![\"An](\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/An-animatronic-monster-is-ready-for-guests-at-the-13th-Floor-haunted-house-in-Denver-October-19-2013.-REUTERS_resize.jpg\")
<\/a>An animatronic monster is ready for guests at the “13th Floor” haunted house in Denver October 19, 2013. America’s Haunts, a trade association, estimates there are 1,200 large-scale, for-profit haunted attractions in the U.S. plus another 3,000 haunted houses operated by charities that open for only a day or two every year. The commercial attractions collectively bring in from $300 million to $500 million annually.<\/p><\/div>\n
America’s Haunts, a trade association, estimates there are 1,200 large-scale, for-profit haunted attractions in the U.S. plus another 3,000 haunted houses operated by charities that open for only a day or two every year. The commercial attractions collectively bring in from $300 million to $500 million annually.<\/p>\n
“Haunted houses are trying to create these immersive environments, and technology often does that,” said Brett Bertolino, director of operations at Eastern State Penitentiary, a decommissioned Philadelphia prison converted annually into a giant, sometimes claustrophobic, haunted house.<\/p>\n
Technology has helped drive change, making it easier for operators to devise new thrills as well as to share ideas around the country.<\/p>\n
“People my age grew up going to these and started thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could do this for a living?'” said Scott Simmons, the 43-year-old co-owner and creative director of Pittsburgh’s ScareHouse.<\/p>\n
“The Internet allowed all of us to connect,” he said. “I’m in Pittsburgh and could connect with someone in Texas.”<\/p>\n
Haunts began getting more complicated about 15 years ago, when the price of air-powered pneumatic devices dropped, Simmons said. That allowed operators to easily build moving props – from floors that shift under patrons’ feet to monsters with moving mouths and limbs.<\/p>\n
To make the monsters a little less predictable, operators combined air-powered devices with computerized sensors.<\/p>\n
“They aren’t on timers where something is going ka-junk, then 30 seconds later, ka-junk,” says Billy Messina, a co-owner of Netherworld, an Atlanta haunted house known for its innovative use of silicone masks on actors to create extremely realistic monsters.<\/p>\n
“With the sensors, you can time it so it’s not always the person at the front of a group that’s getting scared,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/a>A character at the “13th Floor” haunted house moves through the crowd in Denver October 18, 2013. America’s Haunts, a trade association, estimates there are 1,200 large-scale, for-profit haunted attractions in the U.S. plus another 3,000 haunted houses operated by charities that open for only a day or two every year. The commercial attractions collectively bring in from $300 million to $500 million annually. Picture taken October 18, 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n
GRABBED BY A GIANT CLAM<\/h3>\n
The older animatronics – with their overly mechanical movements and hinged jaws – have given way to puppets.<\/p>\n
Gore Galore, a maker of props for haunted houses, sells a puppet that looks like a toothed clam. Its jaws, which can entrap as many as four people, are so huge the operator must rely on a video camera inside the prop to see the patrons.<\/p>\n
“Bigger is always better,” said Kevin Alvey, Gore Galore’s owner.<\/p>\n
Haunted house operators have also followed Hollywood’s lead in using computer graphics, mounting flat-panel video screens in place of windows filled with scenes of zombies or using them as paintings whose subjects can move and age visibly.<\/p>\n
These advances are not cheap, and they have created an arms race of sorts to provide bigger and better thrills.<\/p>\n
“A couple of years ago, we had a 13-foot (4-meter) steampunk robot with machine guns,” said ScareHouse’s Simmons. “Once you establish that you are willing to have that, you can’t go back.”<\/p>\n
The most sophisticated businesses own their buildings and employ year-round, full-time staff – including effects artists, mechanical engineers and, in the weeks leading up to Halloween, hundreds of actors. Despite the costs, a business might be open to the public for only 30 days of the year.<\/p>\n
That brief time-frame to recoup a year-long investment has created fierce competition and a surge in ticket prices.<\/p>\n
The average ticket price for a haunted house is $15, but it can go as high as $65, according to America’s Haunts, whose members include the nation’s largest haunted houses.<\/p>\n
(Editing by Scott Malone and Gunna Dickson)<\/p>\n
<\/a>A pig-faced character (R) wields a running chain saw at the “13th Floor” haunted house in Denver October 18, 2013. America’s Haunts, a trade association, estimates there are 1,200 large-scale, for-profit haunted attractions in the U.S. plus another 3,000 haunted houses operated by charities that open for only a day or two every year. The commercial attractions collectively bring in from $300 million to $500 million annually. Picture taken October 18, 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n
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