Haunt Weekly - Episode 436 - March/April News

Transcript

[0:22]

Introduction

[0:23]

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

a weekly podcast for the haunted attraction 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 again late, though not as late as last week.

We're going to get into that in a second. I want to talk briefly about that.

But yes, we know we're late, but we have very cool reason why this time and

[0:50]

Time for the News

[0:46]

looking forward to sharing somewhat immediately, but also probably more next week.

Because right now, it's episode 436. It's time to do the news.

So we're going to do the news, but we'll touch on why we're late and what all

happened this weekend, because we did some pretty fun and cool stuff.

But if you don't like fun and cool stuff, well, you're probably on the right podcast.

But anyways, you might want another episode of it. So check us out at hauntweekly.com,

hauntweekly on Twitter, hauntweekly on Facebook, and youtube.com slash hauntweekly.

Let's see, work we did for the haunt, I guess we'll just talk about what we

were doing this weekend, because it ended up being work for of the Haunt.

It did. On top of everything else.

Okay, we've got to get nerdy for a minute, because, as you'll see in the question

of the week, we were asking you some nerd shit.

Yeah. And the reason was because we were going to do some nerd shit.

[1:36]

LIGO, the Laser Infrared Gravitational Wave Observatory, LIGO, has two locations.

One is in Washington State, and one I found out is in Livingston, Louisiana.

Now, I thought, since I hadn't heard of the town Livingston ever,

ever, and apparently for good fucking reason I hadn't heard of Livingston,

that it was like somewhere far away.

But it turns out it's only about an hour's drive from us. Right.

And they hold Science Saturdays, a day for the public to come and take tours and do science-y stuff.

Ask lots of questions, take lots of pictures.

[2:10]

Haunt Work and Science Saturdays

[2:11]

And so we spent pretty much most of the day Saturday at LIGO and in the surrounding

area doing exactly that.

And it was incredible. I'm looking forward to going back at some point.

But the reason it was haunt work is because we came up with a theme for our yard display.

Yeah, we kind of had an idea that this was going to tie into it. Yeah, go ahead.

We ruminated on it some while we were there.

Marinade! Yeah, it kind of came together.

[2:45]

Basically, last year we did all-skeleton wrestling, had a wrestling ring and

all that. But this year, we're actually going to try to make it,

I don't want to say educational, because educational may be strong.

But we wanted to go to this because we knew they had a little science museum

for kids where you can do these little quote-unquote experiments.

They're basically like any other kid science museum on a planet with hands-on

activities. And see if there were any we could incorporate into the skeleton display.

Yeah, so we're wanting to make it spooky, but a little bit educational and fun

and interactive, too. We want kids to be able to play around with a few things.

And so we've got a few ideas.

We've marked a few of the exhibits they had as things that we can replicate

on a smaller scale and in an outdoor environment.

Because that's the tricky thing. It's got to be strong enough to survive the kids. Full stop.

Cheap enough for us to do. Full stop. It's got to be able to survive the outdoors,

including October New Orleans weather.

Big problem, too. And so basically we had to make sure. Oh, it's got to be something we can actually build.

Yeah. It's got to be in our range of things we are physically capable of building, too.

And, you know, I've got to say there were a lot of ideas there I think are very much.

[3:56]

Educational Skeleton Display

[3:56]

Things we're capable of yeah we've got

at least three things that we know we can build yeah

and i think that's probably enough to at least get a very

good start yeah because we could

have like little science facts which is why we asked you what your favorite

science fact was yeah so we can make it on two parts so i guess you could think

of our yard display as being like either beekman's world or bill nye themed

yeah but with the hands-on experiences you would get at a Children's Museum.

And obviously skeletons. Obviously skeletons.

[4:28]

In fact, we should have like Bill Nye the bony guy. Oh, that would be fun.

Yeah, I was already thinking about where my Einstein wig is.

So I'm like, gotta have that. Oh, we have to put one of the skeletons in a rat suit now.

For Beekman's world. Yeah. That's gotta happen now. That's just a legal requirement.

Because I was a Beekman kid. I think we both were Beekman kids.

I was Bill Nye. Okay, I was a Beekman kid, but yeah, most of the world was Bill

Nye, so I'm not shocked that I am alone in that.

I'm like one of like five people who remember Beekman from Beekman's World today.

So I think it might be the age difference between us. We're a couple years apart.

Yeah. And my brother was a Beekman. Oh, I think maybe more the age difference

between me and your brother, too, because, yeah, I think that may also be it, too.

I don't know. It's just interesting. interesting like but then again even when

i was growing up like most of the kids were built and i and i was the weirdo

beekman kid then again i'm used to being the weirdo kid so i don't i mean so

beekman and um mst3k kind of live in the same quality of universe,

i'm not sure who you're dunking on here Well, no.

I mean, like, the science-y sets have the same kind of feel.

Yeah, they do. Except Beakman's has actual science.

And MST3K obviously doesn't. Sometimes.

[5:56]

Most of the time. Most of the time. But anyways, so it's a cool idea.

We actually got some really great ideas. Yeah. Very excited about it.

Unfortunately, the reason why this week's episode is late is because we spent

all day Saturday on that.

News episodes take a lot more time to produce. Yeah. Yeah.

And Sunday, you were not feeling good. No. Feeling better. You felt better Monday,

but by that point, we didn't have time to get it out Monday,

so it's going to go out Tuesday evening. Sorry about that.

At least it's not last week.

Yeah. Where we had similar issues of trying to get everything done,

and we're late, but then the podcast wouldn't go up.

[6:34]

Yes. Hopefully that doesn't happen this week, because we haven't actually tried

yet, because we're recording.

Yeah, it's hilarious because we, in order to save time, because one of the things

we have with this podcast is we try to minimize the amount of time that we do it.

We spend on it, A, so we can be on time, and B, so that we don't get tired of

it and give up. I mean, it's worked for 436 episodes.

I know that we could probably get more listeners if we put a lot more effort

into it. That's not the goal. We're just trying to have fun here.

So I use a bunch of tools to help do the transcripts, the chapters,

and things like that, that really help speed that process up.

Well, one of those tools went a little bit apeshit and put some wonky code in

the MP3 for the podcast that was going up.

And that basically caused our podcast host to have a panic attack and die.

Yeah. So they were able to sort it out, but it took an extra day and a half

after we were already late.

So I'm very sorry about how the podcast went. know the youtube version went

up like that it was fine but sorry about that thank you all for your patience

thank you all in advance for understanding both this week and last week all

right but on that note every week we do ask a question of the week and last

week's question week was what is your favorite science fact crystal kick us off.

[7:53]

Daniel Barnett said, even though oceans cover 71% of the planet,

humanity has only explored 5% of the world's oceans and mapped only 20% of the seafloor.

That is, I don't know about the exact percentages, but it's very true.

And it's even a little bit worse because we have these very high resolution

scans like the surface of Mars and shit.

We've sent orbiters up there to scan that planet. And we know every nook and

cranny of Mars, every nook and cranny of the moon.

Even the parts that we've explored of the ocean, we oftentimes have very pathetic resolution on.

So it's, yeah, it's, yeah. And he's 100% right.

Well, and like some of the scariest creatures I have seen have come from the deep ocean.

You know, where there is no light and, you know, there's... And all the water

pressure is contorting them into

these weird shapes. Yeah, so it's really interesting stuff down there.

Yeah, really interesting but really frightening stuff, just ask the people that

try to visit the Titanic.

[8:56]

Favorite Science Facts Discussion

[8:56]

Chris Gay said, The light you see from distant stars occurred thousands of years

ago, so looking at the night sky is essentially traveling through time.

Yes, every time you look up, especially if you look through a telescope,

you're looking back in time as well as looking into the distance.

Now, one thing I think would be cool was if there was a site or an app or something

that could help you find a star that's as many light years away as your age.

Yeah. So that way you could be seeing a star that is literally looking at you the day you were born.

That is interesting. I hadn't thought of that. But yeah, I mean,

that's one of my favorites too. I actually just explained that to somebody.

[9:37]

Star Facts Discussion

[9:37]

You hurt them. Yeah. It didn't go particularly well. No. But.

Anyway, moving on. Moving on.

Isaac Schwalier said pineapple contains an enzyme called bromelain that when

you eat a pineapple, this enzyme digests protein in your body.

It eats you back. Which is why it goes on pizza.

Yes. But so.

Deadly pizza. No, no, no. know uh fresh

pineapple you can actually feel this more than cooked

which would be on the pizza and there are

others that do this also mango has a similar i've heard it about pineapple did

not know about mango yeah huh interesting um greg packard 85 of the universe's

universe is comprised of something we do not know about and we call it dark

matter it's actually dark matter and dark energy.

Yeah. And I don't know about the exact percentages. In fact,

the percentages keep changing.

Well, yeah, because... Because their estimates keep changing.

[10:40]

But that's about right. That's at least very close to right.

And yeah, it's very, very fucky that the best idea we have is that 85% of this

universe is shit we don't know.

And that's just weird, man. That's unsettling. Yeah. Sammy Days.

Oxygen is not flammable. Now, when I first read that, I thought he was bullshitting me.

But then I had to think about it. No, wait a minute. Oxygen makes other things flammable.

Because it's such a reactive little bitch. I mean, oxygen just likes to hook

up with everything. It's oxygen.

It's wild like that. But yes, it is not flammable by itself.

But it makes anything else that is potentially flammable.

[11:27]

Existential Dread and Star Gazing

[11:25]

It makes it very, very much dangerous and flammable.

So, yeah. and finally right now quentin thomas did

you know that the human body consists of over 50 sphincters the

majority of which are in your blood vessels but also your

eyes and each days of your digestive tract and jerry

uh boraccio responded it's a good system and yeah

because a sphincter is any circular muscle pinches

or clenches to keep one way flow yeah and

there's lots of places you want that in your body yeah yeah

there are um we will if we

do anything with that which i don't think we will because i don't

think calling them sphincters is appropriate for kids but

it is an interesting way to put it because i don't think i've thought of every

one of them as sphincters more of valves or yeah or uh yeah other things or

if this is in general or whatever um my favorite one of my favorite science

facts i've been i've been pondering a lot today is that right now the room you're sitting in.

There's nothing preventing other than the sheer improbability of it happening.

There's nothing preventing all the air molecules from just racing to one corner

away from you and suffocating you.

It could theoretically happen to you at any time.

Have fun with your existential dread, kids!

[12:42]

Probably. Some people are now hyperventilating. Actually, I hope not.

Do you have a favorite one to add?

Oh, the star one's one that I pull up a lot. That's a really good one.

I also kind of refer to stars as ghosts sometimes.

Because a lot of them are probably gone. It's something that people understand

if they don't understand the concept of Charlie. In fact, right now,

the star Betelgeuse, not the movie Betelgeuse, the star Betelgeuse, may already be gone.

Yeah. Even though that's a fairly close star, it's believed it may have gone

supernova in the last, like, hundred years or so.

And we may not be seeing it yet, but we will be seeing it soon.

It's something that could happen in our lifetime.

Yeah. Which is wild to think that we could see a giant supernova with our naked

eye in our lifetime. Yeah. Fuck you, lunar eclipse.

That's the real money. Well, you know, it's going to be the same here as it

was that day. Oh, my fucking Jesus.

[13:40]

I am so pissed about that still. Oh, my God.

Because we went and we got the fucking eclipse glasses. And even though New

Orleans was not in the path of totality, we were supposed to get like 80%,

90% coverage. It was supposed to be really good coverage.

And honestly, I just didn't want to go anywhere else for it.

So I was going to just be happy with 89%. But guess what? I didn't get a fucking eclipse.

Why? Why? Because it's April in New Orleans in the afternoon.

The sky was overcast as fuck.

Yeah. I couldn't see shit on the upside. My eyes are okay.

But I guarantee you I didn't damage them staring at the eclipse because eclipse water clips.

[14:19]

I just see a fucking cloud. There was a cloud that was a little bit brighter

than the other clouds. And that was all we could see.

And it's bad because one of our friends wrote right around the time the eclipse

was happening and said, Hey, is it getting darker outside because of a storm or is it the eclipse?

And I'm like, it's the storm. I wish it were not. I wish it were the eclipse.

Because it's like, and it's so wild because I made the joke about it's New Orleans

spring day, but we've actually had very clear weather running up to this.

And then, like, just Monday, just shit all over everything for us.

And then it was pretty cloudy today, and it'll be storming tomorrow.

Yeah, it's supposed to be, like, severe weather tomorrow.

Yeah. And then it's supposed to be clear, like, Thursday. So fuck you,

Gaia. Fuck you, weather gods.

[15:05]

Fuck you, storm from the X-Men. Yeah. You could have fixed this storm, and you didn't.

[15:13]

Conference Reminders

[15:13]

Just give us a little peek. Yeah. All right. Right, well, next up we have to

do some conference reminders.

Actually, we have to ask the question. Oh, yeah, that's right.

We haven't done that. Sorry, you're right. You're right. Go do that for me then because I'm an idiot.

All right. How do you celebrate halfway to Halloween?

That's the question. Panic is how I celebrate it. Yeah.

Because we are farther along than we usually are, but not as far along as I want to be.

Yeah, I think this weekend, since we don't have a mini trip,

which is something that we're starting to do,

we'll probably be putting some walls back into place like

building new ones and putting them into place

and securing the the walls

that are right now not very secured no please do not go into our hunt right

now not without all your proper protective equipment because you may die and

I will not take responsibility if you go in there without my permission yeah yeah we have We have the,

so we, in our garage, we have our washer and dryer and the walls in front of it are doors,

so that we can use them throughout the year.

But those walls right now are not attached to anything. So the doors are permanently open.

[16:30]

And the walls just kind of swing a little bit. Yeah, because one of the walls

we had to take out was a quote-unquote support.

How in the fuck did we justify that as our support system for that? I don't know.

Like, I know we did that like 10 years ago. Well, we've also got like a little

half wall that's part of another wall.

And if we had just like built one straight wall instead of a half wall,

then we wouldn't have had to have taken out.

[16:58]

I'm making everybody confused. you yeah because i know what

i'm talking about nobody else does i only have

a small idea what the fuck you're talking about and i and

i've been in there i know so anyway the

wall that we were really worried about taking out when we

took it out i realized there was another half wall on the side

of it and if we take that out then we have

a panel width there that we can just make

that whole side like a u that would fit square against

the washer and dryer yeah and it would be self-standing exactly

that's what you're getting exactly but we were idgits

well we built it

you know piecemeal and honestly like one of the things i have to keep reminding

myself is that it's only been in recent years we've been able to confidently

get the supplies we need yeah for everything we're building um because money

situations improved you know things have happened things have changed,

so I have to be a little kinder to decade ago

us yeah because we were probably working with scraps on

the boat so we were probably just trying to put it together in

a way that worked oh yeah I almost came home with

a butler scrapped I am NOT surprised to hear that I am never surprised to hear

that as a danger in my life and all you did is go to the yarn store if we have

your office your second office yeah I can't have second office yeah no there's

a house renovating and they threw threw out some pink stud wood.

Ooh. Yeah. Pink kind is nice.

[18:26]

It is. It is. It is because it slots in the uprights. I know.

But it looked like it had, like, tons of nails and shit on it.

Ah, man, that's not gonna... At that point, we'll buy our own pink wood.

Yeah. Jesus Christ. All right, now, I can ask conference reminder? Yes.

All right, well, I'll kick us off this week. Coming up this weekend,

it's Fear Expo Live in Owensboro, Kentucky, April 12th through the 14th at the

Owensboro Convention Center. Free admission.

Also has an Ultimate Haunt Tour.

They taunt you the entire time. The Ultimate Haunt Tour featuring six different

haunts, costume contests, and other great.

[19:07]

April 25th through the 28th, it's the East Coast Haunters Convention in Oaks,

Pennsylvania at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.

Friday, Haunt Tour featuring Eastern State Penn, Bates Motel, and Pennhurst Asylum.

Other World Party will be Saturday night.

And this is put on by the Trans World People, EastCoastHauntersConvention.com. All right, then.

The Spooky Swap Meet is April 26th through the 20th in Los Angeles,

California, Heritage Square Museum.

Great place to purchase those gently loved items. Includes costumes, decor, and more.

Co-founded by the co-founder of Midsummer Scream, SpookySwapMeet.com for your information.

Then, halfway to Halloween Expo will be May 11th. Which is actually a little

bit after halfway to Halloween.

Anyway it's going to be may 11th in ann arbor michigan at the washington farm council grounds.

[20:06]

Um 140 vendors there food trucks

hearst show sounds like a lot of fun halfway

to halloween mi.com that's great

to me on that note as we mentioned just a little bit

ago it's episode 436 divisible by four it means

it's time to do the news and we have a

shockingly large amount amount of news yeah i mean

like we've had like the past few months have been kind

of rough on getting news yeah there was no issue

in fact we've held some stories back potentially for next

month so don't be surprised if there's a few stories from you know march april

in the next one if it's slow again but first up crystal do you want to take

this one or you want me to i think this is a doozy that it's going to take both

of us to get through but i will start us kick us off and i'll I'll jump in at some point.

[20:54]

Lawsuit against Tennessee Attorney General

[20:54]

So, McKamey Manor, exposure from Hulu documentary that led to the lawsuit against

Tennessee Attorney General.

This article is by Craig Shoup at the Tennessean. That is a confusing headline

because basically, MM has countersued the Attorney General's office.

[21:18]

Uno reverse card. Yes, basically. Yeah, basically, Russ McCamey has filed a

lawsuit against the Tennessee State Attorney General.

Now, we'll recall a while back, we were talking about how the Attorney General

had launched an investigation into McCamey Manor and had sent,

we'll say, an inquiry demanding details about the business, asking a bunch of

questions about it, and also apparently inspecting the grounds it was at, too.

That apparently did not go well

um in russ mccamey's mind yeah because

he filed a lawsuit against the attorney general and he's claiming

violations of his first fourth and fifth amendment rights now if it's been a

while since you've been in the constitution class or you are one of our canadian

listeners um the first amendment deals with the right to free speech and freedom

of religion fourth amendment deals with the right of search and seizure of one's

property and fifth Fifth Amendment right deals with the right of self-incrimination.

All of these, by and large, are good rights that I support.

[22:16]

That being said, if you get a fairly basic inquiry from the Attorney General

about your business and immediately start taking the Fifth Amendment,

that's usually not a good look.

No. That's usually considered bad. Like I said, big supporter of the amendment.

It is very important and it is a key constitutional right that we should all remember.

But this wasn't that much of a grilling

inquiry you know no just asking some fundamentals

about the business and investigating yeah and this happened on april 8th by

the way well the meeting was supposed to happen yeah i think the father lost

it ahead of that meeting well yeah but on on the 8th he yeah he pled the fifth

yeah and would not talk yeah at the meet yeah basically Basically,

you said the evidence obtained at that hearing could be used to prosecute him.

Oh, and if you think that, you know, that's his First Amendment rights.

[23:12]

That he's talking about. It has nothing to do with that meeting.

No. No. No, no. The fourth of all, we'll do the fourth next. That one's obvious.

The Attorney General also sent someone over to inspect the barn that he was

using in some of the videos.

And, I mean, you go back and look at the Reckless Ben videos and other stuff.

It was obvious he was still using the barn and his things. and they found four

building code violations at the barn, each of them a Class C felony.

And I actually went to Tennessee's legal code and looked this up.

A Class C felony in Tennessee is punished with one to six years in prison and or a $3,000 fine.

So these are not, like, these are significant. If anything, any felony is significant.

But these are not, like, you know, murder felonies, but these are still significant felonies.

So, yeah, he claims the investigation is targeted and politically motivated,

which is part of why he's saying it's a violation of his First Amendment rights

against freedom of speech.

Basically, they're not letting him say and do the things he wants to do.

Therefore, it's in a violation of the First Amendment.

Yeah, and I'm actually going to read this part verbatim because it doesn't make sense.

[24:32]

So mckamey filed a violation of his

first amendment right in the lawsuit saying lawrence repeatedly

demanded that he submit a sworn affidavit attesting that four building code

violations were discovered on the property now that affidavit is just saying

that the violations were discovered yeah from what it sounds like admittedly

i have not read the affidavit but it sounds like when the cop asks you to sign

the speeding ticket indicate that you You received it.

Or like after your annual review, they're like, here, sign this.

This isn't admission of guilt or...

No. But it's an acknowledgement, we found this and you have received this.

Yes. Yes. We've talked about it. You know about it.

Sign it. It's basically process service. Yeah. Something like that.

So, yeah. He's basically going after the Attorney General and, I mean... Yeah.

[25:26]

Yeah. Oh, Jesus Christ. He's claiming that it's a targeted and politically motivated attack.

I mean, I'll agree it's targeted.

It's targeted because you're a McKamey man. And you're doing dumb shit.

There's no politics involved in it, to my knowledge. I honestly don't know anything

about Rose McKamey's politics, and I'm going to try to keep it that way, motherfucker.

Yeah, as far as I know, he's not running for officer. Yeah, so I don't really

give a shit about your politics. But no, it's because you're a fucking hazard

to other people around you, and you're a hazard to the haunted attraction industry.

So, yeah, I mean, god damn.

You know, if you are a Tennessee-based haunted attraction, I want to extend

my deepest personal sympathies to you.

That you have to share a state and an attorney general with this asshole.

Who, God knows, I mean, look, it wouldn't be fair to the industry for the Attorney

General to blame the entire haunted attraction industry for someone who's not even a member of it.

Right. But honest to God, could you blame him if he did?

Yeah. And I mean, the thing is, is that we usually don't cover news about him. No.

Except when it's something like this. That's super important.

That's out of the ordinary. it's just.

[26:49]

We don't consider him a haunt. Most of the industry doesn't consider him a haunt.

News media doesn't know the difference.

It's kind of like knowing the difference between copyright and patent.

Yeah, or trademark. Anyway, let's move on because I'm just going to keep getting

madder and madder. Yeah.

[27:08]

This next story comes from the Niles Screen Park Facebook. So we're getting

it from the horse's mouth here.

But basically now screen park has announced that it

is closing the dark territory haunted ride

basically they they actually were

very transparent about their reasons yeah uh they said

it was the most expensive attraction i've read safely as a hayride i

can imagine that uh the family that worked with the

part and really was the core of that ride may not

be able to participate in future years and patrons

also were disappointed that they could not do more

with it than safety would would allow them to do and

basically because it's a motorized ride there was

restrictions on what the actors could and couldn't do and they couldn't give

as good of a show as they wanted they did say that a new

attraction will take its place in the upcoming season they did not say

what um but yeah uh they have ended the dark territory ride and honestly this

is the way you handle this kind of bad news because you know people are going

to be disappointed so you try to get them looking Looking forward to the new thing.

And you also explain to them why.

Yeah. You don't just say, it's gone tough, deal with it.

They actually gave very logical, very reasonable reasons for doing it.

And even if that had been my favorite thing at the screenplay,

I've never been to an all screenplay.

Even if I had been in love with that ride, passionately and deeply,

I would go, you know what?

[28:32]

It makes sense. I'm going to see what they do next year. I would be a lot more understanding.

This is that transparency thing I keep talking about. So Niles,

I'm sorry you guys had to close it.

Your reasoning seems sound and great job on being transparent and communicating

that to your fans. Wonderful work.

[28:50]

All right, next story. All right. So we have our first HHN Halloween Horror Night story.

In Jesus Christ. Yeah, this article is by Shane Romansheik at thecollider.com.

And basically, they're opening up August 30th.

That's the earliest they have ever opened. So it's going to be a really long

run from them, August 30th through November 3rd. Tickets are already on sale.

[29:23]

They have not announced on their site any of the haunted houses or scare zones or anything yet. No.

They're saying that there'll be 10 houses, 5 scare zones, and more entertainment.

And like live entertainment and stuff. Yeah.

Normal kind of stuff. But you hit the points, which is it opens August 30th.

Now, they only run it on weekends.

Yeah. Or I think it's like Friday, Saturday, Sunday. But they have 48 nights total. Yeah.

That is an incredibly long season. And I was thinking about this before we got on.

I don't think I've ever been to a haunt in August.

No. That was as part of the regular season.

Like a year-round haunt is a different question, obviously. Right.

But a seasonal haunt as part of the regular season in August,

I don't think I've ever done that.

No. So that is wild to me.

So, yeah, they are greatly, I mean, I don't know how big of much of an expansion

it is. But honestly, just crossing that line into August feels huge.

It could only be one more weekend, for all I know, but still,

it feels huge. That's all, yeah.

[30:28]

It does. It's like when you cross that line from like charging $999,

something to crossing $1,000.

Yeah. It feels huge, even if it's only like a couple of bucks, you know?

Yeah, if you're interested in that kind of math, there are several studies about

it. Oh, God, there's so many good studies. The point prices for when people

have to think about whether or not they're going to spend that much.

Yeah, like I know on my business, I do things wrong by putting everything in round numbers.

[31:02]

Transporting Props with Care

[30:55]

You're supposed to do 49, 59, 69, nice, 79, et cetera, and all that.

But I don't like playing those games.

I'm just not comfortable with it. I want to be as fair and transparent as I can be.

All right, but speaking of Halloween, well, Universal Studios, I should say, not HHN.

Universal Studio Resort reveals the new details about How to Train Your Dragon,

Isle of Berk, a larger than life world

of biking adventures that's coming to epic the epic universe universal

epic universe jesus goddamn christ you can't

say that holy shit that

rolls off the tongue like a socket set in 2025 um

this is a press release by them but basically they've

offered their first sneak peek at the isle of burke which i know

that's the island yes but i

every time i i said i go burka burka burka can't help

it yeah i go full sweetest chef on the

shit man burka burka burka uh but anyways

it'll be one of five worlds of the new universal epic universe jesus christ

fix the fucking name theme park that opens in 2025 it'll feature a variety of

rides and attractions seem to be most importantly for me a meat hall yeah.

[32:14]

Very very important just getting the important shit out of the way it will have

a meat I mean yeah they'll have roller coasters and shit too but a meat all yeah,

And dragons, obviously. It actually looks really, really cool.

The artwork, the concept art they actually have in this.

This is one of those definitely where I would click the link.

I mean, it's all concept art. Who the fuck knows how it's going to come out.

Yeah, I mean, you know. I can draw this too.

The Willy Wonka was all concept art. Oh, for fuck's sake. So you saw how that went.

And that's my problem with that.

Is because there are things happening in New Orleans that have that same kind

of marketing. and they look like they'd be cool, but now I'm gun-shy about going,

because what if it's just a wanker?

Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Oh, God. Alright, I'm going on to the next one. Please do.

[33:03]

Alright, the Trenton City Commission

hears a plan to convert old Gilchrist County Jail into a museum.

[33:10]

This is on WCJB.com article by Zyschel Zyschel, yeah, Zyschel Solashi.

She yeah i apologize

we tried yes i really

should have like watched the video if it was

available anyway um and anyway so

the owner wants to convert it into

a museum there was an attempt to turn it into a haunted

attraction that failed they have been

whole they you know as far back as

i could find in newspaper articles they were

holding halloween events there

with you know it was more

of a a haunted place than a haunted attraction.

[33:58]

Yeah um sway to it

but that's um what they're

doing so now they're giving up on that they're turning it

into a museum unclear uh why

they've decided to go that direction um yeah

and i couldn't find anything about why it didn't

work i couldn't either it's going to be donation only

yeah so basically he's giving up i think turning any kind of a profit from this

which may be for the best it is a historical building i mean it will be hitting

its centennial in 2028 which is coincidentally when he wants to have the museum

open by um so yeah it's a historic building this is really cool i'm sad that

the idea of a haunted haunted attraction.

[34:41]

In addition to the museum, didn't seem to work out.

But I am glad that if it can't be a haunted attraction, it can be a museum.

It can still do something good and not just be an old dilapidated building that's fallen down.

[34:53]

Yeah, and basically what they did on their Halloween nights were to talk about

the history of the jail because apparently it has a pretty sordid one.

I'm going to guess that pretty much any old jail has a sordid history somewhere.

Yeah, exactly. Because jails aren't known for holding the nicest and kindest

and most wonderful people in the city.

[35:22]

Converting Old Jail into Museum

[35:17]

Well, they're not, well, anyway, there's a lot of problems with jails.

Yeah, we're not getting into that. I'm not getting into all that right now.

Well, let's go the opposite direction. Let's talk about a haunt that's expanding.

Because a Thomasville haunted attraction is expanding to offer bands,

foods, food trucks, and a flea market.

[35:38]

This is an interesting one. It's an article by Jill Doss Raines at the Dispatch.

Castle Boo and Thomasonville is opening a flea market and is expanding with

year-round attractions, starting Easter weekend, so it's already open.

They are beginning hosting a flea market complete with food, music, and live bands.

There is a $7 entry fee, and they will be open every Friday and Saturday until

July due to heat, and they will be closed in July and August but will resume in September.

They said that they are still planning a regular haunt season this year.

This is an interesting idea for a way to bring some year-round stuff to that property.

Yeah, it is. I had not thought of flea market. I've got to be honest.

[36:22]

No, I thought about having, you know, we had talked about the idea of the dark art market.

Yeah, and fairs and things. During the season, but not as the year-round income.

Yeah, exactly. And, like, I don't know why I didn't think of that,

but it's a good idea. It makes sense, and it is something, like,

I know for a fact that there are several flea markets in this area that are open every weekend.

You can rely on them to be there, and there are people who do go to them and

sell at them, and people who do make pretty good money there.

So, obviously, playing host to a flea market can be lucrative,

and I don't know much about this town.

In North Carolina. In North Carolina, it's Thomasville, North Carolina.

I don't know much about this town other than what was in this article.

So I don't know if it's a good fit for the area but southern states in general

do love a flea market, man.

I'll tell you that much. The south loves a flea market.

[37:16]

So yeah, I also found interesting they're closing in July and August due to heat. It makes sense.

Oh yeah. It makes complete sense. I just hadn't heard of that being done by a flea market before.

But still, it's a very, very interesting idea.

And I don't know, the main thing is we just wanted to kind of get this idea

out there for other haunters to go, hmm, and stroke their chins at and have

a think and a drink about. So that's really what this one's about.

Yeah, you could also totally host a goth night event at your home any time of

the year if you want to show up.

Anyways, our next story. Mm-hmm.

[37:53]

Unexpected Encounter with Props

[37:54]

Did I read that one or did you? I totally forgot. You did. Okay,

it was your turn. Yeah. So...

There was talk that the 12-foot Skelly from Home Depot was not going to return this year.

I don't understand why people thought that, but okay. Yes.

However, that has been proven false because they are definitely bringing it back.

This article is by Chris Williams at Fox 4.

[38:20]

It's going to return for the 2024 season, and it's going to have new companions

and friends that are going to go on sale in August.

Yeah, they didn't actually announce when they're releasing it,

but last year it went on sale in around August.

So people are expecting it around then. So yes, the 12-foot skeleton will return.

The $300 12-foot skeleton will be back for 2024.

So get your wallets ready if you're going to buy.

I guess, you know, I don't know. We have had opportunities to acquire one and have chosen not to.

I don't know if I'm changing that this year or not.

[39:00]

I don't think so, because I think what I want to do is make a monster to go

on top of the queue line that'll just sit up there all year.

That's my current long-term plan.

That's reasonable. Yeah, I mean, I do think we needed something big,

but I don't know if that's the move. Yeah.

Mind you, we probably should tell the local bar that they'll be selling them

again just in case they need a replacement for the skeleton on their roof.

Yeah, yeah, because they keep

it out mostly year-round, except for in really bad weather and storms.

Which they've actually got a pretty clever system. They've got it bolted to

like a platform that they can just tip over and lay them down gently when weather's coming.

And so, and I like, we're about to have really bad weather tomorrow, apparently.

Yeah. I bet if we went to the bar right now, we'd see Skelly down. Yeah. Yeah.

Basically, Skelly Down is our ultimate way of tracking when bad weather is coming.

If the skeleton ain't vertical, we know to watch our ass.

Yeah, Skelly Downs also sounds like a country club of some kind for skeletons. Yes, it does.

[40:08]

Haunting Summer Camp for Kids

[40:08]

All right, well, this one is so cool.

[40:12]

Registration is currently open for a haunting summer camp for kids.

This is an article by Jim Morris at WJON. And Invergrove Heights,

Minnesota, that's the town name, Invergrove Heights, is featuring Camp Nowhere,

a camp where students can learn, kids can learn, ages 8 to 12,

can learn the art of haunting and scaring.

There are three sessions. Each one is two weeks long and is $200.

Kids will develop an original character with their own backstory, their own motivations.

They'll learn design mask design with

makeup and mask design uh for they'll

learn haunt acting techniques learn about animatronics

yeah and basically the grand finale is all the parents have to go through a

haunted house that they're scaring kids that the kids are working and they are

limiting this they say they need at least eight kids to make it viable and can only go up up to $20.

So if you're in the area and you are interested, I would jump on this right now.

Tuition for each session is $200. That is a fucking steal.

[41:25]

Honestly, if I were a kid, I'd be very excited about this.

And I mean, I was never a summer camp kid, to be clear.

Like my little brother, who is hearing impaired,

had a summer summer camp when he was a kid for deaf kids and he loved it i told

my parents if they dropped me off at summer camp don't come pick me up just

because i'm gone i'm living in the wilds baby,

but no it yeah i i never wanted a summer like oh we could take you to computer

camp no i got computer at home yeah um so yeah but no this is a summer camp

i would have loved And honestly, this is just so cool.

And yeah, these kids are going to come out, you know, at 12 years old with a

better understanding of haunting than most grown-ups who have worked in haunts a long time.

Definitely more rounded because in addition to learning all this about,

because, you know, they're learning about how to scare, but they're also learning

costume, makeup, animatronics, all this other stuff that even very talented

actors don't always get.

Yeah. You don't get exposure to. So that's really freaking cool. Yeah.

Speaking of cool. All right.

There's a new co-op horror game that lets you go viral on SpookTube or die trying.

The game is called Content Warning. The goal is to produce viral videos for a virtual SpookTube.

[42:55]

So it's not a real channel. Yeah, obviously. It's just in the game. Yeah.

To get likes and stuff. And so you and your buddies need to scare each other

and avoid enemies and get great footage all at the same time.

And if that sounds easy from the review, it's not.

Yeah, all of the reviews I've read, I've read a couple of others in addition

to this one. And this is an article by Ishan Adekari at BBM.

Yeah, or BBM, BBM, BBM, BBM, BBM, BBM, BBM, BBM, BBM.

It's B-E-E-B-O-M dot com. Beep, beep, beep, boom, boom, bam,

bam, boom, boom. He's broken. Bam, boom.

Yeah. It's $8. But yeah, it's $8. But yeah, the reviews say it is surprisingly difficult.

Now, the game is in early access, so it could be tweaked and changed. Mm-hmm.

Like, one thing they have right

now is apparently when your character gets hurt, you get a medical bill.

Because it's obviously an American game. Mm-hmm. But that medical bill right

now is always $0, for example. So it's still in early access.

Features are being developed. So you'll be playtesting, basically.

Just understand what you're doing. But it does look like a lot of fun.

We may pick up two copies of it and give it a try at some point.

[44:13]

New Co-op Horror Game: Content Warning

[44:09]

Yeah. I think that might be something fun to do and just to see how well we do at it.

Want to take a break from Diablo? Diablo 4, yeah. Not a bad idea.

[44:18]

All right. Well, this next one is from a post by Sean McKinney at Hunter's Hangout.

Now, unfortunately, since it's at Hunter's Hangout, And I'm going to assume

most people listening to this podcast are members of Haunters Hangout.

Yeah, and already know this.

Or maybe already familiar with this. But basically, this link,

if you're not a member of the group, you can't access the link. That's what I'm saying.

So just be aware of that. But apparently, Sean went to Transworld and did a very Transworld thing.

Picked up some props from the company Ghost Ride. We saw their props when we were there.

Excellent stuff. and then stopped at nearby Litchfield and after going and eating

and gassing up and whatever they were doing doing their little stop they found

cops surrounding their car. Yeah.

Apparently someone had filed a disturbance call saying there was dead bodies

in the back or something and basically he opened the door, showed them the dummies

and showed them the ones in the trunk and the cops had a nice big laugh laugh about it.

And all was well. I do worry a little bit, though, because A,

obviously police resources were diverted.

[45:33]

B, any interaction with a cop has the potential to go bad. Yeah.

[45:39]

But also just someone that we didn't intend to scare got scared, obviously.

Yeah. So, I mean, I'm not, like, blaming Sean or anything like that. It's not about that.

But, yeah, just maybe we should all be a little more thoughtful about how we

transport our props. Like, I still feel kind of weird about the fact we transported

a coffin closet post-Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

I mean, that was very, looking back on it, that was a, oh, but, so, yeah, I don't know.

Just something to think about. Yeah, but our coffin closet isn't,

like. Oh, it didn't look enough like a natural casket or anything. No, it didn't.

It didn't look real at all. This, I mean, this is Ghost Ride.

Ghost Ride does very amazingly realistic stuff.

Yeah. And so, yeah, I can see why people got freaked. And yeah,

maybe we need to think more about how we're transporting these things is what I'm saying.

This one, funny story. Everyone's fine. Everyone's happy.

No problems here. No one's blamed. No reason to be mad across.

But as an industry, as a people, we should be thinking, okay,

yeah, maybe we... Maybe we should take a sheet to throw over the shit in the

back. Maybe we should think about this so something worse doesn't happen. Yeah.

[46:45]

Willy Wonka Experience Actor's New Gig

[46:46]

All right. Next up. All right. So this is fun.

Good news. The Willy Wonka experience. The unknown from it.

The silver mask, black robe thing, wig. Behind the mirror that was totally not

from Willy Wonka anywhere.

[47:06]

Bless this actor for trying, though. Jesus Christ. Exactly.

The actor who played the unknown, Felicia Dawkins, now has a new gig.

And this article is by Bethy Squires at Vulture.com.

[47:22]

So, got a new gig. They're now at a year-round employee of the London Dungeon.

First show was April 7th. Says she likes being in a professional environment.

And she used the word professional. That was her words, to be clear.

Where the script isn't AI-generated. Not that The Unknown had many speaking parts.

No, it was like, wobble around and be spooky.

Jesus Christ. They worked so fucking hard with absolutely nothing.

Calls it a dream come true, she'll be playing a nun, a jester,

and the tower warden. No shiny mask required.

Yeah, the London Dungeon, I can say this definitively.

We've been to England a few times, but we've never been to London,

oddly enough. We've been to Newcastle, been to the northern part of England. England is Scotland.

[48:18]

But even there, you see ads for the London Dungeon. You also see for the Edinburgh Dungeon, too.

They had a second one, basically.

But these are very popular tourist year-round attractions that seem to be pretty

well regarded from what I've heard.

So, yeah, this is great. I'm glad that Felicia has found a gig that makes them

happy, that she's enjoying it, and that hopefully she can get away from the

whole unknown thing. It seems like she has.

And that's the thing. It's like, even when we were talking about it last,

it was like I felt so bad for those actors.

Because any haunt actor who has been put in a shit role that was just not working,

and no matter how much effort you put in, no matter how much you bring to it,

Nothing's coming together.

Imagine that, but now there's only three of you and there are kids crying everywhere

because they're disappointed.

Yeah. Just, oh my God, I felt so bad for the actors.

I felt bad for the customers too, but the actors, who didn't even,

to my knowledge, still have not been fully paid. Yeah.

Oh, Jesus, I just realized that. Hopefully she's making good money here to make

up for the money she didn't get paid at the Willy Wonka event.

Mm-hmm. That's another thing I'm hoping.

[49:31]

Pranked with Haunted Dolls Video

[49:31]

All right. Well, finally, this week, we're going to end with a compilation video

now obviously we're an audio only podcast we can't share the video but please

click the link now i have no idea where the original source of this is.

[49:45]

Because it clearly started on TikTok, but the version we saw was on X slash Twitter or whatever.

And it's been passed around so many times, the attribution has just been completely

borked. But basically, it's a bunch of people getting pranked with haunted dolls.

Now, as someone who that's the closest thing he has to a phobia is creepy dolls.

[50:09]

I understand these reactions.

Because basically, the reason I want haunters to see this is because whoever

was doing it was fucking brilliant with the timing.

Yeah. Like, they would give like a little move, just enough so that the person was like, huh?

Is that something? Then another little move, another really paying attention,

and then bam! To the moon!

Yeah. And so just brilliant timing in these.

I don't know how many takes they had where it didn't work or if this is acted

or could just be acted. It could be staged. It could be staged.

But even if it is staged, the timings in this are excellent.

And I do think it's something that hunters can learn from to see how this kind

of timing worked. I enjoyed the video. I found it fun.

And even if it is staged, it's still a fun video with something to offer.

Then again, like I said, I don't know if it's staged or not.

I don't know where it came from. It landed in my lap the most obnoxious way possible.

A copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. I have no fucking idea where it came from. Yeah.

Anyway, on that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us this week.

Please do check out the show notes for this week's episode. You'll find them at hauntweekly.com.

There are all of the links to all of the stories and all the creepy doll videos

we've talked about will be there.

You can also find us at Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook,

youtube.com slash hauntweekly, in a course, wherever you prefer to get your podcasts from.

[51:34]

But until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we'll see you all next week, hopefully on time.

[51:41]

And hopefully with something really fun and really exciting to share with you.

I have no idea what it is right now. Nope. We'll see you all then.