Archives for 2014

Did you know that back in the mid 2000s, our company was approached by a man who, according to the story, lived in the most infamous and most haunted of all houses…
The Amityville Horror!

Original House

The man’s name was Mr. George Lee Lutz and Mr. Lutz wanted us to consult, design, build, manage and operate the world’s first haunted attraction with the name The Amityville Horror. Once the attraction was well established, Mr. Lutz wanted to expand it from an attraction to a theme park.

Around 2004 and 2005, Mr. Lutz got the idea of getting into the Halloween haunted attraction business. He attempted to learn all he could about the haunted industry by contacting the owners of this website. Mr. Lutz wanted to create the largest haunted attraction in Las Vegas and theme and brand the attraction as the “Amityville Horror 20 Years Later”. His haunt would be made out of ten trailers, making it massive, and would stand two stories high. He had a story of fiction already written up by the time he came to us: the story was about Amityville that takes place 20 years after the original 1976 occurrence.  While we were in the process of designing his attraction, Mr. Lutz was attempting to sell the professionally written script to Sony Pictures in Hollywood and create a new movie.

The plan was to shot the movie in Canada and once the film was completed, then move the

older looking Amityville Horror house facade to Las Vegas; there, it would be placed in front of the haunted attraction. It took six months to finally render the first rough draft of this future haunt.  The attraction was to have 8 1/2 trailers for the main attraction, half a trailer for the onsite office/operation center and one trailer for the actors and staff to change clothing and take breaks. Scenes inside the attraction were to be designed around a story plot of the movie; the rough draft was modeled after other attractions that have been around successfully for years.

By this time, Mr. Lutz had purchased all copy rights to The Amityville Horror, except for the last 28 days that the original book was published in.  This meant that there would not be another like it in the world!  Sadly, Mr. Lutz passed away in 2006 and his attraction and movie was never completed.

Rest in Peace Lee and thank you for giving us the opportunity to work on your dream!

With Halloween just 25 days away (!), founder and CEO of Your Custom Haunted House, Angelus Perez, appeared on the Cablevision show Focus on Family with Cathy McCarthy to share some tips & tricks you can use at home to add some extra scares and thrills to your haunt.

Enjoy!

74 days left until Halloween…

Here is great article from WebMD which explains why people love all the thrills and chills (and we’re so glad they do); enjoy!

Exploring the ‘dark side’ may be a psychological need that’s met when the scare is actually over.

Virtually everyone knows what it’s like to feel really scared: A pounding heartbeat. Faster breathing. Nervous perspiration. Butterflies in the stomach.

But whether that fright is caused by watching a nail-biting horror movie, listening to a spine-chilling story, or prowling through a dark-as-night haunted house on Halloween, some people actually revel in feeling frightened. They thrive on the latest Friday the 13^th movie or Stephen King novel. They relish roller coasters, perhaps even sky diving. They crave having the bejesus scared right out of them.

Of course, for the mere mortals among us who feel that we’re liable to lose our lunch after just a glimpse of a slasher movie, it may seem unimaginable that others actually enjoy panic-button experiences. But experts believe that it’s not uncommon for individuals to push the envelope, seeing how much fear they can tolerate, and ultimately feeling a sense of satisfaction when they’re able to endure the anxiety.

Exploring the Dark Side

What’s the appeal of the fright associated with creepy stories? “There’s a long history of people being intensely curious about the ‘dark side,’ and trying to make sense of it,” says Frank Farley, PhD, psychologist at Temple University. “Through movies, we’re able to see horror in front of our eyes, and some people are extremely fascinated by it. They’re interested in the unusual and the bizarre because they don’t understand it and it’s so different from our everyday lives.”

For more than two decades, Glenn Sparks, PhD, has studied the way men, women, and children respond to terrifying images in the media. “Some people have a need to expose themselves to sensations that are different from the routine,” he says. “While experiencing a frightening movie may have some negatives, individuals often derive gratification because the experience is different.”

Several studies have shown that males like scary films much more than females do. “It’s not that they truly enjoy being scared,” says Sparks, professor of communication at Purdue University. “But they get great satisfaction being able to say that they conquered and mastered something that was threatening. They enjoy the feeling that they ‘made it through.'”

Quite commonly, at the end of the terrifying movie, an individual may walk out of the theater with a profound sense of relief, adds Sparks. “He may just be happy that the film is over.”

“Type T’s”

Farley, former president of the American Psychological Association, has studied people who have what he calls “type T” (thrill-seeking) personalities. These men and women thrive on the uncertainty and the intensity associated with activities that most people consider to be hair-raising — from riding roller coasters to bungee jumping. “Sky divers will tell you it’s the thrill, the rush, and a little element of fear that motivates them to push themselves to the extreme,” he says.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/exploring-thrill-seeking-personalities 

With 93 days left until Halloween ( and believe us it will be here before you know it!), what better way to start the blog back than with a post from Remy Melina on why people love a good spine-chilling scare. Read on and enjoy…

Chimera actors

Every Halloween, Americans spend millions on scary fun. From haunted houses to horror movies, teens as well as adults seem to crave a good spine-chilling scare.

“People go to horror films because they want to be frightened, or they wouldn’t do it twice,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, editor of “Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment” (Oxford University Press, 1998) and professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.

“You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That’s certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects. They want those effects,” Goldstein told LiveScience, a sister site of Life’s Little Mysteries.

Sinister, but safe, thrills

People enjoy feeling scared and seek the feeling out because, deep down, they know they are in no real danger, according to David Rudd, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah.

They understand the real risk of these activities is marginal, and because of this underlying awareness, they experience excitement rather than actual fear, Rudd explained. This is why people enjoy going on terrifying amusement park rides and walking through a Halloween-themed haunted house.

Most adults and teenagers are able to realistically gauge the actual level of threat that scary stimuli pose to them, and, correspondingly, their safety level. For example, watching a horror movie poses no physical threat, with the minor psychological threat being that they might have nightmares as a result of seeing it. Therefore, most viewers feel safe watching such a film, and are excited by it, not truly afraid.

Terror tolerance scale

However, some adults and most young children are unable to correctly gauge a threat, perceiving it to be higher than it is.

“The experience of ‘real’ fear is when the appraisal of threat is greater than safety,” Rudd told Life’s Little Mysteries. “People that are afraid of flying appraise the threat of a crash in an unrealistic and disproportionate fashion, since it’s actually safer than driving. As a result of the faulty appraisal, they experience fear.”

This is why children become scared so much more easily than adults. Having less experience at gauging the safety of the spooky things they see, from a gory monster costume to a talking skeleton lawn decoration. A young child may perceive harmless Halloween fun as a serious threat to his or her safety, and become truly afraid.

“Adults have habituated to risk over time and are far better at appraisal,” Rudd said. “Adults know it’s just a movie; kids can forget that fact. It’s really all about appraisal of risk — adults are much better than children. It’s something we learn over time, its part of what we refer to as maturity.”

• Is the Amityville Horror House Really Haunted?
• What Is the Most Successful Zombie Movie Ever?
• Halloween’s Top 10 Scary Creatures

This article was provided by Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.