I arrived today (Friday) at MHC and I'm having a good time so far! Went on the Friday Night Bus Tour to the Costume Vault and then to the Scare-A-Torium haunted house. The Costume Vault seemed to be a large Halloween Express store. There were a LOT of pre-made, mass produced costumes, as you would expect in that kind of costume store. Still, there were a few items of interest, and a nice snack table. Speaking of which, I was standing in line for the snack table, and I noticed none other than Leonard Pickel standing behind me in line! I'm sure some of you will think this is funny, but he's kind of a legend in my mind, so I was too shy to introduce myself.
I'm not sure what was happening when we got to the Scare-A-Torium. The cue line was tremendous, and moved at a VERY slow pace. Some kind of throughput problem? There were wandering cue line actors who did a pretty fine job. There was also a Ghostbusters station wagon (?) of some kind, with two Ghostbusters. One of the Ghostbusters wore the appropriate proton pack, but was dressed in some kind of purple pimp outfit. I didn't get it. They had very cool packs though...Very detailed, with good lighting.
The Scare-A-Torium was a long haunt, in a partially empty shopping center. The haunt incorporated a lot of different themes divided into sections. There didn't seem to be an overall storyline, but I didn't really mind. It was kind of an odd experience in that main overhead lighting was very bright for a haunted house. I'm not really sure if that was considered a "lights on" tour or not? To me it seemed like somewhere between full haunt mode and a lights-on tour. The brightness level really didn't do any favors to the haunt. A lot of things intended to be hidden (outlet strips, etc) were clearly visible because the lighting was so bright. On the positive side, the actors were very energetic! There was an actor that slithered on the ground like a snake and scared the woman behind me half to death. I didn't know her, but she had a death-grip on the back of my belt for most of the haunt. It made it more fun actually. I enjoyed the section that had many different carved Jack-O-Laerns, and their morgue section. The black light section of the haunt was my favorite. At first we weren't sure it was a black light haunt, because again the overall lighting level of the overhead lights was high (by haunt standards), but there were moments of genius... The cotton candy wall was a particular favorite. There was some confusion about the right path towards the end causing the conga-line to loop back onto itself (causing us to repeat some halls/rooms) but I didn't mind. It gave me a chance to check out some of the cool toxic chemical sets a second time.
On the bus on the way back to the convention I ended up in a seat right next to the guys from the Haunt House / BrainChow Studios! That was a big deal to me, because I watch their Youtube series: "A Haunter's Life" on a regular basis. They were all very cool, and very nice to me. So far my first ever haunt convention has been a very positive experience. We weren't able to book rooms at the Hyatt because they were sold-out before we were able to commit to attending the convention, so we're staying at the Best Western Port Columbus, which is about 10 minutes (at most) from the convention. Tomorrow I'll be hitting the trade show floor, the weekend seminars, and Allen Hopps' class on set design! I'll report more tomorrow.
I'm not sure what was happening when we got to the Scare-A-Torium. The cue line was tremendous, and moved at a VERY slow pace. Some kind of throughput problem? There were wandering cue line actors who did a pretty fine job. There was also a Ghostbusters station wagon (?) of some kind, with two Ghostbusters. One of the Ghostbusters wore the appropriate proton pack, but was dressed in some kind of purple pimp outfit. I didn't get it. They had very cool packs though...Very detailed, with good lighting.
The Scare-A-Torium was a long haunt, in a partially empty shopping center. The haunt incorporated a lot of different themes divided into sections. There didn't seem to be an overall storyline, but I didn't really mind. It was kind of an odd experience in that main overhead lighting was very bright for a haunted house. I'm not really sure if that was considered a "lights on" tour or not? To me it seemed like somewhere between full haunt mode and a lights-on tour. The brightness level really didn't do any favors to the haunt. A lot of things intended to be hidden (outlet strips, etc) were clearly visible because the lighting was so bright. On the positive side, the actors were very energetic! There was an actor that slithered on the ground like a snake and scared the woman behind me half to death. I didn't know her, but she had a death-grip on the back of my belt for most of the haunt. It made it more fun actually. I enjoyed the section that had many different carved Jack-O-Laerns, and their morgue section. The black light section of the haunt was my favorite. At first we weren't sure it was a black light haunt, because again the overall lighting level of the overhead lights was high (by haunt standards), but there were moments of genius... The cotton candy wall was a particular favorite. There was some confusion about the right path towards the end causing the conga-line to loop back onto itself (causing us to repeat some halls/rooms) but I didn't mind. It gave me a chance to check out some of the cool toxic chemical sets a second time.
On the bus on the way back to the convention I ended up in a seat right next to the guys from the Haunt House / BrainChow Studios! That was a big deal to me, because I watch their Youtube series: "A Haunter's Life" on a regular basis. They were all very cool, and very nice to me. So far my first ever haunt convention has been a very positive experience. We weren't able to book rooms at the Hyatt because they were sold-out before we were able to commit to attending the convention, so we're staying at the Best Western Port Columbus, which is about 10 minutes (at most) from the convention. Tomorrow I'll be hitting the trade show floor, the weekend seminars, and Allen Hopps' class on set design! I'll report more tomorrow.
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