Southern Spooks

In last week's post, we talked about monologues for everyone's upcoming haunt auditions and the first ever Writing Competition took place on the Southern Spooks Facebook page where I asked everyone to take their favorite monologue and revise it to show their personal creativity. Many of you sent in your submissions and there were plenty of awesome pieces of work. Sadly, not everyone can win. Out of all the entries, one stood out among the rest. This monologue showed the prime example of taking a script and making it your own. Not only did this individual rewerite almost the entire script, but he also kept the underlying tone and flow of the original scene. When some take on the task of  reworking a script, they tend to insert lines or details that either make no sense to the original script's contex or hold no importance to the overall goal of the piece. The winner of last week's contest knew his source material enough to vastly change it, but keep the essence of w...

If you are a veteran in the haunt industry or just that obsessed with the strange and spooky, then you know that this week is the week of Transworld in St. Louis. If you have no idea what I'm taking about, then you might be thrown off by the name "Transworld" and wondering what a transgender convention has to do with haunt. (You would be surprised how often I get that question when I bring up Transworld to new haunters. Now I'm wondering how many people are dragged to the convention by friends under this false pretense and arrive in drag. Hmm.) I'm sure the convention title is based on Transylvania, though. Just wanted to clear that up. For all you newbies, Transworld's Halloween and Attractions Show is the largest haunter's conventions in the U.S. which takes place in downtown St. Louis, MO. It's a weekend long event, this year's event happening March 22nd through the 25th. Some haunters go to work the show, having booths to showcase and sell t...

Let's face it: some haunted attractions are shit compared to the others. You may go to a haunt where the only scary thing is the fact that the lights are off. You may go to another haunt where everything makes you feel like you're the star of a horror movie. Hell, you may even stumble upon a haunt that seems like a glorified, gore fueled strip show. Whatever the case may be, it's safe to assume that there are MANY different types of haunted attractions. The first haunted house I ever technically "worked at" was my cousin's home made haunt in his garage. It was a rink-dink maze of black tarp, ripped up trash bags, dangling plastic spiders, and my cousin with a chainsaw at the end. It was truly a sad, pathetic display. There was nothing scary about it except the chainsaw (since my cousin was literally the only live person inside the trash bag maze until I couldn't take it anymore and jumped in to help with the scares). Now that I work in the industry, my s...

One of the most important things you could do if you're hoping to make haunt your career is to network. You will want to talk to as many people as you can in the industry. You will want to learn as much as you can from other haunters and really get your name out there. If people know you, you can't fly under the radar and vanish into the background. When I first started out in the haunt industry, I thought this would be a hard thing to do. With only a handful of haunts in the area, it seemed impossible to network unless The Powers That Be invited me to haunt conventions. At Ravenwood, being invited to a haunt convention...that is the most chased after opportunity that everyone is dying to be chosen for. (I'm pretty sure a few people, including me, would literally kill to be invited.) Throughout the year, there are four major conventions that you will always hear about: HauntCon, Transworld, Midwest Haunters Convention, and Legendary. Of course there are a few West and E...

When I first entered into the haunt world, I never expected that there were so many haunts or that it was even a big industry. Honestly, for the longest, I thought a haunted house was just some idiots in someone's garage with chainsaws. (Not that far off. Am I right?) Thanks to the people I work with at my haunt, I've come to discover that there are literally hundreds of haunts, big and small, family friendly and X-Rated (I'm talking about you, Haunted Hoochie . Ya nasties.), non-touch and extreme touch, etc. Short and simple: There are as many different haunts as one can imagine. There's a flavor for everyone. In Louisiana, the main haunts you ever hear about are The 13th Gate, House of Shock, The Mortuary,  and RISE Haunted House. For the sake of the the blog, I'll refer to my home haunt only as "Ravenwood Manor." (That sounds catchy and mysterious enough, right?) A fun fact that I learned is that not every haunted house is the same. Each of these h...