The summer season is nearly upon us, but for the moment, my thoughts are looking beyond and into the fall. Autumn, when the sun sets a little earlier, the night air gets a little chilly, the moon in the sky looks a little brighter and when the monsters come out to howl at your local theme park. Yes, I’m talking about the Halloween Haunts season.
But something is troubling my thoughts today as I ponder the season of pumpkin spice. Over the past 10 or 15 years, if you have visited any number of the various Halloween Haunt/Fright Fest style park events, you may have noticed a new trend.
Parks are selling strange, new, glowing, blinking, light-up items for guests to wear around the park at night. However, these are not your typical theme park merch. The little light-up trinkets, often themed as a necklace of some kind with a brightly lit medallion, are advertised as being able to ward off the big, bad, spooky monsters in the fog.
The rise of No Boo tokens at Halloween Haunts
The Cedar Fair theme park chain was quick to nickname and market them as “No Boo!” necklaces. They would make a killing selling the items at their Halloween Haunt events for parents to buy for their younger or more easily frightened kids. You know the kind when you see them, because you immediately wonder why they are there at the haunt in the first place, as most of these style events do recommend that they are for ages 13 and up.
Of course, then there are the older “kids” at the event. Those who were essentially forced to come with a group of their peers, even though they are scared out of their wits and ready to jump out of their Crocs at the very sound of a chainsaw running somewhere off in the darkness.
You’ll catch these particular guests also at the events, often convinced into coming with their group, when they are promised that someone will buy them a “No Boo!” necklace to keep the foulest of the nasty creatures away.
While they may not all say, “No Boo!” on them, the concept itself has spread to many different parks and haunt events throughout North America. However, apparently, the idea is not common in the European market. I can only attribute this to a slightly different set of sensibilities and a greater sense of responsibility for your actions.
You know the adage, “You reap what you sow”, so if you don’t want to be scared, you don’t go.
Yes Boo!
Now as a self professed “Haunt” fan myself, I will say that I’ve come to personally despise the sight of another guest wearing a “No Boo!” in the parks when I visit.
Generally, when I’m visiting Halloween Haunts, I want someone to try to scare me. So if I find myself anywhere near someone wearing this anti-monster Kryptonite device, it immediately has a negative impact on my enjoyment. In other words, I’m not getting what I paid for, just because someone else paid a little extra for a toned-down experience.
Exactly how the enforcement of the “No Boo!” totem works in any given park can differ greatly. Some vow to provide limited immunity from scares anywhere. In contrast, others say that they only work in the public spaces of the park, like scare zones. So, if you get in line for a Haunt, you are entering at your own risk, and the protection of the totem no longer applies.
However, I’d like to propose something new to the theme parks and haunt creators out there. If you are going to offer a “No Boo!” to tone things down, may I suggest that you also create another kind of totem to indicate when I want your scare actors to give me their worst?
In short, instead of a “No Boo!” can guests have the option of purchasing a “Yes Boo” (“Mo’ Boo!”?) totem instead? Essentially, a giant glowing totem to wear upon your person, something shaped like a giant bullseye or target emblem would work nicely.
Something that would allow the wearer to just silently stare in the dark abyss and say in their best Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson impression, “Just bring it!”
Halloween Haunts need to up their game
I want to take a moment to suggest that all haunt events strive to improve their overall quality and become a little more frightening in general.
While it could just be me becoming a bit too desensitized these days to your average Haunted House, I’ve just started to feel that too many haunts out there feel a bit toned down.
Sure, the sounds of screaming are always happening somewhere out in the fog. But I feel like they’re just going after the low-hanging fruit… spooking the easy targets rather than rising to the challenge to scare a target that appears to be more difficult.
In much the same way, sometimes the overall “themes” used for haunts and scare zones are a bit too generic as well. Again, this is sort of the same concept of taking the easy way out by picking a theme that has simply become all too common in haunts anymore. Clowns are a great example of this. To be honest, I’d be perfectly happy if I never saw a clown in a haunt ever again. But then again, clowns have never scared me in the slightest.
While not as common, pirates have become another theme that, in my opinion, isn’t very scary. Of course, I’ve also witnessed some very poor attempts at pirates trying to scare people.
I won’t say where this happened, as I don’t want to target any one park here. But I remember watching one odd pirate jumping out of the fog to yell in our face, “HEY! Do you want an ORANGE?!” I think there were some warning signs about Scurvy in the background, too. In the end, that kind of ruined the idea of “scary pirates” for me for good.
Using storytelling for an engaging experience
So, I’d like to suggest that everyone agree to elevate the overall Halloween Haunts experience beyond the concepts of simple decorations and scare actors in costumes.
Instead, I’d like to see more locations develop a compelling overall plot device that they can tie to the entire event each year. Not only is this more entertaining, but it also provides an easy key storytelling device. It is something that you can market to your audience well in advance, such as through advertising and social media teasers throughout the summer.
The creation of a multi-faceted approach that links both in-park theming and the plots of the various individual haunts into a greater overall psychological storyline. If done well enough, you can address these same storylines in future events. This creates a local “lore” of events that tie together from one event to another, which is something that your local fanbase will eat up year after year.
This master narrative would create a semi-cohesive storyline that would permeate the entire haunted event, rather than just throwing random scares and unconnected themes at your guests like darts in an attempt to see what sticks.
To give credit where it is due, the Universal Studios theme parks have been practising this very concept for years. While some years they are more successful than others, it’s always fun when they have an overall master storyline. Especially one that they can link to an iconic character who serves as an “Icon” character, they can also use to promote the event in their advertising.
Universal’s Jack the evil clown is an excellent example of this. And, while I did say that I’d be ok with never seeing a clown at a haunt again, I do have to make an exception for Jack.
Halloween Haunts that build on existing attractions
Another item I’ve always loved was when a regular park attraction can be transformed for use as a Haunt. Knott’s Berry Farm was always known for frequently changing the park’s Timber Mountain Log Ride and Calico Mine Ride into some of the most interesting haunts year after year.
By transforming a ride that many fans were already familiar with, but making it dark and twisted, it somehow made the whole ride experience a little more surreal and creepy as well. Sort of like when you are having a dream or nightmare in a place that you know well, and yet everything is still just wrong in so many ways. It creates a very off-setting feeling in guests that they can’t shake.
When it comes to haunts, I’ve always liked the idea of having a choice to make along the way, such as choosing to take one path or another. Still, it has to be done well enough (and last long enough) that the guests feel compelled to return and try the haunt again to see what would have happened had they taken the other route.
I’m also fond of the idea of adding “plants” to the crowd. In other words, hide an actor who is in on what is about to happen into your group of guests. Before you know it, this “planted” subject suddenly becomes a victim of whatever monsters or booby-traps you have hidden inside.
Having a member of your group seemingly being abducted from amongst them, never to be seen again, is quite an unnerving experience.
See also: Hersheypark’s Dark Nights & the Halloween attraction phenomenon
Create an immersive world
By focusing on crafting a compelling narrative, delving into psychological horror, incorporating interactive elements, balancing scares with fun, and embracing unique themes and technology, theme parks can transform their Halloween Haunts into truly unforgettable, terrifying experiences. Ones that will leave guests screaming for more, year after year.
The key is to move beyond surface-level scares and create a fully immersive world that is equal parts dread and delight.
