Buy the Haunted Mansion!

The Haunted Mansion is finally up for sale! I’ve been waiting a long time for this. There’s just one problem. The price is one human soul. I guess that’s a bargain. It’s not like I was using it anyway.

In one of the more clever movie product placements, the Haunted Mansion is currently being listed on Zillow, complete with spooky images that reveal details of the production design. To be honest, the designs don’t look much different from those of the terrible Eddie Murphy bomb, but the production design was the only good thing about that film. Let’s hope this one is better.

In the meantime, check out the listing on Zillow here: https://www.zillow.com/house/disney-haunted-mansion/

Cemetery Lane

I don’t know much about this except what’s on their web site, but if you’re in the Los Angeles area, you really owe it to yourself to check out this new Halloween attraction. It’s set at Heritage Square, a collection of older homes and buildings that acts as a museum of architecture in the Montecito Heights neighborhood. It’s a cool destination at any time of year, but this year it’s becoming especially cool for Halloween!

Check out the details at https://cemeterylane.com!

Haunter Season

In another life, I considered becoming a professional haunter. It seemed like the perfect gig at the time because my background is in design for theatre. I had the aesthetic elements all laid out on paper but found myself discouraged when confronted by the realities of safety inspections, flame retardant chemicals and insurance rates. I realized that I would need a partner who is as invested in the business side as I am in the aesthetics to make it work but I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to be my producer.

I tell you all of that to let you know that I did my research and I came to understand that the start of summer marks the beginning of what I like to call HAUNTER SEASON. The fourth of July fireworks are like the starting pistol for the pro haunters out there. If they want to be ready by early September, they’d better start work by July. Summer is the time to start planning for next Halloween’s props and costumes. It’s time to get serious and start building.

I’m hopeful that Halloween 2021 will include everything we missed from last year’s lockdown celebrations and more. This year, I hope to make a porch witch using techniques similar to those I used to craft my tentacle scarecrow last year. He’ll be back too, along with some lighting enhancements to the display. To be honest, last Halloween I was stressed out and less than enthused to be working on decorations few people would see. This year will hopefully be very different. I’d better get to work!

Haunted Mansion Updates

This week, Disney released a new video about some changes at their Haunted Mansion attraction in Anaheim. The voiceover is horrifically bad (and not in a good way) but the video is reassuring nonetheless. It reveals that the updates are extremely minor and that the Imagineers haven’t screwed up anything in our beloved dark ride.

My favorite addition is the new bird bath shown above. There’s also a new cat statue in what looks like the loading area. Hmmm. Did Disney hire a cat lover to meow things up a bit?

The Fear "Sweet Spot"

With the plethora of haunted attractions ranging from the mild kid-friendly ones to the horrifying experiences that require waivers, it turns out there’s a “sweet spot” where fear is stimulating and fun, but not too scary to be enjoyable for most people.

Check out the article about this at ARS Technica and read the original study to learn more.

Drive-Through Haunts

photo © Kowagarasetai

It’s a tough time to be in any industry that relies on crowds of people showing up. The haunt business is no different. Faced with the potential loss of an entire season’s income, many innovative haunters have decided to produce COVID-safe, drive-through haunts. The first of these appeared in Tokyo this summer and has a web site at kowagarasetai.com.

Visit Hauntworld to find haunted attractions that are open in your area for 2020.

The Story & Song from The Haunted Mansion

image © Buena Vista Distribution Co. Inc.

When I was a child, one of my most prized possessions was the record album you see up above. On side 1, it had a narrated version of the classic Disney cartoon Trick or Treat. That’s right, there was actually a time in America when parents didn’t go all wobbly over the mention of witches, spells, or a child in a devil costume. But I digress. I liked side 1, but the real attraction was side 2.

Relegated to side 2 was The Story & Song From The Haunted Mansion. This was a dramatized version of the experience of going through the Haunted Mansion ride and it included much of the actual audio used in the ride. I freaking LOVED it. I must have played side 2 ten thousand times! I’m sure my mother got tired of hearing the Ghost Host’s intro spiel because I could recite it verbatim, complete with echoes.

What’s funny to me now is the fact that the Ghost Host on the record wasn’t Paul Frees, the voice from the ride, but a performance by Disney stalwart Pete Renaday specifically for the record. I had only been on the Disney World ride once or twice (this was in the day of individual ride tickets) so I always thought it was the original voice. Due to the fact that I could listen to it in my room over and over again, I actually think of Renaday’s as the “real” version to this day.

Actor and director Ron Howard was the voice of one of the two foolish mortals on vinyl. His date, the unfortunately named Karen, was played by Robie Lester. She can be heard on all sorts of Disney records and films from the 60s and 70s, including performances as the singing voice for Eva Gabor in The Rescuers and The Aristocats.

Little did I know at the time, that the version of the story on side 2 of my record had been trimmed significantly. It had originally been released as both sides of a record and cassette tape. If you’re interested, check out that longer version below. Just be sure to bring your death certificate.

If you love the Disney Haunted Mansion as much as I do, you owe it to yourself to visit the Long Forgotten blog. It isn’t updated frequently, but it has a plethora of behind-the-scenes posts about my favorite haunted house and its 999 residents. Check it out here.