The plant

[Boni]

Has anyone tried something like this.

I want to plant a female actor in each group, then when they get to the first scene, an actor comes flying out and grabs her by the hair and arm and pulls her kicking and screaming throws her against the wall bashing her head and knocking her unconscious.

Might take 2-3 actors to pull it off.

One aspect I am concerned with is the "no touch" policy. Then we show a direct violation of it in scene one, however, I think it would put the fear into some people.

[Front Yard Fright]

I have heard of a home haunt using this. They sponsored a local gymnast camp or something like that so they had a ton of little girls they could use each night. They sent one little girl with every group and at a certain point someone jumped out and grabbed the girl as she screamed...

I can see this being an AWESOME and unique part to add to your show. Just gotta make sure you grab the right person. LOL.
.

[xxxdirk]

I did that the 1st year I was open. Got a good response from the people and my actors had a blast!!

[Jim Warfield]

I telll them-"No Running!"

Then some customers notice that I then take off running! (Of course I'm screaming too, yelling ,"Bad Kitty! Bad Kitty!")
Yes, I am setting them up for about the last possible fright in the last few feet of the tour, so if they now they want to run, they can practise running to their car!
One time I had more actors than customers so I planted all of my actors in with the group of two customers.
When I said a certain phrase ..like "It all happens Tuesday morning!" My helpers all jumped up out of their seats and ran screaming into the next room!
The two customers saw what was happening...and ran there with them!
(Where is that big , rubber, forehead ink stamp of mine that says "STUPID!"?)
Laugh, laugh, then we laughed some more!
We have all heard "Scare (chase) forward", how about " Run and Lead Their Way?"
Wouldn't it be funny if this worked?

I always wanted to have a "Shill" in the audience who would be giving me a real hard time until the lights go out in the wine cellar, a thud, a gurggle and when we can see again I'm holding up the head of the heckler (not koch), of course a very realistic head could be made using the shill as a model.
Maybe everyone would realise it was BS after the first few seconds? But in those partial seconds real abject fear could be manufactured that they may never forget.
That "never forgetting" part would make it all worth it to me.
That is my goal.

[Howie Slobber Erlich]

We have done it in the que line. Plant a female actor then have a freak grab her out of line, throw her over his shoulder, and run back into the haunt with her. Of course she is kicking and screaming all the way. It works very well! Although, we did have several customers try to get a refund at that point. LOL!

Howie "Slobber" Erlich
Deadly Intentions Haunted House
www.deadlyintentionshaunt.com

[Dr. Giggles]

We have done it before. It varies on group to group. Our girl was like 13 so when a 24 year old came tearing out of the darkness laughing like a maniac grabs her and tries to drag her away (he was our actor) one of the older males in the group (30 or 40 perhaps?) knocked our actor unconcious. Because apparently the girl somehow distantly knew the guy or they were making small talk? And all of a sudden she gets attacked and he did the paternal thing and attacked the attacker. But other then that odd group it worked great.

[brad]

We have done it before. It varies on group to group. Our girl was like 13 so when a 24 year old came tearing out of the darkness laughing like a maniac grabs her and tries to drag her away (he was our actor) one of the older males in the group (30 or 40 perhaps?) knocked our actor unconcious. Because apparently the girl somehow distantly knew the guy or they were making small talk? And all of a sudden she gets attacked and he did the paternal thing and attacked the attacker. But other then that odd group it worked great.

HAHAHA!! Bad night for that actor!



I have seen this in several haunts. It works pretty well, but if you have a lot of repeat business(some groups going thru more that once), you wouldnt want to do this in every group. Also, i prefer the idea of doing it outside in the que line. IMO, it puts the fear into the patrons a lot easier.

[SomeThingInTheIce]

Howl-O-Scream used shills one year in a haunt, a actor would pull her out of the group and into a bunk bed and then out the other side and draged her off. Halloween Horror Nights uses them in the streets, taking someone and then strapping them to some rack or something and then killing them, their freind another shill would cry out for someone to help them.

[Jim Warfield]

"Strapping them to a rack, then killing them"

" Practice, practise!" Don't come knocking on my door when you have that diploma!

[Dr. Giggles]

Q line seems like a good idea. Have your plant bad talking the actor EG. dissing his costume, telling him hes not scary. Then just have the actor (If your set up for it) Kill him infront of everybody. Or the actor could tackle him and drag him inside the haunt with which you hear the guy scream. Make sure to have the actor warn him a few times "Keep going on like this il cut your tongue out!" "Il give you something to squeal about in a second..!" Stuff like that. Have a good actor on both ends or it wont be believable.

[nzanesmith]

we had something similar to this last season with me. I went through on closing night in street clothes just after we opened and the first scare let everyone else know i was coming through so i had actors throwing me into walls and getting all up on me and talking more crap then normal and all kinds of fun crap. When we got to my section apparently all 20 of my actors thought it would be funny to cup check me in every room so after about the first 3-4 the other guys in the group were freaking out since they didn't know i actually worked there. The really had fear in there eyes by the time we exited. Actually one of the guys turned to ask me what had happened right after we exited but as he did i was walking through a secret door that he didn't see.... I watched them for a moment and they all were like where the heck did that guy with the white hair that was getting messed up go.... If they'd of came through again I would have been the one scaring them :-)