I’ve worked for our haunted house, the “House of Shadows” now for just over seven years. My background prior to joining the haunt was mainly in the heating/cooling & ventilation field. My experience with building construction proved to be a great asset when designing my haunt rooms. Given the lack of experience I had my first few years with creating the fine detail to the haunt sets one typically sees in a haunted attraction, I based much of my work on designing  rooms that would simply allow me to scare the tar out of our guests, without devoting a ton of time to what the room would actually look like in the end. Although with some searching, I was able to find some easy things one can do to dress up a room without spending a fortune and of course, taking up time that could be used creating the next scare.
I would first off design a room for a certain effect, or a certain type of scare. Although my first years shrinking room and the success I had with it may have been beginners luck, it did reinforce the fact that how a group is positioned in the room can determine the best way to initiate the scare and how successful it will inevitably be. And that began the process, for me anyway, of analyzing what the scare tactic for the room will be prior to design. Because how you build the room, sets so many points that can determine the success of the scare for that room.
As I’ve never claimed to be an actor, I try to design my rooms to assist me in executing the perfect scare. I want there to be some thing going on with or within the room initially and then in a split second I can finish the deal with the best scare I can personally give. Hence my moving room, which after locking our guests in a hallway and claiming the first scare by means of a self made pneumatic activated prop with its own sound and lighting fx which nailed the scare every time, the room would eventually begin to roll with them still inside. Along the 13 ½ foot travel distance in the complete darkness, guest would initially feel the floor begin to move, but then contemplate whether they were still moving. And after about 15-20 seconds with the guests too busy trying to feel whether or not they are still moving, the lights would come back on for one last scare.

Many of my haunt rooms have been quite involved as you could imagine this room was. When one designs such an involved room, especially one with moving parts, great care must be taken to assure that safety has not been compromised in the least bit. And although animating props and integrating separate fx all within the same activation trigger can be a project all of its own, there are products that can help and usually simplify these things in the process.

 Kelly