Haunt Weekly

Haunt Weekly

245 - Lessons From Our Closure

Aug 10 • 54 min

Last year was a very rough year for us. Due to some serious road work taking place, we were forced to cancel our 2019 season. Now, due to COVID-19, many haunts are finding that their 2020 season is hanging into balance. However, if you do have to cancel…

244 - July/August News

Aug 3 • 57 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it's time to do the news and what a rough week of news it is. We have cancellations both left and right, but we also have some happier stories as more haunts try to find a path through the pandemic. However, it's not all COVID…

243 - Social Media for Haunters

Jul 27 • 56 min

Pretty much every haunted attraction has a Facebook page. However, is there more that you could be doing with your social media presence? The answer is yes. Social media is a powerful tool for haunt promotion and, thanks to COVID-19, it's about to get…

242 - Working with Photographers

Jul 20 • 56 min

The haunts that are planning on opening up for 2020 are most likely starting to really think about their promotion and part of that is getting good images of your scenes and actors. Whether you need them for your fliers, social media, commercials or all…

241 - Masks for Haunters

Jul 13 • 59 min

It's becoming more and more clear that, if haunts are able to open at all this year, it's going to be with a good deal of restrictions and limitations. Those limitations will likely include masks for actors and customers alike. While getting customers to…

240 - June/July News

Jul 6 • 56 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we're doing the news and what a rough news episodes it is. We slog our way through the first round of haunt closures due to COVID-19. However, we work hard to bring you a great deal of good news too, including at least one story…

239 - What the Haunt Industry Can Learn from Hurricane Katrina

Jun 29 • 50 min

No matter what happens between now and haunt season, the haunted attraction industry is facing an extremely challenging year. Even the best predictions call for smaller crowds, shortened seasons and limited capacity. In 2005, the city of New Orleans and…

238 - Making Haunting a Safe Space for Everyone

Jun 22 • 60 min

The haunted attraction industry prides itself on being a welcoming space for anyone who loves scaring. However, as some recent events have shown, that's not always an ideal we live up to. The truth is that we have many of the same issues as any other…

237 - 10 Businesses Your Haunt Should Partner With

Jun 15 • 55 min

No business is an island unto itself. You need connections and allies to survive and a haunt is no different. Luckily, a haunt has a lot of good opportunities to partner with other businesses and ways that they can add value to their attraction, improve…

236 - May/June News

Jun 8 • 48 min

It's another episode divisible by four and that means we're doing the news and what a news week we have. Has the nation and world begin the process of reopening, haunted attractions and similar locations are starting to open back up as well. As such, we…

225 - 10 Things the Haunt Industry Needs to do to Grow

Jun 1 • 55 min

Like it or not, the haunt industry is almost certainly heading into a period of great turmoil that is likely to be followed by a recession or even a depression. While that means some rough times are ahead, they are also an opportunity to change the way we…

234 - Actor Recruitment/Training During COVID-19

May 25 • 70 min

Right now is the time of year many haunts are starting to think about actor recruitment, retention and training. It's the time we touch base with our crews, start recruiting replacements and training everyone up. However, this year presents a special set…

233 - 10 COVID-Related Things Your Haunt Should Be Doing NOW

May 18 • 52 min

This week's Haunt Weekly begins with something of a programming note. Originally, we had planned to have Japes Palles on to talk about actor recruitment and training while working remotely. However, some severe weather struck his area and he was not able…

232 - April/May News

May 11 • 50 min

As sick as we all are of the phrase "In these uncertain times" there's not much doubt that these are, indeed, uncertain times and that means a lot to keep up on. That includes for the haunted attraction industry. Even though our season may not begin in…

231 - Overused Haunt Tropes

May 4 • 49 min

When you go to more than a dozen haunts in a year, you start to see a lot of the same things come up over and over again. Some of those things are fine, especially when they are used well, but many of them don't add much to the haunt and are just kind of……

230 - Haunting & Chronic Conditions

Apr 27 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're taking a look at an issue most haunts will face: How to best help and support actors with chronic conditions. To helps with this, we have brought on two amazing haunters, Derek and Shalisa Muehlberger from Scary Train,…

229 - Haunt Jargon

Apr 20 • 53 min

Haunters, just like any profession, have a language and jargon all of our own. But for 228 episodes we've been using a lot of the lingo without making any attempt to actually define what any of it means. This week we are fixing that by going through some…

228 - March/April News

Apr 13 • 46 min

It's another episode divisible by four and that means it's time to do the news but man what a strange time to do haunt news. Usually, in April we're scraping by on a drip-feed of HHN news and haunt awards. However, thanks to COVID-19, there's actually a…

227 - Holiday Haunts

Apr 6 • 51 min

Even as the quarantine drags on and haunters find themselves either worrying about the upcoming season or occupying their time with whatever projects they can do, Haunt Weekly marches on. To that end, we started thinking about what haunts might be doing…

226 - Virtual Resources for Haunters

Mar 30 • 56 min

We hear you. ANOTHER Coronavirus episode. We hear the groans and we sympathize. We promise to be back to (more) normal next week but, for right now, we have some resources and suggestions we want to get into your hands. You see, as more and more of us are…

225 - Chris Gay of Haunt Tech Tips

Mar 23 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're continuing the proud tradition of finding people smarter than ourselves to discuss the topics at hand. Today, that means sitting down with Chris Gay, an EMT and rescue chief that is also the brains behind Haunt Tech Tips…

224 - February/March News (COVID-19 Edition)

Mar 16 • 47 min

What a week to have a news podcast. Though we were hoping we would be able to completely avoid talking about the coronavirus and leave that to the experts, the impacts on the haunt industry are officially far too great to ignore. So, for better or worse,…

223 - Why People Become Haunters

Mar 9 • 55 min

We haunters tend to be a strange bunch. We work insanely long hours under grueling conditions. We do it for little (if any) pay and, in return, we get to hang out in a macabre world our creation and, if we're lucky, scare some people. Why would people…

222 - 7 Ways Haunts Sabotage Their Brand

Mar 2 • 58 min

Haunts put a lot of thought and effort into marketing and trying to build a brand, but far too often sabotage it with unforced errors and simple mistakes. You work hard to make sure your customers think highly of you and want to come back year after year.…

221 - 10 Things We Love About Being Haunters

Feb 24 • 56 min

Two weeks ago we discussed the things we hate about being haunters. This week we're flipping the script and spreading the love. The truth is that we love being haunters and wouldn't trade it for the world. Sure, as we said last time, there are things we…

220 - December - February News

Feb 17 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it's time to do the news! Since we had to skip the news last month we actually have two months of content to go through so this is going to be one packed episode to say the last. We have some difficult news from Field of Screams,…

219 - 10 Things We Hate About Being Haunters

Feb 10 • 59 min

Being a haunter is great. We get to build neat stuff, scare a lot of people and do things that would never be allowed in polite society otherwise. That said, there are a few things about haunting we could definitely do without. The abject poverty, the…

218 - How to Start a Home Haunt

Feb 3 • 53 min

When it comes to questions we got at HAuNTcon, this was one of the more surprising. Several people asked how we got started haunting. The answer is: Terribly. We got started terribly. But we have managed to keep it going for 15 years and, with luck, you…

217 - Timing/Queueing Actors

Jan 27 • 52 min

We had such a fun time at HAuNTcon but one of the questions we got repeatedly surprised us. So many people wanted to know how we queue or time our actors. We never really put too much thought into how we do it but, as we talked about it, we realized that…

216 - HAuNTcon 2020 Recap

Jan 20 • 52 min

HAuNTcon 2020 is in the books and what a weekend it has been. There was much education to be had, parties to attend, drinking to be done and, most importantly, haunt fellowship to be had. As amazing and chaotic as it was, we're going to try and recap it…

215 - 5 Haunt Purchases We Regret (And 5 We Love)

Jan 13 • 58 min

When you build and run a haunt, you buy a lot of things. Some of those purchases work out and become worth their weight in gold, others… not so much. Even though we're overgrown home haunters, we've made a LOT of purchases in the past 15 years and, as we…

214 - 2020 HAuNTcon Preview

Jan 6 • 58 min

HAuNTcon is just around the corner and, as we've done in years gone by, we're looking ahead to see what we are most excited about. This includes looking at the events taking place, the education to be had and the tradeshow to be seen. Truth is, there's so…

213 - Hoaxes and Urban Legends

Dec 30, 2019 • 58 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we're winding down the holiday season, the year and the decade by looking back at some of the greatest hoaxes and urban legends throughout history, The reason for this is pretty simple, A good haunt deserves a good legend but not…

212 - November/December News

Dec 23, 2019 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing the news! But before you worry that we're going to bring down your holiday season, this is actually a pretty happy episode. We have some positive arrests, we have lots of cheery charity news and even a bit of comedy…

211 - 7 Things You Can Do for Your Haunt Today

Dec 16, 2019 • 47 min

It's the holiday season and that means presents, cold weather and trips to visit family and friends. But just because this is the season where no work gets done doesn't mean that you can't do things to improve your haunt. Even better, there are things you…

210 - What Haunts Can Learn From Ren Fests

Dec 9, 2019 • 54 min

A day at the renaissance festival can be a lot of fun. However, if you're a haunt owner or builder, it's also a chance to do some really good research and pick up a few pointers. The reason is that haunted attractions are increasingly moving to a more…

209 - 13 Things Haunters Have/Do That’s Not Normal

Dec 2, 2019 • 53 min

We've had a pretty serious few episodes so let's take a break shall we? We haunters are a strange, weird and borderline insane bunch. Best of all, we're proud of it. Still, it's sometimes fun to take a step back and look at all of the ways we are…

208 - October/November News

Nov 25, 2019 • 64 min

It's another episode that's divisble by four and that means its time to do the news! And what a week do we have for you guys. We have attempted arson, a haunted house run by a retirement community and one of the craziest haunt moves I've ever heard of.…

207 - How to Raise Your Prices (Without Angering Your Customers)

Nov 18, 2019 • 58 min

Last week, we discussed how to find what your pricing should be for your haunt. This week, we're looking at how to increase your prices if you decide you need more pert ticket and how you can make it more palatable to the customer. The simple truth is…

206 - How Much Should Your Haunt Cost?

Nov 11, 2019 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're talking about pricing your haunt. Choosing the price fior your haunt is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make with it and it's one of the easiest to get wrong. Price too high, no one comes. Too low and you…

205 - Our 2019 Lessons

Nov 4, 2019 • 58 min

Everyone, the 2019 season is in the bag and that means all eyes should be on 2020. But, before we get back to slinging panels and building props, it's worthwhile to take a moment and examine the lessons that we learned. However, this year is a little bit…

204 - October News

Oct 28, 2019 • 66 min

Happy near end of haunt season everyone! By the time we meet again haunt season 2019 will be in the books and we'll all be celebrating with whatever beverage we deem appropriate. As usual, the news is very busy this time of the year so we have a lot to go…

203 - Our Texas Haunt Trip

Oct 21, 2019 • 78 min

Last weekend we had to record early because we were making the long trip to Houston. Well, we're back and, after having hit nine haunts in just three nights, we have a LOT to talk about. We visited two trail haunts, three scream parks, one tourist…

202 - 7 Things Haunts Do to Tick Us Off

Oct 14, 2019 • 56 min

We're more than just haunt builders, we're major haunt customers. It's one of our favorite things to do and we spend north of $1,000 per year just going to haunts. But, as much as we love it, there are times that haunts kind of tick us off. Usually not…

201 - September/October News

Oct 7, 2019 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're playing catch up as we cover all of the news we didn't get to cover in Episode 200 due to our anniversary celebrations. And news we do have as it's the busy season for haunted attraction news. We start off with a two-fer…

200 - Our Favorite Episodes

Sep 30, 2019 • 58 min

It is our 200th episode and, to celebrate, we're going through our entire library and highlighting the best of the best. That's right, we both blindly picked 12 episodes we thought worthy of mentioning. Of the 12 we each picked, we had four we agreed on…

199 - Our Cancelled Season

Sep 23, 2019 • 57 min

It's been a rough few days around here. Earlier this week we learned that we have no choice but to cancel our 2019 season due to road construction and safety concerns. This, obviously, has us gut wrenched and we were forced to throw away our planned…

198 - Saving Money While Visiting Haunts

Sep 16, 2019 • 58 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we're doing something a bit different. Since we're home haunters, we get to spend much of our season not just building and running a haunt, but going to others. The problem is, that can get very expensive very quickly. Over the…

197 - 5 Haunt Pain Points

Sep 9, 2019 • 59 min

It's easy to think about nothing but the ways that we make our customers happy. We love building great scenes, amazing scares and giving customers the screams they paid us for. But here's the thing: A lot about going to a haunt kind of sucks… and not just…

196 - August/September News

Sep 2, 2019 • 58 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing the news and, as we approach the beginning of season, we have a LOT of news to go over including some of the last HHN news, some major haunt openings and a big anniversary for one of the most important haunted…

195 - Haunt Scare Tactics

Aug 26, 2019 • 59 min

This week on Haunt Weekly illness is in the air as a severe case of stomach flu has crippled 1/2 of the team but we are determined to persevere. Unfortunately, we had to scrap our planned episode and, instead, we're pulling together a quick one as we talk…

194 - Giving a Haunt Talk

Aug 19, 2019 • 60 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we're talking about how you, yes you, can give a talk that will help improve the haunt industry. With HAuNTcon extending the deadline for speakers, now is a great time to think about what topic you may want to speak on and how…

193 - CAD in Haunting

Aug 12, 2019 • 57 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it's all about Computer Assisted Design (or Computer Aided Drafting if you're the older crowd). While many think of CAD as a highly-technical skill only achievable by those that have studied it for years, that's only really true…

192 - July/August News

Aug 5, 2019 • 59 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing the news and what a news episode it is! We have an update on our 2019 season and a possible danger to it happening. We also have the latest on the rather stupid petition to try and move Halloween (or at least Trick…

191 - Year-Round Haunting

Jul 29, 2019 • 65 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're discussing year-round haunting and we're doing it by sitting down with Shelby Rodwell. Shelby runs both The Haunted Mayfield Manor and Pirates! Legends of the Gulf Coast in Galveston. The first is a year-round haunted…

190 - Gift Shop Blues

Jul 22, 2019 • 61 min

Pretty much every haunted house has a merch booth or a gift shop. There's almost no reason not to. It's a fairly straightforward way to make extra money from your haunt and, in many cases, do some great self-promotion. However, as an industry, our merch…

189 - Starting a Haunt Convention

Jul 15, 2019 • 50 min

When Midwest Haunters Convention left Ohio to head to Chicago, the Ohio Haunters Association found themselves without a conference in their backyard. So, they had a crazy idea, why not create one. Thus the Ohio Halloween & Haunters Convention was born! So…

188 - June/July News

Jul 8, 2019 • 45 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing the news and, despite it being in the doldrums of summer we have a surprisingly large amount of news to go through. We have updates about new haunts, new escape rooms, a haunt getting a beer license and a triple…

187 - 7 Simple Things Haunts Forget

Jul 1, 2019 • 53 min

Last week, we talked about what we wished we'd known when we started haunting, this week, we're looking at it as customers and talking about things that big haunts forget to do. However, we're not really focusing on things IN the haunt itself. Instead,…

186 - 7 Things We Wish We Knew When We Started

Jun 24, 2019 • 55 min

Haunting is a learning process and, no matter how much you know, there's always more to learn. However, there are still some things that we really wish we had known before we got started. We made some major blunders simply because we didn't know what we…

185 - 10 Horror Video Games for Haunters

Jun 17, 2019 • 55 min

Haunters and often avid games and there's not a genre of games haunters love more than horror games. But can horror games help make us better haunters? What lessons can we learn from them? Well, we're going to list ten horror games that definitely have…

184 - May/June News

Jun 10, 2019 • 46 min

It's an episode that's divisible by four and that means it's time to do the news! And we have a doozy of a podcast for you as it has been a very active week for haunted attraction news. We have a tale of one haunt being spared by flooding, another that…

183 - The Best Room

Jun 3, 2019 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're wrapping up our room trilogy as we discuss the best room in your haunt. We've done the first room, we've done the last room and now we're doing the best room. But the best room is more important than some people realize.…

182 - The Last Room

May 27, 2019 • 51 min

Last week, we discussed the importance of the first room, the approaches to it and the purposes it can serve. This week, we're doing the bookend and talking about the last room, and the importance of it. The last room, however, is somewhat unique among…

181 - The First Room

May 20, 2019 • 49 min

The common logic when it comes to building a haunted house is that you put most of your energy, detail and work into the first room and the last room. The idea is that these are the rooms that will be the most memorable to your customers. But is that…

180 - April/May News

May 13, 2019 • 45 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we're doing the news and boy do we have a surprisingly stacked show for an episode that's as far away from Halloween as we can get. We have two announcements from Universal Studios, two more from Disney and a slew of local haunt…

179 - Actor Intake

May 6, 2019 • 58 min

It's the time of year when haunts are either ramping up their recruitment or are thinking about doing so. It's also the time of the year newbie actors are considering if they want to come on board and, if so, what haunt they want to work. So we've reached…

178 - 31 Ways to Keep Halloween Alive 365

Apr 29, 2019 • 57 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're about as far as Halloween as possible, the weather is getting warmer and it can pretty much not feel less like Halloween. Luckily, we're haunters and we have a lot of great ways to keep Halloween alive 365. However,…

177 - Paranormal Cirque

Apr 22, 2019 • 60 min

Last week, we were late because we paid a visit to the Paranormal Cirque, this week, we're recounting that visit but with a haunter's eye as we look at some lessons that other (non-traveling) haunted attractions can learn. Please bear in mind that, though…

176 - March/April News

Apr 15, 2019 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it's time to do the news! And what a month of news we have for you with stories from all over the world, including new attractions, attractions reopening and one that had an unexpected closing. We also have two Halloween Horror…

175 - Why the Haunt Industry is Looking Great

Apr 8, 2019 • 48 min

Last week's episode was something of a downer. Luckily, this week we get to be a bit more optimistic as we talk about all of the signs that show the haunt industry's future is looking bright. Admittedly, this episode was a bit more difficult to research…

174 - Why the Haunt Industry is in Trouble

Apr 1, 2019 • 49 min

Depending on how you look at it, the haunt industry is either set to rocket to the moon or it's doomed to crash and burn. As small business people, we think a lot about the future of the haunt industry and have talked a great deal about it on the podcast…

173 -Crafty Li’l Devil

Mar 25, 2019 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're sitting down Elizabeth Zibilich, the proprietor behind Crafty Li'l Devil, a New Orleans costuming company, and, as of this year, a first time haunter. Elizabeth cut her teeth this year doing makeup for the The Mortuary…

172 - February/March News

Mar 18, 2019 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it's time to do the news! And for a March podcast, we have a LOT of news to get through. We literally cover the entire continental United States, from Alaska to Miami. We have stories of haunt successes, a haunt closure or two,…

171 - Building a Haunter Convention

Mar 12, 2019 • 60 min

The haunted attraction industry loves its conferences but there are still plenty of areas that are either unserved or underserved. To that end, there are many out there who may be cnosidering setting up a conference or gathering of their own. Awesome! But…

170 - Mardi Gras Lessons

Mar 4, 2019 • 60 min

It's Mardi Gras here in New Orleans. That means the parades are rolling, beads are being thrown and the beers are being downed. However, Mardi Gras is realy more than just an amazing party, it's an amazing feat of security and promotion and seasonal…

169 - Dealing with the Press

Feb 25, 2019 • 58 min

Pretty much every business owner hopes to get positive media attention. However, haunted attractions are uniquely positioned to make it happen. Still, dealing with the media can be stressful and it can be difficult to ensure you geet the coverage you…

168 - January/February News

Feb 18, 2019 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it's another episode divisible by four and that means it's time to do the news! And boy do we have some doozies this week. First, we FINALLY get to cover the lawsuit filed against Dorney's Theme Park as well as provide an update…

167 - Spookers: A Family Like No Other

Feb 11, 2019 • 50 min

Haunted attraction documentaries are increasinly common. However, those that put the community in a wholly positive light are still somewhat rare. If that's the case, Spookers: A Family Like No Other, is a great rare gem of a documentary that takes a look…

166 - The Haunted Castle Fire

Feb 4, 2019 • 58 min

On May 11, 1984, a tragedy unfolded at the Haunted Castle at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. The fire took 8 young lives and started both criminal and civil proceedings against the company. The fire and the investigation that followed was not…

165 - HAuNTcon 2019 Recap

Jan 28, 2019 • 60 min

HAuNTcon 2019 is in the books and it looks to be the pentultimate HAuNTcon in New Orleans. However, it isn't leaving the city without a party on the way and, to that end, it was an amazing year. With a trade show floor that was double the size of last…

164 - December/January News

Jan 21, 2019 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing the news! Unfortunately though, it's something of a somber episode as we have news not just of a tragedy in Poland but of the haunt industry losing one of its own. We also have irresponsible escape game owners in…

163 - Small Haunts

Jan 14, 2019 • 53 min

A recent question on Haunter's Hangout asked is 3K square feet big enough for a haunt. There was a great conversation about it with answers ranging a resounding no to many offering support. As overgrown home haunters, we have a lot of experience building…

162 - VR is Haunting

Jan 7, 2019 • 52 min

Virtual Reality (VR) is rapidly becoming big business for haunted attraction. The ease of set up along with the novelty of the attraction and the slate of horror-related experiences makes it so that more and more haunts, large and small, are getting into…

161 - HAuNTcon / New Orleans Tips

Dec 31, 2018 • 57 min

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! As we’re winding down 2018 we’re also introducing a slightly new and improved Haunt Weekly as we’ve got some new kit we’re learning to use. Hopefully, this week’s podcast sounds a bit better than the previous 160. But this…

160 - December News

Dec 24, 2018 • 49 min

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! However, it’s also a Monday and that means it’s time to do another Haunt Weekly. Furthermore, since it’s another episode divisible by four, it’s time to do the news. And what a lot of news we have, we have a lawsuit against a…

159 - The Case Against Santa

Dec 17, 2018 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing things a bit different. I’m recovering from a significant surgery so we’re taking the opportunity to not only let Crystal take the lead on the show notes but to do our usual holiday tradition of doing an episode just…

158 - Christmas Haunts

Dec 10, 2018 • 55 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re celebrating Christmas… sort of. Ok, maybe we aren’t big Christmas people but Christmas haunts are definitely becoming a big thing in the industry. Finally, we were able to go to our first one and have spent a lot of time…

157 - 10 Unique Things We’ve Seen in Haunts

Dec 3, 2018 • 54 min

When you’ve been to as many haunts as we have, it all tends to blur together some. We often struggle to remember what we saw in one haunt versus another and really struggle to recall when we saw something. But then there are those moments that really…

156 - October/November News

Nov 26, 2018 • 59 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing the news! This week is something of a catch up week as we cover stories that we either missed or didn’t have time to mention last time and also cover some post-season news taking place in our industry. And what a…

155 - Haunter Black Friday

Nov 19, 2018 • 58 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing something a bit different. Rather than just blabbering on about whatever is on our mind, we’re taking a look at Black Friday deals and seeing what might be of interest to haunters. Tis the season for saving and…

154 - Our 2018 Lessons

Nov 12, 2018 • 60 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’re sharing with you the lessons we learned from our 2018 season. The season, overall, went very well and many of the things we tried went swimmingly and will be repeated. Other…

153 - Our 2018 Season

Nov 5, 2018 • 58 min

For us, the 2018 season is in the books. We are brain dead, dead tired and damn near just dead. However, it was a great season in every way, record numbers, amazing reviews and a perfect safety record. So, since we are tired beyond belief, we are going to…

152 - October News

Oct 29, 2018 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re winding down the season by doing the news. And what a month for news it has been, with more than a few stories that will make you scream expletives at the top of your lungs. Stories of racism, antisemitism and a mock rape.…

151 - Queue Line Blues

Oct 22, 2018 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re talking about something that has been at the core of our lives this season, queue lines. Whether it’s the one we’re building for our haunt or all of the queue lines we’ve stood in at the 15 we’ve been to so far, we’ve had…

150 - Kayfabe in Haunting

Oct 15, 2018 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re talking about kayfabe in haunting. What is kayfabe? It’s a wrestling term that’s used to indicate the presentation of fictional events and information as real. However, kayfabe isn’t limited to wrestling. We see it…

149 - Lost Souls Haunted Bus Tour

Oct 8, 2018 • 57 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re recapping what has beeen one of the best weekends of our lives for visiting haunts: The Lost Souls Chicago Haunted Bus Tour. To say it was an amazing weekend is an understatement. Not only were there six great haunted…

148 - September News

Oct 1, 2018 • 47 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another episode divisible by four so that means it’s time to do the news! But wait! Haunts all over the country are opening, what news can we possibly cover? Turns out a lot actually. We have several stories of haunts being…

147 - How Far is Too Far?

Sep 24, 2018 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing something a bit different: Answering a question that wasn’t even asked of us. The question was asked on the Haunter’s Toolbox Facebook Group, which you should join and also join their main site, about how far people…

Haunt Weekly - Episode146 - Halloween Retail 2018

Sep 18, 2018 • 55 min

Back in episode 95, we took a look at all of the major retailers in our area and their Halloween sections. Well, it’s 51 episodes later and we’re doing it again, throwing in a few new stores to boot. So, with that in mind, here’s a look at what our local…

145 - Yard & Display Haunts

Sep 10, 2018 • 53 min

This week on #HauntWeekly, we’re talking about a group we’ve neglected for far too long: Yard Haunters It’s a strange omission for us. Every year we put a lot of labor into our yard display and far more people see it. However, when it comes to talking…

144 - August/September News

Sep 3, 2018 • 47 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing the news and what a news week it is! As we inch closer to haunts opening their doors we’re getting a slew of announcements and other news from haunts. Sadly, a lot of those announcements are of haunts not opening…

143 - New Orleans Haunt Season Preview

Aug 27, 2018 • 47 min

The New Orleans 2018 haunt season may well be the most chaotic of all time. The oldest and most famous haunt has closed, another is taking over the location and we have a brand-new scream park opening up. Needless to say, Crystal and I are equal parts…

142 - Oddities & Curiosities Expo

Aug 20, 2018 • 50 min

This weekend, we took a trip to the Alario Center here in New Orleans to visit the Oddities & Curiosities Expo as it toured through the city. With over 120 vendors we went in hopes of finding some new things for both our house and our haunt. Along the…

141 - 10 Habits of Really Great Haunts

Aug 13, 2018 • 51 min

This week on Haunt Weekly is a bit different. Caught up in the midst of a major project that’s giving us little room to breathe, so we decided to take some of the points and ideas we like to beat on and organize them into a bizarre parody of a book we’ve…

140 - July/August News

Aug 6, 2018 • 48 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s an episode divisible by four and that means it’s time to do the news. And what a roller coaster do we have this week. Everything from a change of direction at a major haunt to a pair of cautionary tales about taking over…

139 - Our Scare Design Process

Jul 30, 2018 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re talking about our process for creating a scare, everything from where we get the idea to questions we ask about it all the way through build and testing. While this might seem like a basic topic, a lot of people in the…

138 - Haunt Microtransactions

Jul 23, 2018 • 55 min

Do you like making more money? Sure, we all do. But instead of getting a new degree from a 90s correspondence school, may we suggest something a little more practical? Making more money per customer. Video games may have brought us the microtransaction to…

137 - Haunt Directories

Jul 16, 2018 • 59 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re taking a look at one of the less pleasant sides of the industry: Haunt Directories. Directories have the potential to be a very powerful tool for the industry, a way to help people find new haunts in their area or when…

136 - June/July News

Jul 9, 2018 • 47 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another week divisible by four and that means it’s time mto do the news. And what a load of news we have this week! Not only do we have two stories of local importance here in New Orleans, but we have stories of haunt…

135 - Haunt Teardown

Jul 2, 2018 • 56 min

A wise person once said, what goes up, must come down. So is also true for haunts. But why are you talking about tearing down haunts in Summer? People are building their haunts now, not tearing them down! Glad you asked. That’s because the success of a…

134 - Continuing Education for Haunters

Jun 25, 2018 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we’re going back to school! Yes, we know it’s the middle of summer but that makes it the perfect time to pick up some non-credit or continuing education courses. Need some suggestions on what to take? We look at our local schools…

133 - Haunt Rules

Jun 18, 2018 • 60 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re talking about everyone’s favorit topic: RULES! Wait, wait, wait, before you leave. Hear us out. Rules are vitally important to your haunt but they are also something that none of us really pay much attention to. Heck, we…

132 - May/June News

Jun 11, 2018 • 43 min

Sorry for the late podcast this week! We’ve been travelling and this week’s episode is brought to you from a Super 8 motel near St. Louis. If we sound a bit different or seem a bit out of sorts, that’s why. But, the show must go on and there is a lot of…

131 - Lessons from Budget Horrors

Jun 4, 2018 • 57 min

When it comes to talking about spooky things, Crystal and I got our start reviewing “Garbage Horror” movies, low budget horror movies that were usually the brainchild of one or two people. We’ve seen hundreds, possibly thousands of these films. Many are…

130 - 10 Unusual Cost Saving Tips

May 28, 2018 • 57 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re lightening things up a bit. After such a downeer last episode, we decided to talk about something everyone loves: Saving money. But here’s the deal. Every article, podcast, forum, etc. covers the same tips and tricks. We…

129 - When Tours Get Too Real

May 21, 2018 • 49 min

Last week, Crystal and I had some time off. So we decided to take something of a staycation and explore the French Quarter and do some spooky things. One of which was visit the Bloody Mary Museum and Tour. While the museum shop wass your fairly standard…

128 - April/May News

May 14, 2018 • 48 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s an episode divisible by four and that means it’s time to do the news! And what a busy news week it is! We have some major news about new haunts opening, haunts moving and one haunted attraction that’s doing away with its…

127 - Inspiration Destinations

May 7, 2018 • 53 min

It’s that time of year where haunt building is in full swing so what happens if you have a prop, room or character that you need to push your haunt over the top but can’t come up with the idea? Well you go to the internet! Our industry has gotten very…

126 - Crafting a Villain

Apr 30, 2018 • 56 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re talking about villains! Every haunt has a villain, the difference is that many haunts take the time to flesh their villains out into marketable characters that add to the scare while others put no real time and attention…

125 - Haunt Consolidation

Apr 23, 2018 • 50 min

Haunt consolidation has been a big topic in the haunt community lately. With 13th Floor making major moves to acquire haunts all over the country, many are wondering what these purchases and further consolidation mean for the industry. However,…

124 - March/April News

Apr 16, 2018 • 55 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another episode divisible by four and that means it’s time to do the news! It’s a surprisingly busy month for haunted attraction news, lots of legal cases going on and some general fallout from Transworld to discuss. On top…

123 - Copyright and Haunting

Apr 9, 2018 • 54 min

How did this episode not happen before now? Just… how? My (Jonathan) day job is working in copyright and plagiarism matters. I run the site Plagiarism Today, I run a consulting firm at CopyByte. This is my non-haunt life. So how is it that we are 123…

122 - Haunt Chat Live

Apr 2, 2018 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it’s a two for one sale as you’re getting two guests for the price of one! This week we have Mike Ross, the owner/operator of Sinister Sidney and The Gravedigger Reverend Michael, the host of Sinister Sidney and the host of Haunt…

121 - Easter Special

Mar 26, 2018 • 50 min

Easter is almost upon us and, as we’ve been doing what we’ve been doing for other holidays, we’re taking a look at traditions around the world and seeing which may work well in a haunted attraction. That’s only understandable as more and more haunts are…

120 - February/March News

Mar 19, 2018 • 47 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s an episode divisible by four and that means it’s time to do THE NEWS! However, we have to be honest, this is one heavy and sad news episode. There’s just a lot of bad news to go around. If haunt closings to community…

119 - HFA & Vampfangs

Mar 12, 2018 • 45 min

Benjamin Selecky, along with his partner Alexis Abare, are already staples of the haunt community. As co-owners and co-CEOs of Haunted Farms of America, they’ve carved out a much-needed niche helping farms launch, operate and grow their haunted…

118 - HauntTopic Radio and ScareIt Badges

Mar 5, 2018 • 53 min

Here at Haunt Weekly we’re always looking for ways to improve our podcast. So we finally figured out the best thing we can do is bring on some better podcasteers. And that’s exactly whatt we’re doing this week as we’re joined by Brian Forman and Darryl…

117 - Haunt Flyers

Feb 26, 2018 • 55 min

Haunt flyers. Every attraction has them. Most of the suck. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. Haunted attractions can and should strive to do better here and, by doing better, we mean doing less. So, in this episode we put both of oour degrees to…

116 - January/February News

Feb 19, 2018 • 48 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another episode divisible by four so that means it’s’ time to do the news! It’s a bit of a slow news cycle for us. We’re in that strange time of year where there’s not much post season going on but we’re not yet ramping up…

115 - Haunting Holidays

Feb 12, 2018 • 55 min

Haunting isn’t just for Halloween anymore. More and more haunts are opening their doors for other holidays in a bid to make some more cash in the off-season. But, if you want to open up out of season, what holidays should you target? There are a LOT of…

114 - Margee Kerr

Feb 5, 2018 • 44 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we have a very special guest as we sit down with Dr. Margee Kerr: The Sociologist Who Studies Fear. Dr. Kerr has been everywhere. Perhaps best known for her segment on Full Frontal with Samantatha Bee, she’s also been in Time,…

113 - Aphantasia in Haunting

Jan 29, 2018 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we’re doing a topic that, for us, has been a LOOOOOONG time coming: Aphantasia in haunting. What is aphantasia? It’s the inability to form pictures in your mind. Where most of the population can picture a beautiful beach or a…

112 - December/January News

Jan 22, 2018 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another episode divisible by four so that means it’s time to do THE NEWS! However, we’re in the slow season for haunted attraction news. This past month covers all of the holidays and, to be frank, not a lot has been going…

Episode 111: Haunt Weekly - Episode 111 - HAuNTcon 2018

Jan 15, 2018 • 63 min

HAuNTcon 2018 is in the books and we were there for the entire event and then some. So, what happened then? That’s what this episode is about, it’s our full recap of HAuNTcon 2018 as we look at everything from the classes we attended to the show room…

110 - Haunters: The Art of the Scare

Jan 8, 2018 • 48 min

Boy howdy has this movie caused some controversy in the haunt community. Just hours after it hit Netflix people were talking about it left and right in various haunter groups on Facebook and we found ourselves getting multiple requests to cover it. So,…

109 - Layers of Fear

Jan 1, 2018 • 50 min

HAPPY NEW YEAR! We are back once again, Crystal is adequately recovered from her surgery and we are back to talk about a… video game? That’s right we spent a good part of our time off catching up on some video games and one of the ones we played is Layers…

108 - November/December News

Dec 25, 2017 • 48 min

First thing is first everyone, Merry Christmas! While we here at Haunt Weekly certainly haven’t been nice enough to justify a visit from Santa (Krampus maybe) we’re still giving out gifts this year and that includes an all-new episode of Haunt Weekly.…

107 - More Christmas Horror

Dec 18, 2017 • 52 min

Every year around this time, we take a break from the haunted attraction stuff and, instead, discuss some of our favorite Christmas horror themes. Turns out, when you get down to it, Christmas (and the other winter holidays) is a pretty messed up holiday…

106 - Can a Haunt Be So Bad It’s Good?

Dec 12, 2017 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re celebrating the release of The Disaster Artist by asking a question that we haven’t actually asked before: “Can a haunt be so bad it’s good?” We talk about films this way all of the time with The Room, the film The…

105 - New Orleans Bound

Dec 4, 2017 • 56 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing things a bit differently. Rather than talking about haunted attractions we’re talking about our fair city, New Orleans. Since many of you are coming down here for HAuNTcon, we wanted to do our part to make sure that…

104 - October/November News

Nov 27, 2017 • 51 min

Episode 100, as most of you remember, was our blowout celebration episode where we definitely did NOT talk about any news. Episode 104 is where the hangover sets in. Now we have to get through two months, the two busines months, of haunt news in one go.…

Episode 103: Haunt Weekly - Episode 103 - Den of Fear

Nov 20, 2017 • 57 min

Starting any haunted attraction is a daunting challenge. Starting a professional one is much, much more so. However, when Jamie Lee Sullivan and Rickie Haines set out to make their own pro haunt, they didn’t even have experience with a home haunt. Though…

102: Haunt Weekly - Episode 102 - Haunt Industry Crutches

Nov 13, 2017 • 54 min

Haunting is hard. It’s hard work, it’s a hard business and it’s hard creatively. Because of that, we sometimes turn to crutches and lean on things that, maybe, are more out of laziness and lack of ideas than what is actually best. So, in this episode…

101 - Our 2017 Season

Nov 6, 2017 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re taking it a bit easy. It’s been a long, wonderful season so we need to take a moment to relax, reflect and talk about the season that’s just finished. And what a season it was. Record numbers, amazing scares and hours of…

100 - What Halloween and Haunting Mean to Us

Oct 30, 2017 • 56 min

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! Hope everyone’s season is going well and that you’re having a safe, scary and (if relevant) profitable October. The big night is just ahead but, for us, this is also a major milestone as we release episode 100 of Haunt Weekly!…

99 - Lessons from Our Atlanta Trip

Oct 23, 2017 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re wrapping up conversation about our Atlanta trip by looking at some of the lessons we learned from it. Many of these lessons come not from anything specific to Atlanta, but rather, from visiting 9 haunts over 4 nights…

98 - Our Atlanta Trip

Oct 16, 2017 • 61 min

We are back! We have returned from the exotic locale of Atlanta and, along the way, managed to take in 9 different haunted attractions including seven in two nights. While we really didn’t want to make this a “review” episode of Haunt Weekly, it’s kind of…

97 - Are Haunts Becoming Too Expensive?

Oct 9, 2017 • 52 min

Hope everyone is having a great season and that your haunts are operating as smoothly and as briskly as you like. For us as home haunters, this part of the month is the time where we head out and visit literally all of the haunts we can. However, we…

96 - September / October News

Oct 2, 2017 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another episode divisble by four and that means it’s time to do THE NEWS! If your season hasn’t already started it’s likely coming up very soon. Either way, this is definitely the busy season for the industry and that’s…

95 - Retail Halloween

Sep 25, 2017 • 57 min

As haunters, we like to build things and the things we don’t build we usually have a “source” or a “guy” we’d rather buy from. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to traipse through the Halloween section at Walmart or swing by your nearest Spirit…

94 - Japes’ Current Projects

Sep 18, 2017 • 52 min

Japes Palles is one of the busiest men in haunting, and that’s saying something. Not only is he a new father but, even as haunt season is ramping up, he is taking on not one but two new projects, both of them epic in their scale and what they can do for…

93 - Why We Don’t Go Pro

Sep 11, 2017 • 53 min

You guys should go pro! Why don’t you? It’s a question we get asked dozens of times per year, usually starting right now as the work ramps up. Usually the question is high praise and comes from happy visitors to our overgrown home haunt. They see the work…

92 - August/September News

Sep 5, 2017 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another episode divisible by four and that means it’s time to do the news! And a busy time for haunt news it is. As haunts gear up for the start of season, press releases are flying everywhere and everyone is talking about…

91 - Halloween & Hauntfest Recap

Aug 29, 2017 • 61 min

Halloween & Hauntfest 2017 is in the books and what a show it was. Some great classes, an exciting trade show floor and some after hours events that will make a lifetime of memories. Over the course of the 48 hours there, I have two talks, attended half a…

90 - Halloween & HauntFest Preview

Aug 21, 2017 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re not just staring at the eclipse, we’re gearing up to go to Halloween & HauntFest next weekend in Dallas! Now, before we begin, we had some technical issues with last week’s episode. If you didn’t ge the full 50 minutes of…

89 - What Haunters Can Learn from Pro Wrestling

Aug 15, 2017 • 54 min

To those who are not and never have been fans of pro wrestling, it can seem silly. That’s partly because it is, but, then again, so is haunting a lot of time. Just because something is silly doesn’t mean it isn’t also very serious. But, most importantly,…

88 - July/August News

Aug 7, 2017 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we’re doing the news and we have a lot to go through this episode! We have tales of two break ins at haunted attractions, an update on McKamey Manor, a new and unique haunt opening up in Orlando and another merger in…

87 - Raven’s Grin Inn

Jul 31, 2017 • 56 min

Most haunters are already very familiar with Raven’s Grin Inn, a year-round haunted attraction in Mt. Carroll, IL. The brain child and labor of Jim Warfield, it is an attraction that is both unique and revered. Last week, we got the chance to see the…

86 - 13 Online Services Haunters Need to Know

Jul 24, 2017 • 57 min

After a heavy podcast last week, we’re lightening things up this week with a podcast all about web services that can you run, promote and monetize your haunt more effectively. Best of all, these are all web services that, while very useful, aren’t…

85 - Offensive Haunting

Jul 17, 2017 • 54 min

Haunting is hard. Threading the needle between scaring someone and actively traumatizing hem is a difficult task. However, sometimes haunts can cross the line and include scares, props and scenes that do more to offend than scare. While haunting is an art…

84 - June/July News

Jul 10, 2017 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s another “4” episode meaning that it’s time to do the news! This is admittedly a slow week for haunted attraction news but there are still a few stories of serious import including the purchase of a major haunt conference…

83 - Haunt Branding Basics

Jul 3, 2017 • 51 min

Previously, on Haunt Weekly, we looked at haunt marketing and the questions that you need to answer with every single piece of marketing you put out. This week, we’re getting a bit more holistic and looking at haunt branding. This week’s episode is a…

82 - 6 Questions Your Marketing Must Answer

Jun 26, 2017 • 53 min

We’ve been spending a lot of time on haunted attraction websites and haunted attraction conference websites lately. What have we learned? That there is a lot of basic information missing from them. To that end, we’ve decided to do a little bit of…

81 - 7 Ways to Make a Terrible Escape Room

Jun 19, 2017 • 54 min

Making a good escape room is tough. It requires days of planning, countless hours of beta testing and an endless string of adjustments and tweaks. And we don’t have that kind of time, knowledge or expertise. However, we are avid players of escape games…

80 - May/June News

Jun 12, 2017 • 49 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it’s another episode divisible by four so that means we are doing the news! And it’s a surprisingly busy week for news as theme parks seem to be picking up the slack from the dead part of the year. We have news of several parks…

79 - 2010 Haunted Attraction Magazine

Jun 5, 2017 • 53 min

Not many podcast episodes start with a bit of house cleaning but this one certainly does. While doing some sprucing up ahead of a family visit, Crystal found a time capsule in an old box, a 2010 edition of Haunted Attraction Magazine, issue #53 to be…

78 - Women in Haunting #5 - Brooke Englehart

May 29, 2017 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we have a real treast for you as we sit down with Brooke Englehart of Svenpuss Productions. Based in Chicago, Svenpuss Productions is a traveling haunter troupe that also specializes in character designs, costumes and…

77 - Crowdfunding Your Haunt

May 22, 2017 • 53 min

The number one reason that haunts don’t make it past the concept stage is funding. However, as haunts get more expensive to open and remain high-risk traditiional sources to raise capital are being closed off. Banks, investors and self-funding are getting…

76 - April/May News

May 15, 2017 • 51 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we are doing the news! As we are wont to do on episodes diisible by four, we’re bringing yout the latest and greatest of haunted attraction news and, despite being literally as far away from Halloween as you can get, we have a…

75 - Japes Palles on Cancerous Actors

May 8, 2017 • 59 min

You might remember we sat down with Japes a few times in the past. For example Episode 59, Episode 46 and Episode 43 if you’re curious. You migh also remember that, on Episode 65, we discussed toxic actors and repeatedly said we wishes we could have Japes…

74 - Women in Haunting #4 - Sylvia Vicchiullo

May 1, 2017 • 48 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we are continuing our women in haunting series (it’s been far, far too long) and sitting down with Sylvia Vicchiullo, the cast managager for A Petrified Forest in central Florida. In this interview we learn a great deal about…

73 - Von Grimm Productions

Apr 24, 2017 • 51 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re kicking off interview month as we sit down with Matt Scott of Von Grimm Productions. Matt is a virtual wizard when it comes to masks and makeup effects for the haunt industry. He places an emphasis on creating high-quality…

72 - March/April News

Apr 17, 2017 • 48 min

This week on Haunt Weekly it’s another episode divisible by four and that means it is time to do the news! And it’s a busy month for haunted attraction news as we have the first haunt announced for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, an upcoming…

71 - Our Haunt Wishlist

Apr 10, 2017 • 50 min

The idea for this week’s episode comes from one of our listeners and man is it a great one (Thank you Maximus Christian Bryant!). So good, it may well become a miniseries. Basically, as New Orleans residents, we’ve been to nearly every haunt along the…

70 - Dwayne Sanburn 2 (13th Gate)

Apr 3, 2017 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we are back with Dwayne Sanburn of the 13th Gate Haunted House in Baton Rogue, Louisiana but this time we’re not talking haunts, we’re talking room escapes, specifically the 13th Gate Escape. That’s right, this week is all about…

69 -Dwayne Sanburn (13th Gate)

Mar 27, 2017 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we sit down with a legend in the industry, Dwayne Sanburn of the 13th Gate Haunted House, Necropolis 13, 13th Gate Room Escapes and Midnight Productions. In this episode we sit down with Dwayne and discuss his haunt history…

68 - February/March News

Mar 20, 2017 • 51 min

Haunt Weekly is back with another news episode and boy do we have a doozy for you! Most of the news this week is actually really good with some excellent ideas on how to get some year-round business/attention for your attraction and some positive outcomes…

67 - Haunt-Related Charities

Mar 13, 2017 • 50 min

Charity has always been at the core of haunting. From the first haunted attractions that supported the Jaycees to modern megahaunts, the haunt community has always made giving back a priority. But while there are many great charities that you can support…

66 - Our Haunt Blunders

Mar 6, 2017 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re taking a trip down embarassing memory lane. We’ve never claimed to be perfect here, heck, we never claim to be experts. Just passionate people who have been doing this for a lot longer than sanity should allow. And since…

65 - Toxic Actors

Feb 27, 2017 • 55 min

Haunts are like families but, sometimes, families have toxic memebrs and you have to deal with them. While this is an unfortuante part of the haunt business, it’s a necessary part. Toxic actors can tear apart a haunt and sink even the best haunt seemingly…

64 - January/February News

Feb 20, 2017 • 52 min

It’s episode 64 and, since it’s another episode divisble by four, it’s time to do THE NEWS! It’s admittedly knid of a slow month this go around. While we have a slew of haunts who have opened up for for Valentine’s Day, the real news this month appears to…

63 - The Houses October Built

Feb 13, 2017 • 52 min

The haunt industry, unfortunately, doesn’t always have the best reputation witht he public at large. Though millions of consumers flock to haunts every year, many wonder if the danger is more than fantasy. While the truth is that we are one of the most…

62 - Our Escape Room Experiences

Feb 8, 2017 • 51 min

This is officially the cursed episode. We missed our recording date because we were both sick and coughing doesn’t sound good on camera. Then, when we went to record on Monday an SD card error ate most of our first take. Then, when we went to edit and…

61 - Conference Tips

Jan 30, 2017 • 56 min

Every week on this show we open up with a quick rundown of upcoming conferences and conventions. While we, unfortunately, aren’t planning to go to any in the near future due to job considerations, we believe that strong conferences help make our industry…

60 - January News

Jan 23, 2017 • 53 min

Well, it’s episode 60 and you know what that means, it’s time to do the news! It’s January so we are pretty much out of the post-season news and getting news that is looking forward to this year’s season. What that means for us is a lot of stories about…

59 - Catching Up With Japes

Jan 16, 2017 • 59 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, it’s a bit of a different episode. We’re catching up with our old friend and actor expert Japes Palles to learn how his season went and get his opinoin on some of the latest big stories in haunting. So, if you’ve missed Japes…

58 - Maintaining Secrecy

Jan 9, 2017 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we are all about the shhhhhhhh. Secrecy is a big part of haunting as this is an industry that depends upon the element of surprise. However, how do you maintain that secrecy in our current sharing culture, especially when…

57 - International Haunting

Jan 2, 2017 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we are going internationa! Well, the conversation is at least. There’s a tendency in the U.S. to thnk that haunted attractions are a decidedly American anomaly. However, a quick bit of research or a few trips abroad shows…

56 - December News

Dec 26, 2016 • 46 min

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s that joyous time of year where people are spending time with their families, consuming way too much food and, generally not working. But that doesn’t mean we get to take the week off. Not a chance. We’re back again…

55 - Christmas Demons

Dec 19, 2016 • 51 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we’re doing things a bit different. Rather than just talking about the haunted attraction industry, we wanted to do something special in honor of the holiday season. So we (and by we I mean Crystal) did a lot of research into…

54 - Handicap Accessibility

Dec 12, 2016 • 59 min

Handicap accessibility is one of the hot-button issues on pretty much every haunted attraction forum or group. Wheelchair access, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, the list of concerns and even complaints goes on. However, the ADA is the…

53 - Parking

Dec 5, 2016 • 54 min

With the one year anniversary out of the way, we can return to the business of putting out a weekly podcast and we have a doozy of an episode this week as we jump into the wild, exciting world of PARKING! Ok, maybe it’s not the most exciting topic but…

52 - October/November News

Nov 28, 2016 • 51 min

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! That’s right, we’ve now been doing this crazy podcast for a full year and what better way to celebrate it than by doing what we do best: The News. Unfortunately, it’s kind of a sad news episode as we wrap up the haunt season…

51 - Seasonal Wrapup

Nov 21, 2016 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we are reflecting a bit. The season is over, the haunts are closed, cleanup has started and we’re taking a bit of a breather to look back on the season that was. For us, that means remembering the haunts we went to and thinking…

50 - Blackout Haunts

Nov 14, 2016 • 51 min

As the season winds down we turn our attention to one of the more bizarre but yet common traditions in our industry: Blackout or flashlight nights. The idea is fairly straightforward, take a haunt that has had countless hours of time and attention to…

49 - Interactive Haunts

Nov 7, 2016 • 59 min

As we wrap up the 2016 haunt season, we're taking a moment to reflect on one of our favorite trends that we saw in our area: Interactive haunts. While there's a lot of overlap between interactive and artisanal haunts, mainstream haunts are also getting in…

48 - October News

Oct 31, 2016 • 46 min

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hope that your season has been going well and that both the screams and the dollars are flowing well this year. It's certainly been a busy one for us and we've been very fortunate to not only have a great run so far with our small haunt,…

47 - Artisanal Haunts

Oct 24, 2016 • 55 min

There's been a growing trend across the country, one that's only recently reached our neck of the woods, of small "artisanal" haunts popping up every Halloween season. Whether they're run by artist spaces, theater groups or circus performers, these haunts…

46 - Actor Management

Oct 17, 2016 • 63 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're bringing back Japes Palles on the show to finish up his conversation about actors with a discussion about actor management. It's a crucial topic for a haunt of any size but doubly so for larger haunts. So how do you herd…

45 - Our Season So Far

Oct 10, 2016 • 55 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're taking a look back at our season so far. With our Halloween season about halfway over, we decided to take a look back at the season so far and reminisce about the 8 haunts we've visited and what haunters can learn from…

44 - September News

Oct 3, 2016 • 53 min

We're pretty sure most people have figured out what the focus of this week's episode is. It's about the FearVR story and, to be frank, we don't have any good answers here. Still, we talk at great length about the story and how our industry made…

43 - Actor Training

Sep 26, 2016 • 57 min

When it comes to actors, every haunt wants to know three things: Where to find them, how to train them and why they stay or leave. Japes Palles may not be able to help much with the first item, but he has 14 years of experience with the other two. This…

42 - Online Ticketing

Sep 19, 2016 • 54 min

It's that most wonderful time of the year, the time where haunts are opening up and we get to go to a few of our own! That, however, means buying tickets and, for a lot of the haunts, that means buying tickets online. Unfortunately though, buying tickets…

41 - Women in Haunting #3

Sep 12, 2016 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly we are revisiting our Women in Haunting series but this one is a bit different. Our interviewee this week e is local to us and had a very negative experience with her attempt to enter into the haunt industry. While her experience…

40 - August / September News

Sep 5, 2016 • 53 min

Yes indeed, it's another episode that's divisible by four and that means it's time again to do the news! It's a bit of a downer this go around as we have stories of one major haunted attraction that will be shuttering its doors in the new year and another…

39 - Paid vs. Unpaid Actors

Aug 29, 2016 • 54 min

To pay? Or not to pay? That is the question. As haunts across the nation begin to recruit actors the question about pay will inevitably arise as actors and owners alike will try to decide what they want and what is best for them. The truth is this: There…

38 - Women in Haunting #2

Aug 22, 2016 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we are returning to the subject of women in haunting and have a great conversation with Neena Collins of the Scareatorium in Columbus, OH. Neena's story is, in many ways, not the typical one for a haunter. Though she was brought…

37 - Our Haunt Nightmares

Aug 15, 2016 • 56 min

We run one haunt, we've acted in several and we've been through countless. The vast, vast majority of our haunt experience has been completely safe, wonderful and fun. This is not about those experiences. There have been a few times that the horror of the…

36 - July / August News

Aug 8, 2016 • 39 min

Yes folks it's another episode divisible by four and that means it is time to do the news! We ended the show a little bit early this week. misestimating the amount of time we needed to talk about each of the stories. However, it's still a VERY busy time…

35 - Guerrilla Marketing

Aug 1, 2016 • 54 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we are putting my degree to some use and talking about guerrilla marketing. Guerrilla marketing is one of the most popular topics not just at haunted attraction conventions, but all small business conventions. However, most…

Huant Weekly - Episode 34 - Women in Haunting #1

Jul 25, 2016 • 52 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing something a little bit different. As we've discussed in some of the recent episodes, we're wanting to start a series on women in haunting where we discuss the experiences and challenges women face in the haunt…

Episode 33: Haunt Weekly Episode 33 - Haunt Reviews

Jul 18, 2016 • 55 min

With the recent news in our industry, we've been thinking more about haunt reviews in general and the tense relationship between haunters and reviewers. The truth is we have a very unique culture when it comes to reviews. Many haunters seem to dislike…

32 - June / July News

Jul 11, 2016 • 50 min

Yes everyone it's another multiple of four and that means it's time to do the news! This time, however, things are a little bit different. We start off this week talking about the recent controversy involving Ohio Valley Haunts. While it's rough that we…

31 - Our Process

Jul 4, 2016 • 53 min

Every haunt that has a backstory has a process for coming up with it. This week, we wanted to share ours and take a long look at how we come up with the story and how it ties into the construction of our haunt. So how do we come up with a new back story…

30 - Rapid Fire Questions #1

Jun 27, 2016 • 50 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we're doing things a little bit differently. Normally we find a topic and take a deep 50-minute dive into it but we've had a lot of things we've wanted to discuss but haven't really been able to figure out a way to talk about it…

29 - Horror in Music Videos

Jun 20, 2016 • 56 min

Following up on our previous conversation about the need for kid-friendly horror, we take a look at look at one medium that's been giving the younger generation a good fright for decades: Music videos But these videos aren't just a way to introduce kids…

28 - May / June News

Jun 13, 2016 • 57 min

It's a number four episode and that means it's time to do the news! And to think, we were worried we wouldn't have enough to do a monthly news show. This week we have a lot of news about haunts, opening/closing/moving etc. as we enter permit season,…

27 - Universal Horror

Jun 6, 2016 • 53 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we have something very special for you. We brought in a good friend of ours, Dawn, to talk about her experiences with Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando. Dawn is a 10 year veteran of Universal Studios and…

26 - Indoor vs. Outdoor Haunts

May 30, 2016 • 56 min

When people start thinking about opening a haunt, there's one decision that they usually make almost subconsciously: Whether the haunt will be indoor or outdoor. Very few haunts, it seem, seriously consider changing their path in this regard. Most people…

25 - Alcohol and Haunting

May 23, 2016 • 53 min

Pretty much every haunt has had to kick out a drunk and belligerent customer. It's a part of the industry that few like to talk about but everyone is familiar with. This is part of why the haunt industry's relationship with alcohol is so strained. Being…

24 - April / May News

May 16, 2016 • 52 min

This time on Haunt Weekly, it's all about the news! That's right, it's an episode that's divisible by four and that means we're taking a look at all of the latest and greatest news in the haunted attraction/entertainment industry. And boy do we have a lot…

23 - A-Maze-ing Failure

May 9, 2016 • 52 min

Maze attractions are great. For many, nothing says Halloween more than a corn maze in the dead of a brisk October night. However, many haunted houses incorporate mazes into their attractions, rather than making them standalone. The idea is simple enough,…

22 - Haunted Attractions and Horror Video Games

May 2, 2016 • 55 min

Many haunted attractions bill themselves as an interactive horror movie. Why should one simply watch a film when they can be a part of it? But on that front haunted attractions have some strong competition in the form of horror video games, which actually…

21 - Finding and Recruiting Actors

Apr 24, 2016 • 53 min

For all of the planning, building and other work that goes into a haunted attraction, haunts inevitably run on actors. It's the people in the haunt that make or break it. But recruiting and keeping good actors is no simple matter. Virtually every haunt…

20 - March / April News

Apr 17, 2016 • 51 min

Haunt Weekly fans it's time once again to do the news, this time for the fifth time. This week's episode starts on a bit of a down note as we get dueling reminders about the importance of safety when working on and acting in a haunted attractions. We then…

19 - Hell Houses

Apr 10, 2016 • 55 min

Religion and haunted attractions have always been a strange mixture. Sure haunts have long had exorcism rooms and themes surrounding the devil, but typically haunts have avoided straying too far into to the religious. But while haunting has been reluctant…

18 - The Worst Haunt Ever

Apr 3, 2016 • 55 min

The two of us have been blessed with our haunt experiences, nearly every single time we've been through a haunt we have enjoyed ourselves or, at the very least, had something great to take away. We've been able to tour some of the greatest haunts in the…

17 - Ethics in Haunting

Mar 27, 2016 • 55 min

Haunters have always had a strange fascination with evil. We love using the fear of evil to build a mood and get scares in customers. Our attractions regularly feature grizzly murders, demonic creatures, inhuman villains and much, much more. We even…

16 - February / March News

Mar 20, 2016 • 53 min

Rejoice Haunt Weekly lovers it is time for our fourth news episode as we get you caught up on all of the things going on in the haunted attraction industry. While it's true that the ides of march (or close to it) is far from peak season for haunt news,…

15 - Baby Got Backstory

Mar 13, 2016 • 54 min

Backstory. Not every haunt has one, not every haunt needs one, but if you're looking for a great, free way to improve your customer's experience and your marketing, it's a great place to start. However, not all backstories are created equal and even great…

14 - Talking About Tech

Mar 6, 2016 • 52 min

Though tech has become an important part of almost every industry, it's been playing a unique role in the haunt industry for nearly 50 years. What started off as parlor tricks meant to impress and woo crowds has slowly turned into an integral part of…

13 - The Core Haunt Crew (Krewe?)

Feb 28, 2016 • 52 min

It's a simple fact of haunting, while everyone loves scaring the ever-loving hell out of the customers, there's a lot more that goes into a haunt than just putting on a costume and scaring people. So this begs a simple question: How many hats do you have…

12 - January / February News

Feb 21, 2016 • 50 min

12 is divisible by 4 so that means it's time for us to do the news! While February might not seem like a time bustling with news for the haunted attraction industry we have a couple of major stories this week as we learn of one year-around haunt closing…

11 - Touch vs. No Touch Haunts

Feb 14, 2016 • 54 min

When opening up a haunt, one of the first questions that has to be answered is whether the haunt will be a touch or a no touch haunt. This decision is crucial because it affects nearly every decision that will come later including the design of the haunt,…

10 -HAuNTcon Recap

Feb 7, 2016 • 61 min

This week on Haunt weekly, we make our triumphant return from HAuNTcon and present our thorough recap including a breakdown of the classes we attended and some of the highlights of what we learned. As a result, this episode has a little bit of everything…

9 - Distract and Startle

Jan 31, 2016 • 55 min

This week on Haunt Weekly, we are at HAuNTcon. However, since the conference is ongoing you'll have to wait until next week for our wrap up and other wonderful content. However, we aren't ones to disappoint, we have a great show this week as we bring on…

8 - HAuNTcon & December/January News

Jan 24, 2016 • 53 min

It's that time again! Another month has passed and it's time for us to cover the news. This week's episode is mostly about the biggest story in the haunted attraction industry this month: HAuNTcon. We will be in attendance at HAuNTcon (one of us will be…

7 - Basic Actor Scares

Jan 17, 2016 • 56 min

The most common question actors have when they start a new role is "What do you want me to do?" Sadly, the answer isn't always straightforward. Sometimes, what the haunt owner or supervisor wants is not necessarily what is best for that actor or the room.…

6 - Haunted Attraction Websites

Jan 10, 2016 • 56 min

Websites. Your haunt has to have one. So how do you make sure your website doesn't suck? Here at Haunt Weekly the only thing we've done more than build haunts is develop websites and it's time for us to have a serious sit down about this issue because,…

5 - Price Differentiation (VIP Lines & Coupons)

Jan 3, 2016 • 53 min

It's time to talk some business. When it comes to running your haunt, you're trying to operate a year-round business that's only open for about 6 weeks. You need to attract as many customers as possible and bring in as much money from each of them that…

4 - November/December News and Christmas Stuff

Dec 27, 2015 • 50 min

It's episode 4 of Haunt Weekly and that means it is time to get caught up on the news! We have a lot to go over this week as we're covering all of the news stories from early November to mid-December, meaning we have six full weeks of stories to go…

3 - Basic Haunt Construction & Design

Dec 20, 2015 • 57 min

Previously we discussed haunt safety much but now we get to the nitty gritty: How to build and design a haunt. Obviously, this is too much to unpack in one episode so think of this as a whirlwind tour the basics of haunt construction and design. Why…

2 - Basic Haunt Safety

Dec 13, 2015 • 56 min

When it comes to running a haunted house, nothing is more important than safety. At the end of the night, you want every customer and actor to go home safely. So, in the spirit of safety first, we're making our first real episode of Haunt Weekly a…

1 - Introductions

Dec 5, 2015 • 23 min

Welcome to the first episode of haunt weekly! In this episode we introduce ourselves, Jonathan and Crystal, and we talk a bit about our backgrounds, what we want this podcast to be and, most importably, how you can help. ——more—— Our goal is to make this…