Hinton Haunted House 2002
-or-
The Haunt That Almost Wasn't
It started raining Tuesday.
It rained Wednesday,
and a little bit on Thursday,
But Friday turned out nice...
The line formed early, and lasted most of the night,
But groups of 6-10 people were lead through the haunt
constantly. The average tour lasted six to ten minutes.
The first hallway leads to the entrance/welcome area.
Here visitors are instructed to stay together, hold onto the little ones,
leave things alone, and refrain from running, smoking, etc.
A ramp leads to a tunnel with moving walls, filled with strobing and colored lights.
Combined with a heavy soundtrack, the effect is similar to that of a "vortex tunnel,"
where your sense of balance is put to the test.
After rounding a dark corner, a blacklight ghost descends toward guests.
The Laboratory displays a blacklight autopsy scene, a frozen mummy,
and all the fluorescent bottles, jars, and scenery you could ever want.
The long hallway that follows is filled with unmanned props.
First is the Toxic Waste barrel, which uses an oscillating prop
head, eerily lit from below.
The second scene is a startling soft dummy, suspended from the ceiling
just behind a strand-type doorway. This prop scared a lot of people.
The next room was home to a pneumatic pop up prop.
When triggered, the first of three ghouls jumped up under a blue strobe light.
The Flying Crank Ghost was used as a distraction prop in this scene.
In the same room, an actor hid behind a scrim wall, using the "flashlight under the chin"
technique to great effect. Nobody saw this coming....
The Dungeon room housed a pneumatic leaping skeleton prop.
Flickering lamps give way to green spot lights, red strobes, and
a laughing soundtrack.
Give a man a chainsaw, and he'll scare you.
Add some fog, strobe lights, and a second chainsaw runner
from behind, and you just might leave a shoe behind...
The graveyard scene uses live actors, cleverly placed throughout
the set to provide more than just a scream. They'll get you again, and again, and again.
If you were to put a guy like this behind any of the three exits
in the "abandoned mine" room, you might run into him.
If you put a few more actors behind the doors, and connect all of the
doors with a hallway, you can't get out without meeting at least one of them.
A couple of "Gotcha" pictures ... just to prove we weren't slacking off all night.
To see how it all came together, visit
I'd like to thank the many good people associated with the
Hinton Haunted House for allowing us to participate in the annual event,
Also, many thanks to the people who come out for a good scare.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
See you next year!
Hinton Haunted House: