Episode 82-Ghost House Planning 2024

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.

(00:23):
I'm Leslie Reed. Welcome back, everybody, to the Haunting You Podcast.
And happy May. We are so excited to have you here.
Okay, full disclosure. I do this all the time. I say when the episode's coming
out, but I need full disclosure. It is March still when we are recording this.
And so just please keep that in mind as you hear our discussion.
Some things may change between now and when it actually gets released.

(00:47):
And that's kind of key to understand. It happens, right?
But May is a very exciting time in the haunt world.
Let's see what has happened in what has happened in April. Haunt Fest has happened.
Fear Expo has happened. I will be at Fear. I was at Fear Expo.
See, this is a part of podcasting that no one ever talks about.
Try making sure that you're, you're properly accurate.

(01:11):
Exactly. Exactly. But the East Coast Haunters Convention also will have happened
by the time this comes out.
So the next thing to look forward to will, We'll, of course,
be Midwest Hunters up in Rosemont, Illinois, June 7th to the 9th.
And then the Chamber of Hunters official convention, Texas Hunters Convention,
July 13th to the 14th, all happening in the next couple of months.

(01:31):
Oh, and I have to throw out there, Midsummer Scream, July 20...
I don't have the new dates for Midsummer Scream on here yet.
Midsummer Scream is coming. I'm going to cut all of this out.
You're never going to know that I said anything about Midsummer Scream. You are not.
Yeah we'll see what happens how often does he actually cut
something when he says he's gonna cut something almost never you'll never know

(01:54):
because if it's cut you'll never know that's all i'm saying yes but i remember
what we said yeah that that is accurate before we dive into our topic for today
we we have a a matter of great import that we must discuss i mean great import.
Maybe going too far. John, I am deeply concerned about you, and we need to have

(02:17):
just a mini intervention here for just a moment. And specifically, more so than usual.
More so than usual is accurate. Like, John has decided to get creative.
I put everything back. John's getting fancy with the spices.
That's what's happening. John is getting fancy with the spices.
I'm not fully sure you understand the full extent of that saying,
my friend. I'm not sure you do.

(02:39):
He and i came up with it i don't think you a few days ago john sent us a picture
via our group text of green ice cream that he had made he claims it is ice cream
by the way i'm not totally buy into that but he claims it was ice cream and what flavor was it john,

(03:00):
This is, I would say, like a Mountain Dew infused ice cream.
Maybe flavor is too much. He is making Mountain Dew ice cream. But this is not like...
First off, I don't think it's real ice cream because real ice cream,
you put all the ingredients in the bucket with some ice and the salt on it and
then you crank it around a whole bunch of times.

(03:20):
There's the thing. You don't need to do any of that. You can.
But that's what makes it ice cream.
What about an ice cream maker? It's a maker. It does not require...
That's exactly what it's doing! It's just doing it automatically! No.
So how did you make this, is my question to you, sir? So, it was three ingredients.
It was only three ingredients.
It was heavy whipping cream, some sweetened condensed milk, and one cup of Mountain Dew Zero Sugar.

(03:48):
That is not ice cream. That is frozen whipped cream.
Also, that is not Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew has sugar.
That's like 90% of the point. I figured I was already kind of tempting fate
by making 10% is caffeine.
I figured I'd use a reel in it just a smidge. Go ahead.

(04:14):
Defend yourself, man. Yes, defend yourself, man. What gave you the idea to even do this?
I saw on social media that Taco Bell was bringing out Baja Blast Mountain Dew Gelato.
And I was just like, you know what? What the hell?

(04:34):
For $5, I can do something similar. Why not? And how did your experiment turn out?
You know, not good and not bad. It was fine. It was fine.
How did it taste? I'll put it this way. So it did. It tasted like...
Like... You need vanilla ice cream with a slight Mountain Dew hit to it.

(05:00):
It does not knock you over with Mountain Dew flavor or sugar or anything like that. It's very subtle.
I remember... I would say like a B-. I remember like a C-.
I remember very vividly when we were in high school, and we went to Cold Stone,

(05:21):
the ice cream shop one day, and they had...
A Mountain Dew-flavored...
I don't remember what it was. Flushy or milkshake or float. I don't know.
Maybe a float. Something like that.
But I remember drinking that and being so fucking buzzed.

(05:46):
Just an uncomfortable amount of energy after that.
And I imagine it's what being on speed is like.
Like that's that's kind of how i relate it
you know having never tried speed and i
know someone listened to this to be

(06:06):
clear you got yourself in a bit of a hole there didn't you
but no i always does there you
go but for those of our listeners saying like you're
just a bunch of couple of stupid high school kids when you know it's caffeine
which is true but this this was
different this i my only
thought is way beyond any caffeine buzz i have had in my life

(06:27):
to this date and like the military is known for its i'm going to say caffeine
consumption and i have consumed an uncomfortable amount of caffeine wait how
do you consume caffeine you do not like coffee energy drinks i'm not allowed
to have those no no you get stabby no No.

(06:47):
I mean, just imagine a Tasmanian devil with scissors.
Yes, accurate, accurate. But I bring that story up because that is what I imagine
you making Mountain Dew ice cream will create.
Nothing good can come from this experiment. Nothing bad happens.
And then I took pictures of the scoops, and I sent it to you,

(07:10):
and I sent it to our friend Ryan Festag, who said it looks like ice cream.
Okay what color did it turn out it was,
like like a like a
mint green yeah why did it turn out mint
green mr i added green food coloring because it wasn't
turning any kind of color well because i was looking at it and it was was white

(07:32):
and i was like oh that's disappointing yes you also are i will say this the
the intended purpose of this experiment was to have fun and it was enjoyable
that's why i added the food coloring,
i'm gonna make you some and you're gonna like i am disappointed in you actually
you know what that's my point i will i will make you some and you will say what

(07:55):
i just said you'll be like you know what i would never go and purchase this
but i wouldn't throw it away either.
It is one that you will you know what john immediately forget about bet bet
i will give you three bucks if you convince me that it is if you convince me to to that level.
There's more than one way to make ice cream. I don't believe that, to be clear.

(08:17):
I don't believe that. But we have, I think we've ground this into the ground enough.
I feel very sorry for our guests now.
I've very much enjoyed watching her facial expressions over the course of this
conversation, though. This does ramble on coherently.
So, for the last several episodes, we have been diving deep into convention season.

(08:40):
We talked We talked to Doug Sheldon, who is the owner of HauntCon.
We talked to Roseanne Harpold, the owner of HauntFest.
We, ideally, this hasn't happened
yet, but should, will have Doug Sheldon back to talk about Fear Expo.
And then, of course, we'll be doing our live show from the floor of Fear Expo.
It will have already happened. Anyway, the last several episodes have been very

(09:01):
focused on convention season.
But now that we are past the majority of convention season, we want to start
looking ahead to this Halloween.
And I am super excited because we brought a very special guest on today to talk
about what they are doing.
So if you've listened to the podcast at all, and if you haven't,
go back and listen to our previous episodes. Because first of all, they're fire.

(09:23):
Why are you not listening to them? But all of that aside, I have been working
with a local haunted house here in Fremont, California, where I have been living
for the last year and a half.
And it is absolutely phenomenal.
It has been around for like 50 some years. Well, 55?
She's signaling me over the thing. It has been around for 55 years now.

(09:47):
And it's been such a cool experience to be part of this community tradition,
running into people who came to the Ghost House as children,
now are coming back and bringing their own children.
And getting to be a part of that has just been such a cool experience and something
I have seen nowhere else in the haunt industry.

(10:08):
It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work closely with this organization
over the last year and a half to help them bring their visions to life.
And I have had so much fun.
But now I am leaving, going back to the opposite coast and cannot do nearly
what I want to for them this year. So...

(10:31):
Instead, I'm doing the little bit that I can, helping on the back-end design
work, and then I'll just kind of hand everything off and let them run with it.
But today, I want to introduce Miss Annette Bergdahl, one bad witch,
the president of the Candlelighters of Fremont, California, who is here to talk
about the Ghost House, the Candlelighters, and everything that they are going to be doing this year.

(10:51):
So Annette, welcome to the Haunting You podcast. I am so excited to have you here.
I'm so excited. And you keep talking about all the haunts,
and I'm excited that I get to go to two of them so yeah i
like to i like to think that i've had a positive influence on on the
organization if nothing else i have convinced annette to go to midsummer scream

(11:12):
and fear expo this year so like that that was that's a huge win by itself excited
very very excited the it was received very well with the members as well telling
me to i need to find this and I need to find that.
And so I'm kind of excited. So it's... Now you have a shopping list.
I have a shopping list and vendors and things like that that we need to find. So I'm super excited.

(11:36):
I told the girl that's going with me, Caroline, since we were able to secure
two VIP passes to Midsummer Scream, I am super excited for that.
And we get to go to the dinner on Saturday night. So I told her we need to come
up with the best witch costumes ever.
Absolutely. You need to come up with the best witch costumes ever.
I'm so excited for that, yes. But thank you very much for having me. I'm very much excited.

(12:00):
And I'm a little intrigued about the Mountain Dew ice cream,
but, you know, if it weren't up for two days after eating it,
then it wasn't true Mountain Dew.
Sorry. Please don't encourage him. She've got me there, honestly.
Yeah, you know, anyway. Yeah. So, Annette, first off, tell us,
what are the candlelighters?

(12:20):
What is the candlelighters? I knew nothing about this coming before I got here.
So the candlelighters started with, in 1969, there were about,
I don't know, 7 to 10 women.
Who wanted to do something for the community. And because they wanted to do
something for the community, they wanted to put together a ghost house.

(12:42):
And so they did. And they wanted to raise money for the local YMCA.
And they ended up doing it and pulled it off. And that's kind of how it started.
They opened it up to other nonprofits.
And it started in 1969. And this is our 55th year.
But we are a nonprofit that gives back to other nonprofits in the Tri-Valley.
So we we have given things

(13:04):
away from beds to oh my
gosh the list of people that we've given to to name a there's like over 200
and like the ymca center the children's center the multiple sclerosis breakfast
programs children's programs repertory theaters special olympics the age center

(13:26):
Math Nucleus, Niles Depot,
Planetarium, all kinds of senior center stuff from the Ronald McDonald House, you name it.
There's over 300 people that we've given to.
And in the 50 years, it's over two and a half mil that we've given back. That is phenomenal.

(13:47):
And something that I didn't fully understand, people apply for grants with the
candlelighters, but you only are able to fund certain things.
Can you talk a little bit about the eligibility?
We fund certain things. So we can't do consumables.
We have to do things like a printer without the ink, things like that.
If you want bends, that's great. It can't be something that somebody can take

(14:10):
from the person who gave it to,
And so it's, it's a little bit of a process and there is a proposal committee
that gets together and they go through and they figure out if it meets our criteria.
There are on the website, there are different forms and things to fill out and
you have to give us what you want and three examples of what you want,

(14:33):
the high, the low and medium bit.
And we'll go from there. And it's been pretty nice.
Last year, we gave away at January's meeting, the luncheon we had in January was $69,000.
We gave to, I believe it was nine organizations.
That's a good year right there. Yeah, it was really good. It was really good. It was super fun.

(14:58):
Very busy. Not last year, the year before last. It was very fun because Channel
7 showed up on the last night.
I know. They interviewed me and I had Mortimer Ghost on my hip.
It was a blast. Absolutely amazing.
The cameraman wouldn't leave the haunt he stayed
in the house and i'm like dude how long he stayed until
nine o'clock that was no joke they got there at seven and they were there for two hours

(15:19):
that's outstanding it was great it was
the best night ever i'm like honey can you come at the beginning not the
end yeah you know it was it was oh it was so
much fun and a lot of the customer for the
all the patrons are like there's a camera inside i'm like
i know just scream and holler and

(15:40):
out the show notes because i'll put a link to that channel 7 news clip
uh that they did that year it was
fun it was very fun but but there's all kinds of
things that you can come for there's we did sheds
this year we did beds we did equipment for the senior center they were looking
for new chairs we did a park benches and let's see park benches and i want to

(16:05):
say bicycle Rex for a home gardens here in Fremont, which I didn't even know it was there.
It's a, it's a gorgeous park of mission, but that's, that was amazing.
It's, it's just some really beautiful things. We've done the amphitheater at
the park, Lake Elizabeth.
And so that was done by us and the water slides and things like that.

(16:25):
They're usually put a nice little sign or a plaque where we've done something.
And so they're, they're all around Fremont, Newark and Union City.
And if people want to learn more about the
candle lighters or how to get grants or anything like
that where should they go to look the website's www.candlelighters.com

(16:45):
perfect and that's where they'll find it so annette you've been in operation
for 55 years you have have to have had just some amazing haunts that you put
on thematically so what are some of your favorites that you've done since you've
been with the organization?
So I've been there for 10 years and I love doing the Vampire Cruise Line.

(17:10):
Because I did a boiler room. And I had so much fun doing the boiler room.
Describe it a little for the listeners. Oh my gosh. So the boiler room is,
I did it the biggest room that we have, and that's room number nine.
And I don't have the schematics in front of me, but it's a pretty good size room.
So I took an old fireplace, an electric fireplace that didn't have any of the heat working.

(17:31):
And I used that in the corner. And that was my bottom of the boiler.
So I had body parts coming out of that, that blood dripping everywhere.
I had a above that I had a grim reaper type standing behind him with a,
an ax putting things into the boiler.

(17:52):
Nice. And then from the ceiling, I had, you know, the, I don't know what they're
called, but the piping that you use on the back of the dryer.
So yeah. Yeah. Okay. The ducting. Oh my gosh.
So I put that all over the top on the walls and everywhere. It looked like you were walking through.
It was so fun. It was just so, so fun.

(18:12):
And then we had skeletons hanging off this corner and that corner.
And it was really cool. It was just really, really cool. That was my very first one.
And from there, it has been a net on candy.
It's gone from one thing to the next. So I did not get to do one in scary land.
So that kind of stunk the web wait say that

(18:34):
one more time i didn't get to get to do a room in scary
land scary land in scary land scary land was
already done i was like ha this kind of sucked but that's
okay i got to witch a lot that year and so
the witching is fun so i get to dress up as a witch i
get to go scare all the children so that's just the web was
fun so then the web i did a total

(18:56):
cobweb where we had a mummy all wrapped
up and he was on a tree and hanging from the tree that was
amazing solid shadow of the vampire that was
a pretty good one so we had a crypt kind of thing in
again room nine because i like to take the biggest room and we
had kids in the room and one of them was a vampire and if i
remember correctly he was inside the coffin so that was kind of ghost house

(19:20):
50th year i don't remember i think that was just the ghouls and the goblins
nothing spectacular but crazed carnival was fun i ended up with a smaller room
and i wanted to do a room and crazed carnival,
I did a...
Let's see how to explain this. I took, when you look between two tarps and you

(19:43):
have the stripes on the outside of the tarps, you look like you're looking through
the outside of two circus tents.
Okay. Yeah. That's what I put on the walls. And then over one circus tent coming
out like a, it almost looked like the cartoon where a guy was coming out of
a box where the things were all bent.
And I had the top half of the Yeti coming out and he was escaping from the greatest carnivore.

(20:14):
I like it. That's awesome. And in the corner, we had the popcorn machine and
the popcorn machine was popping eyeballs.
So that was, we had a lot of fun with that.
And dripping things from the kettle and things like that. So that was super fun.
I love doing that one. I got a lot of looks of, you did what to the popcorn machine?

(20:36):
It's a problem. It doesn't work. I promise it doesn't work.
But it was fun. Oh man, I had a great time with that. And then we had, what else did we do?
There was No House Through COVID through 21, which kind of stunk,
but Witches Through Time, I helped with the main room on that one.
And that was a really good collaboration.
We had all kinds of just witches throughout time. So there was a,

(20:58):
There was a room that had the witch from Niles, which was a good room.
We had, oh my gosh, it's just last year.
This is the first one I helped with. But I'm so into mine this year.
Oh, I'm sure. I know it. I know it.
I loved Witches Through Time because it took elements from so many different
stories and put them all together.
So the Blair Witch was there, the witch from The Wizard of Oz, Ursula, the sea witch.

(21:23):
All of them. And it was really fun. Did you do Baba Yaga?
Huh? Did you do Baba Yaga? There was no Baba Yaga, but they did have like a
Norse, like a Norse witch.
Yes, we did have the Norse witch. That was good. And then we had a,
the, is it, I say it wrong every time. Apacarkey?
Apacarkey. That's it. Thank you. Apacarkey. I say it wrong every single time.

(21:47):
Yeah. But that room was cool because we had a, one of the girls made an actual
wit out of an Alhambra jug.
That was pretty awesome. it was hysterical the head and
stuff on top and she had the the crystal ball
but she did an amazing room all along the
back different bottles and things like that that she found

(22:07):
that were just absolutely the best to see and the
she made all the labels and everything on it it was a really cool room
yeah that that room was a great case study in scenic design it was absolutely
beautifully done i don't know where she found all the bottles but phenomenal
the dracula room was far so we had Had one of the bigger coffins set on two sawhorses.

(22:31):
This was now last year.
This was last year. Not much is through time. This was Voodoo on the Bayou.
Oh, Voodoo on the Bayou. Sorry, wrong year.
But last year's was good too. But Voodoo on the Bayou, Keone had some great
ideas on how to make a swamp and we ran with it.
And it was so good.

(22:52):
Oh my gosh. It was, it was the highlight. It was so good. But all the rooms
last year were so detailed. It was so fun.
And, but they, everything from color to the lights, to everything, it was just so nice.
So, so nice, but it was good. It was really, really good.
But I, I, I plan on doing mine is like the house on steroids.

(23:13):
So hold that thought. Cause we'll, get there before
we get there talk a little bit
about like the setup of the
house you've got like the it's very unusual
from any other haunted house i have ever worked with so what this is is we are
very fortunate to have access to what is a carriage house and it's last standing

(23:37):
house in fremont and when you say carriage house you mean like the house that
carriages used to be stored in.
Hoax, horse and buggies. There were horse stalls in there.
It was the old carriage house. And if you were to look at it and if nothing
else was around it, there used to be one of the stalls because as you look at
it, it's got the great big barn door in the front. It's got a great porch.

(24:00):
And as you look inside to the left, there's a tack room.
And then to the right, you have stairs that go up to the upper part of the house,
which we're not allowed in. And then...
Beyond those stairs on the same side are all the stalls. One of the stalls had
a wall put up because before it went out and where the restaurant sits next
to us right now used to be an extension of the stalls.

(24:23):
And so it used to be in its heyday. It was absolutely gorgeous.
It's still such a cool building. It is. They're redoing a few things.
They're doing a new roof, I believe, this year. Oh, good. We would like to see
if we could paint it for them as part of the grant process. We're going to try
to get that done this year, but it's, it's a beautiful, beautiful building.
Everything inside is mahogany and it's just gorgeous.

(24:45):
It's just, yeah, that's the floor, the walls, everything is just gorgeous.
And there it's, it's, it's a sight to see.
It's a really a sight to see. It is, but like, that's just the first part of
the house. It's the first part.

(25:06):
So it's a very limited a limited
space so how do you turn it into a
haunted house so we have our nice construction team has built walls and so what
we do is you can't attach anything to the sides but you can attach anything
to the floor so because the floor of the house was originally dirt i imagine

(25:27):
so so the candle lighters put a put a floor down in there we put
a floor in and every now and then we have to replace some boards,
but depending on how heavy stuff is in the house, but it it's holding up great.
And the guys put, we have a bunch of spots where we have electrical.
So we have access to all different types of things.

(25:47):
And what's really cool is the tack room. We still kind of use that as a hidden gem.
So if, when we put our walls up, you make it so somebody can come out of that as well.
So, but you, you put up your path and And it's different every year.
Most of the time, you'll go in, turn left, and then you turn right at the end

(26:07):
of the hallway and you see a big space.
And that's what we work with. We've had a couple of the people in the past who
have done all types of walls and made it more of a maze where you have to go
in and around and then go up the ramp into the next part of the house.
The next part of the house consists of two trailers.
And the only way I can describe those are like the old construction trailers.

(26:29):
Yeah, like mobile home trailers.
It's like a mobile home trailer. And so they sit right next to each other.
One sits all the way to the right. So you're coming in the back door.
The other one sits a little bit up. So when you go through it,
you're going through one and all the way through it in a maze.
And so what the guys did quite a few years ago, they built the rooms that we have.

(26:52):
And those are the rooms that we get to decorate. So there are 10 rooms in the care in 10 rooms in the.
The trailers, and then we have one main room. So there's 11 rooms that usually get decorated.
Yeah. And the way I saw it the last couple of years, the main room kind of ends
up being, it's what brings the guests into the story.

(27:13):
Yes. And then the other 10 rooms are your scare zones.
Exactly. And so it all depends on the theme and it all depends on how the person
or the president that year sees her thing.
So if she sees a big room, she does a big room.
If she sees something different, then she'll do something different.
So the president has the opportunity to do whatever she wants with that space.

(27:37):
Sometimes it drives the workers nuts because sometimes it's not,
but we have a lot of things.
We just were approved to get another trailer for props. So we'll have two big trailers for props.
But it's really cool. But after that, so we put up a ramp in the front.
So it's wheelchair accessible.

(27:58):
And so the main ramp will go in the door and everything has to be wheelchair accessible.
So whatever I do has to be wheelchair accessible. And so does the ramps and
they all have to be ADA approved.
And then the exit ramp is the same way it will come back and come down.
But we also have two midways.
So we have two rows that are filled with games and caramel apples and things like that.

(28:22):
And that's where a lot of the fun happens as well.
There's a lot of people who don't like to be scared. So we have a fairy line
and our fairies consists of mostly the 15 to 16 year old girls that come from
school and they all get their service hours, but they wear a lighted cape and
the lighted cape is not so scary.
But it's really kind of fun.

(28:42):
The whole thing behind it is still be affordable for all the kids to come in
and see if you want to come in three or four times, you'll be able to afford it.
And, and it's still family friendly. So we're trying to, I'm trying to up it
a little bit this year to be a little bit more scary, but still be family friendly.
I adore the way that I adore so many things about this house,

(29:08):
but I love how, as soon as you come out of the,
the ghost house, house it dumps you right into the
midway and i love the
fact i love one that you have a midway because it gives reason
for people to stick around and spend money and like
that's where all of the fun happens if it was just the house they go through

(29:28):
the house they leave nothing else but by having that midway there you have food
you have you have food and drinks and games and right caramel apples it's a
caramel apple it's very cheesy you know but it's it's but it's a fun uncheesy.
It's, you know, it keeps the kids happy.
Parents can, they do. Oh my gosh. So we end up with a lot of girl and boy scout troops.

(29:50):
We had a birthday parties that come down and it's a really fun night that it's
not going to cost the parent an arm and a leg. Yeah. What, what are ticket costs?
Ticket costs are $5 to get in. This year, there's going to be a little bit something
different because my house is a little bit different. I would say,
hold the thought. We'll talk about that when we get to it.
A little bit different, but normally it's $5 to get in.

(30:11):
But it gets you into the house and you get to... It's a very slow roll.
We try to make sure everybody's out of the main room before we send the next
family in to make sure everybody has some experience.
Yeah. Which I greatly appreciate. and have ranted about endlessly on this podcast.
Yeah, yeah. It's very nice. The fairy line will go as one group because everybody's usually scared.

(30:36):
So if they go in a group, then it's not that big a deal and they're happier that way. Yeah, yeah.
Really quickly, when you first met Kay, were you kind of nervous about,
well, what kind of person? Oh my gosh, no.
Okay, so we call, oh no, no.
What we do, a volunteer social. social and the volunteer social is where people,

(30:59):
cause we put it out on social media and anybody who wants to learn anything about it can come.
It was a Saturday afternoon, four o'clock. We're going to be there for a couple
of hours. Any questions or anything in August, by the way, in August, it's in August.
So we chit chat around and we go around the circle and everybody gets to introduce themselves.

(31:19):
And then the people who have worked the house, we get to talk about what we do at the house.
So my repertoire of stuff at the house goes from.
Head of security head of the witches and the fairies and
head of rooms along with two other people so i
do a lot there and not to
mention last year you ran the site which is like the person in charge of setting

(31:43):
everything up and making sure it operates right right was it was a job it was
actually fun every part is not getting a phone call back when you need a phone
call and And you get to take that part out, but, but it, you know what I mean?
It is what it is, but it's really, it's really fun.
It's really fun to see how it actually all comes together.

(32:04):
And so he said that he was a transplant for about two years with Coast Guard.
And we were like, and he does his own haunt and he does his whole podcast.
And I kid you not, we all went, oh my.
And so we were all done talking and I'm like, Keone, here we go. Let's go.
And he was amazing. And so I loved, I'm so sad that you're leaving.

(32:30):
I'm like, you know, we flew the electrician out last year.
Can we find Tony out for the weekend to give us some help here?
And I'm just, I'm amazed because what I love about it is that you have your,
you have your volunteers and I'm not banging on a volunteer by any means volunteer.
I don't care if you give me two hours. Thank you so much for your time.

(32:51):
It's something else that I don't have to do.
But when you have somebody who is creative, and I saw the video today on The
Real on how you put the crypt together, I was like, dude!
And it was awesome. It was absolutely awesome. But that level of creativity,
Ingenuity was awesome because it lacked it. I think we lack it.

(33:13):
I think that we are doing a lot of the same things.
And that's why I'm really, really excited to go to the next two conventions.
Because I want to see what else is out there. I want to see how we can still
make it kid-friendly and just up the game just a little bit. Yeah. I want to be clear.
I adore you all. I absolutely love the candlelighters.

(33:37):
The but the candle lighters are a fairly are a
an older organization like the the membership are
tend to be toward retiree age correct
correct and in a lot of ways i feel like many of the members are a stickler
stuck in their ways but i agree i totally agree i would say that i think you

(34:01):
are for lack of a better word the the most progressive of the candlelighters.
Like you are trying to push them into trying into modern Halloween.
And that's one of the reasons I'm so excited. You're the president this year.
You know, it doesn't have to be pirates of Emerson by any, by any means, you know what I mean?
That that's a larger professional haunt here in the area. For those who don't know, I don't want that.

(34:23):
And I'm talking they're over the top with they're over the top.
And I don't want that because I still want, I still want it to be family friendly.
But I still think with the kids that were working with us and now bringing their
families, I feel that it's the same thing. Revisit it.

(34:44):
Just in a different room and just in a different way. So I'm looking for a way to up it a little bit.
And some of the things that we're bringing into the main room,
which I'm super excited to talk about whenever you say yes.
I was going to say, if you like, let's put that comment on hold for just a moment.
Take a break. Hear from our sponsors. And then we can dive right into what we

(35:04):
want to talk about for the rest of this podcast, which is Ghost House 2024. Okay.
Music.

(35:26):
And thank you to our sponsors for those words. All right. We have been leading
up to it the entire podcast.
Let's dig into...
2024. Annette, what is your... Well, let's start with what is your theme for the upcoming year?
And what is your vision for what you want to create? Oh my gosh.

(35:52):
It's going to be good. Before you say anything, I want to point out,
before we had even built the ghost house last year, Annette was picking my brain on...
Before we had even built the house for 23, she was picking my brain for 24.
So that's how much she has been thinking about this upcoming year.

(36:13):
Uh-huh. Yes, I was. I didn't want anything left to chance because I didn't know when you were leaving.
And I fairly distinctly remember you telling me you wanted to do something that
That has never been done in the history of the ghost in the 55 year history of the ghost house.

(36:33):
You wanted something completely original has never been done.
Never been done. Where did you go?
And I, it all started when I walked into a store and saw a creeper from Halloween standing there.
And the line that he says, basically it's something to the effect of welcome to your wildest dreams.

(37:02):
Dreams only happen. They don't only happen at night, but they happen during the day as well.
Pick your nightmare, something to those lines. And I was like,
no, no, bottom on the spot.
That was the whole thing. it was the whole thing. And I'm like,

(37:24):
oh my goodness, where can we take this?
And so in my 10 years at the ghost house, every time we've done our finale,
our night of closing, we close.
And when all the patrons are gone by about 915, 920, we wait for the treasure
to come out and give us the numbers.

(37:46):
And every year, fortunately, we've been going up.
And a lot of the older candlelighters, man, I really wish we could hit the 200K mark.
And so I would really like to get as close as I can to that 200K mark.
Or what do you mean, blow past it? I would love to blow past it, but I don't know.

(38:09):
And so I'm okay with anywhere close. I would love to blow past it,
but I would be okay with anywhere close. And we are not that far.
And so because of the restrictions of wheelchairs and the fact that you have
it have to have it, what, 46 or 48 inches across,
we couldn't really do without making my design team and my building team going bananas.

(38:35):
I was thinking of doing three. Well, they got to build it.
Besides you, Keone. The design team has gone bananas. Yes. So I was thinking
of three, three different hallways in the main room.
Yeah. So Annette really seized on this choose your nightmare idea and wanted
to have multiple rooms, like three different doors that would open into the carriage house.

(39:02):
And then depending on which door you take, it takes you down a different hallway
with a completely different experience. Yep.
And oh my God, I love it.
That's what I wanted. and because it would have made way too many walls and
then we would have had to store those walls, we decided to cut it down to two.

(39:25):
And so, yeah, but it's two and I'm super excited that it's two.
I pitched the idea at our board meeting a couple of weeks back.
They all, because he made me a great, oh my gosh, do you want to see it? Yes.
Nobody else can see it, but y'all can see it. Sorry, listeners.
Actually, if you go to our social media at Facebook.com slash HauntingU,

(39:48):
just the letter U, or Instagram at Haunting University, you can see pictures
of the models that I built for the ghost house. Yes.
So, this is the model. It warms my heart that you still have it.
Oh, yes. I'm keeping it. Are you kidding?
So, this is... Let's see how we're going to do this here so I can show you.

(40:11):
So, this is where you walk in. There's two doors.
So when you walk in, you'll either go one way or you will go the other way.
And so I am super, super excited for this. Beyond excited.
Beyond excited. And tell the listeners what your theme is.
The house is called House of Fears, Your Nightmares Unleashed.

(40:34):
Nice. Okay. And the idea here is that fears and phobias are being brought to
life in the house, forcing the people to go through to face their fears. To face it.
The way it's going to look. So now in the house, not necessarily the main room,

(40:54):
but the two trailers, the way we have the trailers built, there is a,
a screen that comes down.
It's, it's a, it's like a plaques, plastic seats, you're netting that comes
down and you can see everything inside.
And the bottom part is an actual piece of wood that keeps going inside.
So the, the top part flips up and you attach it. and the bottom part stays there.

(41:20):
And so my idea is the fears are going to engulf the person going through it.
So the fears are going to have the doors open.
And so it'll be in the hallway on the ground and the wall across from the room.
So everything, when they go through it, it'll be all around them.

(41:41):
And so the fear doors were going to be open and the nightmare doors are going to be closed.
And so there'll be kids that are working for their school hours in each of the
rooms that have a fear to make it more scary.
And then when, when they go through, it'll be all, all enveloped and everything.
So when the kids are in the rooms, they'll be all a part of the fear.

(42:04):
And so it's different from,
we got asked yesterday if somebody could do
a birds theme and i'm like definitely like the
birds yes yes birds
and i said that'll have your door open so we'll have everything in the outside
as well so i'm super excited for that one but you're normal snakes and spiders

(42:26):
jeff is doing a clown menagerie oh oh my god he's gonna get you good. I hate clowns.
It's the hallway before room nine. So it's a big, long hallway.
It is. It's absolutely wonderful.
And it's got this beautiful little hidden nook for a clown to pop out.

(42:51):
I know where it is. So you're excited.
Yeah, it's going to be really good, but a lot of them, uh, we'll have our meeting
next month or well, you know, in, in April.
So that'll be really cool. So I'm super excited for that.
And we'll talk about what I want and how we can get it there.
And, but I want, I have a great list of students who are phenomenal artists.

(43:14):
And so I'm going to have them put together some things that belong on the floor,
whether it be, I think like sphere stuff, like the falling or
something coming up out of a grate or something along those lines so i want
to looking for ideas for that but yeah it's gonna be cool i'm excited okay less
you ready to write let me let me grab things to scribble on my scribbles there's

(43:41):
my scribble too many scribbles,
actually there's no such thing so annette as soon as leslie's ready i want you
to give us the fears that you have already identified. Okay.
That'll be in each of the rooms. Okay. Well, these are my ideas until we have the meeting.
I would love to give my list to the people who are doing their stuff and my

(44:04):
ideas on how I want to see it done. Sure.
And I know two, two of them already have what they want, I think, but I'm okay with that.
So we've got clowns. Yes. We have clowns, fires. Okay.
Snakes, bats, and rats.

(44:25):
Buried alive. One of the girls wants to do that. And then the birds.
Desiree mentioned wanting to do drowning. Yes. Bailey. Seriously? Sorry.
All good. Sometimes our children come in and interrupt anyway.
I keep hearing tapping on the door behind me. So I know someone is trying to get in.

(44:46):
Open chicken. Yeah. So drowning is Desiree's. And then I know zombies is also number 10.
And then I would love to do something.
I would love to do a height room or falling or something like that.
And I am doing a monster's room in the main room.
So the main room is going to have one side is going to be completely black.

(45:11):
So one side is fear of the dark and the other side are monsters of,
and we have tons of like different plastic things from creatures and stuff like that.
So I'm thinking about it like almost like a wax museum with two kids dressed
up as the monsters and then pretending to be wax statues. And then that's good.

(45:33):
And they would move if it got closer to them or just slowly move their head.
But I was wanting to do that as well.
And I love your idea for the darkness where you have one path that is completely blacked out.
No light. It's sealed up so that nothing gets in. and then they just send people
in with one little electric tea light. They get one little tea light.
Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot.

(45:55):
The walls are going to have different things on them. So if they touch the wall. Like textures.
All kinds of textures throughout the wall. And then there'll be one section
where it'll come, you'll turn
left and then you'll have to turn right and then let go around a wall.
When you go around the wall, there's going to be the board on the ground.

(46:15):
I don't know what it's called.
Your board. What is that? The vibrating floor. The vibrating floor.
There you go. So I want to do that.
And then I also saw a thing where...
There's a two-way mirror. I was thinking of putting two two-way mirrors in the
hallway and then have one of the kids behind the two-way mirror with a flashlight

(46:35):
under their chin and to give them that as they look through the mirror,
because it's only going to be able to be seen if the flashlight's on.
And I think you really need to like accentuate the other senses inside this
space because eyes are going to be so minimal.
You can really play on touch. You can play on sound. You can play on,

(46:56):
I wouldn't let's not touch taste let's let's
avoid taste yeah but I like
your yeah we don't we don't
want to do so much with sound and that sort of dark would be
great I like yeah absolutely and I'll introduce you to a couple vendors at fear
expo okay who do who do scent cups and things but the opportunity to do like

(47:19):
sound scuttling bugs or dripping water or Or I'm trying to think of like other ways.
Footsteps, creaky door. Footsteps behind you. Oh, yes.
Now I'm going to, I got to try to figure out how to get these people from turning
on their cell phone. Yeah. Yeah. That is a tricky one.

(47:39):
And it's, there's so many people that are just chicken.
And I'm like, I'm going to tell you now, if you turn it on, it's going to ruin
your experience. So this is why I'm giving you a candle.
So step inside the door, close your eyes for just a minute.
Minute let your eyes adjust and then walk through it's basically what i'm going
to tell them and if you turn on your light it's just like walking down your

(48:02):
hallway at the house and and i would say like,
but i would i would tell people when they go in like if you
turn on a flashlight you will be
asked to leave and you will not get your money back yeah and
that really and even if you're not enforcing it something like
that even if you're not enforcing it it'll be enough of a deterrent to
enough people that it will be effective perspective

(48:23):
so we have a nice big the niche you know
where the as you come in the tech room is
there on the left yep i want to put a person sitting there in a chair in all
black nothing else showing no white nothing they all have to dress in black
no stripes on their shoes no nothing and as they go by i want them to flutter

(48:44):
their cape so they get a little bit of a wind,
that's good do you know what a morph suit is,
yes the black completely static suit I think that would be perfect for we have
to be careful because of the different sizes of all the kids you have different
sizes of morph suits well that's true too that's true.

(49:05):
I had like Kay and I should have sent this to you I had seen something on a
hunt that was set on Instagram where it was something where all the,
This spot was literally just low on actors. So they wanted the kind of a creepy sensation.
So they literally just took like mannequin hands and attached them to the wall

(49:26):
just for that feeling of like fingers brushing as you go by.
Oh, we have those too. I want filament hanging from the ceiling.
I hate that feeling. I hate it.
And I want filament. But I also want that outside the spider's room as well.
Oh, absolutely. it's got to be in the spider's room that's a perfect perfect

(49:47):
way of using touch inside that.
That's not easy to do to you i know there are just a couple of things that get me,
i do like the idea having to have to go through something like like last year we were trying to do,

(50:10):
like gauze and things like that but the gauze that she
bought was not really it was falling apart because it wasn't old
new gauze which worked but
i want to do something else and i'm you know
like do they make a you know how the sticky hands
feel that nasty sticky you're talking about like
the ones you flick and throw those how they they're gross

(50:31):
oh yeah yeah gross but i want that
feel on a vine how do i
get that to hang down and paint it all black and to get that sticky feeling
on a vine because then they're gonna go it's almost like wet spaghetti you know
what i mean yeah there's actually definitely check with your high schoolers

(50:52):
and your middle schoolers there might be types of slime that are stable enough
to not slide down all the way and actually.
Just stick i don't think it even needs to be slime i think like
a i'm thinking like the silicone intestines that
cfx creates it's just long little bits
of silicone like it feels wet
even when it's dry okay if you could

(51:14):
get like long thin okay pieces
of silicone and dangling down that way like that i
think could work that would be cool i just
don't want anybody to break them so they have to be done
but that's one reason why i think silicone work it's surprisingly
resilient so i do have you know grabs
and yanks fire department so i can't put a

(51:36):
plastic over the top because just
in case the fire sprinklers do come on it has to be able to
hit but i was black mesh a couple
of like almost like um the camo material yeah yeah yeah you know what i mean
i do but i know a guy who sells that too another thing you could use that especially

(52:00):
being in the bay area you shouldn't have as much issues as drying out as it would in colorado um.
Yarn oh yeah that's gonna
be a really really wet yarn wet yarn because that'll
have kind of a stick to your face yeah if you just
dangle wet if you just dangle yarn down and then before
opening take a spray bottle and just go through it just go through yeah that

(52:23):
would do it yeah and that's that's a that's a really cheap way because you just
get i wouldn't do the karen red heart but or the red heart because it's a little
bit on the scratchy side but the karen simply soft,
that's softer has more of a silky feel and i'm
going to assume that these are different kinds of yarn i was gonna ask i

(52:45):
know yes yeah i know what you're talking about though the the
karen simply soft is probably going to be one of your best bets they might have
a sport weight now besides just their standard if they do that definitely give
you some some textural differences But you can also just take sections of the
Karen Simplice off and just unwind it because it's a three-ply.

(53:07):
Okay. No, that's awesome. You're hilarious, Les.
Should have known she'd find a way to get the yarn into it. Yeah. Always.
So I can definitely introduce you to the owner of Nightmare Netting who could
hook you up with camo netting at a reasonable price.
Okay. I will not say cheap because it's never cheap. but they are good priced.

(53:31):
Okay, so that's the darkness side. The monster side, we're talking tons of...
So when you walk into this side, there is a path that is laid out,
but with like four foot high walls.
So everybody can see over the walls. They can see into this big open space that
is going to be filled with all of these different monsters.

(53:52):
And what monsters do you have or are you planning to put in there?
I want the one that I just bought, lot, but I'm not going to use his voice box.
He's eight foot. He's tall. He's really big.
So I want him in the bigger space in the corner, but I'm going to have our sound
guy put what he says on the loop. Yeah.

(54:14):
But we do have the mannequins. I can make the mannequins anything.
So I do want some scary masks and things like that to put on the mannequins.
Some of the stuff that we have is old. And I want to get some new masks. That's definite plus.
And I've got a few that are... We were given a bunch of stuff from a nonprofit

(54:36):
about four or five years ago, I think, from the base, Moffett Field.
And they did a bunch of stuff and so we have a lot of
stuff from her as well and and i haven't really looked
through her boxes yet but i know there's some dracula pieces some different
masks and things but i i want a lot of just scary masks yeah it could be flasher

(55:00):
face it could be whatever and we can outdo all that we could do the rest of
the body sure sure so so i don't know what i
haven't yet so but it sounds like it's going to be a wide variety of very wide variety yes from,
gory to not gory to you know to you know
what you would find at walking through a museum type

(55:20):
in terms of adding some additional props i will be safe for all of it yes well
but project backfire tayans monsters oh she's got some great they're they're
like stuffed animal size because she She basically takes stuffed animals and,
you know, rejiggers them.
But Tehan's got a bunch of stuff. So Project Backfire, and she'll be at Fear Expo.

(55:45):
She's got a bunch of stuff that I would definitely recommend you go over and take a look at. Okay.
Yeah, Tehan's got some great stuff. Ask about the Richard.
Do I want to look that one up right now? Ask Tehan. Specifically,
ask Tehan about the Richard.
There's a specific reason it's called the Richard. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

(56:10):
But I love, love, love, love that idea.
Because I don't want it whimsical and we have a lot of whimsical stuff.
And I'm like, I don't want whimsical at all. I want to be scary.
Teyans is horrifyingly whimsical.
I find it whimsical. I'm also twisted. The best prop that she made,

(56:31):
like my favorite prop that she makes, because I've seen it nowhere else, is a dentist drill.
And like the sound that it makes is freaking perfect.
Right on. And that's actually, in terms of providing atmospheric sounds related to other phobias.
Thunder and lightning would be a great one because there's a lot of people that that's a big thing.

(56:54):
Dentist is definitely another one.
Here's an idea. Take a whole bunch of really unnerving sounds and put them on
a loop and play it in the cue line so that they are already at a high state
of anxiety before they ever walk through.
The mice scurrying across the floor. Mice scurrying across. Dogs barking.

(57:19):
Thunder lightning. The dentist drill.
Cockroaches. All of it. Rats. Oh my gosh. It was like the classic hook scraping, metal scraping sound.
Footsteps. Yeah. All of those things we're talking about started in the queue line.
You get them all jazzed up before they even go in there. Oh, yes.

(57:40):
Yep. I almost talked him into buying another Mortimer.
I would love to buy one and donate it to the candlelighters,
but I don't have that kind of money.
We have a good budget. I want to say we have $2,500 we have to spend.
You're going to need that for the room. Yeah, I know. I don't.

(58:04):
But you know what? That's okay.
Any other thoughts on the monster room? or really the carriage house as a whole
before we kind of dive into some of these other phobias.
Okay, I'm going to check myself out for a moment and let you guys discuss Clowns. Go.
Clowns. Clowns are going to be fun. Classic.

(58:27):
Oh my gosh. And I know Jeff wants the little horn and he's going to chase a few people.
Oh, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I also know that we were going to do scary clowns and not a fun whimsical
clown and i told him i asked him what he was going to do in this room he goes
i'm not going to tell you i'll tell you the rooms meeting so i know that is

(58:47):
super excited about doing that super excited but i want to know how would you
guys do a heights room because i really want a heights room,
i really like that idea there's a couple ways that i can think of for doing a heights room.
Something falling one of the ways to do it
would be as a visual effect

(59:08):
so there's no change in elevation but you
have everything basically you just have projections on the
side that look like you're falling oh just
kind of something like consistently moving yeah something consistent
moving down so you get that like you're
falling sensation but without having to

(59:28):
adjust elevation which again is going to help your ada because the other way
i can think about for doing it is you do kind of a bridge up across and then
down but that's a more building and b can make ada a little bit more complicated
and i don't know what your ceiling height is we can do the ramp,
annette did you go to zoo lights at oakland last year no no but you know how the ramp by Okay.

(59:56):
Go ahead. I'll find this. Hold on. Hold on. You know how the ramp has the door
where the slider door closes?
We have that space up until room one.
And that's a good... Remember where you had the laser light?
We have a good amount of space on that, I think. That would be awesome to do it right there.

(01:00:18):
Because there's nothing there. Let me pitch this idea to you. So I saw this at...
Glow Fari is what Oakland Zoo calls their zoo lights. Oh, yeah. And it's...
Hang on. I got to turn my false backdrop off because it's just blocking it.
You get to see my guest room now.
Oh, well, I'm hoping your son is about to attack the witch's bruise in the corner.

(01:00:41):
OK, so they had this thing set up,
which is a TV screen at the far end and then mirrored walls all around so that
the mirrored walls are just reflecting what's on the screen.
And if you were to put like a video
of something falling on

(01:01:04):
that tv screen now the entire thing
around it would be falling people walk up to that and all
they see is falling like oh my god that would
throw me for a loop that asked me about
doing a mirrored room all the way around the mirror and he
and i was we could do that because i have the film for that i
have mirrored film and stuff so that would be really good to

(01:01:26):
do that and you could do it with just a simple television at
one end do the mirrored and you won't
even ask that right exactly it would be so easy you're gonna say less just adding
in that disorientation of having so much mirrored of falling and just putting
through different clips of falling off a building falling off a cliff Almost

(01:01:50):
like the ride at Disneyland.
You're talking about Soaring? Soaring over California.
That's the way I would do the falling because that gets your height.
That gets your sensation of falling. It is definitely going to disorient people.

(01:02:11):
I would definitely recommend having handrails or something that they could grab
onto. That's a good point.
Just for safety, security, et cetera. Yeah. Because I can definitely see that
being, it's like, I don't know if you guys have seen the video of the two kids on a, on a,
a tv screen floor that shows like water moving and then basically the kids are

(01:02:36):
running out but they fall over
because it looks like floor just moved even though obviously it didn't,
especially for especially for the younger audience but even then i mean exactly
definitely something that can get you pretty pretty uh that sounds good my surprise
second idea if you can see side there.

(01:03:01):
We call it a vortex tunnel where the tunnel is rotating.
And as you're walking through it, it looks like the door on the far side is
what's moving and just gave me this terrible sense of vertigo as I'm walking
through one of these. Yeah.
Given the amount of space you have to build in though, that would be very difficult.

(01:03:25):
Anyway, but yes, I think that would would be that's an
ideal ideal right there and the
other one that i was worried about because i know the snakes are going to be
somewhat easy and the spiders are going to be easy but i am going to get the
netting that you that you said to get so we're going to pull that all the way
through that hallway uh-huh and but i really another thing you could do with

(01:03:49):
the mirror room if you didn't want
to do falling or if that becomes too much of a tripping hazard
middle of the ocean vast megalophobia terror of large expanses of nothing oh
my gosh that would be good what if we get set up one room as just one giant infinity mirror.

(01:04:16):
Ooh, that would be cool. That would be cool. We would need a big ass film though.
No, I know that one of the girls is doing a zombie room, but I think she's,
she wants to do her own thing.
And I'm like, okay, I guess you can do your own thing.
So, but I would love to give her some, you know, some pointers,
I guess, without being too rude, without steering it.

(01:04:41):
You know what I mean? Yeah. I totally, totally know what you mean.
Okay. but again i don't even know what she's doing i just know that she it started off as a witch room,
and i told her there's no witches in this house so can we make it zombies instead,
and she was like i didn't know if i wanted to
do the blood or not i'm like well we need something near the end to

(01:05:01):
be a little bit more horrifying than a witch and she
was like okay well let's see what we can do and
i'm like okay zombies don't necessarily have to
be bloody to be horrifying fine don't have to
be bloody but she also doesn't like zombies so there was
that we have a bias to begin with yeah okay so i don't know it was just a little

(01:05:25):
bit weird but i guess it's okay yeah i mean having to navigate the intro organizational
politics is can be can be a challenge well if
she's not big on traditional zombies and if she wants to do something that kind
of has that, which element to it.

(01:05:46):
She might, and this again, I
leave this to you and how you want to see the haunt, but a voodoo zombie.
They're not your traditional. They're still pretty freaky.
You get a little bit of that witchiness without it being about witches.
So I would definitely, if she's struggling with zombie, have her look into voodoo zombies.

(01:06:10):
Do you get a bit of that witchy stuff? Look into, obviously,
Princess and the Frog, the Disney movie.
You got some good voodoo zombie stuff in there. The other really good one I
would say is the TV series Constantine.
They've got a couple of good episodes with voodoo zombies.
Sorry, Kay. I need, I need to watch that. Honestly, you really do.

(01:06:31):
That was pretty good. Actually. I saw that. Okay. What other rooms you want to talk?
Spiders. How would we do the hallway?
So we, we, you and I talked already about beef netting, the beef netting.
So I was, so i can pull it from
the room and a little bit over the top of their heads with
it being open that's not a problem yep but in

(01:06:54):
on the other side of the wall so we would
just pull it and just staple it to the wall to make sure no one
because we had i don't want the same thing happening that happened with the
skulls i don't want them to pull it along i don't want it to grab at them and
things like that so it has flush on the wall yeah and i mean nice thing about
this is you can keep the parts that are coming up off the wall up high so that it's less of a grab.

(01:07:19):
Okay. Because I really like the fact that if we were to pull it and make an
actual dome on the top of them and walk through the web, that would be ideally
fun. Oh my gosh, that would be so fun.
And then the fillet would hang down at that point. Yes, exactly.
Exactly. The other thing I would say with that.

(01:07:42):
Is do a Harry Potter follow the spiders chamber of secrets where you just have
the spiders walking along the walls.
Oh, nice. That not only by, and basically just attach a whole bunch of little
plastic spiders to the wall, but yeah, lighten them with a flicker.

(01:08:02):
Oh, and you light them with offsetting flickers. So that way you get the shadows
moves. It looks like it's moving.
Oh, that's freaking genius. Oh, Oh, that's awesome. And you know what I bought for you, right?
Yes, I know. Flickering mini lights? Yes.
Yeah, so just set them at different points. So I think I'm going to attach those
to a board or a piece of cardboard that we lightly spray paint black so it doesn't

(01:08:29):
fold and then attach everything to that and put the lights behind it and poke
it through a smidge. Yeah, you could totally do something like that.
That way I don't have to put it out on the wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now okay yeah so
that should that should give you a good draw in for the hallway okay that would

(01:08:49):
be awesome so i would love that to be over by high by number five and number
six so we have that long hallway that would be super cool where the at the end
of your crypt yeah yeah yeah okay corner yep,
you saw exactly what i was doing i was mapping it out of my head.

(01:09:09):
Oh yeah no that would be oh that's going to be awesome that's going to be awesome okay man oh man,
okay oh my gosh i can see it now that's going to be so oh my gosh oh man oh
man okay what other ideas would you have for a bird's room i know she wants

(01:09:31):
And oh, well, there I am. Hello.
Welcome back.
It works. Wonderful. So the way she wants to do the bird, she was thinking one
of the characters dressed, but actually have had birds in his hand.
So he I don't know how she would do that.

(01:09:52):
But I'm like, let's try to figure out something else that she can do.
It sounds kind of me when I think of the birds, the scene that comes to mind
is that scene where the main characters walk outside and there are birds covering
everything everywhere,
sitting there, staring at them, right?

(01:10:15):
It's so unnerving so i would
start it with covering the walls
with with branches or or
you know something for birds to sit on and then just cover the
walls in birds all staring
down and like even if you could do branches coming
off of the walls really creating like

(01:10:38):
exactly creating a dome again kind of like we talked about with the with the
spider but out of tree branches or or something like that and then just cover
them with as many birds as you can make it also needs to be at least a couple
of ducks both for the far side cartoon and for never pick up a duck in a dungeon.

(01:11:02):
And then like if you could sample the audio out of the birds from that scene
and play that That they're in the hallway.
It would be so creepy. There's an episode. In Pushing Daisies. Where they do.
A homage. To Hitchcock's The Bird.

(01:11:23):
Let me find out which episode it is. But there's an episode in Pushing Daisies.
That might have some good ideas.
As well as getting some good audio. Go find it.
No that would be great. So we do have. A spring loaded door.
That we got from last year's Spirit and the doors the double that opens like

(01:11:46):
this and it opens and the spider jumps out.
I'm wondering I think they had it on a step pad the last time when they used
it at Spirit Store I don't want it on a step pad because the step pads tend
to not really last for the two and a half weeks sure,

(01:12:08):
Is there any way that we can look at that and maybe make it a button?
Like to have a person like an actor triggering.
You're triggering. That would be simple to do.
I've got one of those spiders at home. I have it just on the sound sensor and
it is impressively effective.

(01:12:30):
Okay. Or at least it was until it
got run over by a car, but separate situation. It was not made for that.
Okay. No, that's good. Okay.
But yes, you could certainly wire that to just a regular push button in the
same way that you do a step pad.
It's just wire the button instead of the step pad. Okay. Brian should be able

(01:12:52):
to do that relatively simply.
Okay. All right. I think that's it because I don't know what other.
I want to talk rats real quick. Okay.
The episode before you talk rats, the episode of Pushing Daisies is bittersweet.
It's episode 8 of season 1 I'm going to share my screen real quick while we're
doing this okay for rats spiders or snakes I think something like this could

(01:13:17):
be very effective you're familiar with Atmos FX I'm sure,
yes they have one called Creepy Crawlies that I use every year.
This is the rats oh oh
yeah it it's literally just rats
running out of a hole and like i put

(01:13:40):
i put this on a projector i project it
down onto the floor right in
front of where people are going to be walking and then put it on a a motion
sensor so that as soon as they walk up it gets triggered and then where they're
trying to step all of this pops out like it freaks people out every time but

(01:14:01):
they've They've got rats in that package.
They've got rats, they've got snakes, and they've got tarantulas.
So wherever it fits best, I think using something like that is very effective.
And just the sound of it. No. Freaking bleh.
Oh, exactly. Love it. Love, love, love it. There it is.

(01:14:21):
Creepy crawlies too. Oh, man. It's $15. Oh, my goodness.
It's fantastic. Yep, exactly.
So I do love...
The idea of having it on the ground, because I brought home the old signage,
and I'm taking off all the plastic vinyl off the old signage,

(01:14:41):
so it's clear white boards.
Okay. And so I was going to take those and cut them to size to fit in the hallways
or on the hall, so either for projection or for painting purposes.
With it and because outs on the way to Jeff's I want a really long,

(01:15:02):
Somehow when you are walking across like on the street and you have Steven Spielberg,
the clown or it, the red balloon. Yeah, totally.
So I want the grates on the floor.
Like the storm drain grates. Yes, there's storm drain grates all the way down that hallway.

(01:15:23):
And I want you to see a picture. There's balloons in the hallway.
Way but i also want you to see his face the
clown face yeah in between the tree oh yes
i don't care i have to cut that thing out or whatever
i'm gonna put that thing together and i'm gonna shellac the crap
out of it so nobody ruins it when they walk over it yeah but i
want that and then the the spotlight hitting it here

(01:15:46):
and there so they can catch the rinse of it oh yeah.
That's what i want i love that that's
that's fantastic i don't know what he and they're
gonna be screaming even like crazy there's gonna be a lot of people going out the back
door and i think this
is gonna be way oh yes i think okay i
want to talk drowning real quick drowning okay so

(01:16:08):
not recommended but very very good for effect fact my
like when desiree is
the one who who pitched this idea to me and kind
of what she was talking about was putting
like material or something to make it it look like the
waves kind of hanging from the ceiling trying to make
it so you're you feel like you're underwater i would hit

(01:16:29):
that with some serious blue light and if you have like the
motion blue green kind of swirly lights like
something like that but then put a drowning victim in the room and what i want
you to google is axe worthy ghost another thing i would consider in terms of
design is it actually kills two birds with one stone go ahead less is put the water in a cave.

(01:16:54):
Ooh, could be your cave lighted his water. So now you're underground.
You're underwater in a cave. Yeah. Yeah. So you get kind of that buried alive, drowning combination.
You get a little bit of claustrophobia in there. Plus you get the drowning.
But what I would do is put a, a drowning victim in there, use an ax worthy ghost.

(01:17:16):
It's a very simple single motor prop that just makes it move like this.
Okay. Okay. I think for an underwater scene, it would be exactly the motion you want to.
Okay. To suggest a person underwater. Okay. No, that sounds great.
And it acts worthy goes, you are going to, I'm going to find,

(01:17:38):
you'll find how to make that, that motion. Yeah.
It's called an ax worthy ghost. It doesn't have to be a ghost.
You can put whatever you want on the end of it. It's all about the motion.
Okay. All right. No, that's perfect. No, I like that. and then um.
To go to buried alive i think is the only one we really haven't talked about we haven't talked,

(01:18:01):
or the best and i think linda had an idea
for the buried alive i think she was going to put tree roots on the ceiling
of the room okay but i i
don't know if that's going to get you the the feel
of being buried alive i think that's an underground theme
you know i mean yeah underground and yeah i don't know okay can you do like

(01:18:25):
not quite a squeeze tunnel but like partial i i have pitched squeeze tunnels
in the past i would love a squeeze i would love a squeeze tunnel but they're gonna say no to that,
it's not with a with a like the ada makes it complicated the ada makes it complicated
and like you can get away from the i think you get around the ada by just not

(01:18:47):
inflating it when When someone ADA comes through, like, or there are ways around this.
Okay. So, but if you start, I don't, okay. I'm pitching ideas and I don't know how the thing works.
Start with it deflated. As they walk through the room, you inflate it up to
the point where you hit that ADA line.
No. Okay. Because the hallway itself already meets ADA and we,

(01:19:11):
there's no room to make it smaller.
The only place where we would have enough room to do something like that That
would be in the main room, in the carriage house.
How tall are your ceilings? Eight foot. In the carriage house,
we have at least, yeah. In the carriage house, they're huge.
Well, yeah, carriage house is huge. But inside where the rooms are,

(01:19:34):
where the fears are going to be, it's just eight foot.
It's just eight foot. And actually, if I remember correctly,
I think it's like seven foot, eight inches or something like that.
It's slightly less than eight foot. it because we
have all the wires and stuff between them drop down right
just trying to think of a way to lowering the
ceiling as they go through can also

(01:19:56):
create that claustrophobic feeling actually that's an interesting idea put a
a sloped ceiling so that as they're walking they're having to duck down further
as they go with the tree roots hanging down yeah well because i know that in room six,
she was thinking room six, because it's a straight, straight edges and the straight back.

(01:20:19):
So it's just like a, and I told her, I said, well, I kind of want that one for
the height room because that way we could do the,
whether it be looking down the buildings or whatever, we can attach everything
to the walls and the floor and have it look like you're looking down between
the two buildings or the four buildings.
And once to, I was like, okay, But one year that was a cave and the ice princess was in that cave.

(01:20:43):
And the girl took a painter's cloth and made, made an actual painting.
I guess two by fours took it and made a whole thing and she put everything on it.
So when you look in, you had this curved back wall.
Yeah. And it wasn't all the way to the back.

(01:21:03):
It was only like three feet in. It wasn't the entire length of it,
but she had an ice princess there and she took and put mud all over this.
And it was super awesome. And the whole, the whole room looked like she was in an ice case.
Yeah. She painted it and it was really good the way she hit it with the spray paint.
It was nice it was really nice but she had to build the pieces that this heavy

(01:21:26):
painter's tarp had to lay on for it to be you know to spur it to stay up because
there was nothing else sure it was really good though it was really really good
i think where you're going to struggle with.
This buried alive though is making people feel like
they are experiencing it if it's
just in the room and it doesn't extend out into the hallway

(01:21:49):
somehow right exactly right and so i
was thinking of that one would be a nightmare because you
know how you're you know i mean and the thing would be
closed but i was i like the idea of bringing the
floor up and putting the grass and
maybe a grave or something along those lines and have somebody underneath it
or have the voices come up from underneath it and have one of those things that

(01:22:13):
kick the door and just have a have a A coffin sticking partway out of the ground
with the door moving and then just screaming coming from the inside?
Coming from the inside. Because we have another three speakers for that room,
I think. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
But we can do something. I thought we could do something like that.

(01:22:33):
But she has a whole different thing and she's going to pick your brain. Noted.
She texted me and we haven't gotten together yet. So I'll keep this conversation
in mind when I meet with her.
Yeah, that's what that's for. So it's like, eh, work on it a little bit. Yeah, exactly.
But it's okay because I want their take on it as well.

(01:22:57):
And I don't know if I get to be this pushy.
Sure, sure.
I don't know. Yeah.
Saying please and thank you a lot. That always just points in your favor.
It always, I'm trying, but yeah, no, this was great.
I really, really, really appreciate all the help with it. This is very cool.

(01:23:18):
I can't wait to see how it turns out.
Me as well. I think it's going to be the best house in freaking years.
So are you guys going to get to come back and actually stay for a night or something and check it out?
I can promise nothing at this point, but I will make an effort that that's all I can promise.
Promise and i my uh i told

(01:23:39):
my son he has to come down to you i said your mom is president so she gets
you get to see how demented your mother is so let's go i told
him he's like oh that's gonna be kind of hard i'm like
just a night son just need you for one night yeah yeah maybe sit for the night
i don't need my granddaughter going through it but oh yeah well now that we've
went everybody's taste buds for ghost house 2024 give a quick rundown of where

(01:24:02):
people can find more information about the upcoming ghost house where they can
go look for information, get tickets.
You'll find a lot of the information that I did talk about on the www.candlelighters.com.
And you should have a schedule up there when we're going to be open and volunteer
meeting and stuff would be great if people come out and help.
The more, the better. There's lots of things that you can do and you don't have

(01:24:27):
to be able to swing a hammer because we'll teach you.
If you can use the paintbrush i would love
it but there's a lot of stuff to do and it's just
really fun and we feed you so and i
always got fed pretty good yeah yeah it's pretty fun but when is the volunteer

(01:24:47):
social do you have a date yet a volunteer social i do volunteer social is going
to be in august and it's usually the third saturday in august so it's going
to be the 17th August 17th. So if you're interested in volunteering.
Yeah, it's one of those days. So if we can get the prop trailers out there by the 15th,

(01:25:09):
get our we are cleaning out the props trailer before we start our work party
our first work party is not until the 7th of september and if we can get that
cleaned out we will have the,
so hopefully that will happen on the 17th if not it will have to happen on the
24th that'll be in the morning but the social will be that afternoon in about
four so any hunters who are listening to the podcast if you're in the bay area

(01:25:31):
definitely go check out the candlelighters website.
And if you have the time or the bandwidth to assist, come out to the social
on either August 17th or August 24th, depending on what day it ends up being.
Check out their website, check out their Facebook page for more information.
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate all of it. It was a pleasure.

(01:25:52):
I've got to tell you, getting to work with the Ghost House and getting to see
how you run your events for the last two years has been a masterclass in a haunted house execution.
We spent an entire podcast episode just talking about what I learned from you.
So I hope I have given to you as much as I have gotten out of working with you. Oh, yes. Definitely.

(01:26:13):
Definitely. Definitely. I really appreciate everything that you've done for us.
And I'm pushing for us to pay for you to come out. So believe me.
Well, you're paying.
You know, we've been on here for two days. That's all I need for two days.
Oh, man. So it's very hard to find people who are willing to put in the time

(01:26:36):
and effort to make something that is just for kids a little bit better.
Yeah, I totally get it. If you're a non-profit, come on out.
We would love to have you help. And we would love to support you in any way that we can.
So it's been a pleasure.
It's been an absolute pleasure. So Annette, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

(01:26:56):
Getting to share a little bit about the Ghost House and everything that the
Candlelighters are doing for the community here in Fremont. It has been an absolute pleasure.
Thank you very much for having me. And if you guys need more help,
if you need to change out rooms and trying to figure out how to make them work,
let us know because this is the part that I love.
Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Do you understand why I've had so much

(01:27:20):
fun working with them now? Yep.
She's got a good vision and thought process for where she wants to move the
organization in terms of this event.
Absolutely. And I'm so very excited about what she's going to put together.
I think it's going to be absolutely spectacular.

(01:27:40):
Yeah. Well, we have run extra long on this episode.
So I don't know that there is much more that we should say, other than definitely
go check out the Haunting You podcast everywhere where you can find your podcast
or at hauntingyou.com with just the letter U.
And of course, follow us along on our social media at facebook.com slash haunting
you at Haunting University on Instagram or at Haunting You, just the letter U on YouTube.

(01:28:03):
So you can keep up with all of the things that we are doing to prepare for the 2024 season.
Any final thoughts, Les? The Candlelighters is going to have such a great haunted
house this year. Yeah, it's going to have such a great haunted house this year
and I just hope I can come back and see it.
Yeah. All right, wrap us up. That is yet another episode of Haunting You Podcast.
Thank you all for listening. And if you have anything that you'd like us to
talk about, anything related to haunts, building haunts,

(01:28:26):
and Halloween that you'd like to hear us pontificate about, by all means,
let us know and we'll be happy to pontificate. Great word. Love it.
Yep. It's a good one. It's a good one. Well, from all of us here at haunting
you, we hope your building season is going just absolutely spectacularly.
If you can make it to a convention in your area, please make sure you do so.

(01:28:48):
But in the meantime, we will catch you next time from all of us here at haunting you.
Happy haunting. We are incredibly grateful to all the sponsors who make this show possible.
Music.
Learn more about our premium sponsors by checking out their websites,
chamberofhaunters.com, fearexpolive.com, and bfxcreates.com.

(01:29:13):
Check out our website, Haunting You, for more information on everything that you do.
Music.

(01:29:44):
Haunting You is a production of the Rocky Mountain Home Haunters, LLC.
All audio clips and sound effects are used under a Creative Commons attribution
or public domain license from Purple Planet Music at purple-planet.com or the
Sound Bible at soundbible.com.
Please see the show notes for more information on all the clips used in this episode.

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