.m.
To 8 p.m. at the haunted attraction they came the trees came from dear Jesus Christ Schaaf, Schaaf Brothers Farms Schaaf Brothers Farms but yeah, they said that we have a surplus of trees this year and want to share them with the community who do not otherwise have the ability to get a tree this year yeah and they are the owners and the people who run Field of Screams and corncob acres.
So, you know, they're like, this is a good way to get your hunt mentioned.

[26:48] Year-round. Year-round. And we're going to be coming back to this topic in just a few minutes. Yeah. Put a pin in this. Yeah.
Foreshadowing lever is being yanked on really hard here.
We should have little bells or something for that. I mean, foreshadow bell. Yeah. So, yes.
But, yeah, no, that's just a great thing to do and a great use of your great business synergy, between the various properties.
My dad's an MBA, can't you tell? Oh, my gosh.

Home haunt raises funds for local food bank

[27:18] That's actually true. He does have an MBA. That's actually true. I know.
They don't. Next up, big skiers generate big bucks for Tri-City's food bank. The Tri-City. Exactly.
This is in Tri-City News and articles by Mario Bartel. Well, so in British Columbia, Canada, a home haunt.
A home haunt. Yes. Put a pin in that for a second. I'm coming back to that.
Anmore Manor. Yeah, I think that's how you say it. Raised $18,000 for the local food bank and donated 158 pounds of food on top of the money.
And there were also socks and other odds and ends that were donated too.
Yeah. Though they didn't give a count on that. That was just the numbers they had.
But yeah, this is a home haunt, which I started feverishly looking up about 2 a.m. last night because I got very, very intrigued by these guys because, A, we don't talk enough about Canadian haunts.
Yeah. They're harder to find for us.
Yeah, they're harder to find for us. We don't run into news stories involving Canadian haunts very much. I'm always, whenever I hear one, it's like, oh, I've got to learn everything.
But yeah, this is a home haunt in a suburban-ish neighborhood.
They basically used their entire house.

[28:37] Um for it so basically if you do the walkthrough you're going to go through the living room dining room and like i couldn't do that fuck that shit you're not coming to my house you'll come to my garage yeah but they use the garage too i mean yeah they use everything and basically they um, they're so popular that they have people park at a nearby school and walk about half a mile to get to the haunts what you what they do yeah there's no i mean i looked at the google street view of the neighborhood, there's not much parking there at all.
We have more parking than they do, probably.
Which is bad, because we have none. Yeah, I wonder if the school is doing fundraisers for one of their groups or something for parking.
If they are not, that is fucking... I would totally have someone out there doing something in that parking lot.
Apparently this is a huge, huge thing, and I think it's completely awesome.
It's based loosely on the island of Dr. Moreau.

[29:35] Um, but I, you know, and I, I think the key word there is loosely. Yeah.
Uh, but yeah, they saw, oh, they also said they get a lot of their props from the movie industry through estate sales.
And Vancouver actually is, they're near Vancouver, is actually a major place for the film industry. So that tracks.
That's, you know, their equivalent of Hollywood, basically. Yeah.
In Vancouver. So that tracks.
All in all, great work. I was very surprised.

Donation made two months ago, article published in December

[29:59] Now, technically the donation happened two months ago, but for some reason, Tri-City News published this article on the 29th of December. Oh.
So that's why it's in this month, even though the donation's actually old.
But still, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to A, talk about a Canadian haunt, and B, talk about this Canadian haunt. Yeah.
A home haunt. Yeah.
This is wild. I mean, great job, guys. I'm going to have to learn even more now.
All right. Now the sad stuff. Yeah.

Hammond, Indiana vs. Hammond, Louisiana

[30:30] Hammond, the city of Hammond, and...
Indiana. Indiana. Hammond, Indiana. Yeah, sorry. Not Hammond, Louisiana.
No, I know. It tripped me up for a while trying to figure out.
Because we have a Hammond literally just on the other side of the lake here.
Yeah, and I'm like, how did I not know this? And this sounds very Hammond-ish. Yeah.
So the town has moved to replace Reaper's Realm Haunted House and historic Indiana Botanic Gardens mansion with new riverfront development.
Development uh this story is by joseph f pete at nwi times uh it's first brought to our attempts jim by japes thank you for sharing that with us and sending it in um if you have a story reach us at all the places yeah yeah i've done it too many times and i'll keep going imminent domain is what they are using to get the 15 acres of riverfront property that Reaper Realm has operated for more than 20 years.
The mayor has said that the property is underutilized because it's only used as a fireworks store at the 4th of July in the Haunted House.

[31:39] So, they're going to try to bring in things that are year-round businesses such as sit-down hotels.
Sit-down hotels, yes. Sit-down hotels. Sit-down restaurants, offices, hotels, and a convention center.
Yeah. They've done a similar project that was hugely successful, and they want to replicate that here.
So this should be a warning sign. Yeah. This was that foreshadowing we were talking about.
Because if this mayor is able to take charge of a haunt that has been in operation for 20 years because they're only open during season, that's worrisome. Yeah.

[32:23] Even if it makes sense for the local economy, it's still worrisome that that's the sticking point.
Yeah, and to be 100% clear, I'm not casting, we're not casting any blame on Reapers' Will. There's no indication they did anything wrong.
They seem to be well-loved in the community. There was mentions of community support for them.
I don't think they did anything wrong. It just sounds like this is an aggressive mayor. But one of the claims they're making, one of the clubs they're wielding against this is, like you said, that it's only open for two events, a firework store and this.
And so one of the things we've been pushing for is trying to find ways to make use of haunted attractions year-round.
And the reason originally was because you're paying year-round rent.
You might as well be making some year-round revenue.
Exactly. But now we have a new reason to call for that, one we didn't honestly think of until this story. which is that it could be a weapon against you if the city decides to eminent domain your ass. Exactly.
And this is the second eminent domain case we've talked about in the past 12 months.
Yeah, the first one we talked about, it seemed like they largely repelled it at the time. They went to a vote. Yeah, it went to a vote and they got it.

[33:37] It's on hold. Yeah, it's on like an indefinite hold now.
So it still could happen. Yeah, but in this case, the city has foregone the public time and has just filed for a lawsuit for eminent domain.
They skipped the things that the other one had a chance to do.
Well, it may also be a difference in the city charters and how they handle these things. Yeah, but they...

The importance of location and city regulations for haunts

[34:06] But anyway, it's just, go ahead.
Yeah, no, no, it's just, like you said, the main point is, is apparently if your haunt is in a prime location, as far as the city's concerned, maybe it's in a historic part of town, maybe it's on a riverfront like here, or maybe it's on a major corridor or something.
Something, and the city, town, county, parish, whatever, feels it's being underutilized by just being a haunted house, or just being a haunted house plus firework stand, watch out. Yeah.
Because at some point, you might become too tempting of a target for this.
Yeah, and actually when this was shared with us, I got it confused for the other one, because that one was also on a riverfront, where they were trying to beautify the area. And they were trying to do some beautification and build a new bridge.
Yeah. It was a bridge and park thing they were trying to do.

[35:03] And, yeah. So, like, if your haunt is in, like, a warehouse district or something, you probably have less to worry about from here. Yeah.
Because, honestly, the city government doesn't care about those anyway. Trust me. No.
Do you think the city gives a shit about the warehouse district of New Orleans other than the, what would you call it, the hipster shit that's opened up out there now?
But no, it's a watch out. Basically, this is a great opportunity, great reminder that year-round revenue is incredibly important. Yeah.
Well, another sad story. This is an update on the Mystery Manor in Omaha, Nebraska.
This is an article by Omaha.com, by the way.
We talked previously about how it had its last season last year.
Yeah, in September, we talked about that. Yeah, they closed.
I don't, did they open last year? I don't think they did. I think they did.
I think that it was the last season.
Well, regardless, it has now been torn down after 38 years of operation.
Yeah, so this is another one that's been around for a long time, and this one was located in a 133-year-old mansion, and when we reported that it was closing, they hadn't released the plans for it.
Yeah, Because nobody was talking about it. Well, now we know why.
It's because it's down to the ground now. Yeah.

[36:27] You know, and it's kind of funny because we were just talking last night, and this is purely apropos of nothing in the show notes, about how America is often very protective of its history because we don't have history.
And meanwhile, you go to England like we did. You literally are using steps built by Romans just casually to get from A to B.
It's like literally these are the same stones laid by Romans, you know, centuries and a thousand plus years ago.
And you're just it's a stairwell yeah that's all it is it's just a stairwell yeah use it to get to the river yeah you may be able to find a plaque but lots of places they don't they don't mark things like that and like when we went to uh time with castle which we fell in love with yeah i mean i i it is literally one of my favorite places i've ever been to in history yeah time with castle in Newcastle.

Appreciating history and cultural landmarks

[37:22] It's gorgeous. It's right there on the bluff of the sea. You've got an old priory there.
It's gorgeous. It looks like it's straight out of a fucking video game or something. It's great.
It's just beautiful. And we mentioned that we spent some of the day there to some of our people we were meeting, some friends of ours, and they go, why'd you visit that old pile of rocks? Exactly.

[37:44] Fuck you, dude. Yeah. Fuck you. We just had the best day ever.
Yeah, we played dino golf and then did that. It was great. Exactly.
It was a very, very weird, but very amazing day. Yes.
There is no logic or reason. Please don't think too hard about that sentence. No.
I don't even think we should give off our explanation for that.
No, we're just going to move on to the next story.
So the next story is last week we talked about...
Public domain. That are entering the public domain. And so the director of Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey is warning the people who want to do the Steamboat Willie horror movies.
I keep wanting to call him Steampunk Willie now.
No, that's a different movie. That one's coming out next year.
It's a porn. Steampunk Willie.
Anyway. This is from Screen Rant.
And basically, he's warning them against it because even though Winnie the Pooh fell into public domain, he still received a lot of lawsuits against his movie.
And so just think twice if you're going to use it in your haunt.
Just make sure that you've got the right characters and all of that.

The Complex Copyright Issues Surrounding Winnie the Pooh

[39:11] Yeah it's this story is interesting because he seems to have a lot of regret yeah for doing the film and, Okay, and part of the problem is that Winnie the Pooh was not created by Disney.
It was created by A.A. Milne.
But the rights to the character were bought by Disney, I think, in the 60s?
Yeah. I don't remember. It was sometime before I was born, they bought the rights.
So, in the before times, it was purchased.
And the result of that is now Disney, of course, is probably the one getting pissy about this.
And yeah i mean because these issues are still complicated yes the original book was in the public domain but that doesn't mean everything about the character is copyright is really complicated and it's especially complicated here because these characters are also trademarks.

[40:09] Yeah and so yeah he's sitting here waving the red flag to these other filmmakers and there are a lot Now, apparently, according to this article and others I've seen, there is like four or five different films planned like this.
And at least one video game. And we know about the video game.
But apparently there's like multiple, so many things about this.
So it's like, okay, you survive this legal gauntlet.
Yeah. And you're what? One of five films to drop that year? Yeah.
What the fuck? You know, why would you do that?
Yeah, I think it would be, I don't know. Well, I think that there could be more creative takes on this. Absolutely.
Than just, we're going to make it art. Well, and that's the thing that's kind of annoyed me about all this. Because everyone, and this is Jonathan on a rant here mode.
Yeah. Is when I talk about public domain stuff, I generally am in favor of the public domain. Yes.
But there are people out there who want things to fall in the public domain much, much, much, much, much more quickly.
And I'm not saying the time frame we have now is ideal. But there are people out there that are pushing for an incredibly short copyright time.
Not enough time to even really exploit the work.
But anyways, everyone's like, well, that's because when something's released in the public domain, we can all do creative things with it.
We can build on it in great new ways.
And then Steamboat Willie's the public domain and we get five fucking parody horror movies and a parody horror video game.

[41:33] Yeah, smacks of fucking creativity, y'all. Yeah. Just saying.

Lack of Creativity in the Use of Public Domain

[41:38] It seems like the only creative idea they have for Steamboat Willie is hee-hee, Steamboat Willie's in the public domain now.
Pretty much there's a variation of that and that is not the fucking point people come on all right, rant off all right so this is an article by mark shaffer at ironton ohio i love the headline it grew into a monster.

[42:05] But basically, this is, yeah, 18-year-old Tyler Pippen started a brick-and-mortar store called the Backfire Boutique in Ironton to sell wares to haunted houses and prosumers.
And they do animatronics, costumes, baby dolls, masks. They seem to do a lot of different things.
And, according to him, he started acting in haunts at age 8. Sorry.
You're right. That's she. Sorry. But when they moved to Florida, they had to wait until she was 13 to continue.
But then by 16, she was a show manager, assistant show manager?
Assistant show manager, yeah. At a haunted house. That's pretty incredible in Florida, no less.
Yeah. Florida is not want for haunted houses.
No. They're not hurt for choices. But they're also not hurt for actors either. Yeah.
So basically, go ahead. Within a few years after that, she became trail manager and started building props with her dad.
And was like, hey, if we need these props, other haunts might need them too.
You know, and that's, if you're going to start a new haunted attraction facing prop slash costume slash mask business, this is, I think, the way to do it.
Yeah. Start by being a haunter. Start by seeing what needs are not being met.
Yeah. And then fulfill those needs specifically.
Exactly. I think that is pretty brilliant stuff. Unfortunately, they do not seem to have a website.

[43:32] Site um crystal is searching for and looking at her computer because we're side by side yeah um but anyway but anyway no it's such an interesting story um wish them luck yeah yeah i mean and i i know some people are gonna go oh we already have such a glut of prop makers and all that i don't know well we were just hearing a cry for new things yeah from From Chris Gay in the question of the week. Yeah, it's a good point.
Well, and the other thing is, like, we have, I think we have a glut of, like, top-end props, like really high-end props and masks, like the CFX mask and all those.
And we have a glut of low-end consumer-grade stuff.
Yeah. What we're missing, I think, is a lot of the mid-tier. Yeah, exactly.
I think that's where someone like this could really step in and mix things up a little bit. But just a neat story. Yeah.

[44:27] All right. Okay. You want me to take this one? Yes, go ahead. I read it.
Our final story this week, it's not anything new to us, but God damn it, it's always great to see it somewhere in print.
This is an article by Francis Chorley at the Glasgow Guardian, which is the student newspaper for the University of Glasgow.
But basically, as they were coming into exam time at the end of the year, they wrote an article about how fear and fear-based attractions slash entertainment can help you deal with stress better.
Kind of apt timing, huh? During the exam season, I think that was brilliant timing.
But basically, it cited a 2019 study which found that participants who visit a quote-unquote extreme haunted attraction were less challenged by other stressors later on.
And then a 2020 study found that fans of horror were better equipped to deal with stressful situations.
And, of course, the article name drops Margie Kerr. It would not be complete without it. I have zero stars if it doesn't mention Margie Kerr.
You're talking about the psychological benefits of fear. She better be in there. Exactly.
It's like having a plagiarism story without me.
Doesn't work. But, yeah. So, no, this is an incredible reminder that what we do isn't just entertainment.
We have the ability to make people's lives better in other ways.

[45:49] And I thought this was a really, really cool idea. But basically, the claim is that horror and fear-based fun can be a great way to deal with stress, both in the moment, in terms of getting that catharsis on the stress, but also in preparing you to deal with stressful situations after you leave.
Yeah, and I don't know that I've thought about the long-term effects.

[46:10] Or possible long-term overcoming your fears and beating all odds and that kind of thing. Well, and then that's the thing.
It's like a haunted house is like a video game.
It's meant to be beaten. You're supposed to be able to beat it, but it's supposed to be challenging to do so. Yeah.
And when you hit that needle just right, you teach people that they can overcome things. They can get through it.
Yeah. And then, you know, you teach them what fear feels like. Yeah.
What it feels like if your heart's racing and all that.
You teach them that they're not going to die from that, from the feeling of fear. And the feeling of fear is temporary. Yeah.
Because, I mean, hopefully they're not still afraid of the haunted house when they go home and they're in their bed that night. Yeah, hopefully.
Hopefully we don't know. That's called trauma. Yeah. We don't want to do that. No.
But, yeah, hopefully they're not afraid and not scared like that that when they get home, they realize the fear is temporary.
It's a great safe environment to explore those emotions so that when the less than safe environment for those emotions happens, they have some experience with them. Yeah, exactly.
I think that's a neat idea. And I love thinking about that because our industry on its face is very silly.

[47:34] Yeah. It's very silly. I mean, what other species?
I think it was Ron White or someone that talked about how you don't see deer or jumping at each other with headlights attached to their antlers to scare their buddies.
They don't have little thumbs and fingers to put them up there.
Well, I mean, there are other problems, clearly, yes. No, I know.
But you don't see other animals, like, scaring each other for funsies. Yeah.
And I think that's one of the cool things about humans is that we do that and we learn from it.
Yeah. Well, and there's also been, you know...

Mental Benefits of Acting in Haunted Houses

[48:07] So they've started to look at if people who are acting in haunted houses can gain mental benefits from it.
I almost certainly bet they can. Yeah. And one of the reasons is because the thing we've talked about a hundred times is that people, some of the best actors are people that would never go through a haunt as a customer. Yeah.
Because they're too scary or too, you know, too frightened to.
But they're fine being the one in power, and they're actually very good at that.
Yeah. And it also, you know, if you've been a victim or bullied, it gives you the power.
Yeah, and it lets you see how easy it is for the power dynamic to be flipped. Yeah.
So, no, I do think there's some long-term benefits to being a haunted actor, too, definitely.
But I do love that we're finding very serious, very real-world benefits to our very silly industry.
Yes. I like that very much. I think that's the main point. Exactly.
Well, on that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us this week.
Hope this was useful. Hope you learned something.

[49:12] But this has been Haunt Weekly, episode 424, doing the December-January news.
You can check out more Haunt Weekly at hauntweekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, youtube.com slash hauntweekly is the YouTube channel.
Check us out wherever you get your podcasts from.
Until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we will see you all next week.