Haunt Weekly

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're talking about kayfabe in haunting. What is kayfabe? It's a wrestling term that's used to indicate the presentation of fictional events and information as real.

However, kayfabe isn't limited to wrestling. We see it everywhere. Whether it's the craze over the Blair Witch Project, the "Is this place really haunted?" questions or just simply the feeling of being transported to a different place.

So how can you use kayfabe in your haunt? That's exactly what we're here to explore!

This Week's Episode Includes: 

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. What is Kayfabe
4. How to Build Kayfabe
5. Good Examples of Kayfabe in Haunting
6. One Not-So-Good Example
7. When to Break Kayfabe
8. Conclusion

Whether you're trying to improve an existing haunt or plan out a new one, this is an episode you do not want to miss!

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're recapping what has beeen one of the best weekends of our lives for visiting haunts: The Lost Souls Chicago Haunted Bus Tour. 

To say it was an amazing weekend is an understatement. Not only were there six great haunted houses, but an amazing bus trip plus some great time with a good friend and friend of the show.

In this episode, we're recapping the weekend that was and, along the way, discussing why these kinds of tours are so great for customers and can also help out the haunts themselves...

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Intro 
2. Conference Reminders
3. Our Experience Planning our Atlanta Trip
4. Why The Lost Souls Haunted Bus Tour and Ones Like It Are So Great
5. Friday's Tour
6. Saturday's Tour
7. A Big Thanks to Japes and Terry
8. Conclusions

All in all, if you're a fan of haunts, especially in the Chicago area, this is one episode that you do NOT want to miss!

This week on Haunt Weekly, it's another episode divisible by four so that means it's time to do the news!

But wait! Haunts all over the country are opening, what news can we possibly cover? Turns out a lot actually.

We have several stories of haunts being used for promotion, some tales of haunt promotion and at least a couple of stories about some really, really long-running haunts.

All in alll, there's a LOT going on right now and we're doing our best to keep you all up to date!

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. Join Us on the Lost Souls Bus Tour
4. Slipknot-Themed Haunt to Open in Des Moines
5. 2 Chainz Bringing Back Pink Trap House
6. Freeform Creating Hocus Pocus and Nightmare Before Christmas Haunt
7. 6 Flags Offers $300 to Spend 30 Hours in a Coffin
8. Stranger Things Cast Visits Stranger Things Haunt
9. Toronto Italian Restaurant Opens Haunt in the Back
10. Chicago Popup Corn Maze to Feature Full Bar
11. Elysburg Charity Haunt Returns for 42nd Year
12. Reinke Brothers Haunted House Celebrates 50th Anniversary
13. Conclusions

All in all, this is one packed episode that you do NOT want to miss!

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing something a bit different: Answering a question that wasn't even asked of us.

The question was asked on the Haunter's Toolbox Facebook Group, which you should join and also join their main site, about how far people are willing to travel for a haunt. The asker was looking at land 45-minutes outside of the city and was curious if peoeple would make the trip.

There were a lot of great answers in the thread but, considering how many people have asked similar queries, we wanted to tackle it ourselves. So, that's what we're doing in this episode!

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Introduction
2. Conference Reminders
3. Come Join Us on the Lost Souls Bus Tour!
4. The Question and the Responses So Far
5. Why It's a Complicated Question
6. How to Extend Your Range
7. How to Discover What Your Range Is
8. How Far is Too Far?
9. Conclusions

All in all, if you have a location away from a population center or are looking at getting one, this is an episode you do not want to miss!

Back in episode 95, we took a look at all of the major retailers in our area and their Halloween sections. Well, it's 51 episodes later and we're doing it again, throwing in a few new stores to boot.

So, with that in mind, here's a look at what our local stores have for Halloween, who disappointed us, who enthralled us and where did we spend our money? Stay tuned and all will be revealed!

This Week's Episode Inlucdes:

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. We Are Going to the Lost Souls Bus Tour! (Buy Tickets here)
4. Retail Introduction
5. Rules for The Episode
6. Spirit
7. Party/Halloween City
8. Home Depot
9. Lowe's
10. Walmart
11. Target
12. AtHome
13. Big Lots
14. Walgreens

All in all, it's a good wrap up of some of the nation's largest retailers and what they're doing for Halloween this year. Whether you're just a fan of Halloween or a hardcore haunter, this is an episode you do not want to miss! 

This week on #HauntWeekly, we're talking about a group we've neglected for far too long: Yard Haunters

It's a strange omission for us. Every year we put a lot of labor into our yard display and far more people see it. However, when it comes to talking about haunting, we're all about what's inside the haunt itself, at least on the podcast.

So, we're fixing that, with a full hour discussion of yard haunts including how we build ours, some tips and tricks for others getting into it and maybe a few suggestions to improve the one you already have.

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. Catching up With Yard Haunts
4. What We Do
5. How We Do It
6. Common Concerns We Deal With
7. Things to Consider
8. Conclusions

All in all, whether you're a yard display veteran or just getting started, this is an episode you do not want to miss!

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing the news and what a news week it is!

As we inch closer to haunts opening their doors we're getting a slew of announcements and other news from haunts. Sadly, a lot of those announcements are of haunts not opening this year but many others are big stories about new and creative haunts that are opening up.

So kick back and relax as we spin you through a selection of the biggest news in the haunt industry.

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. Update on Last Week's Episode
4. Fright Dome Not Opening for 2018 Season
5. Old Joliet Prison Haunt Misses Opening Deadline
6. Forst of Fear in Tuxedo Park, NY To Close Due to Weather Issues
7. Six Flags Teams Up with CBS Films to Promote Hell Fest with New Haunts
8. Knotts Scary Farm Announces Full Lineup
9. Google Opens Free Haunt in Tokyo
10. Terror Vault to Open in San Francisco Mint
11. Planet Doom to Take Over Old Dr. Slaughter Location
12. Haunted Castle Dark Ride Finally Opens
13. Disneyland Auction Raises $8.3 Million for Charity
14. Haunted House Advertisement Mistaken as Real Threat

All in all, this is one jam-packed episode that you do NOT want to miss!

The New Orleans 2018 haunt season may well be the most chaotic of all time. The oldest and most famous haunt has closed, another is taking over the location and we have a brand-new scream park opening up.

Needless to say, Crystal and I are equal parts excited and nervous about the new season. We've had a relatively stable haunt scene for the past decade so this shakeup is very new to the area.

Still, we have a lot of details about this upcoming season and it's been the topic on our mind this week so we're making it the topic of this week's episode as we look ahead to the 2018 New Orleans haunt season.

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. Rules of the Conversation
4. New Orleans Nightmare House
5. Scout Island Scream Park
6. The Mortuary
7. 13th Gate
8. Rise Haunted House
9. Impacts for Us
10. Conclusions

All in all, this is one crazy episode that you definitely do not want to miss, even if you're not in the New Orleans area!

This weekend, we took a trip to the Alario Center here in New Orleans to visit the Oddities & Curiosities Expo as it toured through the city. 

With over 120 vendors we went in hopes of finding some new things for both our house and our haunt. Along the way, we ran into a bunch of our old haunt friends and more than a few of our other strange/unusual buddies.

All in all, it was a trip well worth taking though we did have a few suggestions on how the organizers and the vendors could improve it for next year. 

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Introduction
2. Conference Reminders
3. Details About the Expo
4. Our Experience There
5. What We Got
6. Where the Expo is Coming Next
7. Wrap Up

All in all, if you're a fan of the odd and strange, this is one episode you do not want to miss!

This week on Haunt Weekly is a bit different. Caught up in the midst of a major project that's giving us little room to breathe, so we decided to take some of the points and ideas we like to beat on and organize them into a bizarre parody of a book we've never read.

With that in mind, we present to you: The Ten Habits of Really Great Haunts.

All of this is based on things we've talked about in greater detail before but, as we're gearing up for haunt season, now is a great time to make sure that your haunt has all of these bases covered.

Best of all, all of these habits work for haunts of any size, regardless of budget. Meaning you can improve everything from your home haunt to your eventual megahaunt.

This Week's Episode Includes:

1. Intro
2. Conference Reminders
3. Habit 1: Be Safe
4. Habit 2: Have a Great Pre-Visit Experience
5. Habit 3: Have a Great Queue Experience
6. Habit 4: Be Actor Driven
7. Habit 5: Have Well-Trained Actors
8. Habit 6: Offer a Variety of Scares
9. Habit 7: Focus on Lighting and Sound
10. Habit 8: Don't Pad Run Time
11. Habit 9: Have a Really, Really, Really Memorable Moment
12. Habit 10: Focus on Being Entertaining, Not on Being Scary
13. Conclusions

All in all, this is an hour loaded with tips and tricks, making this an episode you do not want to miss!