[0:23] Hello everyone i'm jonathan i'm crystal and this is haunt weekly a weekly podcast found attraction entertainment industry whether you're an actor owner or just plain aficionado we aim to be a podcast for you and we return to you this week ill um yeah i'll spare the details but there's been a stomach bug that apparently has made its way into our house we're all feeling it in various ways i'm further behind everyone else but everyone's got the malaise and the weeks and the tireds and the hating life and, you know, that stuff. So if we seem a little sluggish this week, that's what's going on. We're literally trying not to die when we go to the bathroom. We're spending all that mental focus on survival. But yes, indeed, this week is an episode of Dizzle My Four. I mean, therefore, it is time to do the news. And we have a lot of news. We do. We're getting into that time of year where things really start ramping up in the news cycle. But hey, why don't you check out other Haunt Weekly? We're at hauntweekly.com. Haunt Weekly on Twitter. I mean, sorry, X. Haunt Weekly on Facebook. YouTube.com slash hauntweekly is the YouTube channel. Please check us out on the place we exist. Just like, comment, subscribe, do all that kind of stuff. It really does make a huge difference for us.

[1:40] So this is where we will talk about the work we did on the Haunt. And this week we don't have that because we both have been ill. Yeah. So we have not done anything strenuous. And then all these heat warnings are getting way out of hand. Yeah. I think that this is about the time they started last year, too. Yeah. Which is not good for us right now. Well, what's really crazy about it is we actually spent, I think it was Thursday night or Friday night at an outdoor bar. And I sat there and we were playing crokinole. Yeah. Hanging around, just playing games. And I remember thinking, God, this almost feels comfortable. Well, this actually feels pretty good. And I looked at my watch, and this feels like temperature was 93. Yeah.

[2:24] It is a mad fucking universe when it feels like a 93 feels good.

[2:32] And by comparison, the next day it feels like it was 120. So 93 does feel good comparative to that. Yes, it does. It feels almost downright enjoyable. Okay, before we slide into the news, though, every week we ask a question a week. Last week we asked what hot skill do you use in your day job? Now, real fast, we see you in there, you sneaky devils. They're like, oh, the hunting is my day job. Yeah, yeah, you lucky bastards, we know.

[3:01] Anyways, we see you. We see you. But moving on to the actual answers. Right. Chris Gay said, I installed a fire station alerting system that rings bells on the apron, plays audio alerts, and flashes LED lights around the entire firehouse using what is basically a prop controller. Controller the vendor wanted 30 000 and he um chris was able to get it done for four that is genuinely impressive about four thousand in parts yeah four thousand in parts and he's already done two uh firehouses and has a third and interested you know i i we're always such a weird industry when it comes to tech we are you'll find more raspberry pies and more micro controllers and haunted entry anywhere else but man your tick tock still eludes us yeah but apparently this is you know something that we need to like it's a potential business opportunity in your area yeah i agree to do this kind of stuff i bet it would be work really well for clubs too oh yeah for clubs especially if you have a club that lives in a place with last call yeah and you need to get people out quickly after 2 a.m or whatever it is now we don't know anything about that other than when

[4:15] we've traveled and have seen it as a tourist. But still, that wouldn't be another use for it. Yeah. Any place like that, you know, you've got to get the fuck out of here.

[4:26] Shalisa Muehlberger, as a realtor, I often use skills gained from haunting, from marketing to moving people through a room. Those skills were acquired because of haunting. Interesting thought. James Pellis said project and change management. James, you were always a project manager before you were honored. Don't lie to those people.

[4:44] Greg Packard also agrees, project management. So, yeah. And he noted that when he does interviews, he always asks people what their jobs are. And he finds that even though he's on a science-y field, people who bring creative hobbies to the table tend to do better. And I think that's just true because, yeah, creativity is, as he pointed out, is the key to problem solving. Yeah, exactly. Carter Carroll said paramedics, so they work with safety and medical teams. Yeah, and also has great people skills because of it. You know, does haunting make you a people person? Well, we mentioned that haunting is a customer service industry. And I think that it could help. And I think that in that case, it would also help with keeping calm in unusual situations. And also conveying orders when you need someone else to do something like back up or give space. You know what I mean? Because, yeah, there's always times for that. Both Cliff Churchwell and Reggie Wood said troubleshooting. And Cliff specifically cited electronic component failure. I just look for the bit that's smoking. Yeah. That's my trouble. Any machine is a fog machine if you use it wrong enough.

[6:05] And finally this week, Victor Ruelas said, mainly salvage skills, mechanic, always replacing parts that the haunter in me says, you must keep this. I'm not sure it's a good skill to be having, but it's there, so there you go. Yeah, you're becoming a mechanical hoarder is what it sounds like. Yeah, well, there are certain things that we never throw away. Oh, God. I mean, we've got some bad crimes there ourselves. I can't say shit. Yeah. I mean, I'm literally sitting roughly five feet away from a giant egg crate full of old cords. And connectors. And connectors and adapters and things. So, yeah, I can't say shit. But I might need it someday. USB micro and parallel port are coming back.

[6:57] Yeah. No, they are not. No. They are not. But anyways, so this week's question of the week, which will tie in with something later in the episode, we'll let you know when we get there. What is the worst thing you've seen in a haunted house?

[7:13] And I'm actually going to answer it for me, but not with this week's news. Right. We'll come back to it. The worst I've seen was at the mortuary. One year they did a Cirque de Fear theme which is not a bad theme in and of itself, it's just not a theme that goes with a haunted mortuary in any way shape or form and it was, the other issue was that the theme started off strong being themed and then ended up not themed at all yeah just kind of like they ran out of theme toner, yes Yes, yes. The song went on. I believe that the people that we know who work there call that the year they do not speak up. Yeah, and I can see why. It just doesn't fit what they have. It's such a beautiful building that scares the shit out of me organically just driving by it. Yeah. Yeah, anyways. You got a worse one?

[8:18] Not off the top of my head. Yeah, like I said, we're a little brain addled. So we'll come back to why we're asking that question a week, probably at the very end of this episode. Okay, so as we said earlier, it's episode 448, which is a math problem. Four plus four equals eight.

[8:35] Tell them I'm going to remember this when I'm typing it up later. So it is time to do the news. And we got, as usual when we do this, we have some heavy stories up front. We'll try to get through them with grace and dignity. and then hopefully we'll have some lighter stuff, more fun stuff coming. And then we're going to end. If we have time, we have a closing topic that we want to talk about. All right, so moving on. Our first story this week. Okay. A haunted house actor admits to murdering and disemboweling high school friend as victim's grieving father makes surprising statement. This article is in the Daily Mail Co. And it's by James Gordon. It's just the Daily Mail. Yeah. But yeah, go ahead. Explain the story. All right. So this happened in 2022. The murder did. The haunted house is not listed, but it was in Canton, Georgia. And if you know that area, you know which haunted is. And it's a haunt we have been to. Yeah. And it's weird because this story over and over lists the murderer as a haunt actor.

[9:50] Even though the haunt had absolutely nothing to do with the murder in any way, shape, or form that I can discern. And if, and if, see, we pulled the Daily Mail one, because the Daily Mail sometimes does tell a, you know, tabloid type stuff. But it's not just them. Like, fucking Court TV had it listed. ABC News had it. It wasn't just this version of the story. Yeah, it's haunted house actor and scare actor is how he's referred to. Repeatedly. Throughout the story. Over and over and over again in every version of the story. Yeah and like you said they never mentioned the haunt by name but there's only one it realistically could be i'm not going to say it here but right i double checked it yes it's one we went to in our 2017 atlanta trip um yeah and anyway it so the article um goes into very graphic details about the crime um i didn't put them in the notes i just so the headline kind of says most of it yeah And it was Brandon Christopher Risner, 23, who admitted to killing Aaron William Davis, 21. And the main thing that's weird to me is it sounds like these two were best of friends since elementary slash grade school.

[11:02] Yeah. Like they knew each other. They grew up around each other. The families were super close to each other. Yeah. And they went their separate ways in college. Right.

[11:11] But apparently Aaron was coming to visit Brandon. Go ahead. Sorry. No, go ahead. And for reasons not explained in any of the articles, though they repeatedly explained he was a haunted house actor, he apparently murdered him and has admitted to that now. Yeah. Brandon. Brandon House, yeah. Aaron is the victim.

[11:34] Yeah, this story is wild. A, it's a very weird murder. Mm-hmm. But also, like you said, and I was almost going to not include this, But all the coverage, literally every headline, it's about how he's a haunted house actor. And there was even a story, and I was looking up other versions of this. There was a story in Idaho. Because apparently Aaron went to Brigham Young University and all that in Idaho. And so Idaho papers covered it too. But they said the same thing. Haunted house actor, scare actor, murders former BYU student. It's like...

[12:12] But the thing is, like, the murderer in this case, you could have just easily said aspiring actor. Yeah. Because he was working as a haunted house actor as part of, you know. You could have just said long-term friend of victim. And that's the surprising statement the father made, is that he felt like he was losing two sons. Because the families were so close. Because they were that close. It's a crazy story. And I see why news media covered it. But I do not see why they all decided to frame this with a haunted attraction. Yeah, I don't either. Maybe it makes it sound scary, but it's fucking June and July. We're reading about this. Yeah, the haunt had nothing to do with this, and it's really frustrating that all the coverage. The sole reason we wanted to put this one out there here is just sort of to show that, yeah, our industry is going to get shit on, even when the haunt has nothing to do with the crime. You know, just another reason, I guess, to not murder your friends.

[13:16] Yeah. I would hope you'd hit upon much better reasons before getting to this. Yeah. But if you need one more, don't you don't want to shame the entire haunted attraction industry. Because apparently that's how you're going to be identified. I don't know why. All right. This one really pisses me off.

[13:37] This is a story about ABC News. Man dies after being struck by roller coaster.

[13:45] Basically a father, 38 year old man, This took place in Kings Island theme park in Manson, Ohio, basically 38 year old man. Apparently what had happened is he and his kids had ridden the coaster, the Banshee. Yeah. And apparently he didn't get the fucking memo about no loose items, put things in the locker, that type of stuff, you know, and lost something during one of the loopity loops, probably I'm assuming, and went and demanded that he get his stuff back. And they're like, I'm sorry, we have to, We'll have to wait until we shut down the ride at the end of the night. And he was angry, saying that he had to go home and he couldn't hang around. Well, apparently, he bypassed two separate security fences to get into the area underneath the coaster and then was struck by one of the cars. Initially, he was listed as critical condition, but apparently has since died from his injuries. Yeah, and he was wearing similar clothing to park employees, so parking employees thought nothing of him being where he was wasn't supposed to be man, yeah basically i feel very bad for the riders on that car because they were described how they came back to the station screaming in terror um it was an it's an inverted roller coaster so they were probably struck by the passenger's legs which just adds a new level of terror to it um.

[15:13] Um, and so I feel bad for the writers. I feel bad for the kids that now lost their dad. Because their dad decided to be a fucking dipshit. No. I didn't, the dad, no, fuck him. Sorry. No. I'm, I'm sorry. He just traumatized a bunch of people, left his kids, you know, without a father. Why? Because he wanted to get a cell phone or whatever the fuck it was that dropped? Yeah, I don't. They never said what it was. No, in the original article that you had found, it was keys. And he was trying to leave the park, and they wouldn't get his keys for him. Oh, okay, then I get it. That's what you had told me originally. Yeah, and that makes sense.

[15:53] Yeah, but basically, just, yeah, take the L on that one, hang out till the park closes, and get your keys. Yeah, or, you know, if you've got somebody who could bring you a second set, have them bring you a second set. Don't put yourself in a situation where you can literally die. Mm-hmm. And the thing about it that pisses me off is the reason we're adding this on Haunt Weekly is because we all know what happened with Brett Hayes and Fear Fair. Yeah. Where someone snuck past the security barricades, went up a rock climbing wall without the proper equipment, fell, hurt themselves, and then sued the park. And even though there's pretty much zero chance of them being held liable, they now couldn't get insurance and had to close. Yeah. Which is just bullshit. It's the ultimate fucking bullshit. Yeah. Yeah, and it's people like this person who goes over restricted areas, they can get people in trouble. They aren't restricted areas to keep you from accessing the employee yogurt machine. No, it's not free yogurt and blowjobs or something back there. No, it's fucking death. Yeah. It's fucking death and lifetime of trauma. Drama. So, God, I just... Yeah, dude, just take the L. Stay at the park. Whatever you were trying to get home for can wait. Well, now it's going to have to wait forever because... It's just... It's so sad. It's so frustrating. And...

[17:23] I can't fault the park here. It's like you said, he was even dressed like the park employees, which I mean, okay. And I feel like a jackass when I'm wearing my black on black and someone at Best Buy is like, excuse me, do you know where I come in? I'm sorry, I don't work here. I can't find shit in the store either. No. Don't ask me where anything is. I have no fucking clue. I barely can navigate my car here.

[17:48] So, yeah, it's just, everything about the story sucks. Sucks. I feel bad for the theme park. Making me feel bad for a multi-national theme park company is pretty impressive. But here we are, right? Anyways, next story. We'll just move on. I repeat myself.

[18:08] ScareHouse is not going to open this year. This article is by Sean Collier at the Pittsburgh Magazine. Magazine so after 20 years of operation it quietly moved out of their new location as of 2021, um yeah and there are no plans to open in 2024 there are tentative plans in place for small scale experiences this year um and an idea for a future revival but they had moved into a mall, after leaving the place they were at for a long time in 2019. They were going to reopen in 2020, but then that didn't work out because,

[18:49] you know. They're an ongoing global bastard. Exactly. So they operated 2021 through 2023 in a dying mall that lost a lot of foot traffic in the past couple of years. And that has caused it to be not feasible for them to continue to put money into it.

[19:09] Because it's just become too expensive yeah and unfortunately they're talking very grim, talking about how you know they they're not in a good place yeah they don't know what the future of scare house is going to look like this really sucks i mean i i think when they took the mall deal i think the mall and scare house both were like they'll they'll help each other yeah like the foot traffic from the haunt will help the mall and the foot traffic in the mall will help the haunt the problem is haunted attractions operate on a schedule almost exactly opposite of malls yeah um the time malls are closing is when haunts are usually opening and so it's gonna be very difficult for a haunted attraction to revive a mall and it's also gonna be very difficult for a mall to drive traffic to a haunted house it's just not an easy thing to do it seemed like a natural pairing in the sense that all this retail space is available and it's better to do something with it than nothing with it but I can also see how that didn't save either in this situation and how it just kept, snowballing here I feel bad for them I hope you're able to find a new place yeah.

[20:24] I don't think a mall, a traditional mall, and, of course, I'm saying this knowing the next story is just going to make me look like an asshole. Yeah. I'm fully cognizant of the irony here. Okay. Well, a mall in the U.S. Yeah, a mall in the U.S. You know what? That's a better way to think about it because the U.S. Is not, we're getting away from those types of malls. Yeah. Yeah, I was really surprised that the 15-year-old that we know was bored. And since the yarn store was not open went to the mall and then was you know sad because the mall is a really sad place you know I'm reminded of the time of the re time recently you and I went to the mall in Alexandria Louisiana and it was just pathetic yeah like none of the businesses were like mall businesses that makes any sense right no they they've pivoted to not being they've Doctors offices and antique stores and just random stuff that you like. Like to me, it's like every mall I've ever been in has the novelty stores, the clothing stores, the food court, and maybe like a play area or something.

[21:39] And that's what and then you had the big cornerstone retailers. Yeah. And yeah, none of those were not the items that were heavily present. No. You know what I mean? It's like we bring back Spencer's gifts.

[21:54] Bring back hot topic come on i think they're still out there they probably are but not nearly as large and well and i think the other problem is that there were a lot of malls that popped up all in the you know mall boon and they just overcrowded cities like we have at least three that i can think of in new orleans area well yeah and two that are really close together other yeah two that are almost walking distance with each other they're on the same street just at opposite ends yeah if you if you can if you can run a 10k you probably get between the two malls yeah yeah they're that close um and yeah no i think you're absolutely right i think they just overbuilt during the mall craze of the 80s 70s 80s and into the 90s and then it's online shop it being a take-home there was just too many malls to support the market that was left and And there may never have been enough of a market. It may have always just been a bubble. No. I mean, yeah. I do still think, though, that buying an entire mall to put a giant haunted house complex in would be awesome. Yeah. You know, you could do a lot awesome with that. Yeah. You really could. But that would be a huge investment. Oh, yeah, I know. You'd better have a hell of a plan to recoup that cost.

[23:16] Okay, speaking of malls, a Dubai mall is set for a $408 million expansion. So while malls are struggling in these United States, in Dubai, apparently, they're doing half a billion dollar expansion. This is an article by Retail Asia. Basically, they're going to be adding 204 new luxury stores and food outlets. You see? The luxury stores, food outlets. This is what small shit to me. But it's already, it's a 12 million square foot mall that already has over 1,200 retail spaces, including 200 food and beverages. God damn Christ. Yeah. Holy fuck. This is giant. And it includes the Dubai Aquarium and an underwater zoo. Isn't an aquarium an underwater zoo? Isn't that redundant? It is a water zoo. It is a water zoo, at the very least. An Emirates A380 simulator, an ice rink. And the reason we're talking about it here is because it has the Hysteria Haunted Attraction. We've talked about their opening there multiple times. It was, at the time, the first haunted house to open in the Middle East. Yeah. They also listed the Human Waterfall, and I'm just really confused by that name. Yeah.

[24:41] I'm also too scared to... Oh, and Kidzania, Dubai. I just watched a mini-document about those places. Those are the little cities that let kids pretend to do real jobs. Oh, God. So they don't want to grow up so fast? I hope that that's what it's

[24:58] for. I think these are meant to be fun. They're jobs like be a firefighter, be a, you know, those types of things. And, of course, by being a firefighter, I don't mean, you know, the thing where you spend 11 hours of your 12-hour shift at the station bored off your ass the exact five minutes you're out on a call. And you're looking at the human waterfall. I'm hoping that's what that is. Yeah, I think so. And it's just a waterfall with human statues that look like they're falling. Like they're doing the worst uh cliff dive ever yeah okay that's that's a thing that's a choice so uh just wanted to say congratulations to the stereo haunted house on your mall and your location getting this big huge upgrade and continuing to grow even as american malls struggle and die yeah and i just looked it up there are 96 malls in dubai, Ninety-six malls? Yes. Shopping malls.

[25:58] Motherfucker. Unless they're considering shopping centers, shopping malls. But I don't think so, because it's also known as the shopper's paradise. I knew Dubai was nuts. Okay, like, you can just look at, like, the photos of Dubai's growth in the last, like, 20 years or so, and it is un-fucking-godly. No. But, shit! I need a drink! Take the next story. I'm going to go get another. Okay. So, Whispering Pines is adding their first new attraction in 20 years.

[26:30] And they are adding a haunted hotel dark ride. This article is by Sally Dark Rides at sallydarkrides.com. And they are conveniently the makers of the ride. Of the ride. Yeah of the ride um it has the classic pattern from the shining hotel uh for the carpeting that you wait on to get into the ride and it's it's a gorgeous ride like the there's a lot of pictures and videos of the ride on the link in the show notes yeah it really was the the best and this This, by the way, is in Maine. I'm trying to find the state. It's in Maine. Sorry. Yeah. It's all right. Yeah. And they won multiple awards for the best new attraction.

[27:18] But yeah, this one's definitely worth clicking through. Yeah. This is one where we can't really do it justice because you just need to see the videos and the photos here. And as an audio only podcast, you know, we can only gush so long. Yeah. But it's a very impressive dark ride. A lot of great attention to detail on it. And it's just impressive, because I had never heard of Whispering Pines.

[27:41] As, you know, because it's a... Shoot. It is in Funtown, Splashtown, USA. I'd never heard of Funtown, Splashtown, USA before. I'd never heard of it. Then again, I've never been to Maine. But this Haunted Hotel Dark Ride is just great. It looks awesome. It's very creative. And I read one review of it that basically said it's the exact right amount of scary. It gives adults the creeps but doesn't traumatize the kids. You know, that type of thing. So, yeah, I think that's a really cool thing. And I'm glad to see Dark Rides coming back because it seemed like just not that long ago, Dark Rides were on their last legs. There was a preservation effort to really record these and preserve them. Well, and I think that that did a lot to revive it. It was putting it out there so that people would say, oh, I want to do that. That looks like fun. And then you also get a, and also sort of kickstarts the nostalgia cycle. Exactly. A little bit like, man, I haven't been on a Dark Ride in 20 years. Years and the reason was because you spent the past 20 years going to theme parks thinking they were lame and now you know what i mean well and you know there's also you know fomo of oh these are going away we got to get the experience now exactly so you got it from both sides you got people like me who grew up with these rides who are like oh shit i haven't been in one forever i gotta see one oh there's a new one you know i think the only one i've been on is the scooby-doo I do want to carol once.

[29:09] Yeah. With you. Yeah, because you never went with me to the state fair in South Carolina, did you? Once, but I don't think they had that running. Yeah, they might not have had. Yeah, most of my dark rides were the traveling ones with the state fair. Yeah, we didn't have a state fair. Well, technically you did. It just never was anywhere near you. Okay, well, that's fair. Because apparently the Louisiana state fair, I think it was in Monroe. Or Shreveport. Yeah, it was somewhere on I-20. And it's like, well, that's ridiculous. The population centers are at the other side of the state. Yeah, they should put it somewhere centrally located so it both ends. Alexandria, where you lived. Anyways, so we have our usual Halloween Horror Nights update as Ghostbusters is coming to this. I think this may be the first time a true comedy, even though it is a horror comedy, so it still is apropos, So it's been used as a house. But the new Ghostbusters Frozen Empire Haunted House will be featuring the latest installment of the global Ghostbusters franchise.

[30:12] Basically, according to this, it will transport fans of the film franchise in New York City, where the Spangler family teams up with the original Ghostbusters, who are now at the helm of a top-secret surgery lab for their ghostbusting empire. Honestly, I'm just happy to hear Ghostbusters is coming to Halloween Horror Nights. And by the way, this is by WSB TV. Yeah, I find it weird that they're naming it Frozen Empire and they're making it Colt.

[30:39] Because I don't remember the movie Feeling Cold, but maybe. No, that's the 2024 movie that came out. Oh, okay. Well, that's why. I haven't seen all the movies. That's where I was going. Yeah. Yeah, we have not seen anything. I have not seen anything on Ghostbusters 1 and 2. Yeah. We're lame. Yeah, we're lame. And I don't know, man. It's like the first Ghostbusters film is such a perfect movie. And second was such a disappointment. I just didn't feel the need to return to the well. Yeah. If I'm on Ghostbusters, I got Ghostbusters 1 literally on my shelf downstairs. Yeah, but I could see going and watching all of them. Paul Rudd is the lead. Maybe I am interested in that. I like Paul Rudd. It's fun. But yeah, I'm curious about it, but I have not seen any of the new Ghostbusters. And again, I haven't seen any of the new Star Wars since the prequel series.

[31:36] Because I'm an old curmudgeon, and the prequel just made me not want to ever watch star wars well you were not much of a star wars person i was always star trek yeah um i i i but i but star wars is fun i got nothing against star wars and i like i said i enjoy the original trilogy immensely um so yeah i can't say it's entirely down to that okay next story haunted hydro festival recently held a car show that It ended in clowns. It's always clowns. It's always fucking clowns. This is by Melissa Baker at MSN. They held Munchies Jeep Jamboree and Car Show for classic cars. And obviously a heavy emphasis on Jeeps there. And then at 9 o'clock, they opened up the house for a clown-themed show.

[32:34] You know, I love when I see haunts finding ways to keep themselves relevant, keep making money, keep doing things in the off-season. And I love how they still manage to tie this back to the core thing of being a haunted attraction. Yeah, because they were basically brainstorming ideas for extra revenue. And it's like, we've got a giant parking lot. Oops. Which, hey, good for you. Yeah. Go back to our parking episode. That was a barn burner. At least I'm assuming they do, but they've at least got space to show cars. Yeah, and I'm sure they have, you know, plenty of space out there, if nothing else. So, yeah, this was, yeah, this was an interesting idea. I mean, like I said, I have to roll my eyes a little bit, the clown thing, just because it is so overdone. Yeah. And I'm sorry about that, but the photos of it, this is another good one to click through to the article, because the photos of it do make it look like a lot of fun and honestly i would not have thought of doing two events like this like daytime event and then it bleeding into a nighttime haunt event i think there's a lot one can do with that i think that's potentially a great idea.

[33:52] All right, well, our last of the formal stories this week is Dark Nights is returning to Hershey Park. This article is by Melissa Baker of the News Messenger. And finally, Hershey Park has announced that Dark Nights will be running from September 13th to November 3rd. They will not be opening in August like some of the other theme parks have been talking about. It will include five haunted houses, including the State of Evil, Auntie Immortum, Avatar, Haunted Coal Mine, Curse of the Tommyknockers, The Descent, Catacombs of the Catechesis, there's so many colons in here, and Twisted Carnival. And they'll have scare zones, various scare zones as well, including a trick-or-treat trail that does not come out easily. Trick-or-treat trail, trick-or-treat trail. I got you all the tongue twisters at the end. Yeah, you did. Fuck you. You're the one that pointed out the story. And dark coaster rides. Oh, and the Midway of Misery, because everything is going to be a tongue twister, of course, Jonathan. So, yeah, this is interesting. Alliteration. Alliteration. Always avoid annoying alliteration, says Bernie Baxter.

[35:09] I'm going to die. And the mayhem marvels. Mayhem, yeah. This looks awesome, honestly. Yeah, I am happy that you got it out as anti-mortem, because it's very close to anti-maple in my head, which is something totally different. Which is, I gotta admit, that one confuses me, because anti-mortem isn't a pun. If it was post-mortem... You know what I mean? Because anti-mortem is anti-death is the pun, right? Right. Maybe I'm just not understanding it. They're still alive. Yeah, I guess so. They're anti-death. I mean, I'm not for death. Death is an inevitability, but I wouldn't consider myself pro-death. No. Anyways. But, yeah, no, I'm glad to hear it. Hershey Park has always kind of been one of the smallest. It's a very big park, actually, and does a very good job from everything I've seen. I've never been able to go. But it always does seem to get slighted in the news compared to HHN and some of the bigger parks that just dominate. So glad to be able to talk about what they're doing. Sounds awesome to me. Though, like I said, if I have to read that list again, I may literally have an aneurysm and die.

[36:30] So don't read it again. Exactly. And we'll move on to our informal final topic since we're a few minutes early here.

[36:37] And that is an announcement from a local haunt, the mortuary. We just talked about them a little bit at the top of the show.

[36:45] They have a history of choosing a new theme each year. Yes. And they had a while there, like the first 10 years or so, the themes told like a cohesive story. Which was really cool because you could follow the thread. And since we got in at the beginning of the mortuary, I think we were literally there the first year they were open. I think we might have been there the first night they were open even.

[37:08] You could follow it through the multiple years, but then they just didn't do that anymore. Yeah, I guess either that plot ran its course or they didn't want to start a new one, and it's kind of been catch as catch can. And this year's theme, and I pulled up their website to make sure I say it right, is, Hellelection, Choose Thy Fate, with a bunch of election-themed stuff.

[37:37] Oh, man. Yes. Oh, man. The friend who posted about it and who works inside the haunt said that it has nothing to do with the election of this year. Then why didn't you do it last year? Then why didn't you do it the year before? Yeah. Why didn't you do it next year? That seems like bullshit. And I get what I think they mean. I believe they mean they're not going to be playing to the specific politics of this year's election, and that's probably true.

[38:11] I mean, mortuary and haunts in this area in general have remained very apolitical. I know that's not as common of a thing in certain other areas and certain other haunts, but they've largely remained very apolitical. I think they realize that, you know, we are a very liberal city in a very conservative state, so you need to, you know what I mean, kind of... Well, I don't understand why you would try to tackle this. Yeah, I don't understand why at all, because first, I don't see how it ties into a haunted house. No, it is scary real life. I don't need scary real life, you know, interrupting my escape into a haunt. Yeah, I mean, because the thing about it for me is that, and it doesn't really matter what your views are, an election is a stressful time.

[39:08] And that's for pretty much everyone who's paying any degree of attention.

[39:12] An election is a stressful time. And I go to haunted attractions for escapism. And you've got to remember, the haunt is going to be open September, October, into early November. So it will literally be at the peak of the election fever. They're doing this. Yeah. Like right now, we just had the first debate and things are still kind of slow. Shit's going to ramp up. this is going to be during that ramp up time and the the people who like young people who you know or we'll just say the under 18 crowd teen crowd that can't vote either they're going to be stressed out about it or completely ambivalent about it and not care yeah and so is this theme going to sell tickets is my question i don't know it might just because of the press attention it's likely to get. Yeah, it is likely to get a lot of attention for the theme. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a good theme or it will encourage people to come back the next year or the year after that. Right, and I do wonder if the choose thy fate is like the choose your own story stuff where you can pick which way to go and that kind of thing, or if it's just in the words, because that's one of the they don't really have a marketing team that I know of um.

[40:38] It so i i don't know we have we've had issues with local haunts that have used stock footage in commercials for example and we like see a character oh that character's cool i want to go see them at the haunt and they're just not there yeah we've had that happen multiple times um i i really don't see this as a good idea and it makes me really not want to go to the mortuary yeah i if i go it's gonna be out of obligation only and i'm just gonna say it that way that's where i'm at is it's an obligation because if we're going to talk about it if we're going to report on it um if we're going to review it then we have to go to it that's just that's a have to yeah we don't have a choice in that if we were just regular haunt goers and not reporting on it not reviewing it yeah we wouldn't go this year yeah i i would absolutely skip um and part of that is also because mortuary tickets are very expensive yeah i mean they're among the priciest haunts in the area per dollar per minute oh they are the worst they are the most expensive yeah and like years the mortuary has had a really good theme it has been top-notch kick-ass yeah it has been great.

[41:54] But years like we talked about the circuit of fear one where they have a a theme that isn't as strong doesn't play to their strengths it doesn't work and this and that's the other thing about the scene it doesn't play to their strengths no i mean it does not play because it's weird to me because i'm looking at it and i pull up the mortuary's website um.

[42:17] The main page right now has the facade, the building, the front of the building, not actually a facade, it's just the building as it's lit at the very bottom with these political images like looming over it. And it's like that building is so cool. And it's so recognizable. Yeah. That should be the front and center. Like as a haunt deemer, haunt designer, my attitude is like, well, done. Knock it off for an early lunch. you own an actual haunted mortuary supposedly haunted mortuary well and you have all of the lights on it that change color why not just make them red white and blue if you're gonna go with this theme yeah just switch the colors out and then take that as your photo instead of putting all of this green and yeah very well i was talking about the stuff around yeah i'll go ahead Because the stuff around it is apocalyptic in nature. I think that's how I would describe it. It's cemeteries and bombed out buildings and things like that.

[43:21] Basically, it looks like Repo the Genetic Opera before Repo the Genetic Opera starts. Yeah. You know? So, yeah, I don't know. I do not understand this theme. I don't get it. I don't like it. It does not make me want to go to it. And I'm in the same boat as you. We literally were sitting at the bar a couple nights ago talking about this and trying to decide how strong our obligation is. Yeah. And we still haven't come up with an answer to that. No. We'll do that closer in, especially as more details come available. Yeah, tickets will be on sale soon at the discounted rate. So whenever that happens, we'll make our decisions then. But anyways, I think that's all for this week. Anything else you want to add? Nope. On that note, everyone, thank you very much for joining us for this past 45 minutes or so. Greatly appreciate it. Hope you learned something. Hope it was interesting and not too, too depressing. Please check out more Haunt Weekly at hauntweekly.com, Haunt Weekly on Twitter, Haunt Weekly on Facebook, and youtube.com slash hauntweekly. Until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we will see you all next week with not the news, but we have no idea what. It's going to be a surprise for us, too. See you then.