Category: Haunted House Stories

Thrillvania Haunted House Park wants to know what does it take to scare someone in 2013?  Gone are the days when a simple rubber spider dangled from the ceiling could send a person screaming from the room. Today’s haunt-goers are understandably jaded by constant exposure to Hollywood special effects on the big screen, small screen and video games.  Children are weaned on violence, blood, explosions and pyrotechnics, all in 3D Technicolor surround-sound.

In an effort to up the fright factor, haunted houses now integrate all kinds of high tech visual effects, lighting, chilling stereo and enough gore to fill a dozen Hollywood horror movies.  Many haunted houses are like horror movies on steroids, and you, the customer get to play the hapless victim who goes stumbling through the doorway while the entire audience is yelling “don’t go in there!”

And still, it just doesn’t seem to be enough anymore.  As opposed to bungee jumping or skydiving, there is no inherent risk in traversing a haunted house.  Deep down, visitors know that they will not be harmed.  This combined with the over-exposure to special effects has made some customers difficult to unhinge.  The ante has been upped, and in an effort to meet the challenge, some haunted houses are going out on a limb these days – way out.

Take for example, a haunt in both New York and Los Angeles.  Is more reality television than Twilight Zone, they send you through a sort of whacked-out, over the top Guantanamo Bay kind of experience, complete with blackout hoods and water boarding. You are forced to go through solo, and subjected to some physical contact, verbal abuse and sensory deprivation for roughly 40 minutes. Less a haunted house and more of an immersion experience. Here at Thrillvania Haunted House Park we choose not to go to such extremes to scare our patrons.

Is this what it takes to scare you?  Let’s go back in time, to the works of the legendary Alfred Hitchcock. To truly scare someone, you have to get inside their mind.  Hitch knew that a suggestion of horror was often more frightening than the deed itself.  The human mind is capable of imagining things far more horrific than anything the best computer graphics can simulate. Thrillvania Haunted House Park like other haunted houses in Dallas choose to use the patrons psyche against themselves by invoking that fear of darkness and the unknown.

More than anything else, humans are afraid of the unknown.  That’s why haunted houses often depict the supernatural in the form of zombies, goblins and ghouls.  A haunt-goer knows that the actor with the chainsaw will not hurt him, but fear of the unknown makes him wonder if he might fall victim to a freak supernatural event beyond the control of the attraction’s owners.

A truly great haunt catches you by surprise, knocks you off balance and keeps you in suspense, never knowing where the next scare will come from.  This is a function of careful planning, strategy and just a touch of genius, carefully cultivated by Thrillvania Haunted House Park and other haunted houses in Dallas/Fort Worth area.  That is the mark of a world class haunted attraction, and that is precisely what it takes to scare someone in 2013.

In the haunted house industry, there are some favorite quotes that come up now and again, particularly in reference to the fine art of scaring the wits out of people. It takes a special kind of person to work in a haunted house, and the folks who work in your friendly neighborhood haunted houses in Dallas are no exception. They tend to have a wry sense of humor, a touch of kinky fetishism and a penchant for the occasional walk on the dark side; hence these quotes are quite apropos.

See if you can recognize the authors of these famous witticisms:

1. Where there is no imagination, there is no horror. Indeed, your imagination is more powerful than any visual images or special effects, which leads us to the next one:

2. There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. Suspense, anticipation, and dread are often much worse than the deed itself. Also, seeing things can be frightening, but sometimes it’s what you don’t see that is even more terrifying, because:

3. The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. One of the many unknowns that we all carry within us is our dark side, and one of our greatest fears is that someone might catch a glimpse of it.

4. Everyone is a moon and has a dark side, which he never shows to anybody. Except, perhaps when he goes to work in a haunted house…

5. There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. These are the nights when strange things happen at Thrillvania Haunted House Park.

6. Blondes make the best victims. They’re like white snow that shows up the bloody footprints. There’s a price to be paid for having more fun…

7. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that any weirdo wearing a mask is never friendly. Especially when they’re brandishing a chain saw!

Think you know who said that? Check out the answer section to see your score!

1) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 2) Alfred Hitchcock, 3) H. P. Lovecraft, 4) Mark Twain, 5) George Carlin, 6) Alfred Hitchcock, 7) Nancy McLoughlin as Lizabeth in Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI.