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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

ScaryTinkers Haunt Tour 2012 Day 10

Nightmare On The Bayou
Houston, Texas
www.nightmareonthebayou.com

Finding Nightmare on the Bayou is a bit challenging because I could not find a sign for the haunt on the street.   Look for the costume company and NOTB is behind it.  Parking is free and conveniently located.   This haunt is made up of 5 separate sections that feed into each other. 

The first section is a chain link fence labyrinth.  Lighting is well done and allows the actors to find some dark spot to leap out from.   There was a novel approach to the ground cover here.  They used medium sized (1") rounded river rock over landscape cloth as the base.   For the fog effect they used misters.   The mist settled on the rock making it wet.   The net effect was to lubricate the stones giving a 'draggy' effect without the mess of sand or mud.

You cross the driveway to enter the second section.  This is the main haunted and is enclosed in metal warehouse building.   The haunt starts strong with a twisting hall of skulls lined with skulls and lit by strobe lights.  Detail level is moderate throughout the haunt.  Lighting is good.   This is the first haunt I've visited to use video based bug effects.   Here's how the gag works.  There is a  hallway with white walls and plastic cockroaches glued to the walls.  From behind a video of moving cockroaches is projected down the hallway.   The overall effect is quite good.   The guys at Nightmare managed to space the fixed cockroaches in such a way to leave room for the video roaches to move convincingly.   Overall this is one of the best effects in the haunt.

The remaining mini haunts are fairly small.   One section is a shipping container with a prop at the front end, a 12 foot airbag, and a prop at the end.  It is best to consider this one haunted attraction broken into sections rather than 5 attractions.

 $34.50 for general admission.  The entire haunt takes about 30 minutes to complete.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Scary Tinker's Haunt Tour 2012 - Day 8 Part 2

Ecopocalypse
Austin, Texas
http://ecopocalypseaustin.com

Every once and a while you come across something unique, Ecopocalypse certainly qualifies.  This non-linear attraction portrays the world after an ecological collapse of the planet.  Think Mad Max without Tina Turner.

All the usual cliches are missing.  No demons, no zombies, no vampires, no chainsaws....   The lighting is a couple of notches above dim so you can see your surroundings and the actors.   The actors will try to engage you with semi-scripted dialogue intended to drive the narrative and guide you through the attraction.   There are lots of startle scares and some blood used.  

During the pre-admission introduction, (No touching, No running, etc...)  visitors are told that there is no one way to find your way out of the show.   Customers are encouraged to explore the Ecopocalypsean world and that back tracking to see the entire venue is a good idea.   A wrist band presented upon ticket purchase entitles you to multiple trips though the labyrinth that evening.

The attraction is one part haunted house and one part interactive dinner theatre (minus the dinner).   At $20 admission this haunt is a good deal.   Located one block off the infamous 6th Street in Austin it is easy to put together a fun evening that include scares, food, and live music. 

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Haunt Tour 2012 - Day 8

House of Torment
Austin, Texas
www.houseoftorment.com

There are 3 attractions at House of Torment: The Awakening, Cursed, The Howling, and The Slaughter House.

Wow - The Awakening gets off to a fast start with highly detailed sets and high dollar animatronics.  The story line is that an evil space ship has crashed releasing alien demons and and poking holes in the space time continuum.   There is a great subways station that leads to a walk through a subway car, and the entire car moves with you in it.   You enter a chamber with a 30 foot animatronic and an actor on a zip line.   With highly detailed sets, solid lighting, and a great ambient sound track this haunt rocks.   I had a bit of a problem when I got to the pirate ship which seemed out of place.   Still, the tilting deck was a great effect.  The haunt is multilevel and is long enough to satisfy.

Cursed carried on at much the same level.   This haunt is themed as a Mayan temple.  Detail is good, integration of the animatronics was good.   The crew did a good job of spacing small groups to avoid the conga line.   My only complaint is that this haunt seemed a bit too short.

The Slaughter House was a real contrast.   It is an outdoor haunt made up of a few metal shipping containers and wooden fencing, this haunt was short on scares.   The premise is that you have entered a hillbilly slaughter house.   This haunt consisted of long stretches of waking though a featureless labyrinth, interspaced with a few hanging disemboweled props.   There were a few scenes with butcher shops and chainsaws.  Surprise...  The last scare is happens when the actor chases people with a chainsaw.

24.95 for General Admission and $34.95 for VIP tickets with lots of convenient free parking make this haunted attraction a deal.    Even with the Slaughter House being a throw-away attraction, this is on of the best haunted attractions around.



Haunt Tour 2012 - Day 7 Part 2

The Cutting Edge
Fort Worth, Texas
www.cuttingedgehauntedhouse.com

$54.50 for the VIP Ticket + $10.00 for parking.  No receipt available for cash purchases.  This haunt is low on scares and high on sensory overload.  Strobes, fog and a thundering rock and roll sound track characterize this attraction.   The detail level is moderate mostly relying on the existing ambiance provided by the old meat packing plant that houses the haunt.

The greatest failing of this haunt is the lack of good theatrical lighting.  Large sections of the haunted are so dark you can't see the intended scare.   Even featured scares such as animatronics lack point lighting to highlight the scare.   I knew something roared and moved to the left, I never saw what it was.   The actors were obviously frustrated as well.  Many of them resorted to jumping out and waving their hands in front of the face of the intended victim.

I enjoyed the sound track made up of rock and roll standards.  Hell's Bells, Cry Little Sister (The theme from Lost Boys) are examples of the music used.

I applaud the haunt for attempting to manage the problem of the formation of conga lines.  In most haunts small groups are admitted at the entrance of the haunt in an effort to space out the visitors allowing actors and animatronics to reset between groups.   What usually happens is one of the groups moves so slowly that other groups catch up and you end up with a conga line which degrades the experience for almost everyone.    The Cutting Edge has a secondary queue about mid-way though the haunt intended to reset the spacing the groups of visitors.

This haunt showed definite signs of  TSTS (Trade Show Temptation Syndrome)  Placement of the high dollar prop animatronics felt haphazard.   Overall this haunt lacked a cohesive theme, many of the props felt out of place and the actors often scrambled past the visitors to get to the next scare.

While this haunt is long, the density of interesting events was low.   Oh, and the big finish was walking through a tunnel of bubbles....