Haunt Weekly - Episode 435 - Happy Reviews

Transcript

[0:23]

Introduction

[0:24]

Hello, everyone. I'm Jonathan. I'm Krystal. And this is Haunt Weekly,

a weekly podcast for the haunted attraction and entertainment community.

Whether you're an actor, owner, or just plain aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you.

And we'll return to you this week a day late.

Definitely want to apologize. We don't like being late.

But between Easter break, a

trip to your family, which was not related to Easter, amazingly. Correct.

And some poor decision making after that that trip. We needed to take Sunday

off basically and we were not able to record on Monday so we're recording on

Tuesday even though the notes were done on Monday.

Yeah. So yes indeed. Thank you very much for your patience with us.

We'll be talking a little bit more about the trip upcoming because there were

some Haunt related things that happened on it and we'll be discussing those.

But in the meantime, definitely check out our other stuff at HauntWeekly.com

HauntWeekly on Twitter, HauntWeekly on Facebook, YouTube YouTube.com slash All

Weekly is the weekly channel.

Is the YouTube channel. Rather, not the weekly channel. It's the YouTube channel.

And you can also find us, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get.

Actually, it's Google Play now.

Stitcher, wherever you get your podcasts from. We aim to be there.

So definitely check out all the other episodes.

[1:43]

Haunt-Related Trip

[1:43]

Um, keeping up, so we said we're going to talk more about the trip,

and fun fact, we're going to do that now, because we've got to talk about what

we did for work for the haunt this week.

Um, I forgot to open my soda before we sat down. Sorry, guys.

No. Uh, it's my fault. But no, um, the issue is, uh, Crystal's brother had his

40th birthday celebration,

and had a dinner get-together thing for family and friends at a restaurant in

the upstate. Well, mid-state, technically.

And so we went there.

And we spent a couple hours with his friends and the family and hung out.

But we have a lot of obligations back in New Orleans right now.

I've been very busy with my work. You've been busy with yours.

So we needed to get back and not turn this into like a full-day thing if we could avoid it.

But we did make time to make a quick stop on the way out by,

it says antique store. Yeah.

Help me out here, Crystal. It's really a consignment shop that my brother had

talked about. And it's a huge consignment shop. It's actually really big.

It doesn't look that big when you're walking past it, but once you get in it,

you realize, yeah, you can get lost in it.

[3:00]

And it has a little bit of everything.

Yeah. I don't know how else to frame it. Yeah, no, that's fair.

It's got, you know, jewelry and knickknacks and books and ancients.

[3:16]

I remember we were going through one section and there's all these beautiful

antique furniture pieces sitting right next to Reclaimed Driftwood. Yep, exactly.

So it's like that the whole way through. And we went there with the intent,

since we were trying to do something more steampunk themed this time around,

We wanted to get some, A, inspiration, and B, maybe some items and some decor.

We did pick up a few decoration elements.

Yeah. A cane, which I think might be useful.

Mm-hmm. And I got a quote-unquote spring, but I am very doubtful this was ever a spring. Yeah, me too.

Because I don't know what this would be a spring for. This is thicker than the

springs for shocks on a car. Yeah. Way beefier than those.

Yeah, it's at least three quarters of an inch diameter. I think it's an inch

diameter, legit. I don't know what this would be a spring for.

And it's also got corrosion on one end. You hinted it may have actually been

a coil of wire used in some type of welding.

And that's possible. But yeah, it said spring and it was $5.

And I'm pretty sure it's worth more than $5 in scrap. Because that son of a bitch is heavy.

Yes, yes it is. It's really, really heavy.

Like, I don't know what metal it's made out of, but I'm pretty sure if I took

it to the scrapyard, I'd probably get more than five bucks out of it.

But regardless, we got that. I got a few other odds and ends,

but mostly we got ideas for things to include.

[4:44]

One frustration we had was we actually, one thing we did find but didn't buy was an adding machine.

Yes. They had an old style adding machine, which was only $12.

Once again, probably worth more in scrap than... Yeah, I was thinking you were

going to talk about the flamethrowers. I was getting there.

[5:03]

But we didn't get that because, unfortunately, even though that's a hell of

a steal, we actually already have an adding machine.

Yes. But the other thing you noted was the hand torches, the gas torches,

the flamethrower type things, the old-timey tinkerer ones for,

like, bending, like, heating up wire and things.

They had several of them they looked really cool but

the problem with this consignment shop i think it's a problem the consignment

shops broadly yeah the prices were all over the map exactly these non-functioning

items that were clearly broken and busted were like 35 40 each and i'm thinking

i can get replicas cheaper than that probably yeah well and they make them you know Yeah,

because there are spray paint guns that look similar to those with the little canister underneath.

The little canister underneath and the hose and the nozzle at the top.

And that would work fine.

Yeah. We could distress it and that would get the same feeling.

Yeah, it was, like I said, that's

the thing with consignment shops is the prices just vary completely.

Completely yeah there was that but then there was like the uh table leg that's um a wrought iron.

[6:20]

Intricate table leg that we got uh for

15 which was a great find it's gonna look great as a sconce on a wall yeah um

they did have three of them but i only bought one yeah i know so you're gonna

piss off anyone who hopes to ever make a table out of them well they had said

that they were having having trouble selling them even as three,

because everybody wanted four.

You know, and I get it, but at the same time, there are plenty of tables with

three legs. You just have to go for a circular table. Yeah, exactly.

I mean, that's really the answer.

Circular triangle, what you want? Circle, for obvious reasons.

[6:56]

Positive Haunt Reviews

[6:57]

Clearly the superior table shape there, I'm just saying. Well,

this week on Table Weekly.

[7:04]

Well, let's table that for next week. Oh, boo, boo this woman.

No, but so that's what we ended up doing for our time.

Got some great ideas, got some concepts, bought a few things,

and spent a lot more time than we actually intended in there to do it.

So, yeah, it was all, I think, fairly productive, actually, even if it wasn't

actual work in the haunt.

It was very productive, and I feel like I do have a slightly better handle on

the type of visuals we want in the haunt moving forward. So that's cool.

[7:33]

Question of the Week

[7:33]

Oh, right. Well, every week we ask a question of the week.

And last week we asked the question, what is your favorite positive haunt review?

And once again, you guys rocked up.

James Munsell said, he scared the shit out of me.

Sam Farrell, a friend of mine, literally ran so fast that the bottom of his shoe came off.

And we told the haunt and they were able to find it. Good on them,

by the way. That would have been hard to fucking find. I'm just saying, that's impressive.

The photographer took a picture of it laying on the ground. Now,

you know they called a photographer in just for that. Oh, yeah.

They found the soul and went, okay, Dave, you got to get in here.

There's like a whole thing about that, right?

[8:16]

Sorry. Took a picture of it. The haunt posted our review and the picture saying,

I lost my quote unquote soul, S-O-L-E, at haunting. Yeah.

Reggie Wood said, I'm a really big thrill seeker and love the haunting season.

I have been through multiple haunted houses, including blah,

blah, blah, in the States, which were okay.

And all the ones in Niagara Falls don't even come close to this one.

This is hands down definitely the best one that I've been to.

So very impressed with the production. The commitment of the actors inside have

told all of my friends about this place.

And we have continued to come here for the last three years.

Better than Windsor. Blah, blah, blah.

Sorry. Sorry. I thought, eh. Yeah. Lots of fun, lots of scares.

You can tell that this place loves what they are doing. Five stars all around.

And as we get deeper into the episode, I found that was one of the recurring

themes was that the reviews highlighted the passion behind it. So that's interesting.

Chris Gay said, My favorite review ever was when someone said our charity trail

haunt was comparable to various major haunts,

being compared to the region's big daddy haunt that has been there for years

and years and is on countless top 10 lists was a great feeling i'm sure our

haunt being a quarter the price and drive had nothing to do with that assessment

hey man take it yeah just take it my friend take it run.

[9:42]

Yep. Brian Dubois said, too scary. Never coming back.

Like I said, every once in a while, a negative review flips all the way around.

And finally, Joe Singletary. My favorite comment about our small home haunt

was from a family who said that visiting our haunt had become their Halloween tradition.

They were happy that their second child was old enough to go to the haunt with their big brother.

And yeah, we'll be getting to some of those in a minute. I did not put in a

question of the week. I just realized that. Oh, okay.

[10:17]

Favorite Scientific Fact

[10:13]

Did you find... But we do know what it is. Yes.

It is, what is your favorite scientific fact?

Yes. Like your quick fact if you want to share it out to somebody,

and we'll tell you why next week.

Yeah. We actually did talk about that in advance, because we have a reason we wanted to do it.

But yeah, so what is your favorite science fact to bust out in a moment? let us know.

HauntonWeekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook,

and YouTube.com slash Haunton Weekly.

Leave a comment, send an email, let us know.

[10:47]

All right, so two weeks ago, we did an episode about mean haunt reviews.

And since we here at Haunt Weekly are nothing about being on time and having

integrity and balance and everything that we do, and also plagiarizing our own

ideas so we don't have to do extra work,

We've decided to do the same episode, but flipping the script and talking about

positive reviews, keeping it entirely positive.

But that said, the same rules are going to apply.

Even though they're positive, we will not be saying haunt names.

We'll be avoiding that simply because we don't want to call a strongman,

especially since even though these are positive reviews, and once again,

all these haunts are top tier haunts, other than ours at the very end,

we'll be doing some of ours at the end.

All these haunts are top tier haunts, all of them are highly rated, but da-da-da-da-da.

But some of the reviews do mention and compare to other haunts,

and I'm not trying to start that shit.

Nope. So if you Google these reviews and find out them, that is on you,

and you can eat that guilt.

I am merely trying to spread the joy of some positive haunt reviews without creating drama.

So like I said, all the haunts here, major haunts, if I said the names,

you would know them. That said, I don't remember which is which.

No. because it's been 24 hours since I did this because like I said we did the

note I did the notes yesterday and then we were supposed to record at night but just couldn't so.

[12:10]

So, I've already forgotten. Yes. So, here we are.

I'm just going to go ahead and throw out the first one. Go for it.

The closest you can get to living a horror movie.

The set pieces are incredible. The animatronics are a great distraction.

But the amazing scare actors really bring it to life.

They were relentless and came from all directions. We had a blast.

We drove five hours to get here and it was worth every minute.

You know, that's one of the themes that comes up is how far some of these positive reviews drove.

Because I think that, like, we're the mad lads. Yeah. We're driving as far as

we do to some haunts, especially the haunts, some of the haunts we visit regularly

or semi-regularly. Yeah.

Because, like, we'll make that hour and a half to two hour trip to Lafayette most years.

We'll go all the way out to Houma. You know what I mean? Those are not insignificant trips.

Right. Right. But it's also, you know, we've also had the flip side of that,

where we've driven a really long time, had a crappy experience,

and don't go back for years and years and years.

Yeah, because, like, now it's really not worth the investment.

Yeah, but I'm glad that they had a really good time at this haunt. All right.

Next up, this first sentence is in all caps. Hands down the best haunted house I've been to.

I don't know why I said that like Caboose from Red vs. Blue, but whatever.

[13:28]

I've come for the past three years and i'm never disappointed but

this time around i brought my sister who needs the aid of a wheelchair and

they were beyond amazing and with with accommodating her

i cannot rave about this place enough and the cast behind it everyone was so

great with her that it made it all the better we had a great time and i seriously

can never thank you all enough we will definitely back next year once again

why wheelchair and you know access why Why accessibility is important broadly.

Yeah. Because, you know, yeah, the reviewer wasn't in a wheelchair,

but her sister was. And look at that review.

I mean, that is top flight shit there. I mean, that's great.

Yeah. So, yeah, accessibility. Do it. Do it.

[14:16]

This was by far the best haunted house I've been to. I know waiting in the cold

is the worst, but we all thought it was worth the wait.

I believe we waited two hours in line. When we got to the location,

we ended up buying the fast entrance since we had younger ones with us,

and it was very cold. Highly recommend.

Yeah, and the word is recommend. She did not misspeak.

Not highly recommended. No. No, just highly recommend. Yeah,

this one could have been a negative review so easily.

Yeah. Between the cold and the two-hour wait and then buying the Fast Pass.

Yikes. I could have seen this one going the other way so, so easy.

I'm glad it didn't. I'm glad they had fun, and I'm glad the family seemed to have fun.

But that's usually how the other reviews start. All right.

[15:06]

Got to tour the property, see the backstage pre-opening process,

[15:11]

VIP Haunt Experience

[15:09]

and ultimately see the performance the same night.

Definitely the VIP treatment. Love the ownership and management who are not

really running a haunted house.

I went there thinking I was going to a haunted house, but I realized I was actually

there to watch a performance.

I mean this in the most complimentary sense.

What you will get here is thought planning and execution of methods and techniques

designed to exploit your sense of fear.

The owner demands a lot from employees when performing, which is great for patrons.

But in return, I saw him firsthand motivate, praise and reward them. How cool is it?

To see when I went in 2022, every place with a high volume attendance sees people

leave disappointed or upset with the wait.

I get to, but don't go if you expect to be in and out. Enjoy the buildup.

Enjoy the people and the cast watching.

This place is a gym and ownership has made the post experience.

I don't know that the keyboard had a conniption for a minute.

Yeah. A cozy spot to decompress from the chilling experience.

[16:15]

Right awesome time great group and owner does a great job my kiddos had a great

time ages 8 to 11 we'll go again next year once again kids 8 to 11 that's often

how the bad reviews start,

i brought my eight-year-old to this haunt he peed himself and it's had nightmares

well you brought someone too young and not ready for the experience we can only

be so responsible you know yep and And finally, for this unnamed haunt.

Hands down, one of the best haunted attractions out there. The queue experience

is one of a kind and well worth the wait.

Staff is incredibly friendly, and the show itself is top-notch.

I've been to many attractions across the country, and there's only two that even compare.

We drove five hours. Let's get with the fucking five hours. Mm-hmm.

To see it. And it's a yearly tradition for us now.

The show is roughly 30 minutes, not including wait times, which is incredible.

They're able to pack so much show story.

Entertainment, you name it, into that amount of time. Could not recommend this more.

All in all, you know, I mean, it seems like this haunt is one that people drive a long ways to.

Yeah. But don't, and put up with some pretty crushing waits.

Drive five hours, then wait two hours in line. Yeah. That's literally a full day's work.

Yeah. Between those two things, that's more close. I mean, come on.

It's a government full day work. Shut up. Yeah. No.

[17:43]

So, yeah, no, that's just wild, though. But, yeah, this haunt obviously has

got a lot of passionate followers.

And I think this was the only set of haunt reviews where they constantly highlighted the owners.

[17:54]

Passionate Haunt Owners

[17:55]

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I found that one interesting. I think I have a guess,

which, like I said, I totally fucking forgot.

Anyone who's like, oh, he didn't really forget. He's just hiding her.

No, you assume I can remember shit for 24 hours, my friend. And you are assuming

way too much about me. I'm not playing dumb.

I think I have a guess which one it is, but it's only a guess.

[18:20]

But, yeah, no. But it's interesting that with this haunt, they repeatedly mention

the owners and the process and the people running it. So, I don't know.

I think that was very, very cool.

All right. Well, our next one. All right. We drove four hours to get here, and worth it.

This place is consistently on top 10 list for best haunted houses in the U S

they did not disappoint.

The craftsmanship was amazing and the know how to scare.

I think that was meant to be the, but yeah, whatever. Moving on.

The, the scared me a lot. This is why he broke.

Maybe. Right.

[19:01]

Yeah, it is. Holy shit. They don't have any wise. The scared me a lot,

even for how crowded it was. and that is the only downside is they are always

packed, which can make it difficult to scare.

If groups are too close, it can ruin the scare.

There were two of us and they stuck us with another group, which I didn't really

like, but it was still great.

We were in the front and the got us a lot, but still scared people in the middle

and back, which was impressive.

Impressive, would do this several times a year if it was closer,

especially because they do a free, like November 1st and 2nd,

they do it completely dark and give you a flashlight, really want to do this.

Well, they do a free Midway type thing, was what she was saying.

Okay. Carnival Midway type thing.

And that's a lot of haunts. I think we can say that, not give anything away

to, especially a lot of bigger haunts these days. Yeah. Yeah.

[20:03]

I really like that they honed in on how you have a large group you're going

in with, which, yeah, that does kind of suck. Yeah.

[20:11]

But they did a good job breaking up where the scares hit in the group so that

everyone gets got at different times. Yeah.

Yeah, it was nice because we've seen the opposite of this, the negative side

of this, where people are like, yeah, it was a conga line the entire time,

and we didn't get any scares because we could see the one person getting scared in front of us. Yeah.

And that is frustrating. I agree. And, you know, one thing I will say I agree

with, like, Leonard Pickle on was he said you have to design.

If you're going to run a professional haunt, you have to design like you're

going to have a conga line.

[20:52]

Group Scare Tactics

[20:48]

Because at some point it's going to happen if you're successful enough.

Well, yeah, because that's the way you get your monies. Yeah.

And so you have to design with that in mind. and that

i mean putting scares around corners and like that but here

i love that this person was aware enough to highlight

that even though it was a big group everyone got got and

that means the haunt this is one of the things good haunts get

right is making sure their actors are

targeting different sections of the group you target the front you target the

middle you target the back yeah etc and that was something clearly this haunt

was doing well so that's that's great i love that I love that's and it's always

great for me to be reading these reviews to see like bits of insider haunt tactics

coming through on The customer side like that.

Yeah, I just love it and that makes me that makes me giggle and smile That's why I chose that one.

[21:37]

Birthday Haunt Tradition

[21:38]

Every year I wait for this time because it is so close to my birthday and it's all I ever ask for.

I am never disappointed. Every year it's different.

And for a person who loves everything horror, I scream every damn time, love it.

And I want to say the reason I chose this one is because with this haunt,

the owner of the haunt actually responded to damn near every review.

Which is kind of a weird thing on Google. Because Google reviews just kind of

exist in this ether. Which is one of the reasons why I chose them.

But they were very kind to this person, wishing them a happy birthday and offering

them something special for their birthday next time they come back.

It was very sweet and touching.

Yeah, and that is something that we haven't really talked about is the responses.

Lots of the ones with negatives, there were no responses. In fact,

there was only like one or two that had responses in the negative ones.

So, yeah, we're not talking about it because they doesn't exist.

Yeah. Especially with the Google reviews. Like I said, the reason I chose Google,

by the way, is because the business can't remove or edit those.

Like Yelp is known to be kind of scammy in this area.

Facebook reviews, there's a lot of control by the haunt or by any business realistically

over which reviews are allowed.

I've had negative reviews outright deleted on Facebook before.

[22:56]

So, yeah, Google was like, this is where we're going to find the best positive

and the best negative reviews.

Moving on. Yeah, the best haunted house. We have ever been to I had a panic

attack and lost my voice But we'll definitely be back next year The actors were amazing and don't know.

[23:17]

I'm sorry made myself laugh too hard The actors were amazing and don't disappoint

I have to apologize to my husband for throwing him into a wall and a moment of sheer terror. I,

lol the staff as

well were awesome a staff member saw my panic when

we came out and asked if i was okay and needed

help thank you for that sir hands down

the best experience and the panic attack was worth

it okay first things first

to the haunt actor who saw

the panic attack and broke character her

to try and help good yeah after after

they got out yeah well yeah i mean they followed up.

[23:59]

Followed up i mean yeah it might not have been immediately

visible inside the haunt depending on the nature of the panic attack but when.

[24:05]

It was visible this this person saw it

and stepped in good on you that's exactly

what you should do i'm very happy about that and that also made

her very positive review beyond that jesus

christ uh-huh i mean the panic

attack was worth it yeah i mean

holy shit and i mean we saw that this year

we had a woman um our

age so older ish yeah um

going through who got to a

certain room and would not go through started you

know screaming and crying and um you

know i escorted her back out but she came

back the next night to finish it yeah yeah i

remember this now i remember this and and we

actually see her all the time because she goes she stays next door

sometimes so we've we've talked to her since

but yeah it was um well that's

just it yeah we talked to her like after as we were tearing down the yard display doing

the after stuff yeah and she was all aglow and all pumped and

excited about how great the haunted house wasn't yeah she was stoked

went beyond belief well in our she could have left this review yeah and her

neighbor had warned her because she's like oh i want to go to the haunted house

before you know we had opened when we were setting up the art display she's

like oh i want to go that sounds like so much fun and he's like are you sure

they scared the shit out of me last time.

[25:34]

And she's like, yeah, I want to go. All the more reason. So then they came,

and the panic attack happened, and I checked up on her the next day.

Once again, well handled.

They came back the next day. And that's just it. If you handle that type of

[25:48]

Positive Reviews Impact<br>0012: Family-Friendly Fun<br>0023: Detailed Set Design Appreciation<br>0037: Fun for the Whole Family<br>0055: Clarity in Directions Appreciated<br>0077: Craftsmanship and Scares<br>0092: Artistry and Realistic Experience<br>0111: Detailed Props and New Experiences<br>0133: Top-Notch Actors and Scares<br>0148: Detailed Haunts and Fair Concessions<br>0168: Running a Home Haunt with Love<br>0185: Small Yet Terrifying Residential Haunt

[25:47]

situation well, they might come back.

Exactly. Because, yeah. All right. God damn. Next review.

Traveled 11 hours. Jesus Murphy. To see this place. I've worked at two other big name haunts.

So was really excited to see this place. I'm not easily scared.

I get more jumps, but rarely scream for my life. Your actors were beasts.

[26:10]

I loved everything about this house, and it was long. It took me 30 minutes to get through.

If it wasn't for me trying to be brave for my newfound friends behind me,

I probably would have been crawling through this house. It was so good.

Can't wait to see you all again in the coming years. Love it when haunters leave

good reviews on other haunts. Yeah.

Tears me up. Moving on.

Absolutely love, love, love this place. We look forward to it every year.

Great fun for the entire family. The most realistic haunted experience ever. Ever.

Walking through mazes is scarier and more fun.

Yeah, I mean, okay. And finally for this haunt, it was really amazing.

I've been several times. It scared me the first year. And ever since,

I make it a challenge to find the cubbies and not get scared.

Never have I beaten my own challenge. My friends definitely get scared worse.

Always a pleasure to go there.

I love getting the review from the little shit that's trying to figure out how

everything's working and they admit they can't do it.

Yeah. That tickles my bones.

That makes me happy. Well, that takes us to the third hunt. All right.

Sorry. Really took myself out there a minute ago. Yeah, I know.

[27:28]

Very detailed set design. You can tell they love what they do. It isn't very long.

[27:36]

Isn't a very long haunt, but it's a case of quality over quantity.

It's very well paced, a high quality haunted house that horror lovers are sure to enjoy.

This is one of the savored, highly recommend.

One to be savored, yeah. I love this review because even though it says it's

not a long haunt, and once again, I forgot which one this is.

So it could be one I haven't actually been to even.

But I love to highlight the quantity

over a quality over quantity aspect of

it yeah every year we pick a new haunted attraction and this year we picked

blah blah blah start off you get there the fast pass you won't have a long wait

I would recommend that to start off with pimping the fast pass pretty hard that

happens in a lot of these reviews actually in general just all of,

the props are amazing throughout the entire experience blah

blah blah definitely had an eerie feeling to it when you

enter the attraction especially the basement my thing if you want to be scared

throughout the thing do not go last in line the actors are already popped out

by then i think the best spot in line are group of people i should say you go

with would be somewhat in the the middle.

Wow, that scent died somewhere.

[29:02]

Prepare to be wet at the end of your scary adventure through the blah, blah, blah.

If you go on a cold night, definitely do not wear shorts, wear some warm clothes.

At the end, there's plenty of picture opportunities to be taken with family

and friends. I would recommend this haunted attraction.

You know, I like a review couple, some good advice, and see,

this is still a five-star review.

Yeah. And I think if I were the operator of this haunt, I'd be going,

okay, they enjoyed it, but how can we fix that problem of the person in the

back not getting more scares? How do we shift our targeting?

And that's a good example of a review that is still positive,

but very helpful too. Yeah.

[29:43]

This place was such a treat. True fun for the whole family, I promise you.

We saw more kids, teens there than adults, and everyone had the best time.

I really enjoyed after the haunted house. It opens up to a large,

as you can tell by the pictures, photo op area.

This is also a declared real haunted blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, that offers tours outside of the event, so I'm eager to look into that.

You have to make this one of your go-tos if you're in the area and consider

yourself to be a true haunted houser.

Okay, first things first. Are we running with haunted houser as the collective

for haunted aficionados in advance?

Have I been wasting time learning how to spell aficionado?

[30:35]

Well you know this is someone outside of the industry who's yeah i know let's get in so yes,

it's like i remember um like when i was a teenager and getting into star trek

everyone was fighting the term trekkie we wanted to be called trekkers and then

we just all leaned into trekkie sometime in like the years since yeah but i

will never lean into throuple oh good god no And that was not made up by somebody in a poly.

No, we are a triad, goddammit.

Triad, poly, cube, those are fine. Those are fine. Either of those work.

Thruple, I'll thruple you.

Where the hell are we? But yeah, where the hell are we in this?

But yeah, no, this is a good example, though, of a great haunt,

of a great review that's telling people what to expect.

Went last night with my son and his friend both teens,

We had a great time. The haunt was so much fun, and the attention to detail was fabulous.

The haunt was creepy, scary, and

the actors were great. Haven't been to a haunt this good in a few years.

We will definitely come back. We love the midway after the haunt,

too. So many positive things about the midway after the haunt.

I mean, it's not just the reviews I picked. This went on.

And if it wasn't in our predictions, that was something we definitely should

have included as seeing a rise in. Yeah, definitely.

[31:58]

Okay where was i in that oh we love

the midway after the haunt too it was a fun way to spend the

evening i also appreciated how incredibly organized the setup

was people directed you uh people directed

you where you needed to be and everything was clearly marked so there was no

milling about in confusion looking for some fun definitely go to this haunt

i love that she pointed out the clarity of where to fucking go yeah oh my god

because that is one One of the hardest fucking things to nail.

Yeah. And we have griped on it so many times.

Oh, infinite griping about that. Like when we just did the simple haunt reviews on Garbage Horror.

This was a thing that came up over and over and over again. Great haunt.

We couldn't find you. Yeah.

I mean, I swear to shit, the number of haunts that I felt were clearly signed,

clearly to mark, good indicators of where to go, adequate staff to tell you where to go.

It's like gotta be in the single percent single digit percent Jesus I'm so happy

they harped on that please continue harping on that.

[33:06]

Amazing! It was really fun. Amazing actors.

The line was long for a Thursday, but still worth it.

It was about 1 hour 45 minutes. It took about 25 minutes to walk through,

even though it felt like 5.

But overall, it was amazing. Yay!

Definitely would come back. Oh no, you know, that's a great review.

Once again, though, the wait, often the start of a negative review.

And speaking of negative reviews, I know always said we were not going to do

mean reviews this one but while i was researching this one i accidentally found

a mean review of this haunt that i absolutely 100 had to share so we're just

going to do it now um the reading let's read the whole review here i can't buy the tickets.

[33:53]

It was posted on december 29th 2023 now i did check this haunt does have a christmas

show the first weekend of December. Yeah.

Can't fix stupid. All right, go. Well, and the haunt did, you know,

reach out to them and comment too. Yeah, and explain all this. Yeah.

I'm moving on. Next one. All right. Next haunt.

Great haunt. Really love this venue. I really appreciate how Blah Blah Blah

continues to up their game every year and provide customers with a changing

experience Unlike the other big haunt in the area that continues to raise its prices,

but provides you with less entertainment.

Check this place out. The actors were great and friendly too.

Yeah. I don't like throwing shade at the other haunt. Yeah.

I'm not fond of that in a positive view, but Hey, this was all in all saying

that day they change every year of their game. They're always improving.

That's a good, that's a good review.

The four-hour drive did not disappoint at all. I absolutely loved all the craftsmanship

that went into everything.

I love how they play with your senses. You don't know what to expect.

You don't know what was real and what wasn't real. Well, it's all technically real.

[35:11]

I loved that. Their jump scares were great, too.

I even went during the day. If you can, that is awesome. Then at night,

everything just seemed to come alive more.

I think this might actually become a yearly visit. It was definitely on my bucket

list for years. Best haunted attraction I've ever been to. Hands down.

Name. You are the Halloween King. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I'm very impressed by all these positive reviews from people who drove

or traveled absolutely batshit insane amounts of time.

Yeah, because you know that they had hyped it up in their head.

Yeah. And you know that the entire time they're thinking not only was it worth

the financial cost, but the time cost.

Yeah. And, you know, that's a part of the cost you can't necessarily control

as a haunt owner and operator.

Because, you know, if someone comes from two or three hours away,

that's totally different than someone who comes from 15 minutes away in terms of time cost.

Right. You can't control that,

but they're definitely going to be great at carrying that in their head.

So, yeah, that's just something that's over and over in these reviews.

And, yeah, very happy about it. Yeah. okay let

me start off with if you want to go

the best halloween haunted attraction in the usa go to blah blah blah it's hands

down the best halloween yes halloween and she's doing it right i'm just making

it clear she's not having a seizure she's accenting the elk abs yes.

[36:41]

Themed attraction i have been to and a

yearly ritual for the wife and i as

a must go to place the amount of time and

effort put into all the prep work the craftsmanship of the ship of the sets

and props not to mention the best costumes of all the actors cannot be topped

it is always good to see all my old friends there year after year if you want to be scared go there,

i repeat she is not having a

medical issue she is is covering what

the actual tone of the thing is yeah uh so yeah

next one i don't have much to add to that uh beautiful artistry and all the

sets the sound the atmosphere and the actors together put on the best haunted

attraction i've seen this is a must-see event even the detail all the carved

pumpkins was so amazing a lot of the talk about the carved pumpkins anyways yeah.

[37:39]

Absolutely mind blown from one haunt

to another this has been the best experience i have ever

had from the headless oh well yeah well you know

it's fine but it's not to the huge gigantic scenery it

was eye candy i absolutely loved the pumpkins and

the guy with the chainsaw i am absolutely terrified of

them but thank you for giving me so much many

times and getting cardio and took

a little tumble but totally worth it

and hearing that i was your best scare of the season was

the best thing i ever heard i hope this is

something you talk about for years to come and never breathe in breathe in for

me about it thank you so much for the amazing experience i will be coming back

next year to this spooky magnificent haunt ghost face yeah whoever that is is

clearly very pregnant because they skipped like four periods.

[38:35]

Yes, there were no breaks. That was just one gigantic run on.

Once again, Crystal is not having a medical issue, I promise.

She's trying to read the review as it is written.

God help the Queen. God save the Queen on that one.

All right, and finally for this haunt, insane attention to detail,

a cohesive theme for each area, and dedicated actors Actors who bring characters to absolute life.

Feels more like a horror experience than a couple of jump scares.

My heart rate was up the entire time, and it was a giddy experience.

Even the time in line was spooky.

Waiting an hour in line was worth it. Through the actors, roguing the crowd, and stalking people.

Loved it. I have to say, I really do enjoy the fact that they...

[39:21]

They highlighted the cohesive theme and you

know sort of that's one of those things that it's easy that i always

wonder how much that comes through for the customers and for visitors yeah and

this is this seems like for some it does yeah sorry my brain just went on a

journey when you said dedicated i'm like why is there not a hot called dedicated

with d-e-a-d isn't that is there one I don't think so.

I've never heard of it. But Dedicated, spelled with dead at the beginning,

would be a great punny haunt name.

No, there isn't one. Yeah. Huh.

I just Googled it. If there is one, it's not turning up in a Google search.

It was just the way you said it.

It was like my brain went on a journey. In fact, if you want to hear something

very sad, the first link when I type dedicated spelled the way you said is an

article about McKamey Manor because I made the baby Jesus cry at some point. Yep. All right.

Next haunt and the last of the haunts that are not ours.

All right. What an experience. These people did an amazing job.

The props were very detailed and looked like a lot of time and effort was put into them.

There was a perfect mix of real actors and props that were just as scary.

As a matter of fact, many of the props were scarier.

We came on a Sunday night and maybe waited an hour to get in,

not too bad considering the amount of people that were there.

[40:47]

Um, I had read a lot about blah, blah, blah, and wondered if it lived up to

all the hype. And it certainly does.

If you like haunted attractions and you'll love this place, it's very reasonably

priced in that you get to go to two haunted houses.

Uh, the actors did an excellent job and there are many photo opportunities.

I've been to several haunted houses, but this one is the best.

Oh God, Crystal, I'm so sorry. I just looked at it.

Good luck. unfortunately they did

such a great job i got drop

kicked by both of my kids in the

same spot first time experience for all of us although it is highly difficult

to scare me i was there for the kids in the beginning my kids were bold and

in the front maybe five minutes in kid one drop dropped kicked me and instantly pushed me to the front.

The second time from kid two was in the second house.

Something popped out of a hidden place and chased kid two, who then kicked me

in the same spot while taking off to run with a bandage. Happy face.

You know, this is a five-star review of The Haunt and a one-star review of The

Kids. That's what I'm thinking.

Your kids are little shits. I hate to tell you this, but you know it's true.

[42:13]

I'm the bearer of bad news here. But yeah, that was interesting.

I got injured by my kids at this haunt. Five stars. Yeah, exactly.

Downright, one of the most terrifying slash exciting things I've done in a while.

The wait was worth it. It took about an hour to go through the entire haunted

house with an interlude between the two different haunted house attractions.

The first was mind-bending. Lots of strobe and smoke with an overall Lovecraft feel.

The second was truly spooky with a mental hospital vibe.

10 out of 10. Amazing experience.

[42:48]

The actors are top-notch and the placement of scares are great.

The gift shop is cute with lots to choose from and there are refreshments in

the interlude area all in all a wonderful time Thank you for someone mentioning

the fucking gift shop. Yes.

Thank you And also the food and drink that were reasonably priced and good.

Thank you Yeah, thank you for including those things and you know Several of

these now have mentioned the things around just the haunt.

Yeah, not only was the haunt good, but the stuff around it was

good it yeah yeah yeah okay that's

a common theme yeah moving on all right this place

is amazing i would give it a 10 star if i

could the design is epic and very thought

through it's so much detail and

scary as well there is something to do for everyone there and everything is

pretty affordable the gift shop was amazing unique decor for such affordable

prices weren't we just saying that yes I've been there two years in a row and

it changed both times and being even better.

I love that they come up with new ideas every year and change the setup and

houses to keep people coming back.

I went from just me and my partner. At least this person put in periods.

Yes, exactly. That's why I could take a breath.

[44:07]

I went from just me and my partner going to a group of people.

That's how much we love it. also the food

is so delicious and the drinks are so cool and very

delicious they are aesthetically pleasing the

only thing i would say they need to work on is taking better photos because

ours wasn't good but we still bought it for the memory and it was super blurry

and it wasn't straight the girl didn't even look in the lens this is the only

thing i would change you know what once again a A positive review,

but some helpful information in there. Yeah.

Fix whatever the hell's wrong with your photo booth, basically,

is whatever it is. And you know what?

Because even if that's the only time it happened, the fact it happened once is too many, I would say.

Ask them to see the review ticket, the photo ticket, so they can pull the image

and see what's going on. I think that could be a great lesson for them.

But once again, heavily mentioning the gift shop, heavily mentioning the shit

around the haunt, the drinks, the food and all that.

Yeah. I think this is the way of the future, my friends.

And finally for this haunt, so much fun. The haunted houses were so detailed

and packed full of scares.

The concession prices were fair. Once again, the gift shop had some cool items.

The best part was the escape room.

[45:24]

It was so wild and unique. 10 out of 10. Can't recommend it enough.

This was something I noticed with this haunt was that damn near every single

one mentioned everything around the haunt as much, if not more,

than inside the haunt. Yeah.

And these reviews were not standouts in that regard.

I mean, so yeah. All right. Now we're going to do a few of our reviews.

Now, with our reviews, since we're a home haunt, we don't have as many.

Every review up to now was from the last season.

Yeah. Ours are going to be sprinkled out over time. That's the only difference

to know of. Please continue, though. Okay.

This place is wonderful. There is something special about those who run haunted

houses at home, as their endeavor is to be that house.

Places like this reinforce the joy of the season and encourage others to participate

and have fun just by their existence.

If you do this for Halloween, you do it out of love.

Yeah. No lies detected.

Love this, had a group of 10 foster kids I was able to bring out today and was

really fun and something to do for free. Thank you. And I remember this person.

I remember them because they weren't, the adult was not the issue.

The kids did not know how to count to four.

Trying to break them up into a group. We've gone in this group.

There's five of you. Yeah.

[46:51]

I love you. But Jesus Christ, kids. Yeah. It's all wonderful, but Jesus Christ.

That's what we should do is in the queue line, put Psycho Sticks. I can only count to four.

[47:07]

All right, next up. All right. The team behind Bernie Baxter's put on a great home haunt.

Due to obvious size constraints, the haunt is not large, but don't let that

dissuade you from stopping by.

The cast and crew are professional and courteous, and the set design is professional grade.

The theme changes every year, so there's something new to experience each year.

If you have kids that aren't comfortable with jump scares, you can let the staff

know, and the team won't pop out unexpectedly.

The Haunt is free, but donations are accepted. This is possibly my favorite

review, just because it says exactly what our goal was.

Our goal has always been to run a quote-unquote professional haunted house,

but in a tiny space. Yes, you get a professional experience with a home haunt feel.

[47:53]

No more prices. Well, yeah. Free is not a price. Yeah.

Amazing experience. The place is built from love. The actors are amazing.

It's tiny, but it's very, very good.

I can see why they were rated as

one of the top ten scare attractions in Louisiana. Are we? I don't know.

Where was this? There aren't ten. There are more than ten. No,

there's more than ten. There are? Oh, yeah.

I'm sure there's more than ten. I mean, the state's fairly big,

and we haven't even been to Monroe in forever. ever.

And again, who has? Sorry, Monroe. I can only think of eight, including us.

Nine. Okay, we'll work on this later. We're getting tight on time.

Let's move. All right. Final one. Final one.

Absolutely awesome. It's in a residential neighborhood, so at first we weren't sure what to expect.

As soon as we pulled up, I knew we had made the right choice.

I'm going to suspect it was the skeleton wrestling ring.

[48:51]

It's a full-on spook spectacular with all the frights and sights you'd expect

to see in a much bigger, more elaborate, and more expensive haunted house,

but packed into the backyard of a small suburban house in Algiers.

And it's every bit as scary.

This haunt is guaranteed to be the scariest five minutes of your Halloween season.

I think five minutes, buddy. I've got news for you.

It feels like it when you're in... Oh, it does. It really does. It does, no.

By the time it was over, I was literally running for the exit,

Best Little Haunted House in New Orleans. That's very sweet, too. Yeah.

Honestly, I love that they note, A, and that was the theme that was over and

over now, was A, they do it for love.

I did love seeing that. And the second thing was very professional quality in a garage.

Yeah. Those were the two themes I saw over and over again, and both of them just made me so happy.

I'm going to be honest. I got a little misty-eyed looking at those.

I hadn't actually looked at our Google reviews in years until I went to find

the one mean one I knew about. I had to go find that. From last year.

Yeah, and the one that obviously was not us.

Because nothing in that was factually accurate. I don't know where the fuck

you went, but it was not to our house. Right.

[50:07]

But yeah, it made me miss you. On that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us this week.

Hopefully, you've accepted our apology for being late.

Hopefully, you know, you've enjoyed this trip down positive review memory lane.

So many great memories here. A reminder of why we do haunting.

Please do check out other episodes of Haunt Weekly. You can find them at HauntWeekly.com.

We're also Haunt Weekly on Twitter. I'm sorry, X.

I hate that name so much. It is a stupid name. I know.

It's just a dumb name. I don't mind changing the name of the company, but X? Really?

Anyways, how about this? Go to Facebook.com slash Haunt Weekly,

YouTube.com slash Haunt Weekly, or wherever it gets your podcasts from.

Until next time, I'm Jonathan.

I'm Crystal. And we will see you all next week for episode 436,

which means it's time to do the news.