Dark Hour Haunted House 2023 in Plano, Texas

0:08 Dark Hour Haunted House in Plano, Texas had new owners of this season. That's coming up on today's show from the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and this is our sixty one day Hantedthon, where we're counting down to Halloween by celebrating Haunted House is daily via videos, podcasts, and VIP in person experiences. Since this podcast is only one part of our Hantedon and we're focusing so much on videos this year, the best way to follow everything is by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in our show notes, or going to our website at Haunted Attraction Network dot com and clicking the Hantathon twenty twenty three banner. Remember that the best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our Hantathon with someone you think we'll enjoy it. Okay, Today, Alan Hopps used to be the director of Dark Hour and now he's one of the owners. We sat down with him to discuss what that change in role would be like and how it would impact the direction of this staple in the hant industry. We got a little deep in this conversation, so there is a little bit about the haunt itself, but as the conversation developed, it really became more of a masterclass about haunt ownership. Okay, here's allan.

1:21 I am Alan Hopps and I am one of the owners at Dark Hour Haunted House. I have been the director previously. My wife and I and another partner just purchased it in January and we're coming up on our very first season as the owners. Exciting as the owners, are you changing the direction or the feel of the heart traction? Is that part of the plan. I think that the feel has changed for our staff, but I think that the customer will only benefit from the change in culture a little bit. I don't I had already designed the Haunt and I was directing the Haunt, so obviously always happy with that direction. So we're going to stay on that direction, but we'll be able to do more and I'll be able to control the focus of where we focus on things in order to get it exactly where I want it. Yeah. Speaking of that, let's talk first a little bit about broad Strokes. What do you have planned for this Halloween season? I know that just myself personally, having visited just last year during the summer and then coming in again before the hot season. I was shocked at how the entryway has changed and just so much has changed in just that short amount of time.

2:34 And I'm sure you have plans for more for Halloween. I've been able to kick the doors off a little bit in some areas. Literally, Yeah, instead of doing more, we're taking the areas that were not the best and just bringing them up. We're trying to bring everything up to the level that we wanted to be. Scenically, scare wise, flow, story, all of that is getting worked on simultaneous, and our front of house end is where you notice some of those changes. Very theatrical style, theme park style entry with a stage show and whatnot. And I just think that those elements are going to prepare guests for what they're getting into as far as the show goes, and that's going to help us move and process people in a better way and thematically. Of course, you're staying with the Cove, I'm staying with the Coven. I'm staying with thirteen Witches. I want to get Dark Hour finished. Is any Haunt ever truly finished? No, but I'm working on it. I have plans for this set of witches that I have, and I want to get the show to a certain level. I'll probably be there next year or the year after, and then I'll kill a witch.

3:51 And then once I kill a witch, then I'll be able to change out of thirteen witches. Each one gets part of the show. It's one thirteenth of the show. I'll be changing pretty much every year after that. So guests that are coming again this year after last year, what I think to your point, you're saying you're clean up scenes, so are they going to notice the same scenes? But there were areas that were weak and we're making them very strong. And we had some areas that just got skipped by the love magic wand and we're going in. We're giving love to all of those areas. Some areas, they tend to be a little simpler than others, and we're finding ways to add something even though the scenery is simple, add something to up the intensity. It's not all details, not always the answer. A lot of the Haunt owners tend to have their building and they work on the building and then it's, oh, yeah, there's going to be cast in here. Great. But some areas we're really working on what is the cast doing while the guests are doing this motion. We're really planning out the layout and the design to get the most possible interactions. Can you give me some examples of that. I think I noticed some things where there were it feels like there's always something going on, and it's not always like you said something that's crazy complicated. I remember going into an area where I was like, oh, it's clear that I'm being surrounded by thorny root areas, but they're not. It wasn't a huge expense item, but it gave

5:24 that texture to the ceiling and you felt like you were brushing up again, like you were trying to go through a thorn patch. You're feeling it prickling you, and you're like, oh, it was cool. But one of those cool things doesn't break the bank. But I noticed it and it fit with the area. So that is from I think it's Sleeping Beauty, where there's the big the witch summons the big vines to keep the prints away, and she turns into it. She turns into a dragon, and that's all done in silhouette, and so that hallway is very much an homage to those thorns and just it's done in silhouette. So there's painting on the wall, and there's a little bit of glow in the dark and that paint on the walls, and then there's black vines painted on the walls, and then there's vines that we physically made in and they do cage and close you a bit.

6:12 And that's probably twenty four feet of turns in that area. And that is one pedal of what we call daisies. And the trick is the guests have to move more than the actors. So the actor is in the hub of the daisy. They're in the center of the flower, and then they can get a scare, and then the guests go around the pedal of the daisy and they come right back to the hub. Same actor gets a scare. So I could put two people in there for the buddy system. No one gets bored, no one's lonely. Did you see that? Did you see that? And they switch off, so they control that little area. But then that daisy might have six seven petals, and then at the end you try to put an animatronic or some kind of other interactive reward, or sometimes it's one pedal is shared by two daisies, so they get hit on both sides. There's just that's the kind of design stuff that we're doing it on purpose. We're doing it on purpose, and we're laying it out in such a way where it's going to work most of the time. Is going back to what you were saying earlier about cleaning up some of the areas and really just making the show complete. Is that kind of what you're talking about is in terms of making sure all of those daisy moments are well that and we also we had to retrofit a little bit because when twenty when the pandemic happened, we took a year off. We took twenty twenty off and took it off like we're on vacation. The pandemic was terrible, but every haunt

7:42 once more time, so we took that time. We really readd our story. We did not have enough time and manpower to make the Haunt match that new story. So now we have direction is just where to go. So the story is our direction tells us where to go, and I'm headed there. We're headed there, so you just keep me down the path. Base we're staying down the path. We're adding Nordic elements to the Moss wife that area because yes she's plants, but she's also a creature from Norse mythology, so we're adding Nordic elements and that's going to look less and less like a regular greenhouse and more like a Norse forest. We have one set of witches who didn't have a lot of area, so we're taking area from another witch, and we're going to add a Medusa's lair because it's the three sisters didn't have as much space as they should. And I when I was a kid, I fell in love with the clash of the titans Medusa's lair, that rattlesnake sound and the fire and the columns, and I want to do that in a haunt. The challenge there is making full size statues, so we're working on that, and that's something's happening in the background, and that won't even be out till next year. This year, the Moss Wife got a new bone tree, this whole big, sixteen foot tall tree made of skeletons, skeletons and moss, and that's a nice visual and there's stuff hanging down so it interacts with you. Okay, So let's seconding back just a tiny

9:15 bit, back to the ownership switch. Tell me a little bit about that. Why did you decide to move from creat directing into owning. I think every haunter has their retirement haunt in their brain, you know. And I've got this hay ride plan that I'm going to do one day down the road. That's just it's very different, but it's something that I could do and instead of that, maybe I'll do this. Does it feel different on the day to day? It does feel different? Everything comes to it does. It shouldn't feel different, but it does, and it feels different in the most wonderful way in that, Yes, now I'm raising a child, but it's not a step child. It's actually my child now, and that's a big difference. And also the people that I have worked with for years, they're on board, were in step they know that I don't have super giant deep pockets like they know that, Yeah, this year has to go well, and we're all working towards that goal. My Stilt Beast has come here.

10:22 We're working on still Beast to make sure Still Beast orders are done. At this point. Yep, I don't have any orders from trans World left. So that's because I had eight people working on them for four or five months I have. I had the staff to do it, and that actually freed up my time. It's my days used to be. Last year. I would leave here, get home about seven or eight, go into my shop at home where people were already waiting on me, and I would work with them until eleven when they left, and then I'd probably work till twelve or one, answering email or YouTube comments, and maybe I might have to edit the YouTube video before I go to sleep and then get up to come to here again. Now, honestly, it's less work in a way because my evenings are my own, and I have this awesome, wonderful team of people who are really with me for the journey, and I'm dragging them with me. You're going to see me people trams are tired of hearing me teach, you know what I mean. I love me, but I love teaching.

11:39 I love teaching, I love sharing, and you're going to see more and more of my team doing that because they're coming with me. We all have that mindset of let's think outside the box. Let's do what's good for the industry is good for us. What's good for the industry is good for Dark Hour. So that's a thought that I'm fostering with my people, whether they stay my people or they go off and do their own thing. Yeah, I was gonna ask about because it seems like it could be a good idea to have a production studio and you have work that comes in. That way, you can keep a year round team of artists because when they're not working on stuff for dark hour, they can be working on stuff for other people. But you have access to that talent, because talent is difficult, especially in the hount house space. Like you just said, talent is the key having your good team. No, talent isn't difficult. Talent's easy.

12:35 The issue that the haunt industry has I hate, I don't like saying anything negative about the industry is the ego at the top has to make room for the egos all around them to rise up and pass them. You have to be prepared for that. You have to be pull everybody up. That you can pull them all up. It's only going to help. And there's so many things. Well, I now have ten people here doing what I used to do alone. It's so nice to have help. The YouTube channels. I have a couple YouTube channels that are going and one of them is about to hit one hundred thousand subscribers. I've got two folks here who edit video pretty much. They leap frog editing videos. Every day. We are filming three things happening in the Haunt almost at minimum. We're gonna need more cameras because we're out of cameras. And then it's keeping track of the footage and don't film anything you're not going to use. But you understand that struggle.

13:39 But we're feeding that machine. It's getting media images. A Haunt now is only as good as its images. I was not brought up as a media guy. I'm learning that, but I've got a team who's way better at it than I am. I fumble my way through media six. It's diligence over skill for sure. But yeah, the team here is amazing. But everybody has an amazing team. You have to recognize it and give them the keys. So one of the issue is giving the keys away, letting these letting other people do things. But they might learn all that here and then go somewhere else. That's true, they might, But how many people are going to flock to you because you're willing to let them learn there and then willing to let them grow. That's part of it. Why do you think that is the hall industry works in shadows, not spotlights. We work in shadows not spotlights. We want to push our talent into the shadows. I think that's the mentality, that's the difference. Whereas if it's a stage, you're pushing the important people into the light, and here the important people are in the shadows, and you gotta flip that every now and then. Yeah.

15:09 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, videos, and events in our sixty one day Hauntathon. Follow along at the link in our show notes. Our Hantathon 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 Hauntathon 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, Mused On, The Adventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of Being Emily, The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Pegliocchini. The best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our Haunted on with someone you think we'll enjoy it, and to follow along to our Haunted on, sign up for our weekly newsletter at hant Attraction Network dot com. We'll catch you back here tomorrow and every day until Halloween. Until next time, stay scary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network production.