[0:24] Hello everyone, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And this is Haunt Weekly, a weekly podcast for the online attraction entertainment community. Whether you're an actor, owner, or just playing aficionado, we aim to be a podcast for you. And we return to you from dual trips, dual vacations. Yeah, well I don't know about vacations. Well one's a vacation, one's a vacation, one was more doobies. One was a trip.

[0:47] Travel is what we return from. We'll just call it travel. Right now and we come to you i know it's been a bit since we've done an episode but we didn't forget you no we thought about you every single night while we were on the road and we touched your picture longingly on the bedside table as we okay maybe we didn't do all that but we did not forget no we did talk about you a lot while we were gone oh yes indeed we did talk about you a lot but anyways but this week we are coming to you in the middle of haunt recruitment season yep haunts are recruiting the pro haunts are hiring and so we're going to give you nine red flags that for a haunted house you're considering working for um as we'll get into a minute this is especially relevant with recent shit going on but um yeah we'll be going into that in more detail in a minute if however this isn't what you're interested in right now there's.

[1:45] 489 other episodes. Each of them equally boring, we promise. Great to go to sleep till we understand. Please check out more at HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly on Facebook, YouTube.com, and wherever you get your podcasts.

[2:00] Now, as we alluded to at the beginning, we've been traveling a lot, but we're also late with this because we wanted to get this topic right, especially given recent events. So, yeah, we're going to get into that in a minute, but let's just do all the top of the show stuff, as we should do. Work we did for the Haunt Nun, we've been on the road. Yep.

[2:25] Hard to work on a haunt when you're in St. Louis. It is. And also hard to work on when you're in the upstate watching the cringiest guy in the universe fail to pick up a bartender I swear to god I thought my internal organs were going to shut down, yeah he was very bad oh my god it was like my liver is like okay we can deal with liquor but this guy's got to fucking go.

[2:52] We don't have an anti for this anti-venom for this, anti-nausea pills are basically all you can take just shake the bottle above my head and pray that i'm getting down there my god so yes we uh did not get a lot done we survived and you know what sometimes that is an accomplishment it is well on that note every week we ask a question a week last time around we asked you what ways does your haunt accept payment or donations because we were talking about buy now pay later for haunts seemed very relevant yeah and jinx midnight said 96 cash four percent credit debit via tab swipe chip zero percent paypal but it is available also venmo is available no no takers there yet uh they're a ten dollar local charity haunt people just can't be arsed to do order online tickets stopped even trying after three years of selling less than 10 online tickets per year. You know, I think the unique thing there is the $10 price point for a Sherry Haunt, which is a good price point for a charity haunt. It is. There's no criticism there. But that does put you in kind of a unique situation. And that I think most people probably do have $10 of cash somewhere.

[4:11] Well, they can at least plan to bring $10. Yeah, it's... I think it's when you get above 20, cash becomes a severe limiter. Exactly. Because most of us can get a $20 bill pretty willy-nilly. If nothing else, we can swing by an ATM and pick one up. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually easier to get 20s out of ATMs than 10s. Yeah. But basically, you can get up to, I think, 20. I think it's pretty common to have it, and I think it's pretty easy to get if you don't. Once you get above that and you start asking people to carry your large sums of cash, that's when the debit cards come out and it's when all that goes off. Kevin Hopkins says, all the major credit cards are accepted. That's a hell, probably good sales pitch. Strong intro there. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and of course cash. We try to get as many pre-purchase online for multiple reasons, and I love the reasons he gives. They are all excellent. One, gives an idea of how busy it will be and allows us to deter anyone from coming at the same time through time ticketing. Mm-hmm. Chef's kiss. Two, prevents them from standing in the ticket sales line.

[5:23] Yes um they can simply walk to the queue entrance or have their qr code scanned and three when purchased ahead of time even if earlier in the same day they get on the property and they haven't taken out their wall or paid for anything they're more willing to purchase at the gift shopping concessions yes yes yes yes yes and yes i mean i know there was only three things but i'm giving you six yeses because they're all double correct yeah my podcast my rules yeah i don't think that we've even talked about. We've talked about the thinking behind not having to pay for something and then wanting to pay for things at the gift shop like you mentioned. Yeah, that was an excellent point. You're right. I don't think we've actually hit on it because in the buyer's mind, those are two separate transactions. And where if I said, oh, you want to go to 13th Gate and spend $200, you know, on stuff there, you might go, oh, that's a lot of money to spend in one place. But if I go, okay, we spend $80 on the tickets, and then days later, even hours later, spend $120 at the gift shop, yeah, I can see us doing that. I think we've been close to that, yeah. Yeah, and I think I was pulling some actual numbers. It's in the ballpark. I'm closing up, you know. So, round numbers. All right. But this week's question of the week.

[6:51] If you have ever left a haunt, why did you do it? What made you finally say no more and leave? Let us know, hauntweekly.com, hauntweekly on Facebook, youtube.com, slash hauntweekly. Leave a comment. Send an email. We read everything you guys send us. Everything.

[7:12] All right. Well, it is also an even episode this week, which means it is time to do the conference reminders. And boy there are some conferences are coming yeah uh july 26th and 27th that's the texas haunters convention in irving texas um at the irving convention center featuring a trade show floor haunt tour with dark hour and game night texashuntersconvention.com for more info i cannot recommend this convention enough we were fortunate enough to go one year and now that they've moved we can go again yeah because they're not in the place that had i mean it's a great conference and And unless you happen to have had a severe allergy to cedar, you probably were fine at the old location, too. Yeah. But now that they've moved, we can consider going. And this year it won't work out because of grandbaby and other things. Yeah. There's too much going on. Timing. But, yeah. But, dude, I am excited to be able to go back at some point. Yes. Okay. That same weekend, the 26th and the 27th in Fresno, California, it's Haunt Mare Expo. At the Fresno Fairgrounds, featuring five haunted attractions, three escape rooms, and the Rage Room. Various special guests and horror panels, HauntmareExpo.com. And after that, it is August 8th through the 10th.

[8:32] Let me try that again. August 8th through the 10th. Back it up. Well, now you've messed up that intro, too.

[8:42] Paul is somewhere clawing his eyes out right now. He doesn't even know it's about him yet because we haven't gotten that far into it. I'm pretty sure he figured it out because you got the 8th through the 10th. August 8th through the 10th. It's, ha, the event three. We were at the second one. It was great. It is returning to Lexington, Kentucky this year at the Crowne Plaza. Many celebrity guests Trade show floor Drag shows, HaTheEvent.com H-A-H TheEvent.com to be specific Yes Also the celebrity guest features a face-off reunion Yeah so if you're a fan of the show Which I know a lot of honors are Yeah go to H-A-H TheEvent That's two E's in the middle of that Yeah Dot com And see if your favorite contestants on there Yeah, Alright Finally this week August 15th through the 17th in Long Beach, California. It's Midsummer Scream at the Long Beach Convention Center featuring a newly enlarged, embiggened, if you will, Hall of Shadows, the screaming room featuring a bunch of horror movie screenings, tons of celebrity guests.

[9:49] MidsummerScream.org for all the details. Yeah, there's some great, this is just a great lineup. Yeah. There's not a weak link in this bunch. No. If we ever got the chance, we could just, you know, hop a plane and we'll pick which of the first two. Yeah, those two are happening at the same time. That's the complexity there. But, yeah, no, it is a great lineup of conferences coming up. So if you want to get, you know, if you want to go to a hot conference that's not trans world, have some good options. Yeah. Good options. And fairly spread out. Yeah. Especially if you live in California, you're doing really good. Well, yeah. All right.

[10:30] So anyways, let's try. You know, I've been so happy up until this moment. Yeah. And now after, you know, one of the reasons, like I said at the top of the show, we've kind of delayed this episode, is we wanted to take the time to get this right. Because this is tough. Because on, we're starting off with the elephant in the room, so to speak. Mm-hmm. On June 17th, Anne Rizrat, Rizrat?

[10:58] Spotlight Pennsylvania released an article regarding Field of Screams in Pennsylvania. It was a very, very long article. And actually, it's two articles because one is the article itself. And there's a second article that is about how the article was written. And I encourage you to read both. I will put both links in the description. But both are incredibly good. And basically, this reporter worked her ass off on this piece. She talked to 18 different volunteers from Field of Screams and basically reported incidents where managers sexually assaulted or harassed younger volunteers. Some were teenage, some were just younger, but people in their care, so to speak. Yeah, and it basically leads to an environment that was very toxic for everybody. And the part that really frustrates me, and I think a lot of people who read this, was the haunt was made abundantly clear about these issues in 2020. Yeah. And in fact, we actually, I checked, we reported on it in the news episode at the time, because it did make the news. Yeah. We did talk about it then. It wasn't quite the explosive story that it became in 2025.

[12:18] But yes, there were accusations and the people who were accused were not only allowed to return, they were allowed to return in their roles, including being unmonitored with underage person to minors. Yeah. So, yeah, the main culprit from 2020 was not removed. And a 2025 version not only addresses that individual, but many others who were problematic at field of screens. And even though we're recording this almost two weeks after the story came out, it's still unfolding.

[12:56] There is a public group entitled The Official Untold Stories of Field of Screams, where many, many, many more people have come forward. And it's not just discussions of sexual assault and so forth, sexual abuse. It's also just a myriad of other kinds of abuses, too. Yeah. The treatment is horrible. Yeah. Across the board. Like I said, an entire environment of toxicity and bullying, and it's just, it's bad. Bullying, manipulation, intimidation, physical endangering people. Mm-hmm. I mean, it is incredible.

[13:43] And basically the way I look at it having read both the group and the article and everything else this was like a layer cake a shit layer cake and the foundation was they decided not to pay their actors mmhmm, There are some people who are paid, and they're all the full-time staff, I believe, but their actors and even the managers, on-site managers, are not paid. Then they recruited underage actors without adequate supervision. We've always had the rule, underage actors are welcome if their parents are on-site. And that is both so that we can help control them, but also to keep an eye on them and make sure nothing happens. Well, it keeps it safe for everybody involved. And usually the parents have been pretty cool about that i mean granted we're only doing it three nights this is a full season blah blah blah but the point is um not adequate supervision and then they created a toxic culture where physical assault where people were expecting to get punched and hit yeah and hurt but missing a night even if you had serious obligations one person in the group talked about being guilted and to act even though she had a family funeral to go to.

[14:59] Yeah, and another one had some kind of state champion or regional champion to go to and was told that they had to act. Yeah, so yeah, and then like to just enclose the ecosystem and make sure the mold grows strong from the walls, they protected those who were reported to have mistreated actors they claim that these are unfounded rumors even though enough people have come forward that there is got to be at least some kind of problem you know i mean i don't know what kind of evidence is good enough to make the rumor founded make it a quote-unquote found it i mean yeah it's just crazy um that it's it doesn't seem to be they are taking it seriously no no even now they do not seem to be taking it seriously and that's incredibly frustrating because their only comment to the reporter was that yeah we're aware of unfounded allegations and da da da da da i'm like 18 people that's a lot of founding that is a lot of founding and in the in the group there are text message screenshots and videos that were shared from parties um put on by field of screams And it's harrowing stuff. If you are okay seeing that kind of things, you can go and check it out. Yeah, I'll have the links in the description.

[16:25] Please, though, yeah, excellent point, content warning. Yeah, exactly.

[16:30] Just a warning that there's stuff in there that will trigger some people. Yeah. So, yeah.

[16:37] And, of course, as all this is going on, Larry Kirchner has to show up and make shit worse. Because he posted a comment to the original article about how this is nothing, this is just two staff members having a sexual relationship and blah blah blah blah blah, and completely not reading the room.

[16:58] And the fact that he commented at all. Yeah. Because he didn't have to. Nope. Staying quiet is always an option. It is. So that makes me really curious. What's in his fucking past? Yeah. Because now he looks sus. Yeah. Like I said, he could have just read it and learned his lesson and moved on. You know, like I haven't commented anything in the group or on the post. And I'm not going to because it's not my fucking place. Um so yeah but yeah we are following this closely we'll probably have more on it in the upcoming news episode yeah which i think is 492.

[17:37] Um but yeah so we're coming back to it but that's being said um this is a topic we've actually had on the back burner and in the idea bucket for a while and we're entering p-cont recruitment season and we definitely wanted to talk about it and it kind of got bumped way up after the recent events. Yeah, because we have, this isn't the episode we planned to do this time. This isn't what was planned for 490, but it is what it is because we felt this was important. We need it. The timing just needs to be done. Now, I want to make one thing abundantly clear, though, before we move on. None of this is victim blaming. No. Like, yeah, we're talking about haunt red flags, but we're not saying that, oh, these people should have recognize the red flags and run away no no no that's not it no we're not saying the victims are to blame at all and in fact they've actually reading their stories some of the things on this list are from their experiences i learned from them yeah i never would have thought of some of these but holy shit when you hear it in hindsight right and that's it because a lot of times, First-time haunters, especially, don't know what to look for, don't know what the red flags are. And that's just what we're trying to do is put some of them out there so that if you go into a new situation or you're, you know...

[19:05] Trying to get in with a new haunt, you know what to look for. I'd like to give an example. The very first haunt we acted at in South Carolina, the Boy Scout Haunt. Yeah. I look back on it. Holy shit. More red flags than Mother Russia. I mean. Yeah. That was a lot. That was sketch as fuck in hindsight. Let's see. Real weapons. All up in the shop. Inappropriate scenes. Inappropriate scenes. actors with actual criminal backgrounds in scenes with minors. Yeah. Including one very, very dangerous scene with a minor. Yeah. That could have literally gotten them killed. Yeah. I'm not even exaggerating with that. No.

[19:48] And this was our first haunt experience. And we didn't recognize it because we didn't have the experience we do now. Yeah. Both in participating in haunts and operating them. We now know at least a little bit more, I think, about what to look for. And that's what we're trying to do is pass on some of that knowledge and some of that hindsight to others. Because believe me, a lot of this is fucking hindsight. Oh, yeah. So, and as they say, hindsight is 20-20 unless you need calf cataracts or, I don't know. But the point of the matter is we're trying to pass along some of our hindsight here, not victim blame. And by the way, another mild point here is we are typically very, very thorough about attribution and citation. Yeah. If we pull one from the Field of Screams group, we will not be attributing it to the person. We'll just say this is one that came from those stories. A, a lot of the people there are anonymous. And B, it doesn't feel right to call them out even if they aren't. So there you go. On that note, our first red flag.

[20:54] They don't pay everyone. This is a simple unrule. Hans should pay everyone or no one. There.

[21:07] Because here's the thing. It is perfectly fine to work for a charity haunt for free. To donate your time to a worthwhile cause while having fun. Totally fine. But there is a big difference between a charity haunt and a non-profit haunt. Thank you HauntCon for educating me on this point. Yeah. Because this has come up recently with some other haunts. But basically, all you have to do to be a non-profit haunt is donate 51%, I mean, more than half of your profit to charity. Yes. That's it. That's, yeah, that's literally it. You can pay yourself to work there. You can pay yourself a salary to work there. You can pay, make it your living. And the thing is, is that when setting up a non-profit, you can also pay the actors. You can build that in to your cost of running the haunted house. So there's no reason, if anybody's getting paid, that nobody should. Exactly. Either nobody gets paid, everybody's working for charity, everybody's working the cause. And that was one of the good things about the Boy Scout Haunt we talked about. It was a genuine charity haunt. Ain't nobody there getting paid. No. I think all the proceeds went back into the Boy Scout. Exactly. To the local Boy Scout troop. You know what? I'm hunky-dory with that.

[22:34] But yeah. But yeah. So basically, if everyone, like I said, it's got, but here's the thing. Like actors are employees at a haunted house. And this is one of the things that really has frustrated me in our modern times in this 1099 era. Yeah.

[22:52] Because as you know from working in human resources, you have more insight here than I do. If the person works directly on delivering your product or service yes they are an employee yes exactly now that might sound a little weird when you think about like uber well they had a lawsuit about it um i think california ruled yeah and that's why i've worked for companies that would not work in california because they worked there once got fined for having contractors who were supposed to be employees. Yeah. If they are providing the core service or product, they're supposed to be paid. They're supposed to be an employee and employees get paid. Now, here's the thing. It doesn't mean everyone gets paid the same, but everyone gets paid. Everyone is treated like an employee. Now I get it. You can be a toxic and there's plenty of toxic workplaces where people will get paid. Yeah. But, this is a warning sign from the get-go that the haunt has some kind of bullshit hierarchy and you're in the shits on it. Exactly. Because you can't.

[24:04] Yeah, it just, the hierarchy that it sets up gets it really unfair in the power balance and the power dynamics. And you would think as a volunteer, I just don't have to show up. They have nothing to hold over me. Well, even in paid environment, even paid haunts, nobody's making their full-time wage as a haunt actor, just working six weeks out of the year. No. That's just the reality of it. It doesn't necessarily guarantee actor loyalty. It doesn't necessarily guarantee that they will show up. It is just about doing what is right to the people who work for you. Right. And real quick, I'm not positive that we did specify what a charity haunt is versus a non-profit. Sorry, yeah. A charity haunt just means that a haunt has connected with a charity and they give some of their proceeds to it. They are not qualified under the law as a non-profit organization. Yeah. Or the haunt is being put on like Chinchuba's was directly by the nonprofit organization. Right. And that's how the Boy Scouts was. Exactly. That's what I think of more when I think of a charity on. I think of a charity deciding that their fundraiser should be a haunted house. Yeah. And they, the charity, puts it on. Yeah. And like I said, those can be wonderful experiences. I have a lot of great memories of going to charity haunts. They're a lot of fun.

[25:31] And in fact, technically, one of our favorite haunts, Waterloo, is technically a charity haunt because it is put on by Waterloo Sportsman Club, a non-profit sportsman club in Southern Illinois, and they put it on, and they operate it, and nobody's getting paid there, and all the money's going back into the club, including trail maintenance, building upkeep, all that stuff.

[25:54] So, yeah, but everyone gets paid or nobody gets paid. Nothing in between. Anything in between is a red flag. You should be very, very cautious.

[26:06] Second item. Second item. Number two. Two. They are okay with you being assaulted. Oh, fuck me. This one is from the group. Yep. If your haunt tells you to expect to get punched or assaulted, don't stick around. Don't let them do that. Because, you know, as somebody who's built a lot of scenes in tight spaces, we always make sure that our actors are protected or have space to retreat.

[26:33] I mean and here's the thing haunting is a physical activity yeah even if you do it the safest and the bestest you can do it people are going to bump into each other yeah especially considering you accidental touch is going to happen people are going to bump into each other you're going to probably get a bruise or two this ain't ballet though ballet gets a lot of bruises too i don't know why that's the expression yeah i don't know either that's the expression but you know yeah.

[26:59] But yeah, basically, you know, stuff is going to happen. And that's unavoidable. But if the haunt says, oh, yeah, you're just going to get decked five times a night at least. Yeah. Don't stay there. No. They have designed that haunt incredibly poorly without active safety in mind. And they haven't done that. Just think of what else they've done that's unsafe for you. Yeah. That's the part they're telling you up front. Exactly. And that's one of the other things that isn't specifically on the list, but I'm putting it in here. If they don't talk about safety at all, if they don't give you the safety rules, what to do, if there is an emergency, all of that kind of stuff, that's also giant red flag. Yeah. Yeah. Safety should be upfront, period.

[27:42] And like I said, if they're like, well, you know, you're going to get hit a lot and notice just what happens here, they're not taking safety seriously. And if you do get punched, if someone does manage to punch you or take a swing at you, that person should be fucking ejected on their, ideally on their ear. But barring that, at least get rid of them. Because if they don't eject those customers, if they don't stop to get rid of that person, they are not prioritizing your safety. Do not work there. It is a dangerous environment. You could get a lot worse and punch. Exactly. Because, like, Ellie worked a haunt once, a charity haunt. Yeah, a firehouse haunt, I thought, yeah. In a dot room. Somebody intentionally poked her in the eye. Mm-hmm. And they came and injected that customer right away before they got through the next scene. Yeah, and they'll just piss off all the first responders in the area. Yeah.

[28:39] Fucking dumbass. Mm-hmm. Sorry. I caught a wee little bit of something while traveling. Yeah. But yeah, number three, you don't know who to go for help. Now, this doesn't have to be about serious things.

[28:56] What happens if you need a break? What happens if you need water, your costume tour, your makeup smeared or something? Who do you talk to, to say, hey, I've got a problem, can you help me fix it? It could be the most minor thing, or it could be, like I said, someone just took a swing at you. It could be something serious. If you do not know who to talk to, leave.

[29:18] Especially if you don't know who to talk to and you ask someone in your zone, in your room, and they don't know either, really leave.

[29:27] Because basically you need a representative for you somewhere nearby with authority. Yeah, and most haunts during their orientation will go through this. They will tell you the safety rules. They will tell you who to go to specifically for what types of problems. And who's going to be in your area, they can handle those problems. Sometimes they're called a zone manager. Sometimes if it's a smaller haunt, they might just be the haunt manager. But there's someone you know by name and appearance that you can find quickly and easily if you have a problem, big, small, or otherwise. Yeah. Just as an example at our haunt, Bernie, a.k.a. Jonathan, is the person outside. I am the person inside the haunt, and I have a manager on the other side of our haunt that we have direct communication. Yeah, it functions like a zone manager. Exactly. And then we have the adult on Halloween night who is Ellie. Yeah. And basically, if someone has a problem, we'll say inside the haunt, they might talk to the other zone manager. They might talk to you. we will communicate with Ellie and then whatever will be done. But that actor knows exactly who to talk to immediately. They know how to start that process.

[30:55] Exactly.

[30:57] All right number four number four you're made to feel bad about having other responsibilities we touched on this a little bit earlier yeah um so if you don't complete the night because you start feeling ill yeah then the night doesn't count towards your perfect attendance or you get hurt or you get hurt or something happens yeah it's just that's bullshit like don't put up with that There's no need for that. It is not, a haunt is not so important that it should affect your personal health or welfare or life. This is just true in general. This isn't just a haunt thing. But the people who support you will support you in all things that are important to you. Yeah. Not just the thing that's important to you and useful to them. Right. I ran into this in a career field with a very bad boss who her previous assistant, she was told not to go to her father's funeral because she wouldn't have a job when she got back. Yeah. Bullshit. That's bullshit. Yeah. She told me that I wasn't an independent or strong person because I was in a relationship. Yeah, it didn't matter what the relationship was. No.

[32:22] I mean... At that time, it was just the two of us. But, I mean, so people who say things like that and try to control you, it's just not a good situation to be in. Yeah, good examples of questions that you should not be asked. Yeah. What do you mean you have school tomorrow? Yeah. Curfew? What curfew? What do you mean by other clubs and activities? we're your club we're your activity man yeah we're your family don't you know it yeah you don't need to go to your dad's funeral yeah yeah this is all toxic fucking behavior and haunts that are genuinely trying to haunt families and people who are trying to support you are going to encourage you to have that balance of all the things that are important in your life yeah they're not going to try to make you feel bad for having a rich and full life and having other obligations. Yeah, and...

[33:20] And it shouldn't be like so in real life outside of haunt world um we have families we were all born to somebody some of those are toxic situations some of them aren't um but whenever you get to be an adult or get to make your own decisions you can choose your family and that's what you want to do is you want to choose people who support you who help you grow in ways that you don't expect.

[33:48] And are not negative or trying to put you down or keeping you from reaching your potential. And limiting you to just one thing that is, like I said, useful to them. Yeah. That is such an important thing. So, yeah, if you are made to feel bad for not being able to work certain nights, do other responsibilities, or just for having a life outside the haunt during haunt season, turn around and leave. Yeah, we actually had an actor who worked with us for a couple of years who went to a very large local haunt that had a cult-like following inside of it. He biked there because he didn't drive, so he biked for like 45 minutes to get there, showed up two minutes after the call for open casting call, basically, for auditions. And they said, you can't show up exactly on time, you have to leave.

[34:53] Yeah, and he was also two minutes late, if I remember the story correctly, because he couldn't find it. Yeah. Like, he would have been early if he had been able to find it. Yeah.

[35:04] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, trust me when I say a haunt is a haunt family.

[35:12] A haunt can be an amazing and supportive and wonderful place. But part of that means they have to support you as a person not just you as a product they put out there in display exactly that's what this is about yeah number five this is a big one for me um because it's not i mean like we know everyone involved with our haunt but large especially once you get to a certain size if the haunt does not background check or screen you that means no one else has been background checked or screened too exactly they you don't know who you're working with they don't know who you're working with either yeah um and basically you know you have to submit the one is one thing you do have to usually agree to it um but yeah just remember that if you don't pass a background check no one else says no background checks are not perfect No. I understand that. They are very limited. But it is a basic thing that a haunt can do to protect its employees and its customers.

[36:20] Yeah. And one thing, and this is unfortunately something I've learned recently that kind of upsets me, is that some haunts, it seems, are pretending like they background check people. They'll have it on the employee, you know, website thing. Yeah. You cleared your background check, and they just tick the box and never actually did the check.

[36:41] That's bullshit yeah so you've got to watch out for this you've got to make sure they're actually doing the background check and I will tell you that every company I've worked for that has performed a background check has given me a copy of the actual check afterwards it should be available to you should you request yeah and actually I would encourage you to go through that stuff to request a copy yeah just to make sure you're not running into bullshit like he just mentioned, where they're saying, oh yeah, you passed it, and they didn't actually do it. Yeah, they just maybe Google searched it. Which, by the way, that would not work with me. It would not. Because I pass any background check, but a quick Google search, Jonathan Bailey, New Orleans, well, have fun with that. Yeah. I'll let you find out why my name has been smeared so horribly in this city. Yeah. Not my fault, I might add. No. Hint, I'm not in prison. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah.

[37:46] Yeah, so yeah, they should be doing background checks. If they aren't, be wary.

[37:52] Number six. There are many horror stories that we've reported on over the years and that we've heard about and that we've witnessed firsthand. Yeah, one of the best things you can do is talk to or read other people have posted about working there. And this is true at any company, not just a haunted house, by the way. This is just a great life advice in general, but it's especially important here because, okay, every haunt of a certain size is going to have a few disgruntled actors. We got one or two of our own. Yeah. We got someone out there that posted a racist screed online, so we kicked him out of the team, and he hadn't forgotten it. No, he tried to post some negative comments and reviews for us. So, you know, every haunt is going to have a few. Yeah. Yeah, it's just like anything else online. You get enough people with a product or a service, some people are going to be unhappy. That's life. But if there's a lot of these and they're telling the same stories and raising the same issues.

[38:57] You might be better off going somewhere else. Yeah. And places to look for are, do they have a Facebook group that you can go and check out that's public or even it's private? You could check for just a search that is, I worked at such and such haunted house. Yeah. And then that'll pull you to any stories like on Reddit or... And if the haunt's large enough, they may have a page on a site like Glassdoor or something. Yeah. Where you can, because that's a site where you get employee, where employees review their employers. Yeah, exactly.

[39:35] I always check Glassdoor and a few other sites just to make sure if I'm going into a new job. Yeah, that it's a good fit. That it's a good fit and that there's no glaring errors out there. Yeah, Bob's podunk haunt that's having his first season won't be on there. No. But, you know, but larger ones will be, and you can learn. And the other thing is, you might not learn that they're a bad haunt, but you might learn that maybe their culture isn't a good fit for you. Yeah, and the other thing is... There's no fault of either one of you. Yeah, and... Some people are just bad matches. The other thing is, whenever you're there and you're doing the auditions night, talk to some of the actors who have been there a while yeah say why do you keep coming back to this what do you like about this haunt and if that doesn't vibe with you then leave there are other haunts yeah find another haunter or hey if you can't find another haunt do your own haunting become a home haunter yeah that's basically what we did yeah i mean you just learned the story but Well, technically, it also was 2005. Yeah, there's a... There were mitigating circumstances there. Yeah. Like, you know, a hurricane. Yeah. So, yeah, but check out the reviews. Check out what other people are saying. Sorry. Sorry, an October can.

[40:59] But, yeah, check out what other people are saying. Read the reviews. And if you see the themes coming, note the themes that keep coming up over and over and over. Positive and negative. Yeah.

[41:09] Okay. Okay, number seven, a culture of rule breaking. Oh, yeah, this is a good one.

[41:19] Basically, if you have rules, and this goes on both sides. Yeah. If customers have rules, and you usually got a big old fucking banner somewhere, and the actors have rules.

[41:32] If people routinely violate those rules and nothing happens yeah in fact if it's just kind of expected and yeah um what brought this to mind was i worked with someone who's like oh yeah this local haunt it's so big it's so bad and they say they're not going to touch you but every year we they touch everybody that comes through there yeah it's like okay so you just told me that they don't follow their own rules yeah and that it is public knowledge yeah and this was also something from the group too because the field screams group they talked about how there was a strict rule about going through any of the haunts while intoxicated yeah but they would constantly let people through and those customers of course were the ones taking swings of course they were the problem customers yeah because i get it sometimes it's hard to tell if someone's intoxicated as someone who works front of house i fucked that up a few times but if someone's visibly intoxicated we get them out and apparently that's a rule that gets broken a lot at some haunts now um another thing is saying no drugs or alcohol on premises and then turning a blind eye whenever you know that one haunt actor sneaks in on premises so that y'all can partake that's that's not.

[42:51] Cool and then they usually take a dump in the fog machine and yep actually that is how that night ended so yeah i know yeah well it ended with the uh the cops being yes oh yeah so okay so sorry that was the uh next to the ending yeah by the way a fog machine for those who don't know is basically a heater yeah i don't know i don't i wasn't in that section of that no neither of us but um yeah we both were inside this was outside quite a decision to do that um.

[43:28] Yeah, so, yeah, the culture of rule-breaking, no bueno, no good. No. No, very, very bad. It ends with poop and fog machines.

[43:37] And the cops getting cold. And the cops getting cold. Yeah. All right. Number eight is having inappropriate scenes and themes. If a place advertises nights that are racist, sexualized, or intentionally provoke negative responses from customers or from people coming through it or working at it, that's not a good thing. They just want to be trolls. Yeah.

[44:07] And a lot of haunts will try to be edgier or more hardcore or whatever. And there are ways you can push the boundaries and still be safe, still be respectful, and still respect everyone involved. But the problem you run into with a lot of haunts is that they want to do things that are sexist, racist, may, like one I remember Haunt Locally, well, this was a long time ago, did a sexual assault sequence in the middle of just a random segment. Yeah, there was talk of that in the group also. Yeah and and i found other stories online because i'm like how many times do you want set up sexual assault scenes and it's surprisingly often yeah you would think that would be something that we would just avoid yeah because it's the wrong kind of scary yeah well and there was one story that actually made the news where the assault, the simulated assault was on customers going through. Yeah, I remember that. People who definitely didn't consent to that.

[45:23] So yeah, it's just, that's not cool. Get out of there don't stay and even if you think those scenes are cool or badass or whatever the fact is this showing of great lack of consideration for both customers and actors, and that lack of consideration will come back to bite you yeah you know and i think that i would put on here check the sites and see if there's any trigger warnings or any concerns for um in the rules for people. Like content warnings. Exactly. And I mean, they'll usually have like, ooh, we use strobes and fog. Be wary of that. But actual warnings about the content is what we're talking about. Exactly. Yeah. Because I think that that shows an extra layer of thought given to how people are going to respond.

[46:16] Yeah. All right. Well, our final point, number nine, ageism and sexism oh this one's a little complicated yeah because even without ageism and sexism and i would also add racism to um to this but any isms here yeah don't be an ism no but yeah um even with the best of intentions haunting is still very much a young person's game as someone in his mid-40s i'm figuring out why, And it is still very much male-dominated.

[46:52] And it's also predominantly white, too. I mean, and these are things that are just issues that are bigger than any one haunt can solve, necessarily. Yeah. Now, we are seeing some of those trends changing, which is good. Very good. Yeah. Hopefully, the haunt industry will be in a more progressive place by the time we die. Which, you know, we keep haunting, might be in like five years. Yeah. Could be five years, could be 40, who knows. But do take a look at who they are recruiting, who they're targeting, and who they're hiring. Are they hiring almost exclusively extremely young, impressionable people, especially if they're targeting underage? No. That is a warning sign that they are wanting people they can manipulate. They're wanting people who are impressionable.

[47:45] Are they hiring people who look like all kinds of different people? Are they only hiring quote-unquote attractive people? Are they only hiring, you know, what are they recruiting from? What are they trying to do? At auditions, are they asking people to perform traditional gendered roles? Like, if you're a man, are you going to be asked to pretend to be a mechanic or a woman, a mom, or cook? Yeah. Because that is one of the things that pisses me off. It's one of my hot-button issues. Well, and it's really a complete waste to put a woman in a cook role, because as we've seen time and time again, the craziest chefs are all men. They're the absolute nutters.

[48:34] And yes, I am teasing. But I do think a crazy male chef could be a great character. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, the more that the gender conversation unfolds, the more it is clear that these roles just shouldn't exist full stop. Like, gendered roles don't mean anything. People assigned it, and other people agreed to it for some reason, But there's no reason for that. Now, I will say this. There are roles that do require certain body types. Some roles you need a bigger person. Some roles you need a smaller, sneakier person. Yeah, but that can be... Male or female. That could be anything.

[49:18] And they could play any part. Mm-hmm. I mean, we've talked before about, like, some of the creepiest scenes I've been in had the big, bad, burly guys being the victim to the tiny, you know, demure person male or female should not in any universe be able to physically overpower them and you're immediately like okay that's uh that's flipping the script you know yeah and and that's so yeah there are roles that are for certain there are there are legitimate reasons to choose certain people for certain roles is what i'm trying to hit at yeah because like some some are going to take more flexibility some are going to take strength you've got to keep in mind if If you're working with someone who is mobility impaired in some way or have different mobility. Some roles require people that are good and comfortable at talking. Yeah. Some really require people who can shut the fuck up. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, there's tons of options out there. And it should be picked upon the skills and the attributes you bring to the role. not necessarily which genitals you have. Exactly. If you're doing the role with your genitals, I assure you, you're doing it wrong. Yeah. Please do not use your genitals in your haunt role.

[50:46] Jesus Christ. And the thing is, I do actually have to say that because there was that one haunt. Yeah, I know. There was the one haunt. There's always the one haunt that fucks up every joke.

[51:00] Like, we shouldn't have to say that, but we absolutely did, because we've been to that haunt, we've seen all of the naked people, and that, you know...

[51:14] Anyway, on that bombshell, steal the line from Top Gear. Yeah, well, the last part of this is if you see that they're only pairing older actors with very young actors and preferred gender assumptions run. Yeah, and do be mindful that a lot of haunts will quite wisely pair experienced actors with newcomers. Right. So that will bring some age dynamic, but that's not the same thing. There's plenty of very experienced actors who are also still quite young. Yes, exactly. Because, once again, haunting is a young person's game. Believe me, my back reminds me of that every fucking day.

[52:01] Well, on that bombshell. Okay. Thank you very much for spending the past hour with us. No, this was a heavier episode, but indeed it was an important one. Please choose your haunt wisely. Until next time, check out everything else we do. We're at HauntWeekly.com, HauntWeekly on Facebook, YouTube.com slash HauntWeekly, and basically any and every podcasting app on the planet. Until next time, I'm Jonathan. I'm Crystal. And we'll see you all next week, and it should be next week because we're not fucking going anywhere. Yeah. I'm staying home, motherfucker.