Behind the Screams: Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group on LA Haunted Hayride 2024

0:08 Today we're learning all about what Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group has planned for the SoCal area that's coming up on today's show. From the Haunted Attraction Network, I'm Philip, and this is our annual Hauntathon where we're counting down to Halloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcast articles, and more. Since this podcast is only one part of the Haunted On, the best way to follow everything is by subscribing to our free weekly newsletter at the link in our show notes. Remember that the best way you can support us is by sharing our Hauntedon with someone you think we'll enjoy it. Okay, today I'm playing the full panel from the Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group that they gave during Midsommer's Scream this past season. Yes, this is a little bit of old recording. However, the Los Angeles Haunted Hey Rid just opened this past weekend and Delusion opened the weekend before that. The events are still pretty new, and I think this panel still gives you the context behind what's.

1:06 Happening at them. So here we go. In three two one. Let's right for the masle. Please won't you welcome the afterlife? For the party, the most affordable entertainer in his price range. Let's hear it for the Superintendent of Springs and the executive of Fright, the. Late Monty red Volta. A great Eatings, It's me, Great Teams, It's me the Late Mon.

2:34 Alright, that's the track, that's a greetings. It's me the late Mon he moonta styre of the mon. You were bold to show? Cue the clopping. I can't. Will you sit down? Yeah, you gotta sit down, will you directed? I wanna just say this, Welcome to the San Diego Comic Con. And welcome to the thirteenth floor Entertainment Group LLC panel.

3:17 What a horrible title. Indeed, now, I'm sure you know this is my complete contractual obligations to have you all raise up in your seats and join me in the official anthem of La Haunted hay Ride. And Midnight Falls. I means, get up your dummies, trigger tree and trigger trees and tart are far trees to eat? Tis all us nat claws in the town Midnights.

4:00 And nine falls, nine poles town mid nine. Files, a town that's toursted from bad to west. In the Town of mid Night. Thank you, I'll see you in the spot township. Welcome to Midsummer Screen. We are excited to be joined by a few of the creative masterminds behind Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, the owner operator of seventeen large scale attractions that haunt the nation each Halloween, including some of your favorite events right here in the South Pland. Today, they will discuss the innovation behind their cutting edge designs, intricate mazes, and the narratives that keep fans returning.

5:06 Year after year. As summer starts to fade. Away and the spooky season looms large, it's time to find out what this sinister crew has in store for all of us. Please welcome to the stage the creator of Delusion and director of Immersive Entertainment for thirteenth Floor, John Braid, the creator of the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and producer at thirteenth Floor. Melissa carbon Wa, Regional manager for thirteenth Floor, Amy Holloman, Vice President of Operations for thirteenth Floor, Greg Salliers, CEO and founding partner of thirteenth Floor, Christopher Staff, and your moderator for this presentation from Ash versus Evil Dead, actress Dana de Lorenzo.

6:16 Hi, guys, how's everyone doing? How great is Midsummer scream? You guys having a good weekend? Well, well it's about to get even better as long as nothing gets possessed and jumps on stage, which has been known to happen with a few of us. In fact, some of these people, if not all, are very good friends with ghosts and goals and all the things we love. So I'm so excited to reveal this information to you because you know, we love to hear what's coming up every year. We all know and love it. That's why we're all here with the Thirteenth. Floor Entertainment Group. And I don't know, there may be a surprise in it or two.

6:56 Do you know? He doesn't allow a surprise, So. I'm excited to be here and to talk about all the things going on for Southern California Halloween. Also, I do tend to scream the closer I get to a microphone, so sorry, in advance, I'll. Try and not talk as much and loudly. So we're all here because we've been to one of the events, so hopefully can come for the first time. We know in Love and it's developed quite a name in southern California. So, Chris, how has the thirteenth floor changed over the years? And you know what has been going on recently? What we're my parents for? Yeah, I mean it's changed crazy over the last I don't know how long I've been doing this now, But started out, like much of the people in this room, just as.

7:44 A Han Halloween fan. Got invited to go work at my first mine at house when I was fifteen years old, and fell in love with it and always thought about what. Would it be like if I did my own Honted house one and so in. Two thousand and two, I actually opened our first one at house with my business Mark of Our, who we met working as fifteen year old kids at that haunted house, opened our first Honted house. Then two thousand and eight we opened the original thirteenth floor Haunted House in Denver, Colorado. And then in two thousand and nine we met a couple of guys from Austin, Texas that had done on haunted house called the House of Torment, and we brought our businesses together. In twenty ten we opened thirteenth Floor Saan Antonio, and that was kind of our our that was kind of the genesis of the Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, right, bringing those two companies together and starting to grow the business.

8:31 Since then, we've been opening new shows, acquiring shows. The company this year will operate thirty two different attractions across the country. Oh yeah, and a lot of work. Yeah. So a lot of them are are centered in the Halloween space, so haunted houses, Halloween festivals, but some of them are also room escape acts, throwing. And then we just opened our first immersive art installation in a joint venture with Other World. It's called Other World Philadelphia. It's a pretty incredible location. But yeah, and it wouldn't be possible without all the people sitting on stage here today and a lot of the folks that are in the audience watching us today. So pretty excited to reveal to you guys a lot of secrets about what we've been working on.

9:15 What all these folks have been working on. But before we do that, I think we're gonna hop back and take a look at a video of just a recap of what we did in twenty twenty three. Right, I'm excited. I'm so excited. Are you so excited?

10:28 Look? Bit now last year, so now we're going to get into what's to come, and I think we have to jump into probably the most unique event to start off the events. It's also known, I'm short, as you all agree, as the vanguard of interactive horror theater. I think you know and who love it. It's a little world called Delusion, and I'd love to talk to. John Braver everybody the creator of Delusion. So John, for anyone who has. An experienced Delusion, can you just kind of describe the concept? Yes, how many people have been to Delusion? That was loud, That's good, and there were a lot of people that have it, So for all of you, I kind of want to give a quick explanation. It's basically the most cinematic experience you can have in the live setting. So that's I come from the film world and we kind of brought that into the live the live world. And to give you a bit of a taste of that and some of the characters and the stories, I just want to throw up a little video here for the guys to enjoy, So check it out.

11:38 Delusion to get the. Best time for may have this all very very very intimidating out for that and I just felt like someone. Going behind for the entire times, you've got to come to chuck it out. It's awesome, my lord, who think we should play that again? Yeah, that's so quick that you've got a little taste that you can kind of see some of the characters over the years here. So it's very much like living inside of a creepy, hauntingly beautiful story. And we've been doing it since twenty eleven and it's really not much like it. It's an very intimate experience. We try to make sure that people feel they have some agency and they're a part of the story.

12:25 Obviously our trademark player of parts. We really take that seriously. So I've been just doing this for a long time and get swallowed back into this every year, and we'll kind of dig into this year's show a little bit later. Well, and since you've been doing it since twenty eleven, and like you said, every year, it's a different story, so that's a lot of storylines to come up with. So how would you describe that process of coming up with something new every year, trying to top the last year. Well, I think if I go into an overear thing and try to top it, I can set yourself up for our disaster. But basically, storylines come in various ways, through gummies, through through streams, through various interactions I'll have with someone on the street. They're all standalone stories pretty much, so you could go to any one of them. But there's a delusion universe we have over now at this point, probably about fifty characters, fifty original characters, and we've done this since twenty elevens with nine stories, and it's pretty expansive at this point, so I think coming up with them it depends on also the venue. Obviously you've been a lot of you have been to the show, so you've been to some of these really unique and special venues that we acquired, not so much acquired, but rented, and we'd love to acquire them. But that plays a big part in the telling of the story as well too. I'll,

13:56 for example, the Phillips Match. We've been there for the last three years, Pomona, and that's a very special place. So I remember the first. Time I saw it. I would just stand there and just stare at this for a little bit and see what comes my way, just feel the space and walk around and to go through a process. It's hard for me to explain it so much, but I explained it with the gummy park. But basically, it's really fun because it's fun, and it's frustrating at the same time, to be honest, because obviously we do ten to twelve people every ten minutes or so. That's been our format. So it's it's it's been a little it's been difficult to try to tell a compelling story with that kind of format, but we've been able to do it for many years now and I'm very proud of it. So it's a it's exciting. Most of the time I spent spent about two or three days at the venue. I'll sit there and I'll maybe sleep there sometimes and just walk around and feel the space, feel the flow of it as well too. That's most important to make sure the audience doesn't sort of backtrack into other groups, so we get the flow down and then the rest of the time in front of my computer in a very crouched, annoying position like this for a couple of months. That's where I'm at right now with this current story, so I should probably change my posture.

15:16 So anyway, it's there's a lot, a lot more to tell me about that. But that's that's kind of a the gist, okay, and so and I don't want to try too much, but so you you cloud gay, we'll try. So last year we. Saw a culmination of all of the Delusion storylines, right, so can you maybe tell. Us what era or world that Delusion will be taking us to this year? Yeah, so this will be interesting. Those of you who went to the show last year, did you see anything at the very end of the show, any little easter egg? A book? Okay, your story? Lots of what.

15:58 That's something. Somebody said the blood right. Here? You got one. Somebody said the blood, the blood right back there, and there's the book. Okay. So at the end of the story last year, we had the Delusion sort of compendium, toss it into the furnace burns, and then we're outside. We hear the epilogue kind of wrapping everything up. If you might have missed it, and a lot of people did. I just snuck it in there as a fun thing and see if anybody would notice. But one page lingered outside of the outside of the carriage house. There's a window, and it's sort of sticking outside of the window. I saw it. So that was called the Original that show from twenty twelve called The Blood Right, and that's that's the era I'm revisiting. I'm bringing back sort of a storyline, some characters from that story from that show, So that was if you saw that, then that's kind of the continuation of this to go back into some of the old stories.

17:00 But this is really this show is as I'm writing it, it's becoming a holy new show. It's the loved characters back then. Did anybody actually see that show from twenty twelve? Oh, you guys are og come up here. I want to shave your head, Florida. And can you reveal maybe the title of this year's Delusion show? Yes, do we hear the best storytelling? I want you to say it. Oh, no, you're the best story writer, John. I'll tell you the title the new. Delusion, the rand Castle.

17:44 Check it out, Losing the Red Castle. And you can kinda take a moment and read about the storyline. And this year it's a it's a lot about love and sorrow. It's a character named those who came to the show in twenty twelve. If you even remember the name of the protagonists. This is this stuff forget it. It's called doctor Lowell. That's right, Someone bring that person a prize. It's right, gummy, gommy, Hey, we've got a theme going for this battle thirteen learned team group is not unders tis. Not a guarantee. So the storyline basically is like he lost his wife, what a transition lost his wife? And like how far would you go to sort of bring this this loved one back and would they even want to be brought back to this world? So we're playing into that, into having the audience be key players, keep patience of doctor Lowell this story and how they're going to help him either bring his wife.

18:48 Back or not. And so at the last three years, it was at the Phillips Mansion, right, the last three years of the setting. So if we are if it's called the right. Castle, can you tell us where Delusion is going to move to this year? Yeah, that is actually the venue you're looking at right there. Wow. Who So this I don't know if anybody's known. I didn't have lived in La for a long time. I didn't know this place existed. But it's called a Stimpson House and it is thankfully in La proper. It's it's near usc near the one ten and the ten energy and it's it's very close to a lot of people, but it's this really cool, clean Distrian kind of castle that exists right next to a church. So we'll be sure to defy all that. But it's it's unreal.

19:41 I mean, you see it right here. Obviously, if you're standing in front of it, you'll be blown away. So yeah, the Stimpson House and your uc and will be that is that is the right castle. This is this was actually owned by an old lumber magnate. I forgot his name exactly, but it's you know, these Crimson bricks and it's got this obviously cool milk. This tower you can see over there as well too. So we're gonna occupy that space and put on quite an unreal show. This thing is turning out to be incredibly fun. I'm really excited for that. Yeah, well he's not exciting to let a passault. And so just one last question.

20:22 Done so in the past, you know, because you've had different locations, what can you give a little bit about because now we have this location that you're doing it. What is the experience like when what can people expect with the experience when. They walk in to this one, well kind of allude to what I talked about earlier about being patients of this of this psychiatrist, doctor Frederick Lowell, and again going back to a question earlier about the era, we're in the late forties, early fifties kind of era. So he took over this place and made it his sort of again clandestine asylum. So it's we're leaning into the idea of sort of this research. I wouldn't even say facility because it's supposed to be private, as I said, clandestine, secret.

21:08 So you're going to be sort of readmitted into this place that you've existed for a little while, but your memory of it has kind of faded, and so you'll be sort of reintroducing some interesting way to old characters. So you'll you'll feel as if you're being I mean, the idea is feel as if you're you've gone mad for sure. So that's that's the idea, that's the experience. But we're testing this out, and this has always been an interesting part of the delusion of the past, and I've always put a lot of trust into the audience. But for this one, I want to go back to that idea that the audience has these certain abilities to be able to manipulate things, and so you have these dormentabilities in your mind. And the doctor has been kind of working on that for a while to help resurrect his wife. So you're going to feel as if you're you're patient. I would suggest everybody goes and rewatches Shutter Island because that is a big inspiration for this story.

22:09 Thank you for all of those little tippets. I'm very excited about this and yes, let's get it up and John Wray and commenca. So we're going just. Transition here from the dark and deep of delusion to. The magical and beautiful and delightful Magic of the jack O lantern So, Amy, can you just tell us a little bit about this event For anyone who has a been or may of Mista last year, I would love to thank you, Amy. Magic of the jack O Lanterns is a Halloween event located in Wittier and Narrows. Nestling between two bodies of water is a delightful trail flanked with thousands of hand carved pumpkins. Some of these pumpkins are placed on the ground and some are interconnected into larger than life displays.

23:07 What I love about this event is it has that feeling of like on a crisp fall evening, that you're going to something that's it's like vintage Halloween, but at the same time we incorporate a new wave of technology. So I think it dazzles all guests who attend. I agree. And how long is how do I say, how as long as the trail or how long can people expect to be there when they attend? I would say you expect to plan at least an hour. But you're gonna hear me talking about in addition to the walking trail, there's some activities so you can come and make a whole night of it, or if you're someone who likes to bounce from one Halloween event to another, like start with delusion and end with something a little softer, you could come and make sure you get through the event and an hour great?

24:01 And who is this geared towards demographic? Wife? It's a great question. I think magic is perfect for actually for all ages. There's something for everybody, whether it's from a date night, which would be a very romantic suggestion for you guys out there, from a date night to a group of teenagers who want to do something fun to family. Family favorites. There's nothing startling, you know, but it's something that people like all the time. And if you even if you get creative like John with whatever gummans he was talking about, you still would probably. Find this event extremely magical. But it's really it's there's something for.

24:43 Everybody imagin No gummans, but there is alcohol that helps you do not provide that. And so this is the second year correct of the Magic of the jack Lards And what are there any changes or updates that we should know about for the ship? Oh yeah, for this year, like I said, in addition to walking through the trail and seeing all of the displays, we are going to also have some fun inflatable pumpkin themed activities, from a gigantic slide to obstacle courses both for adults and children. And then there's the pumpkin Bounce Pad which you can bounce on it, you can chill on it.

25:29 Everybody has a great starting. We also have We started this Morris experience last year prototyping this at this event, and we found it was so popular, but we weren't to make it even better this year. So you can get sure, we can tell you some moores. But Greg and the team have been planning on how. To make this really an experience where you're sitting around what you know can't fire together, which I think is awesome. And in addition to. That, we, like I mentioned earlier in New Wave of Technology, I'm gonna let someone else tell you all about the technical components of that, but we're pretty excited for the advances that we're making in the show. Too wonderful, and so you just touched upon it. I was just gonna ask that, ask you, Greg. There's one new surprise this year at Magic of the Jack at Lanterns.

26:18 There is we didn't ask how many people went to Magic last year. That's fantastic. So if you've been, if you haven't been, Magic is it's beautiful. I mean, there's just no other way to put it. There's seven thousand pumpkins and pumpkin boards and a lot of different things going going on. But last year we had one particular feature that we put in the five hundred little pumpkins around the corner that were all synced up to music and dancing, and it was, without a doubt, the most pompular part of the show. So we're sitting there one night looking at the crowd, looking at the grid, and we're like, why don't we do this to the entire show. So every single pumpkin and board and every other feature in the entire show is going to be dancing to the music. And every half hour, we're gonna take that and we're going to have a park wide show. So it's did a little vignettes with their own little show every half hour. The entire part is going to be one giant show.

27:18 Wow. And I'll add one thing that's cool that we are bringing back this year is some of those songs are by our friends Lovecraft. I think you guys make awesome spooky Halloween music. So we're really excited to partnering with them again. So I'm gonna I'm gonna bring on our technical director Polly, who actually made all of this happen. Thanks. Yeah, Hi. Kid, it's kid, thank you. It's bad for correcting and he's old and forgets. Yeah. So, like Mike said, we really looked at the event last year, and at our pumpkin grid in particular, and we saw our guests really responding to it positively. They enjoyed and they stood around and watched it, and it had a few different seasons in the run, and so we spent the off season really considering, you know, what does it look like to integrate that technology is addressable LED technology throughout the entire event, and so we've replaced not only every light in every pumpkin, but also our ambient lighting that lights the trees and everything.

28:27 All of this is now addressable. LED technology, which allows us to control bolt, the brightness and the cover of every light in the event. And we kind of have two modes that customers will be able to enjoy. When they come. The first is just kind of an ambient where the show looks a lot like it did last year. If you went, it's pretty and it's split up and it's nice. But even there there's some new kind of magic. All right, imagine that the. Jacklitter, the pumpkins on the ground will you know, flicker a bit like they're by fire, or maybe they're they'll twinkle. We're changing color things like this.

29:07 But what we're really excited about is kind of showboat where every half an hour, every light in the entire event goes out and then comes back up, playing an event wide show synchronized to music, something that we think is going to be a really unique and exciting experience, something that our guests have never seen before, something we've just never been able to. Bring before without this technology. And if you haven't yet, please stop by or who's in the Hall of Shadows even see sort of a small version of what we imagine this looks like again with great Lovecraft music and then the season. Please come out to see the entire event.

29:49 What are your name? Fantastic lot and we. Did Greg mentioned briefly, but there we do also have food and theme beverages, both alcoholic and so over the So I think if you come and use catch the tail end of show mode, grab a drink, stick around so you can see it go through the whole sequence here. And there are multiple shows that throughout your stay at the event, you can see it at least the cover three different sequences. I want to thank Kip for how positively he's describing all of this, because on the night that we all stood there with the small example of it and said, what is the whole place did this?

30:30 I can see Kim's head just go. So I appreciate his enthusiasm. Now actually he loves what he does, and I think you guys are going to see that when you come see it this year. I was super impressed by just a small demo that you guys can. See of all the shadows. And that's always the secret sauce I found in anything when you really love what you do, when you're passionate about it, like everyone up here, you can see how excited they are, which is why you all excited, which is why they consistently put on good events and good show because that you can tell they genuinely love it and they invest a lot into it. And I'm very excited about this, and I think this is going to bring the magic of the Dan Jack Landers to a whole new level. And I think I could be wrong, but I believe we have a teaser trailer of what to maybe expect this year.

31:19 Things tasts, there's bass, boss takes everything, boats, passssssts, past, don't.

32:06 I want you, I can't wait. I wanted to start tomorrow, although then that would give you last time. No, no, never mind, And so I. Want to bring out a special guest to help Amy with this next section because there's been a lot of buzz. I'm sure you guys have heard a lot of buzz about a certain event returning to the Queen Mary this year. So it sounds like he knows peeing Mary's Dark Harbor that we all love, and there's we have an exclusive announcement for all of you. So please welcome to the stage the thirteenth floor Director of Special Projects.

32:57 Bert's Bergolini Berlino. Him Brett, every befor oh it's oh wow, Hi Brett, welcome back. Yes. So how does it feel Brett to be producing such an iconic event that people are so excited about as returning to the Quemer. Well, I think I can speak for both Amy and myself and say it's super exciting and it's a true honor to work on this project. If you're from southern California, you know how legendary Dark Harbor is, but it's legendary outside of this market. Both Amy and I are fans of Dark Harbor. When we were producing.

33:40 Halloween events on the East Coast together, we flew across the country on multiple occasions just to see Dark Harbor. And so I feel like our Hank careers are coming. Full circle when we have this opportunity to bring back such a legendary event that's been dormant for four seasons. I don't think that's a thing that happens. Very often, and so it's really a true honor for us to be, you know, participating in this project. And I hear you have some news to share with us today, we do. So who was at the Dark Harbor panel yesterday? Yesterday we talked about some new mazes. We teased a new maze on the ship called Infirmary, We teased a new maze in the harbor called Breakout.

34:27 We told you about some new rides, We told you about the Secret Bar program. We talked about entertainment, and we said that we drop another announcement here today. Right now, I think, are we going to. Show the trailer first? Or things are trailers at the end? Got it? What about the next slot? I think it might hit us with the next slide. Do you guys remember this? Yeah? So, so, as Amy and I are producing Dark Harbor, We've spent a lot of time doing research, a lot of time talking to other fans, and we know that one of the things that most resonates with people are the stories of Dark Harbor and the icon characters of Dark Harbor. The Chef we found was one of the icon characters that was newer, and we found that the Chef actually didn't resonate as much as some of the other characters, some of the other icons that we want to bring back.

35:32 So I want to go to the next slide. One of the interesting things about producing Dark Harbor this year is four years are past since the event operator the Queen Mary was closed for three halloweens. During that time, nearly all the physical assets from the past events were lost to time. When we started producing this event, we were told that all the mazes on the ship no longer existed, that they were removed when the ship was closed. And then we got a call from Dylan, who runs events on the ship. And he said, I found something. Do you have a moment to come over here? And I said, of course we do.

36:13 And deep deep inside the ship, in the very back of the ship is the Feast Maze, And somehow, over those four years, because it's so deeply buried in the ship, the maze was still there. Intact. It was like stepping back in time. It was so emotional for us because we're fans of Dark Harbor. You can even see some of the pictures up here from the last night of twenty nineteen, the thank you message to the Feast staff in the Feast break room. So it was such an eerie, creepy experience but also so exciting. And then we had the parallel kind of thought, well, okay, Feast has an icon character that probably resonated least with the fans, So it was kind of a wind but also a loss. We've been telling our fans that we're going to honor the history, the legacy and the stories of Dark Harbor and some of the mazes this year we're telling completely new stories, continuing it. In some of the mazes, we're continuing the existing stories of the past and telling what happens next in those stories. With Feast, we decided to go in a different direction. Amy, you want to tell them where we landed.

37:25 Yes, we decided to go back in time. So if you could think of Dark Harbor as a film series, we wrote a prequel. Meat our young. Ambitious, handsome butcher with his eyes on the roll of head chef on a luxury cruise line. After chopping up meat for years on the ship, he grew resentful towards the first class passengers, I'm grateful for his meticulous cuts of meat, fish, poultry, and beef. He grew frustrated, and he started to take things into his own hands. He thought, maybe I need some type of special ingredient. So this butcher waited until it was late at night when people were leaving the dining room. A little tipsy from a little too much champagne, he lurked in the halls of the Queen Mary and jumped out and nabbed first class passengers needle to the neck, sedating them, and dragged him back to his butcher block. All of a sudden, everyone on the ship started saying, yum, this food tastes delicious.

38:43 What is so good? What are these secret recipes? People started going crazy. I read the name of the chef. Oh it's not a chef, it's a butcher. What is this meat? It's so good? He started growing, you know, his pride. He's like, oh, yes, I'm the best butcher this. And the chef was getting jealous, and his coworkers are getting jealous. I thought, I'll take care of my competition. Who took them down too. They became part of the feast as well. But soon all this went to his head, and he got hungry and started eating his own spoils. He needs more meat. He's searching for it. He is looking for you. Everyone who comes into this attraction this year could be end up on the table.

39:26 Of course, as he became more and more distressed, he eventually became who you recognize from the past as the chefs. But we want you to step back in time with us to follow the story of the young, ambitious butcher rising the ranks this year, the prequel story of feasts at Dark Harbor.

40:17 Wow, anybody hungry? Well, thank you so much Brett Bertolino, everybody for coming out and sharing that with us. All this fallen, we'd marry Stark Harbor. Thank you. So now we have to go to a place we all know in love, a little town known as Midnight Falls.

41:23 Well, yes, we are ready to talk about the l a haunted hay hye. And uh and unless clearly it's become such a beloved event, can you just give us a little bit of a background on the event and this process of evolution. Over the years, for sure, So the La hont A hair Rides evolution. Is best right and very consistent. I was actually talking to Dave Markland right before we walked out here. Who knows how many years we've done the hair ride? Take us. Fifteen, twenty five? Do I look old enough to have created this twenty five years ago?

42:08 No? Sixteen? So this is year sixteen, right, So yeah, it's pretty crazy. Thank you for everybody would come over in the last sixteen it wee who has been Tolhana hay Ride. That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, Chris Asti says, thank you. So the Dave Marklin and I. Right before we came out here, we're talking in two thousand and nine, which is the year we started, there were only three other things here. There was Queen Mary, there was a universal and knots and that was it. That was it.

42:48 So when you look at when we think evolution, and we look at then and now, I mean the industry as a. Whole has evolved, La and Halloween has evolved. But for you know, the La Haunted Hayride we started as as an attraction that put an environment first, right, like the entire the entire like cerebral like motivation for this was we wanted to take people who lived in Los Angeles and were always on concrete and in the city and in traffic it could barely breathe, and those what our lungs look like. But we were going to stick them in the woods and nights because that had never happened. We were only in amusement parks and we were we were in environments with mazes. You know that that we would walk from one maze to the next and between those two mazes, and we weren't always still.

43:36 In the experience. We'd be plucked out of that experience sometimes by you know, looking at like pastel colors or cartoons, or we would we would be taken out of the experience. But this was you know, I think the first time we just kept people in this the experience in a cerebral way, like kind of like shut their head on their so to speak. But since then, I think the hay Ride has been on a constant evolution of changing every year. I think most people know that in twenty thirteen it we went on Shark Tank and we got the largest deal in the history of the show from our Cuban that started a motor for the Elli Hanted Hayride that has just never stopped. So I think you know that that immersive experience that narrative. That narrative piece has always played a big role in each year.

44:22 Of that Elihanted ha Ride. Now, with the characters that are out there right now, I think a lot of you have probably met them, talked to them, with conversations with them, spent. Nights with them, right and you're seeing you're seeing them again tonight and it's like, you know, rehearsal is an old friend that you like, had a hot co go with in October. So I think that's the special part of the hay Ride because even today, sixteen years later, there's nothing in La that makes you feel like you're not at La like the Lee Hanted Air rides. That is perfect. That is exactly what I was gonna say. You feel transported in the town of La. And can you tell us a little bit more more about what mazes we can expect this year?

45:03 Yeah, we've got as last year most of you want. Whoever went last week Billy Halloween last year that was a brand new Maids. We're very excited about that that we'll be back. This year with some tweens Trick or Treat, which has been a perennial maze desperately needed some updating, and I'm glad to say that about eighty percent of that has been completely transformed and redoun this year with the doorbells. Back where they go long. And then we got a really big update for midnine Mortuary, but I'm going to give that back. So we're doing something for the first time with Ellie Haunted Hared we've never done, and that is we're partnering with somebody that you may or may not know, who's kind of a Halloween aspiring Queen of Halloween maybe in La nationally.

45:55 Actually she wants the Queen of Halloween titled nationally, so we're. Gonna bring her to you. The ELI wanted hay read this year and let her try to earn that crown. Let's give you a hint. Do you bring them a gift? I did? It wasn't What was it? I'm looking at a thousand words for myself and we're all fine. Grabb me nominated a musician, author actor at Fashion Icon. You money, I'm being the most. I don't have to cling anything space that I've ever been in my mind.

46:49 Hello, ma'am and hello made summer screen. Yes question, I am sad that I cannot be with you. In person. I am on tour and as you know, like I know. Halloween is the only season that matters, right, He announced that I will have my very own attraction at the Iconic lad and it's called the Monegue Man. Yeah, a season long. So join me as each Transformer ponted Wonderland, blending ear elegance with futuristic frights and more.

47:34 I am dying for all of you who come. Will you please join me? That's in me. You're brave enough, you vold enough to interview money man. I may or may not be ones of characters in the Morning manner. That's what you find out. So stay tuned for more surprises, and I look forward to hopefully sing all of you. Oh name manner, everybody. I mean, as if, as if the hay Ride any better.

48:17 Guys, this is exciting. I'm sorry. I thought she said she may or may not be a character. Did I do that right? I mean, she's very creatively involved in this, so it will not surprise us if she paps him a lot. I mean, oh man, I'm so excited. I got chills, like I was, like good chills on that one. And so but now we do have to talk about the event's namesake, So can you tell us, Frank, I believe what's going on with. The hair Ride this year? Absolutely, So before I do that, how many my last year and experienced the new hay Ride wagons? I tell her, okay, I'm saying response we wanted because we didn't enjoy sitting on our butts something on the wagons either.

48:59 So the new wagon I think made a gigant. So, as we do every year, we try to at least change at least three scenes on the hay Ride, which will be doing and then tweaking the rest. We've the last few years, we've been focused very much on figuring out how to reach out and touch customers in a wagon their fifteen feet from the sea, and that's always been the hardest part, right, So every year, how many people have joyed the beach balls last year as silly as that saying? Okay? So every year we're trying to come up with some new way to interact directly with the customers. And we've got some surprises for you in store this year on the hay Ride, and that's very exciting.

49:41 I like the beach balls, I like them very I think everyone is very much looking forward to the new updates. Equaling the beach balls. More than. What else is new this year here, there's a couple other little new things, a little couplet. So again, like last year, we added at Storring and Zombie Splatt and everything. They sold out every single night. And what we heard from a lot of customers is we love the mazes, we love the hay Ride, and we want more things to do while we're out here. So this year we're adding them in his scape games. So we're adding some new drink options.

50:21 So you know, last year, if you wanted a drink, you had to stand in line with a food vendor and wait to get a drink. We're actually putting in dedicated drink stands this year. So we do listen. I promised you we do listen because we had to stand in there some the same lines to get a drunk. And maybe most importantly, how many years have we teach you with a merryer out Now you're going to get to ride. It this year. I believe there's one more video of something else that's new that is coming. I think we'll show you.

51:06 She speaks to the Dead. Madame Auroro, the world famous spiritual medium is here tonight on our stage. People have traveled from around the world to witness her power. As she contacts the spirits of the dead, you too can receive a message from the other side. Look, she's lighting her candles. Now hurry, you don't want to miss the experience of a lifetime. She's performing live right inside.

51:49 So what is this? I love a seance. I don't know about you, guys, I love a seance. Can you tell us a little bit about what this experience. Will be like? Absolutely? We're doing a lot of cool things this year, including money manner, but this is the one that I'm excited about. This is our first theatrical experience. You're gonna sit down and actually experience let's just say, a samce that went wrong. So I'm gonna actually let Polly talk about a little bit about. Kim. We're gonna keep working on it, Polly. He forgets as the day gets later, as mind wanders. Yeah. So with Madame maroora Sance Theater, we really want to create the unique experience at the hay Ride that we just have offered before. So this year, guests will be able to enter the tenth and meet Madame Aura for themselves.

52:43 She's a world famous psychic medium who promises us an evening we won't forget as she conjures spirits of the dead that we at least hope will be forrid. The experience will really combine theatrical elements with some like edge audio, lighting, tactile effects to really create sort of been imbersive experience for our guests at Hey Ride this year. I think hopefully it's something that they won't forget. We're very excited about it than four D's hearing. So that's that's the way about this. Well, I don't know about you, guys, but I'm okay if the ghosts aren't friendly.

53:27 I'm okay if they want to scare us. A little bit. And I'm really really looking forward to this. This looks fantastic. It sounds like it's going to be a jam pack season this year Hey Ride, which everyone loves so much. So let's give it up with Hey D. Who can I please? And Well, I did promise you a surprise, and I would like to reveal to you that everyone today is going home or going going home like you're gonna you getta one. You to that every one year is gonna receive a free ticket to the Magic of the Jack O Lanterns and the Los Angeles honey.

54:13 So all you can do is check out. The screen for instruction to them how. To redeem your tickets and make sure you take. Advantage of that because there's so much, so much that we love, so much, of things that we return for every year, but so many new exciting things. I don't know about you guys. It sounds like every single event is I'm gonna go ahead and say it. I'm gonna call it early. It is gonna top itself as it does every single year, and that's why we all love it so much and all the events you guys put on so. Thank you so much. Chris John Brett Amy I think wait, I'm gonna make sure everyone sees the screen. We all know what we have to do.

54:54 Okay, we got it, okay, And Chris John Amy Brett, thank you all for just coming in and for sharing all this stuff with the crowd, being the first year about it, getting us all psyched up and hoping it was Halloween tomorrow. And thank you. This is the thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, as you. Know and love. Don't forget to tuxt in and get your free tickets because you don't want to miss out on that. And I will be seeing you guys there because. I'm very, very very excited. So thank you all of you for your time today. Oh, thank you Dana for being here. Everybody give Dana giant rod blah blatch for walking. Us through and he's going USB track. Thank you guys, and thank you and enjoining the rest of your time at Midsummer screening. I will be over in the booth, but in the meantime all Joys will see you at the big events coming up in Halloween.

55:43 Thank you, guys, so much. Thank you. Today's episode was produced and edited by me Philip Hernandez, with post production by David Swape and original music composed by Chris Thomas. We're counting down to Halloween with daily podcasts, at videos, and events in our sixty one day Hantathon. Follow along at the link in our show notes. Our Hanathon is made possible through generous support from Gantum, Lighty and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest intelligent spotlights. See what you're missing with a free demo. Sign up at d'antum dot com slash demo. That's gantum dot com slash demo. Our Hantathon team includes Daryl Plunky, Emily Luis Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin Burns and omni Adventures and our content partners for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Ajgen, hont Topic Radio, Kevin Heinbach News TV, Omniadventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of Being, Emily The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Pelliochini. The best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our Hauntathon with someone you think we'll enjoy it, and to follow along to our Hantathon, sign up for our weekly newsletter at hant Attraction Network dot com. Catch you back here tomorrow and every day until Halloween until next time. Please Gary.

57:06 This is a Haunted Attraction Network production