Introduce Yourself...

[Hauntcast]

Hey guys, good to be here!

I'm Chris Baker the G-Host of Hauntcast - Radio for Haunters and Halloween Fanatics. What, you've never heard of Hauntcast? That is probably because I've been promoting it mostly to home haunters for the past 2 years. Most of my interviews have been with home haunters such as Chris & Jeff Davis, Brent Ross and Steve Hickman, but I've also interviewed pro haunters Jim Weilock, Bruce Stanton and this month I feature an interview with Randy Bates of the Bates Motel and Pennhurst Asylum. We have many great segments that you should enjoy.
Give the show a listen at Hauntcast.net

I'm also, a veteran home/yard haunter. My haunt is the Village Mire.com which is mostly animatronic and static props. I plan on adding a walk through next year and incorporating more actors. Over the next 3 years I plan on learning all aspects of the haunted attraction industry and eventually opening a pro haunt of my own. I hope to learn a lot from you all.

Stay scary,

Chris

[Madhaus32]

Name: Derek Greenwood
Haunt: Night Terrors of Effingham
Location: Rural Southern Illinos
Age: 40
Job: Graphic Designer by day, Haunt Designer and Actor by night

I'm new to the industry, helping to build up a second year attraction. I started out as a home haunter and finally got a chance to evolve. I look forward to putting down a few brewskis with you guys at Transworld this year.

[Lisa Mathis]

Hello

I am starting a new haunt in Maryland and have a lot of questions. Thank you for allowing me to share information with you.

[HauntChick]

Hello Haunt World

I'm Catie from Shreveport, LA. I'm the House Manager at the Ultimate Fear Haunted House and last year was my very first halloween. I got involved in July when I began writing the backstory for the UF. (Yes, I'm a writer, a damn good one if i do say so myself. *smiles*)

I fell in love with all the hard work that goes into the preseason and found my absolute addiction in being scared (yes, i'm kinda a big chicken if i let myself relax in a haunt, which is so much fun). So far I've been to The Cutting Edge (Dallas, TX), Thrillvania (TX), 13 Stories (Atlanta, GA), Folklore (Atlanta, GA) and Netherworld (Atlanta, GA). I want to continue visiting as many haunts as possible and learning from the best in the business.

I've made so many close friends through the haunted house business and I look forward to meeting many more! I'll be at Transworld this year, ready to have fun and learn alot!

I'm currently learning about Acting, make-up artistry, everything Management, Costuming, and making latex prosthetics and masks.

[MournfulManor]

Mournful Manor

Name: Michael Caneva
Haunt: Mournful Manor
location: Arvada (Denver), CO
age:34

Hello all! My name is Michael Caneva. I am in the Denver Metro Area and am more or less brand new 'round these parts. I've been lurking a bit since August '10, but this is my first official post. While I haven't spent much time lurking around forums since my roleplaying days which ended around 2006, I was a staple of them around 2002-2005 so it feels good to be back posting again.

I've been a Halloween fanatic since childhood and really started to acquire props and decorations in 2005 when we began holding yearly Halloween parties at our house. Things went great this way for about 4 years before we started to notice that we spent more time and money decorating the inside of the house to turn it into a haunted house than anything else. That's when the idea first hit me: Why are we going to all this expense and effort for 50-100 people to be blown away each year when we could open something up to the public?

In 2010, we created and opened Mournful Manor, our home haunted house, with 13 rooms/areas throughout our garage and 1/4 acre back yard. Our focus is on going pro in 2011 or 2012 and on creating a truly high-quality adult-oriented Haunt in the Denver area. I would really appreciate whatever advice or help I can get to move toward this goal. I'll be the first to admit that I only barely know what I'm doing, but now armed with Kelly Allen's "So You Want To Be A Haunt Entrepreneur", a new subscription to Haunted Attraction magazine, and access to this forum and all the knowledge contained herein, I'm confident that it can be accomplished!

[nightmare on 3rd Street]

Glad to be here and I hope I and learn a lot from you all!
I,, (for lack of a better explaination) produce and direct a fund raiser haunted house. I obviously dont own it but that is about all that I don't do. We have been doing this for 5 years now and it seems to be growing and growing. I'm pretty proud of the fact that we have become pretty professional and rival some of the best haunts in our state even though we dont have a large budget to work with. We have about 8000 square feet in the basement of our City Hall that we just about have the freedom to do most of the things we want. We had 2300 people thru the haunt this year that we open up for only 4 days. My goal is possibly to open up 6 days in October and bring in an extra 1000 people. I'm just a little afraid we may not have enough of an interest to get that many more people... Anway.. glad to be here!

[NilesHauntedHouse]

Niles Haunted House FINALLY on Haunt World!

Name: Aaron Smith
Location: Niles, MI
Haunt: Niles Haunted House Scream Park

First Off, I am not the actual owner to the brilliant Niles Haunted House, just a consultant for the technologically impaired, Pete Karlowicz. Haha. Many of you I'm sure have heard of us, considering we've been around for nearly 40 Yrs now.

I've been with Niles for 7 Years now, and I continue to move my way up into the hierarchy of both the haunt, and the industry. I've followed the owners foot steps for the past several years, attending trade shows, conventions, and even contributed to seminars.

Currently I represent myself as their Marketing Director for Promotion and Sales. From contribution to designing Commercials, managing Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and YouTube, to even Group Sales.

During my Off Season (when I'm not promoting) I attend Grand Valley State University Michigan to further my education under a Marketing Major. Although its hard to manager my time between class work and a business, I manage to get it done. Traveling over 3,000 miles just to attend the Season while were open only proves my dedication.

I'm committed into this industry to either successfully market the Niles Haunted House Scream Park year after year, own "her", or build a dream haunted attraction of my own.

I'm Aaron Smith and I'm proud to be a part of the Industry!

www.haunted.org
(269) 687-FEAR

[ETHEREAL_FX]

Ethereal FX

Ethereal FX was started by Greg Lewis and Robyn Burns on the central coast of California. Between the two of them more than 30 years of creating haunted attractions, stage shows, movies and more has required them to solve many lighting and control issues that face both the professional and hobbyist.

Ethereal FX was born of the idea that those solutions and that knowledge should be used to allow creative types the world over to create and share their visions. Every Product offered by Ethereal FX is designed and tested in the field to solve problems we encounter trying to bring our visions to life.

That idea of field level research and design means that every nut, bolt, dimension and decision in our products are there because that’s what works best when you’re actually using them, not because some marketing department decided black enclosures were “in” this year. That research and design philosophy also means that we take our customers feedback very seriously.

Beyond the products, we also take on consulting and speaking engagements in an effort to share our extensive business experience and expertise.

www.ETHEREALFX.com

[FearFactoryErie]

Hi everyone!
Name: Henry GQ
Haunt: Fear Factory Erie
Location: 144 west 13th street Erie, PA

Im new to this industry. 2011 will be my first year of doing a pro haunt. My haunt is located inside an old old paper factory/warehouse. the 1st floor is a nightclub. The 2nd and 3rd floor(which consists of 8,000 sq feet each) will be Fear Factory Erie with room to expand onto the roof(wouldnt it be cool to have a maze on a 3 story building overlooking the city !?) and parts of the basement!

i probably spent 2 months reading this forum as well as others before i finally pulled the trigger and decided to do this!(besides the 2 years of kicking the idea around) and believe me i think i read every thread LOL. i have ordered several dvds on "how to's" and will order many more. i also think im one of the most creative people that u can meet in this eeerie city! i will be starting another thread so people can track the status of my build. i know this being my first pro haunt it will be very difficult and expensive. i have leaned on several people in this industry for some help and will pick everyones brains in this forum! and share some of my ideas as well! i hope to bring something that u see in cleveland, pittsburgh, buffalo, akron to this area! and make people proud that erie finally has a pro haunt!

erie is 2 hours from pittsburgh, and an hour and half from cleveland and buffalo! i hope to drag some people out from those areas to check out

feel free to drop me a msg or reply to my thread!

Henry GQ
Fear Factory Erie

[bourgetHauntedFuneralhome]

hey

Hey I'm new to the site I recently bought a real funeral home that is no longer in service and looking to make a real horror haunted funeral home that would be run all year round for the month of october being a horror house then in the other months make a murder mistery dinner style group rentals that people can use for birthdays or groups outings if u have any advice it would be great I'm located in ottawa ontario and the city really needs this. there is nothing around like it there nothing scary just little wagon rides and stuff that are meant for kids but im looking to make something adult based .

[Twin Locusts]

Welcome John! Hope your time on here helps you realize your goals!!

[No_Regret]

Hey there everyone, my name is John. I'm 20 years old, and live in Ohio. I worked at the prestigious Haunted Schoolhouse/Laboratory last year, in Akron, Ohio. I loved every second of it, and I absolutely love scaring people and everything about Halloween.

I hope to one day, own a haunt of my own...and also hope that it can become something great.

Well, thats about all I can think of for now folks!

[Nightmares10]

Hi names Patrick,

Live in Baltimore, MD...

Been a huge fan of anything and everything horror. Trying my best to start my own haunted house. Have many ideas just not the financial resources to pull this off. Built my first "model" haunted house, now onto my second one. This one will be very close to what i want for the haunted house!

Anything else you would like to know please reply!

Thanks

[love4halloween]

What’s up everyone, I’m an actor/enthusiast from Minnesota. I am currently without a haunt but looking for one now. I’ve been into haunts and Halloween for years, having volunteered at local productions and having, at some point or another, attended most haunted attractions in the twin cities metro. I attend college full time right now (go gophers!). I am loving the weather here now, getting me into that Halloween mode.

[HauntMan03]

Name: Mike Hargrove
Age: 25
Location: Southern Missouri

Howdy yall names Mike and I've been the lead operator for Zombie Road- Dead Before Dawn in southern Missouri for 7 years. Started as a Home Haunt and grew from there. Now I produce my Haunted House in a 60x80 wood/metal building. Have a great set of Actors each year. Most are senior Haunters a few newbies. I am very strick when I come to actors. I believe if people pay to get scared they get what they pay for. I do an ALL ZOMBIE attraction. No Michael Myers, Jason or such. I've started revamping the Haunt this year and believe it will probably be the best year yet! I am eager to learn from ones that have been in the business for many years. Want to expand my contacts and talk to more Haunters. Hope everyone has a great haunting season.

Mike W. Hargrove