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Shootings At Haunted Houses - Serious Problem What to do about it?

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  • Shootings At Haunted Houses - Serious Problem What to do about it?

    Several haunted houses now have had shooting at their haunted houses apparently over line cutting. At least one person is dead! So far I've tracked three different haunted houses who's had shootings.

    I've never heard of shootings in haunted houses now all of a sudden there are several. Why? Apparently one of the biggest issues is cutting line. This is a problem at any amusement park or facility people trying to cut in line. I've had this problem at my haunted houses as well.

    What do I do? Well for one line cutting can lead to fights, and well in these cases shootings. You have to watch your lines especially the back of these lines like a HAWK! If I get two groups fighting about line cutting, I always take one of the two groups out of line and put them into the haunted house PRONTO! I've had people scream at me afterwards saying 'oh you're rewarding line cutting' but the alternative is what exactly? Leave those groups together and I walk away and boom a fight breaks out... no thanks.

    You must watch your que lines this year and you need to make sure there is no line cutting and if it leads to people getting into arguments put one of the two groups INTO the haunted house immediately.

    Secondly, you really might want to consider metal detectors this year, they're actually sold by our friends at Headless Horseman. Furthermore and probably most importantly you can't let this covid thing cripple your haunted house. If you start putting in groups in so slow you will get fights ... people don't want to wait forever. One fight that broke out as I read anyway in Detroit occured at 12:30 am ... don't be open that late. Put those people into the haunt don't play around with these people, set your haunted house up to handle the crowd and get them into the haunt. You put people in way to slow you're there until 5 am. You can't do that... you're committing haunted suicide.

    If you're worried about covid situation I can honestly say I'd rather have SHORTER que lines out front than longer ones because you're going way to slow. Furthermore if you're concerned then maybe you better open earlier to get these people in the door.

    NO HAUNTED HOUSE SHOULD BE OPEN PAST MIDNIGHT ... you need to make it a priority to have all guests into the door by MIDNIGHT and the DOORS LOCKED!

    At The Darkness and Creepyworld our goal is to put people in the door as fast when we open as we would when the place gets swamped at 9pm.

    Follow these simple rules:

    1) On your busiest nights open at 6:45 even if its still slightly lit outside.

    2) Put people in as fast at 7 pm as you would at any other time of the night don't let he line pile up on you then all of a sudden you go faster.

    3) Make your goal to have no line or virtually no line at 8:30 pm.

    4) Make sure your actors are on the same page SCARE and reset

    Remember one thing... you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. In other words if you put them in way to slow they hate you for it, if you put them in too fast they say its not scary. You lose no matter what so find that happy medium so you can close those doors prior to Midnight.

    I use to listen to a rap group called Whodini and they had a song called 'Freaks Come out At Night' and its true. HAVE NO LINE and EVERYONE in the DOOR before MIDNIGHT! PERIOD

    I'm afraid what is going on here is simple... you're putting the guests in so slow you're causing frustration for wait times. You can either follow my tips OR you can sell fewer tickets one or the other. But lets not have a forth haunt experience a shooting.

    Link to a Story about the Kansas City shooting.

    https://fox4kc.com/news/new-cell-pho...haunted-house/
    Larry Kirchner
    President
    www.HalloweenProductions.com
    www.BlacklightAttractions.com
    www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
    www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

  • #2
    Multiple fights and shootings at North Carolina haunted house.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/north-car...house-shooting

    Comment


    • #3
      Yes I saw that one as well. Sad situation.
      Larry Kirchner
      President
      www.HalloweenProductions.com
      www.BlacklightAttractions.com
      www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
      www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

      Comment


      • #4
        I can tell you this and you can take this to the BANK!

        I said it is IMPOSSIBLE to operate a haunted house in the conditions set forth it will and already has led to many problems. We’ve now had three shootings at three different haunts all within a 7 day period with one person dead.

        You can social distance all you want isn’t going to change one glaring reality... you can’t slow roll people into the haunted house. You want to get rid of lines OUTSIDE then put people INSIDE, thru the haunt and out of queue lines. If anyone here denies they’ve ever had a fight or near fights break out over line cutting, which is due to waiting for long periods of time they’re just not honest.

        If some of you are reducing tickets sold to 1,000 guests then why is anyone open past 10 pm that is a serious question.

        Use math here... 1000 people over three hours is 333 people an hour or 5.5 people every minute.

        No haunted house should have a LINE in front of their door past Midnight but some are because they’re trying to follow this covid thing on a level which is causing different problems.

        If you have an old engine in your car, and a valve goes you, so instead of fixing it you decide to do a full blown valve job, great but now you’re putting a lot more compression on the bottom of the engine that is old. You fixed one problem but created another. Solution just rebuild the entire engine, oh but wait now a full steam engine is hurting the transmission, and on down the line. Point being you fix one problem but create another, but public safety has to come FIRST!

        Putting public safety first means RUN PEOPLE INTO the haunt as fast when you open as when the line is out of control. Maybe you need to open earlier around 6 pm or 6 30 pm. Who cares if there is still light out who cares.

        Freaks come out at night, so get the hell out of there before 12 am at the latest. If you open get rid of all the curtains between scenes people are going to fly thru your haunt like you’ve never seen before... so put them in faster. Have your actors be ready to scare and reset.

        You really only have two options here to avoid more of these problems its really simple: A) Put people into your haunts faster B) Sell a lot less tickets

        There is no option C.

        The public has already proven they’ve gone nuts so don’t be open late in the night trying to social distance people because you’re creating an even worse problem.

        Look I said it flat out... anyone who opens this year is risky destroying your business long term. Having a shooting at your location will just about do it... when people show up at your haunted house get them in and out. Considering closing all the or most of the secondary attractions at the exit so people don’t linger around.

        At Creepyworld we’ve closed everything including all food, games and more but our 5 minute escape.

        THIS IS NOT the year to have people spend an extra $5 for a hot dog.

        Get them in and get them out! Do your best, do amazing, to make people have a great Halloween experience considering the limitations.

        Come back in 2021 better than ever.

        Larry
        Larry Kirchner
        President
        www.HalloweenProductions.com
        www.BlacklightAttractions.com
        www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
        www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks for the tips. So sad what happened but I think you have a point we can't let the lines build up. We can't make people wait for hours.

          Comment


          • #6
            Thanks for the tips. So sad what happened but I think you have a point we can't let the lines build up. We can't make people wait for hours.

            Comment


            • #7
              So Larry, you're suggesting haunts stay closed this year, even if they are providing a full array of Covid precautions and selling on-line tickets for timed entry (to keep the lines short)?
              www.TerrorOfTallahassee.com

              Comment


              • #8
                another shooting https://abc13.com/haunted-house-shoo...oween/6739225/
                Larry Kirchner
                President
                www.HalloweenProductions.com
                www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

                Comment


                • #9
                  We had a near riot at our place in our second night, thankfully nothing bad happened. The following weekend we changed everything you have no choice. You have to put these people in the door they don't want to wait for hours. Secondly we called our local police district and they helped out a TON this weekend. Everything is peaceful. Don't be afraid to reach out to your local police for help. You simply CAN NOT under any circumstances keep these people waiting for long periods you just can't do it. We changed a lot at Darkness for week 2 and everything is going great.
                  Larry Kirchner
                  President
                  www.HalloweenProductions.com
                  www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                  www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                  www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by drfrightner View Post
                    We had a near riot at our place in our second night, thankfully nothing bad happened. The following weekend we changed everything you have no choice. You have to put these people in the door they don't want to wait for hours. Secondly we called our local police district and they helped out a TON this weekend. Everything is peaceful. Don't be afraid to reach out to your local police for help. You simply CAN NOT under any circumstances keep these people waiting for long periods you just can't do it. We changed a lot at Darkness for week 2 and everything is going great.
                    Glad to hear things are calmer for you. What were some of the changes you made to get people in quicker?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I've come to learn that the only way to deal with this issue is NOT make people wait in line very long and make sure you're closed by Midnight. I'm hearing about people trying to stay open until 1 or 2 am. Mistake.
                      Larry Kirchner
                      President
                      www.HalloweenProductions.com
                      www.BlacklightAttractions.com
                      www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
                      www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

                      Comment

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