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. 

Connecticut is known for having some of the scariest haunted places in the Northeast and in this on-going series we will take you behind the scenes of a few of them.

First up in our series is the Undercliff Sanatorium in Meriden. Read more about this creepy mental hospital in an article by Ray Bendici from damnedct.com website.

The Damned Story: What is it with the state of Connecticut and creepy old mental hospitals? At the base of South Mountain, near Hubbard Park in Meriden sits the abandoned Undercliff Sanatorium, a former state health facility that was closed decades ago but that some claim is still in use—by the ghosts of former patients.

According to the Connecticut State Library, Undercliff was originally opened in 1910 as the Meriden Sanatorium and in 1918, became the first facility in the nation dedicated exclusively to treating children afflicted with tuberculosis. The name was changed to Undercliff Sanatorium in the early 1920s, and about two decades later, it began to accept adult patients. In 1954, the tuberculosis patients were transferred to other state facilities, with many children going to Seaside Sanatorium in Waterford. Two years later, the property became part of the state Department of Mental Health and was rechristened Undercliff Hospital; more buildings were added to the main hospital, including residences for staff, and soon thereafter, it started accepting patients with mental diseases from around the region. Undercliff served in this capacity until 1976, when on May 28, the last patient was discharged and the staff was transferred to other facilities across Connecticut. It has essentially remained empty since, although a few buildings on the property are used by various state agencies, including the Department of Developmental Services.

Like many mental health facilities, even though many people were treated well and cured here, there are still dark stories attached to the property, including tales of abuse and horror, although no actual evidence of any such activity has ever been uncovered. Considering that Undercliff served for decades as a refuge for those afflicted with turberculosis and other serious diseases, no doubt that more than a few people have died on the property.

Consequently, there have been numerous reports of hauntings here. Some allege to have heard the voices of children, both laughing and crying, while others have claimed to have seen the shadows and spirit of children in the windows of the now-empty buildings. Those who have ventured inside the buildings have supposedly heard the footsteps of patients running from orderlies as well as the screams of the mentally ill undergoing treatment.

A few purported sightings involve the ghost of one patient who was supposedly attacked and murdered by fellow residents (again, unsubstantiated); the story goes that you can see the phantom of the lost soul wandering the grounds at night. EVPs and other otherworldly manifestations have also been reported to have been captured by those investigating the facility.

As it is state property, it is off limits to the general public, although that doesn’t prevent adventurers from trying to investigate the place on their own. Numerous pictures and videos of Undercliff taken by amateur explorers and the curious can be found across the internet. In July 2010, three local teenagers (and aspiring ghosthunters) made headlines when one of them was injured after jumping from a cliff near the property while being chased by police for trespassing.

Further adding to the creepy mystique of Undercliff is that it’s rumored to be tied to notorious serial killer Hadden Clark. In April 2000, Clark, who evidently had lived in Meriden with his grandfather back in the late 1970s and early 80s, was taken from his prison in Maryland and brought by authorities to Connecticut to show them where he had possibly buried one of his victims, but no body was ever found. Although never stated officially exactly where the search was made, it’s been speculated to have been on the grounds of Undercliff.

Which totally makes sense. Where else would a cross-dressing cannibal psychopath bury the remains of his victims then in the shadow of an abandoned and supposedly haunted insane asylum?

Our Damned Experience: We have never been to Undercliff, and unless we get some sort of immunity or the state opens the grounds to visitors, we’re not going any time soon.

If You Go: You can’t.

Undercliff Sanatorium is located on Undercliff Road in Meriden. Again, like many abandoned former state facilities, it is closed to the public. No trespassing signs are posted all over the property, tall fences surround many of the buildings and the grounds are patrolled by security and police regularly. Those caught trespassing will be arrested and fined.

– See more at: http://www.damnedct.com/undercliff-sanatorium-meriden/#sthash.bdYGs6tW.dpuf

So it seems we are finally making the transition from summer to fall, can you feel it?

The cool nights and mornings, the chill that is in the air, can you feel it?

The days are getting shorter, and night falls a lot quicker now, can you feel it?

Do you see the displays, the costumes, the candy, it all seems to start earlier and earlier, can you feel it?

Did you see that shadow move in the far corner of your yard, did you hear that noise in the other room, can you feel it?

49 more days til Halloween!