Messaging for Your Haunt – What Do You Say To Them?
How to personalize your haunt messaging during the pandemic Continuing with our HAuNT Connect series, the Road to Reopening for Halloween, this article focuses on personalizing your messaging to guests in preparation of opening your haunt this season. This discussion is divided into three sections—recommendations about messaging for guests before your haunt opens, while guests […]
Novel Ways Of Telling Our Stories: Scare Differently This Year!
How to scare with intent from six feet away By David Jones 2020 is giving haunters a wonderful opportunity to birth novel ways of telling our stories. In this article, based on my HAuNT Connect presentation and workshop, we’ll explore effective methods of scaring from a distance. Specifically, you’ll learn how to create a cohesive […]
Los Angeles Haunted Hayride Will be a Drive-up Experience This Year
A live, immersive, interactive drive-through adventure and drive-in-movie horror experience awaits guests this Halloween season. For the 2020 Halloween season, Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group’s Los Angeles Haunted Hayride will be an immersive, interactive, drive-up event that guests will experience from their own vehicles. The producers of “Los Angeles Haunted Hayride: Live Drive Up Experience” describe it […]
Is Halloween Dead?
A rational look at the prospects for haunted attractions this year and for your haunt in particular Episode 46 of my A Scott in the Dark podcast (recorded on July 25th, 2020) asked the sobering question, “Is Halloween dead?” The day before, Universal Studios cancelled Halloween Horror Nights in California and Florida for 2020. That […]
Remembering Robbi: Lessons Learned from a Reluctant Haunter
By Scott Swenson For over 25 years, I was lucky enough to have Robbi LePre as part of my life. She played many roles. She was my mentor, my boss, my co-worker, my friend, and, always, my inspiration. When Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL assigned me to be part of a three-person team to create […]
TEA and AECOM Release the 2019 TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index
The annual publication lists new additions to the top 25 theme parks worldwide and provides data and trends on the global industry. The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and AECOM have just published the 2019 TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index, which provides comprehensive data on attendance and other statistics from the world’s top theme parks, water parks, and […]
Phases of Recovery from COVID for Haunted Attractions
Approaches to Addressing a Crisis—Which Haunts Should implement All the Time By Scott Swenson Welcome back to the dark. I based this blog on Episode 45 of my A Scott in the Dark podcast, in which I talked about phases of recovery from the ongoing pandemic. A phenomenal seven-week certificate program I completed at the […]
Midsummer Scream to Host a Livestream “Telethon”
There in Spirit: Midsummer Scream — a Daylong Livestream Telethon Celebrating All Things Spooky Midsummer Scream, the world’s largest Halloween and horror convention, will be hosting a livestream telethon all day Saturday, August 1, featuring previews and updates for Halloween events and attractions, including related performances, talks from leaders in spooky entertainment, as well as […]
5 Enormous Halloween Events Cancel Plans
While one haunt has reopened, Disney’s Halloween Party, Kennywood Halloween events, and Eastern Penitentiary’s Terror Behind the Walls announce canceled seasons. On June 29, 2020, the Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor joined several other large events that have already canceled for 2020. However, Fear Factory in Salt Lake City, Utah held a successful reopening event on […]
The Power of Diversity in Your Haunted Attraction
Use Diversity in your team, in your scares, within your industry, and in your products to strengthen your haunt. By Scott Swenson Welcome to the dark. This blog is based on Episode 44 of my podcast, A Scott in the Dark. It had been awhile since I’d recorded an episode, and this was recorded in June […]
