Best Scares

Every year over 200 volunteers give their hand at scaring the victims that attend Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears. Usually their is a process to the madness of scaring inside a haunted house and no it's not like stage acting as our actors only have 5 to 10 seconds to create a character and scare you.

We like to think that we know something about fear and scaring since on a great night we can emergency exit over 100 people (an emergency exit means - I'm too scareed to finish this haunted house)! Heck in 2008 only 75% of customers actually finished all three attractions at Dr. Haunt's while about 25% quit before they got to the Chamber of Fears mental hospital scene (which was a sight to see).

So here's are the best scares in my opinion:

- Imagine a pitch black maze and you and your friends are trying to find the way out. Then a 6 foot man easily weighing over 250 pounds with the hillbilly accent says 'I've got a lighter'. So he pulls out his lighter so him and his friends will be able to see he pushes the started and a flame comes on but the last thing him and his friends see is a clown coming in and blowing it out. The scresams could be heard throughout the entire haunted house and then the clown disappeared into the maze. This scare literally lasted 5 seconds but I guarantee it was 5 seconds that none of the customers will ever forget!

- Then their's always the split personality role an actor can play. There were these two females that had just come out of the clown room and was headed down the hallway. The only was a little scare and calling for an emergency exit. We have one of our safety people ask them if they were okay and the one asked how much longer and we assured the two females that they had been through the worst part and it was almost over... so they decided to keep going and we happily assisted them down the dead end hallway which got smaller and darker until it was pitch black. Right as the two females were feeling around in the dark and turned around. A masked character in overalls came into the room and in a deep trucker voice said 'smile it's the last picture of your life' a flash from a camera went off and the overall trucker disppeared. The next scene that the two females approach had to assist them in emergency exiting since one of the females had a panic attack. Her breathing returned to normal about 20 minutes later.

- the disorinetation room where customers came and could never find their way out was always fun. the room was called the cow room since it was done up in black and white; had non-stop fog; and stribe lights that could make you go insane. This room was funny and scary. For tough boys we would make them do push ups to get out or sing 'i'm a little tea pot'. But the best was to let them try and find their way out and when they give up we would put them to the challenge. It was one of these challenges that was a personal best. The girl entered the room on her boyfriends back and she never wanted to let go. After they tried to find a way out for 4 minutes they agreed to my conditions. The boy and girl must seperate. i brought them to seperate corners and left them alone for 30 seconds. I then went and got the girl and let her out of the room. She asked for her boyfriend and I told her he had already gone ahead. That poor scared girl ran all the way through the rest of the haunted house.

- The alltime classic goes to the boys in the endless hallway. The customers would come through this hallway of doors and have to find the right door. Some doors led to dead ends, others would not open, and only one went the right way. Well a guy and a girl on a date opened a door which led to a bathroom scene which was a dead-end. The actor got the scare of surprise by coming up behind them and the girl was so scared that she jumped back and feel into the bathtub full of blood.

Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears cast at the end of each night gathers around to tell stories and give away the best scarer of the night prize. It's fun to set around and tell these stories. Stay tuned for more of Dr. Haunt's Best Scares!