Biggest Haunt Pet Peeve

[Jim Warfield]

Real Scare='s No Make-up!

Do actually scary types of people wear make up? A psycho-cross-dressing killer may? Some may wish I was wearing make up , trading that "look" for my natural 65 year old wrinkled ugliness! No Mask HERE!
I MUST be one crazy S.O.B. to have a haunted house open almost every night of the year for 27 years! (Do I know satan as a personal friend and Buddy? No.)
Some get very carried away by any of this and trully fearful. Maybe it's my "Acting"? "Storytelling?"
Having a Haunted, haunted house?
Do I have any major complaints concerning my haunt workers? Well.....I have learned to not worry so much because my idea of "perfection" or storyline never seems to begin to happen if more than one other person is involved.
Yes, I have had some very good, talented people here and some very maddening ones too.
Some tried, many didn't know or try, all mere human, common failings as decreed by others who also might not really have a clue.

When a customer of 7-8 visits is hired and shows up in a movie monster costume and assumes this is what I want or need here, then suddenly becomes a Prima dona more concerned about posing in the parking lot getting his picture taken than actually working in the house....aren't "people" something?
Others ARe the most frustraiting things . Give me a piece of wood, steel, some hand tools and tomorrow what I did to those materials will still look as I had influenced them.. not always so with people, they change their mind, assume whatever they decide to do will be "peachy" or correct even though you are paying them to do what you want them to do instead!?
I would be much further ahead if I just hired the Nursing Home to wheel down a load of 95 yr. olds , park them in certain house locations, it would be definately wierd and spooky, no make up needed, no mid-tour character changes and no "He-Said, She-Said" Bullchitt!
They would all be too tired to talk and too deaf to hear it!
I'm calling the "Home" tomorrow and I'm not "E.T.!"
My first two emplyees were the best in some ways, old guys that a number of local people, mostly female, were actually afraid of! (For no actual real reason) Harmless idiots really. No make up needed no Voice lessons (scary already)
So it goes...........

[damon carson]

Biggest Pet Peeve!

Definitely has to be has to be bad makeup! And haunts that don't have a real or any makeup artists!?! You kidding me! At least give your actors some training session on how to apply makeup and look good! And the actors that think pouring perma blood all over them. And as was mentioned above in an earlier post! Where the hell is this and did this blood come from?! No apparent wounds. Oh you just took it from your victoms I guess huh? Well learn to splatter the shit or something! Because it just doesn't run down your face like that if you kill someone! Opps I sound like im talking from experience! ha! No really get a good makeup artist and maybe an assistant! Have them give a general makeup course for the actors that don't need as much makeup and there. You've improved your haunt by 60% or more. Bad makeup really can bring a show down from the very start!
Damon
www.frightmasters.weebly.com

[HobzGoblin]

Road Blocks.

I can't stand actors who don't know the difference between getting uncomfortably close and being an obtrusive road block.

Standing in the middle of the hall with that I'm-gonna-do-unmentionable-thing-to-you gleam in your eye and then leaning in close as I go around you? Great! Keep up the good work!

Repeatedly stepping in front of me and bodily preventing me from passing like you're a bouncer trying to keep me from entering a club?
Not scary. Not creepy. Just realllly ticking me off.

[Amandaeevengeactor]

For sure everyone in the haunt being the same character, main example all little kids or all demons. Also, the lines "lets play" "Stay and play" "Wanna play a game"..... and then NOTHING to follow through with that. Actors showing up in street clothes as their costumes. Clowns with pointed chins and tripp pants/ jumpsuits. Anyone who wears anything from hot topic without altering it. Wearing costumes that do not fit the scenes, why would a nurse be in the jungle..... Actors copying other actors, stealing characters.

[soultrkr]

Oh where to start?
White tennis shoes. If your some dead creature or killer roaming the woods why are you wearing TENNIS SHOES THAT LOOK LIKE THEY CAME RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The words BOO Um get out does not bother me if it fits in but if your character wants to kill them and make them into sausage or something why are you telling them to get out?
Drunks for the love of pete if you can barely walk how do you think your going to get through a haunted trail.
Bottle necks that incapacitate flow and create super groups. When your not a character set for startle you almost feel like you need to be doing a song and dance by the end of that group.
Black robes FOR EVERYONE!!!!! why why why? put some variety in.

FAKE BLOOD IS NOT A MAKEUP JOB!!!! nothing annoys me more than someone with just fake blood with nothing else. no wounds, no dirt, nothing but fake blood. I get annoyed by trick or treaters like that too I refuse to give them candy unless they entertain me.
Random use of Horror movie characters, I mean if you have to use these characters please put them in a set or surrounding that makes sense not just randomly appearing.
Actors who do not even try. Look I understand sometimes you get caught out of spot but when your all set and you come out with the same energy as the cartoon droopy the dog, you're not going to scare anyone unless you're their post man.
And Finally my #1 pet peeve haunts that never change anything. If you do not try or strive to be better then why should I waste my time and money coming back.

[Dark Tiki Studios]

My haunt pet peeve is when someone screams or yells while putting their mouth directly next to my ear! Sure, its shocking, but it can also cause permanent hearing loss! My hearing is tied directly to my career. in a haunt you can jump at me, bump me, mist me, fog me, slime me, strobe me, air blast me, shock me, and mock me all you like... But shout directly into my ear at your own peril.

[JavaMan]

Hollister,Gap,Tapout, shirts really? I don't care if you have small tears or fake blood drenched all over this is just lame !

Ok one more, Kids playing roles that are meant for Adults. Nobody is afraid of a 4'9 kid with a werewolf mask and of course a Hollister T-shirt...

[JavaMan]

I believe Actors should create a character that is influenced by the theme of the Haunt. I really don't feel like visiting the "Evil Clown Circus" and listening to a SteamPunk Scientist or a Renaissance Pirate.

Cosplay is at its all time high in popularity and I feel some Actors are so full of themselves they preform for themselves and not the Haunt.

[Badger]

When I put on an actor's workshop, I tell the owners that it is my duty to eliminate the phrases "Boo", "Get Out" and unless it's a butcher shop or cannibal theme, "Fresh Meat". I have been in haunts where I have heard "Get out" 5 rooms in a row. It gets very old very fast. Without fail, the owners I work with have agreed to make it a firing offense.

Another thing I don't necessarily like are actors who simply get in your face without making a sound and then don't move away. Silent characters have their place but you need to know when to reset or move along. This goes for all actors, do your scare and then reset.

[870Haunter]

Free roaming actors that trail groups through the entire haunt. If I'm having to stand in a dark closet and time when I come out a clingy actor ruins it for everyone. Many times the patrons are already pissed at not being left alone if the actor is obnoxious enough not only slowing everything down, but raising the chance of an actor to end up getting hit. Roaming actors have their place in dead spots and mazes, but they just kind of clutter up room to room areas.

[imagineer]

Biggest Haunt Pet Peeve

I don't like to complain. But I need to say the worst thing I have experienced recently is the reusing of 3D glasses. I won't put those on my face if they were on someone else's. I would like to see these cleaned and then reused. Can you imagine how many heads those go on in one season? Or worse, they are being reused from previous years. I won't have a 3D haunt until next year (fingers crossed) but when/if I do I will need to find a way to clean those glasses so they can be worn over and over again.

[Doomsday]

Cellphones

I can't speak as an operator (yet) but as a customer one of mine is cellphones. I HATE!!! with a passion how often I see other customers bouncing around a haunt either talking, texting, taking pictures (which if warranted I can understand), or using it as a flash light. I feel horrible for the actors in some of these places being stuck in a low light or worse dark room and have a bunch of breeders come bounding up and blast them in the face with it. Hell I get a headache from all the light and I only experience it for a short period of time.

It just amazes me how inconsiderate and self righteous they get when taken to task about this too. I remember one haunt (can't remember the name) a few years ago were one of the staff asked a couple of kids to refrain from using the light as it blinded the actors and they (the kids) not only started flashing him with their phones but got no end of laughter out of this. I honestly had to almost walk out of the haunt because I didn't want to end up turning the group into a real life horror show.

[Victoria Stearns]

Bad makeup is one of my biggest pet peeves. Bad gore makeup is *alright* if the actor is in a dark part of a haunt, but I have only ever seen bad makeup in the best lit parts of haunts. I don't know why.

Another thing that bothers me is when the soundtrack/background music/sound effects are so loud that the actor has to practically shout in your ear to pull off the scare. Background music and sound effects are fine, but they shouldn't be so loud that you can't hear yourself think when you're a patron. If the patrons are getting headaches from being in there for 10 minutes, then imagine how the actors are feeling from being in there for hours on end.

[Sarge]

Cliched characters, animatronics that are hokey, obviously fake or just plain broken, costumes that look like they came in a plastic bag from a costume store and parts of an attraction where you can see the "outside world", those parts break the fourth-wall.

Yes. All of this. Particularly the costume thing. I understand that times are hard and everyone has different ideas for characters. But when I see a veteran actor in a costume for Halloween Express, I get the shivers.

[Toothpaste]

Cliched characters, animatronics that are hokey, obviously fake or just plain broken, costumes that look like they came in a plastic bag from a costume store and parts of an attraction where you can see the "outside world", those parts break the fourth-wall.