DAY 54 — HAUNT BUILDERS
The person screaming inside a haunted house gets the attention. I’m fascinated by the lunatic who spent six months figuring out where that scream should happen.
Haunt builders are storytellers with lumber.
They think about sightlines, darkness, timing, sound, traffic flow, safety and exactly what the guest will assume is behind a wall. Then they use that assumption against you.
The best scares aren’t random. They’re engineered. Setup, expectation, release. Comedy uses almost the same machinery, which may explain why so many haunt people are funny when they aren’t trying to make you wet yourself.
Next time you leave a good haunt, look backward mentally. Somebody designed that fear. That’s pretty damn cool.
NEXT TRANSMISSION — DAY 55: TRICK OR TREAT