Customer Reaction / Response:
FS - What is their favorite / scariest part about the haunted houses?
Since we have 5 houses, they will tell us which house, not which part, they liked the best; for the past couple of years, it had been ‘the House of the Dead’, which several had compared it to be “Disney-like” in its design. 

FS - What is their least favorite part of the haunted house? We found that people do not like a completely black maze, they tend to get bored with it.  Also we found a decline in the amount of people who enjoy the 3D effects.  People tend to go for the dark and scary places.

FS - Would they go through again or recommend it to others?
Our guests enjoy our ScreamPark so much, they keep coming back year after year, bringing more of their friends with them each time.  Sometimes, they enjoy themselves so much, we have had several patrons come every weekend.  At $17 per 5 house ticket, that’s what we call dedicated.

FS - What would they like to see in the future?
This was the hardest for all our guests.  They found themselves so overwhelmed by all 5 of our houses that many didn’t want us to change at all.  As for new concepts, they could only suggest to be even more like the movies they saw on TV our the ones coming out in the theaters

FS - Do they think you have a reasonable Price?
At $17 for all five full-length houses, our guests know they will get their money’s worth.  If you break that down to price per house, it comes to less than $4 for each house.  No other haunted attraction in this area can even dare to compete with that. 

They also have the option to pre-purchase their tickets in many locations or save by using our coupons located throughout the area with our sponsors.

ACTORS - FEATURED CREATURES
FS - Name of character or costume?
Many of our characters do not have names, but several do.  One of our icon characters is Dr. Diaglo (pronounced ‘Day-Glow’).  He is our barker for our 3D attraction CarnEvil.  We have another icon character for this year, but as we said before, we cannot release this information before we open for the season. 
           
Other characters we borrow are from the famous horror movies.  They mostly tend to remain in ‘the House of the Dead’, but several are allowed to be used in other houses.  Like the ‘mouse’ in Florida, we don’t allow any of our characters to be seen outside their jurisdiction.  If they are anywhere where our guests might see them, they must remain in character.

FS - Do you ever give out best scare awards, best costumes?
This will be our first year to hand out awards to our actors for their work.  We had discussed this between us previously and now have everything in place for this year.  Although costumes are designed by our company, we will have awards for best scare, and the like.

FS - What are some of the things you tell your actors, do you have an actors workshop?
We do have some training for our actors, but we also do have a professional actors audition, where we select actors no only on how well they can scare, but on their natural abilities to adapt to situations.

FS - Explain some of the rules that you as an "actor" must follow...such as when approached by a volatile customer, or drunken customer?
Like we said before, if our characters are seen by a guest, they must remain in character. If a guest does something inappropriate, our actors will ‘drop character’ if needed to correct the situation.  With our design of our houses, all actors can interact with each other, also allowing them to pass on information about a forthcoming guest who may be suspicious.

(ACTORS - FEATURED CREATURES - CONTINUED)
FS - Ask them what their favorite scary movie is....and what they like best about Halloween in general, their earliest Halloween memory, and favorite thing about the haunted house they act in, and last but not least, name the WORST Halloween candy / treat you have ever received?
Our cast loves all good horror movies, after we close for the night, we sit and watch a movie on one of our screens inside our attraction.  Of course this is a private screening as we do not use movies on our screens during performance.  We run trailers for movies given to us by our sponsor and several of our cast make their own movies of clips that we will allow during the performance.

We love everything about Halloween, in fact, members of our cast have been married on that night.  There isn’t anything we don’t like about Halloween, besides that it is over too quickly.

The actors inside the houses love to find their ‘own’ personal scaring place.  By using the area around them, they can best suit their own needs.  Using the details for each area of the houses, they like to create their own individual story about them and how they will act and re-cat to the customers.

FS - If you could see more of one thing or another at Haunted Attractions, both
as an actor, and spectator what would it be?
Most houses don’t take the time to pay enough attention to detail, sometimes it’s the details that will make people come back.

SUMMARY - END OF THE SEASON

- Over all about how much net profit could I haunt expect in the first 1 - 5 years of their haunt (assuming they can stick it out that long)
None.  A good company will reinvest their profits into their show for the upcoming year, if you want to be a huge success.  This is a ‘You have to Love It to Do It’ type of business, so if you’re not willing to make some sacrifices, you won’t make it.

- Is there anyway...to project when there might be a bad year ahead of you? (unfortunately, the 9/11 situation =0( seem to damper the season somewhat at that time, for obvious reasons)
You’re in the entertainment industry, as an owner you need to be aware of the other entertainment businesses such as theme parks, movie houses, etc…  Check the economics of the area as to how much you need to invest or expect to get out of it.

- What is your age group you tend to see the most of?
Our show appeals to everyone, so our age group varies greatly.  Mostly we go for the 16-20 age bracket, but as the night gets later, our groups tend to get of the older variety.

- When do preparations for next year begin? (if it ever ends)
We start as soon as we close the doors on the last night.  You have to start early if you want to be ahead of the game.

- In those preparations how would you suggest about getting sponsorships? Do you go the route of trade offs, such as a snack bar setup from Pepsi in return to "Advertise" their product, or do you go straight for cash sponsorships whenever possible...or combo of both?
Each sponsor is different.  It’s a long and tedious process of give and take between you and your sponsors.  The more time you put into it, it’ll be better for you.  If you’re that good, in time you may find sponsors coming to you.

- What is it about Haunted Attractions you love so much to make you want to put in all this hard work year after year?
Making people happy!  Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!

FRIGHTWORLD DOCUMENTARY:
PART 1 | PART 2