The Chamber Design

Creating the design for The Show or Bloody Fun attractions always seems to come easy compare to designing for Chamber of Fears attraction. Although, we pride ourself at Dr. Haunt's on having high quality attractions it is Chamber of Fears which was our first attraction and the one that has been nationally ranked so everytime that we begin tearing down and re-designing, I hope that it will be a design that blows away the previous attraction. And from our humble start and design in 2003 we have come a long way but we can always strive for better. So when you think 20 rooms inside a haunted house on average from one year to the next and then this is our 8th season - we have done some major transformations inside Chamber of Fears.

Other haunted houses do not spend as much time as we do changing their design up from year to year and although I know the reality is most customers do not remember in what order the scenes came and went from one year to the next. It has become a matter of pride. The biggest change in design and become inside the Chamber we work backwards meaning we start with the last room. Each room does build up to the big finish but this is where I like to focus a lot of my attention.

For the past three years we have been transforming Chamber of Fears which use to be a showcase or all fears to a theme attraction playing off the castle design. So in 2010 customers can expect 80% to be Chamber theme and in 2011 we plan on being 100% Chamber theme. But heck by 2011 we might also have a forth attraction!

2009 Season

Running a haunted house can be one of the most fun things I have ever done in my life. It can also be one of the most craziest! This year our 2009 season had 17 nights that we were open to scare customers, 83 build days, 3 communiy events(parades/depot days), and 10 hardcore marketing days driving all through Texas and Oklahoma distributing our materials.

Highlights of the 2009 season:
10. Devil being removed from Shleby by a 10 year old
9. Hail storm during the season and customers kept coming to stand in line in hail
8. Fellow haunted house jealous of our marketing
7. Depot days - 500 kids later (I guess when you offer free face paiting compare to the face painters charging $5 you see a lot of action)
6. Removing an entire wall while customers kept coming through the haunt "Kim their coming for you"
5. Nathan in the wedding dress, why is it every year straight boys want to wear that dress
4. Bloody Fun - is the best clown attraction in a 200 mile radius - yes we beat the one in East Texas but after 7 months building that thing we should have been the best
3. Skull football
2. Late nights hanging out after work days at a resturant!
1. Fellow haunted house entire cast and crew jealous of our haunted house (even sweeter since they wanted to buy the haunted house 3 years ago but instead spent 4 times as much buying another one and there's can not compare)!

The season was fun and worth it. We started construction for the 2010 season and have been working really intent this year already. The hours that went into the 2009 season made a huge difference and customers that enjoyed 2009 will have some really pleasant surprises in 2010 since we are only strengthing what we have started. 2009 marked our 7th year and each year we just keep growing!

Clowns of Death and Horror

So the summer is coming to an end and Fall is almost here - which means Halloween and haunt season! I cannot contain myself as we have spent over 1,000 hours recreating Bloody Fun - the Clown Attraction at Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear and although I might be bias... it is the Best Haunted House Clown Attraction in America!

As the designer of this haunted house I have found myself scared - yes one night when locking up I carried scissors to protect myself from these clowns from Hell. Yes, my friends would laugh at me - what haunt manager is afraid of clowns well if you had 6,000 square feet of clowns; 100 portraits of clowns looking at you; and then all these dang clown dummies looking at you... I think you too would carry scissors, a cross, or a gun. But of course none of these are known to stop psycho clowns!

So anyway after 1,000 hours and over 40 different people putting in there two cents we are done with 6,000 square feet and are up to 80 pennies and the psysco Best Haunted House Attraction in Texas!!!

The amazing thing is this is our #2 attraction out of three attractions. Of course we still have Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears which is the Nationally Ranked Haunted House.

So if IT or Bozo makes you go in your pants then my friends Dr. Haunt's Bloody Fun is a place where you should where depends. For those that say Clowns aint scary... I dare you to try it because we will make a pant's-wetter out of you!

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!