The Darkness / Mini Golf / Escape Room Tour 2021

[drfrightner]

Updates from The Darkness and St Louis Escaspe.

As of RIGHT NOW are NOT going to open ANY of our haunted houses for tours during the 2021 Transworld Haunted House Show. Additionally we're NOT planning ANY behind the scenes tours of our escape rooms either. Furthermore our company will NOT be taking a booth at the Transworld show, and I personally will NOT be doing any seminars or attending the show myself.

I have a lot going on right now and I'm in no frame of mind to do haunted house tours, seminars or anything else. We also will not be doing any private tours for anyone.

Now for the good news... our escape rooms will be open and they are much different than when you last visited in 2019. Lets start with a game room right here!!! This is the game room for St Louis Escape.

Also since 2019 Transworld we've added THREE new escape rooms including: Dracula - Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein plus a Mini Golf. All of this will be available to book online at www.stlouisescape.com

I must warn everyone NOW... our escape rooms are #1 most booked rooms in St Louis, so if you want to see them you should start booking NOW! If you wait they'll simply be booked solid by people who live within the St Louis area. We're not adding extra hours, extra times or anything else for Transworld. So if you want to see them you need to book the rooms NOW! The last picture is a pic of something we just themed for Frankenstein.

If something changes its possible we could do a last minute behind the scenes tour of Darkness but RIGHT NOW there is NO PLANS for ANYTHING. Stay tuned here if something changes. Also I will be uploading photos of the Darkness and Frankenstein finished.

Larry

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[drfrightner]

Let me also explain a few other things. Yes we did a renovation to The Darkness as if we were going to open for Transworld, however those renovations got finished in phases.

Phase 1 was done prior to Krampus event, Phase 2 prior to Valentines and now Phase 3 is to be finished just prior to us opening for Scream Break. All Darkness renovations for 2021 will be done within the next 10 days.

What we did in 2020: Built a new 5 Minute Escape Room - Wonderful Wizard of Oz Escape - Dracula Escape - Yeti Scene (downstairs darkness) Witch Cave (downstairs darkness) New Black Maze (Downstairs Darkness) Snake Cave (Downstairs Darkness) and finally Snake Cave (Downstairs Darkness) - Built a new interactive mini golf

What we did in 2021: Totally rebuilt our gift shop with new carpet and tons of items for the gift store - Updated our swamp house to garage area with a new pumpkin barn and new animations and theming - Added a haunted conservatory complete with 13 CGI FX - Added several new animations across upstairs and downstairs - Built Frankenstein Escape Room - Added two complete new FX where there was none before an exploding pipe and zombie door CGI FX - We totally re-did the serial killer room with amazing new animations from Unit 70.

We also had started to renovate Creepyworld just in time for Transworld but we got hit with freezing cold temps and tons of snow. What we had planned was a video mapping show - updated Krampus haunted house - and a new Jack the Ripper haunted house plus a pumpkin barn photo op.

So yes we planned on opening and could very easy open The Darkness.

We could change our minds, but right now very distracted with other things going on. We'll let you know if anything changes.

Thanks Larry

[drfrightner]

Going to be posting some really cool pictures all weekend of the haunted house. We did a final upgrade on The Darkness.

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[Joey Ruscica]

This looks cool

[drfrightner]

More pictures of stuff we're doing around The Darkness including our new Escape Room.
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[drfrightner]

We made this video to remind customers we're coming back in Halloween season. Stay connected to your customers all throughout the year.

[Demon Knight]

Larry,

You keep teasing with all these photos but not opening? What is this all about? The events at this years show just don't measure up without a haunted house tour. I keep waiting for the last minute April Fools joke. Why would you go thru all this renovation work but not open makes no sense.

[drfrightner]

Yo Mr. Demon,

As you found out we did NOT open. For years we kept saying this could be the last one and people kept saying 'you always say that'. Well 2019 there was no tour due to Covid and honestly that really was going to be the last one. 2020 clearly we didn't open despite the fact our haunted house was fully renovated and ready to go. With a flick of the switch we could have opened. It appeared people were dying to do something, it might have been our best turnout ever. There are many factors for not opening and I'll go thru them.

1) I'm taking care of my mom. Without knowing what exactly was going to happen and when I didn't know what to do. I was told three different times my mother would be dead within the week, and she didn't die. Hearing that was traumatic only for it to not happen, you start to build up this false sense of security. With all that being said my mom is still very much alive and fighting cancer every day. This was a factor.

2) Morons... last year several morons kind of ruined it for me. When a handful of people got online and started spreading rumors we were not giving refunds, and slamming us, I was like 'fuck this morons'. We don't need to do a tour ever again as far as I'm concerned.
As everyone knows who actually bought a ticket, not the idiots who never did but spread the rumors, we gave everyone a refunds. I have fun doing these tours, and last years situation made it NOT FUN!

3) Money... people said I do them for the money. Well I could have made MORE money than any year EVER and we didn't OPEN! I NEVER did the haunt tours for MONEY, it was always to help the industry. But if people really think its about money for me, now they know its NOT! We could have changed our minds at any point and sold out every ticket and we choose not to.

With all that being said I understand what you're saying... I got a few emails from people who said because we were not doing the haunt tour they decided not to come. It was never our intent to discourage people from attending the show by not doing a haunt tour. But I understand it, because the show just seems like the same thing every single year from the vendor side. BTW that isn't a shot at the Haunt vendors, because honestly IAAPA, BOWL EXPO doesn't matter what show you go to its the same thing every year. At the end of the buyers want a show, they want to make face to face contact, attend seminars, do tours, have fun! I think in some ways Transworld is more like an EVENT, like a second HALLOWEEN for people. That is a good thing.

Transworld did an amazing job creating TONS of events from Six Flags Haunt Tours, City Museum, Vampire Show, special events and everything between. The show itself is NOT dependent on a haunt tour but if I was being totally honest... TRANSWORLD should focus very hard on getting animation companies to come back. Without all those animations I do think the shows attendance will start to lag. Even when the show was a Halloween retail tradeshow, even those vendors wanted to see BIG OVER THE TOP booths and animations.

The show can't be nothing but masks and costumes... you need to see something on the floor you've never seen before, stuff that goes viral. I think that should be TW focus not haunt tours. I honestly don't think our haunt tours are needed anymore.

Our haunt tours where vital to build the show, but the show is bigger than that now. I think we will quietly fade out the darkness from the Transworld experience. Transworld will not miss a beat in fact it will just continue to get bigger and bigger!!! Trust me!

[MDKing]

I think haunt tours are very important because it’s one thing seeing props and equipment in house lighting, but it’s something altogether different seeing it in a show setting. Despite our industry claiming to be creative types, there seems to be a lack of creativity overall, as evident from the nonstop barrage of clown masks and costumes and accessories at the show this year. I remember the interactive haunt they used to have on the show floor and even that was pretty cool because you saw props used in scenes which could help to inspire. Might be cool if transworld came up with a theme every year for a haunted house display on the show floor and vendors can each have a room to display some of their products in a show setting. Lighting and sound companies can help bring the scenes to life and showcase their products that way. It seems for some you have to do the thinking for them, and that would be a great way to show potential buyers what buying their props would look like in their shows back home. If this was free to the vendors to display it would save vendors from having to buy even more booth space while being able to show more of what they offer to potential buyers. Anyway, just a thought, but it would make the show floor a bit more interesting...

Allan

[drfrightner]

image_21974.jpgimage_21976.jpg Allen,

You're 110% correct about seeing vendors products in show conditions. I think that is a key selling point for vendors. Haunts see stuff then they want to buy it.

I hate to say this but I didn't miss doing the haunt tours, despite the fact we totally renovated the Darkness like usual and the money. I just didn't miss it.

We'll see what happens. But with Six Flags, City Museum and Vampire Balls I'm not sure our haunts fit in anymore.

Larry

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[drfrightner]

Frankenstein Escape