Mental Hospital woes =(

[Kevin Dells]

Our last season we had an asylum for the criminally insane,key word criminally!

Meening we played the parts of criminals gone insane,are they going to back criminals that have gone bonkers? I highly doubt it but other people did (not reading the haunt title!). Locals wrote the paper and complained that thier relatives were in a facility and they found this dis-tasteful.

We responded just the way i wrote this and made sure to throw out the reminder that it was Criminally insane we were trying to project.

The paper did put our response up and to say the least we were packed the next weekend!
Bad press for a haunt in a scenario as this is great press,people want to see what everybody's complaining about!

[Jast223]

Well you are in luck there is this thing in the contitution something about being able to say and do anything withen reason. O what is that called o yea the First Admendment. Let her try to sue I have heard of several people having the same problem but her complaint would never hold up in court. It is considered free speech

[monsterwax]

Repeated below.

[monsterwax]

The real problem with issues like this is that the people protesting do not really want you to change your haunt... not at first, anyway. What they want is a free news story about their cause, so they can get on the TV and talk about the issue they want everyone to be aware of. THEN, if you change your haunt, great, but they win either way: they got a free three minute commercial on the local news and all it took was a few complaints.

Pretty smart, really.

Lucky for us, two can play at that game, coz we can ALSO get free publicity out of it.

Our haunt features the Sunland Ayslum every year (with different scenes). Its been a nice draw, and we have yet to be hassled about it, but if they show up, great. Some Christians protested us a couple of years back and it pulled people in off the street. I had to tell my folks NOT to hassle them because they were helping us. In fact, I wanted to serve the protesters refreshments, but I was afraid they would figure out they were calling more attention to us and might leave. My only regret is that I didn't think to call the reporters to get them in on the act. I had a free TV commercial and newspaper ad opportunity and I BLEW IT! (In my defense, it was a busy night and I didn't have a lot of time to think it all out empirically... but I won't make that mistake twice.)

Of course, Ben is right about the potential of losing some sponsors, but that only applies if you have those kind of sponsors. A rock radio station, for instance, isn't going to care much. But other family friendly type companies just might (like Papa Johns, who didn't want any flyers with anything objectionable on them). Still, you have to weigh whatever the sponsor is giving you compared to the cost of a 3 minute or so news story during the highest rated period on TV, plus possible newspaper coverage, plus the "buzz factor" that kind of controversy creates. A back handed commercial endorsement like that is worth A LOT.

For my part, if the activists call me up and tell me to close our mental asylum, I know exactly what I'm going to say: "Are you CRAZY!?!"

[maliciousstudios]

Pubicity...hmmm good publicity = good publicity......bad publicity = good publicity.....hmmm ( win / win ) either way your in the news....LMFAO

[monsterwax]

Yes, that is one of the big benefits of having a haunted house: when critics complain that you are too bloody, or too demonic, or in bad taste, or are an evil influence, or are not politically correct, or are not proper for this or that reason, it only HELPS. Not only does it bring up your haunt in the public's mind, it also adds to the mystique. Youngsters are rebells and they don't want to go to a haunt (or rock concert, or even party) that their parents approve of. They WANT something controversial, different, offensive, edgy, or better yet, potentially dangerous... They want something to talk (or brag) about to their friends the next day.

Example: Someone started a rumor that a high school kid was kidnapped in our parking lot. People were asking me if it was true. My first impulse was to snuff out the rumor, because I didn't want parents thinking it was unsafe to send their kids to our haunt. But then I suddenly realized, WTF was a thinking? The parents aren't the ones who send the kids to us, it's the other kids who send the kids to us! And the best roller coasters are the ones with a whisper campaign of real danger. Now when they ask me about the kidnapping rumor, my response is: "I'm sorry, under advice of counsel, I can neither confirm nor deny that fact."

(Now if only I can figure out what to do with all those kidnapped kids!)

[Jim Warfield]

I Wuz Going To Have..

Milk cartons infront of my house with the photos of missing children on them and guess what? The pictures were all taken with The Ravens Grin Inn in the backround!!??
Last time they were ever seen!
I know, I'm just trying to milk it...the thread.

[stafford]

National Alliance Mental Illness

This NAMI group contacts us every year. At first, I tried to be understanding to their cause, but what I found in the end, is that they were really just harassing me. Every year they send out letters/emails asking people to make calls, send letters, emails etc. to haunted houses with asylum theme's, or in our case, names.

So now, I really pay them no attention, this year they called, emailed, wrote letters, and I just ignored them. If they stopped a minute to think about what they are complaining about, they'll realize that it's just a fictional portrayal of something that doesn't even exist anymore. I'm not aware of any local "asylums" in my area, or any area any more. When asylum's existed, the understanding of mental illness was no where near what it is today, that's why you hear about the various experiments that went on at these places, no one really knew what the hell they were doing, or so it seems.

At any rate, I resist the urge to respond to them letting them know, that yes we will change our name, and because of their concern, and our efforts to be more correct in our description, we will be changing our name from The Asylum Haunted House to The Sunny Days Home For The Mentally Challenged.

They have not picketed us, but if they decide to, I'll look forward to it.

Chris

[Dr. Giggles]

We were pickited once! It was a blast me and the other clowns got together and we scared them all back to their cars hahaah apparently they were majorly coulrophobic...the association of coulrophobics in rehab were pickiting our haunt?!?!? Hahahah

[Allen H]

Universal studios FL did a haunt for horror nights a few years back that had an asylum theme. After I went through I was not scared and I was not impressed, I was offended. Almost every actor was acting retarded, not psychotic or cannibalistic or dangerous, but acting like handyman from the old in living color show. It was sad and left a real bad taste in my mouth. My advice is if you are doing an asylum themed event make sure you stick to the more frightening illnesses, a show full of mentally challenged actors as opposed to criminally insane ones is not very good.
This is my opinion and I know it is not the only one out there. Lots of haunts have success doing things that I think are bad ideas. So take what I say for what you think its worth, but that was my experience.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

During the 1830's-50's the mentally ill were just locked up in a small room and ignored.
The old county asylum in Jackson Co. Iowa is a scary looking two-story stone building with tiny windows, the building is long, narrow and just weird looking and it seems to be in the middle of nowhere from the pictures I have seen of it.
Countys without a structure would take the lowest bidder to house a few of the ill in private households basement with basically no accommodations at all, just cold, dirty, dark places.
I think there were many more unstable people back then because of the unknown effects certain chemicals would have, chemicals used in factory production processes.
"Mad Hatter?" Mercury was used alot in the hat making business inspiring this saying.
Galena, ill. was a major lead mining area and for some reason the river going through the town was named the Fever River? I wonder....?
Maybe a ghost filled asylum from the 1850's would give no cause for their righteous concerns and complaints.
Of course to be historically accurate most of the male patients would have long beards. (Barbers didn't visit often and sharp tools were not allowed inside)

[SomeThingInTheIce]

Never Back Down!

The Jay Cees in Gainesville one year did a asylum and they backed down so fast it would have made your head spin. They tried to change the haunt and it became a mess. They had tee shirts made and everything but they just backed down. The year before this last one we had a booth at the Melrose Pumpkin Fest, passing out flyers ect. A church youth group was going around and trying to save everyone from Halloween. They kept bothering my sister, she was dressed like a dead school teacher from the 1800's. They told me that they would be coming out to my place, I looked him right in the eye, smiled and said "Ya, you do that"! They never showed up. Never back down, these people are not going to go to your haunt anyway, you need to think about the people that are going to go and what THEY want to see.

[Terrorknight]

We have had an Asylum from the day we've opened in Philadelphia PA and we haven't heard a peep. But if we did we wouldn't change a thing if anything we would go harder. Even our first commercial on TV for our haunt was solely based on the Asylum haunt. I kinda wish someone would give us some free press for it.

[Jim Warfield]

Change "Asylum" for "Alum", and all the inmates walk around with severely pursed lips looking like they are trying to kiss everyone.
This would be funny/scary alternating with the distance they closed to before kissing range was reached.
Maybe Alum-sylum?

[drfrightner]

I have talked to these people MANY TIMES, and have been quoated in major articles... newspapers contact me and ask me my opinion. I've told this organization many times to stop picking on haunted houses.

I tell them tell Warner Brothers to halt Batman movies, because all the villians end up in the asylum. Why don't they picket the Dark Knight movie...they don't because it would do no good so they picket haunted houses to drum up PR for their group.

I have half a mind to create an asylum theme then I will send them in invite to come to the haunted house and invite them to picket the attraction...all I'll get out of it is PR BABY...that is GOOD PR, PR you can't pay for. Simply tell them to come on down...invite them to your attraction tell them that would be great for my attraction because that would give us some needed PR and they won't even show up.

SCREW THEM!

Next time they contact you call me because I would love to call them on your behalf. Seriously call me! I know just how to deal with these guys, you just put the ball back in their court and ask them why do they pick on little small business's...ask them why don't don't go after Hollywood.

Even the new Halloween movie had Myers in an asylum yes? Where was their pickets then?

Those people blow!

Screw them!

Larry