Fear Factory 2023 in Salt Lake City, UT

0:08 Now entering its thirteenth season. Fear Factory in Saltlake City has made many renovations to its haunt and added a new mocktail lounge to the midway. That's coming up on today's show from the Haunted Atrastion Network. I'm Philip, and this is our sixty one day Haunted On, where we're counting down to folloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcasts, and in person experiences. Since this podcast is only one part of our Haunt Upon and we're really focusing on video this year, the best way to follow everything is by subscribing to our newsletter where we'll get weekly updates, or checking our Haunted On page on our website that's Hantedattrastion network dot com. Okay, today we're gonna hear from Spencer Terry, who is the GM at Fear Factory in Salt Lake City where they just entered their thirteenth season. Here's Spencer. My name is Spencer Terry.

1:00 I'm the general manager and equity owner at Fear Factory hundred House here in Salt Lake City, Utah. This is our thirteenth year. Lucky thirteen. Fear Factory is an abandon c Meent Factory downtown in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is made up of six different buildings and two underground passages. It's about ninety thousand square feet of interactive scaring space, so there's lots happening. There's eighteen flights of stairs, which makes for a very eventful show but also a very operationally logistic show. We have on average about one hundred staff here each night, one hundred actors and try to make sure that we do a really great job. This year, you changed a lot, There was a lot of renovations, and there's also story talk to me about all of that.

1:49 Yeah, for our thirteenth year, we wanted to do something that we essentially could ride that wave for the next five years to a decade. And in doing that, some of our team thankfully attended a trans world seminar from the one and only Alan Hopps, and it got them thinking about how do we better tell the story? And so after some time we spent with Alan, we decided to kind of unroll these ideas that we've all kind of had in our head for the last couple of years, and we went from idea to brainstorming to pen and paper to sketches to pulling the trigger and hiring four extra people to help us build a lot of new sets, new costumes. We have thirteen new very specific intellectual property characters that help tell the storyline to essentially where the storyline is simple, which is that the factory is alive. It's no longer this like just old abandonedment factory. People used to always say it was abandoned for a reason. It was empty for twenty years. Here in the sal Laic city, it's known as like the bad Luck Factory. And so we're running with the storyline, and the storyline is very simple, which is that in twenty twenty in Covid, Utah had an unprecedented earthquake. Those do not happen in Utah, and that left a crack in our foundation of our tower, and we realized that there was a small space behind that was covered underground. And when we finally got back to that space, crazy enough,

3:20 there's this massive heart that's back there beating, and we realize the factory is alive and that the monsters and the boogeymen who are here are really feeding and capturing people to where the factory lures customers and lures people to come face their fears, and if they don't, if they don't succeed in facing their fear, they are consumed by the factory to create more fear. And it's a really fun storyline. We're able to not only spin our costumes and our characters, but certainly our merchandise as well as a lot of really fun marketing to just immerse people into that experience and give them a chance to really step outside of Salt Lake City and into a very real entertainment space where we've now paired our monsters with our merchandise, with our new venue that we're opening up a drink venue, to our show itself, and everything in between. Basically, there are thirteen zones and the premise is that the guests are trying to face their fears and each zone is like a different fear exactly, okay, and then if they don't make it, then they get fed to the machine, the fear factory. Correct, Okay, So each fear literally, so you have a fear of being buried alive, you have a fear of religion, you have a fear of hell, we have a fear of clowns, a fear of death, a fear of drowning, all of those different fears, and so each of those different fears then have their own build out, their own characters, their own storyline, and everything from there. So I

4:53 noticed, as you're going through you'll see doors for each like a factory door number one through thirteen. Yes, and then you have a little bit of a story that's being told around the door that kind of challenges you to get through that area. Yeah, that was one of the fun things is we wanted to take people from just walking through a factory almost a feeling like you're walking through a ride. In fact, people tonight customers have said that they're coming here a year after year, They're always here. They said it felt like they were on a ride. Because the idea is that you're just immersed so much that along the way you've got this character who's talking to you and tracking you through the entire facility, which allows us to then tell a story in a really fun way, and it really does make them feel it's personalized.

5:38 Obviously it's recorded, but the fact that people were leaving here on opening night just absolutely blown away, but also feeling like it was a personalized show means that we feel like we did a pretty good job, but there's always tweaks. I think it was I think the hardest part about an opening night is there's always things to work out. So here we go for tomorrow. Yeah, speaking of things to work out, it does seem like it's a little bit different than in previous years because you have I guess you would call it, I don't know what the term you're using, but there's basically like a character in each zone that they talk to you or they have something to tell you about the fear. Yeah, right, so that's different because I don't think you really had that many like face characters, is what we call them, true, Yeah, in the past. Yeah, Traditionally we don't like monologues yeh, because everything exactly and then the delivery can change, might miss the group and then yeah, the story, there's all the things, so much to so many things that we don't like about it, and so we've really been careful about who we are selecting for that and how they are portraying that in a clear and concise way that gets to the storyline but also doesn't mess up flow and everything else can the entire group period. And we invested a lot into like microphones for example, and wireless mics that are connected to speakers so that they can, like the customers can hear some of those things a little bit more. But yeah, there's definitely a little bit more of that compared to other years. It also seems like you've added a little bit more effects. I think inside for the actors, hundreds I would almost

7:10 probably even say close to one thousand new triggers, animatronics, lighting, audio, The entire property go on an audio overhaul, which was really cool thanks to Gantum, because we also added some really cool lighting effects that have helped us there. It's really easy to just put a light and call it a day, right, But when you can flicker it, when you can really cue that light into the exact color that you need, that tells the story. And it's been really great to be able to use those. And I think those are all those like just tiny little things that really do add up. We had a staff member who has been a leader with us for four years and she came through tonight with her father and they were just absolutely there. All this feels like a very different, almost new attraction because so many new things have been added. Yeah, talk to me about that dichotomy.

7:58 It's interesting that you're adding something from both sides, right, you're adding really what I would say, more jump scares basically, or you know, maybe tools as what a better way to say it, like tools to like you've always had actors, but now some of the actors at least have tools either in the monologue with the equipment, yeah, but then other ones have tools to trigger sound and lighting effects. So it's just interesting, Like why it's interesting you've added on both angles. Usually you have somebody go all story or they go yeah to one, yeah, one or the other. We really yeah, we really tried to make you feel in the middle, like we didn't want to swing the pendulum one way or the other. It was about getting the right thing the right way and being able to give it to the customer in a way that helps them hear the storyline, but also not bother them like they're coming to get scared, not go to a theater. It's it is theater. It's live theater, and we're very proud of it.

8:52 But we don't want to deliver lines that are so long that you're just like, wait, see it again. So I didn't hear it the first time yet no that it didn't work, so we just have to go back to the board. And the other thing I thought going through it was interesting is you it took me a while to pick up on that they were that you were trying to overcome your fears, right, because I think I missed some of the audio cues or took me a while. But really the doors really stand out, and I what's interesting is they whereas before it was like you just wandered into the fear Factory and you had no idea when you were going to escape. Yeah, this almost gave it a timestamp. You're going through and you're like, oh, I'm halfway through, versus before you had no idea true how long it is? Do you think that changed? Does that change it at all? Because I'm actually not sure. I personally preferred it to be to see the numbers, because frequently I was like, we're only at this number. Yeah, it's a place walking for a long time.

9:50 Yeah, there's still like halfway. I'm like, oh, I don't think i'll make it. And so I think that was it, but it but also I felt it made it harder to really define like a big getting the middle of an end there's not like those big scene you know, like kind of get that's harder. So essentially you're making thirteen stories instead of one big story. Yeah. No, that's a really good point. I don't know the customers, and we don't tell the customers how many areas there are, so that allows us to then be able to me. I think as they're walking through, it's almost that preface of oh, what's coming next. Okay, so I've already done like this, and this's what's behind the next door. But yeah, that's a really interesting point. And I think as part of the audio that we were talking about earlier, we have one of our main key characters who's ore caretaker of the property, Karl Mossman, who's definitely a sketchy character but has a lot of fun, but he is is audio helps to tell that story. So for example, okay, you're about right ahead to the tower, don't look down, and those small little cues that just help people almost question like why in the hell am I here? We want people to question while they're here. But I think keeping them on their toes also is fund They don't really know how many doors, but they know that the more doors they're seeing they're like, Okay, there's something else here.

11:05 And also I like to how nothing scares you by the doors, so that it's almost like a we talked about palette cleansers, right, like, yeah, it's exactly it. You don't want black holeways, but you want something that is scenic and everything. They're all designed, you can tell they all match, but it's you know that, it's like it gives you that moment to think and like you said, prepare yourself for what's coming. Yeah, versus versus being in a reactive mode for to a time. Yeah, exactly, And I think we all need as designers of attractions. The roller coaster theme is always like oh great when you're gonna have really high dips and really scary components, but then you also have fun twists and curves, but then you also have a holy crap, I almost fell out and now I'm scared again, And so I think having all of those is great. And yeah, like the doors were essentially made to tell a story reset almost transitionary.

11:58 But palette is a really good word. Is a palate cleanser to say, Okay, cool, you just made it through that fear. Great job. Heads up, we got nine more for you. So here's what's coming next. Yeah, and you mentioned also renovating some of the areas. Tell me about some of the big scenes. To me, the thing that stood out the most because it was just crazy, was the like you mentioned earlier, the heart scene when you walk into a giant beating heart and you see the gears and you have a character there that is talking to you about what's going on briefly, right, giving a brief introduction. That to me stood out a lot because that's a big new scene. What else did you all work on? Yeah, so that is one of our bigger I'm gonna call it a prop because that's ultimately it. It's an eight foot high hanging from a ceiling that's twenty feet high. Massive and the best part is that is in the exact spot, so as as customers are coming onto the property, they actually up above the ground. They walk over that. So you're walking into the property and we can preface it a little, they hear the heartbeat, they hear the screams underneath them, and they're like, whoa, that's new, what's going on? And that has been really key. In fact, when we hosted a worldwide EDM concert here a two day music concert and we had that heart on and just beating and that was it, and people that were our seasoned pass holders were like, what is that? And it was just a fun way for us to be like something's coming, which has been really cool. Other big sets the doors we've talked about. All the door we had, we really tried to create something that was unique that we

13:28 do not have at the factory, and this was one of the ways that we were able to do that. We also rolled out a new photo area as well this year, which is a really fun set. Tons of really they've our team that hiring four extra staff was pretty impressive, and they have been working on just tons of small little things, everything from the right way to peel wallpaper, like there is an art to that, all the way down to how do you light? Which are you lighting and making sure that the detractors are there and that you're lighting the right thing the right way so the customers looking the right way to let the right scare. So that's always been fun to do. Our bar has been really great. So we're opening up a non alcoholic bar, which is really exciting and that's allowing us to again tell our story even more, which I'm sure we'll talk about later, but yeah, just lots of small little things that are adding up. Very briefly. The other one I thought was very visceral speaking of lighting, was the cemetery. And it's one of those where I really like the projection of the ghosts. You have projected ghosts that are voting around, but a lot of lighting to make it appear like even though you're underground. There there's moonlight, and there's crypt light coming through and lighting the tombstones, and light that will turn off and stuff will come out of the graves. So I thought it was I think you can definitely tell from a lighting standpoint that there's a lot more to see, but that doesn't make it less scary. It's it's I think being able to see more is it's scarier in that way. Yeah, and it's. And the cemetery is an interesting space because we designed it

15:00 to make you feel like you're outside. First off, you're completely indoors. The lighting is the different mausoleums and the gates and everything is designed to make you feel like you're walking through a New Orleans cemetery, right, But then the lighting is definitely key, and I think the realism in there helps a lot. And then to add on top of that the projections, Like we really try and utilize new technology wherever we can, and sometimes we're behind and sometimes we're not. But when we designed that entire area, that area is now I think three years old. Yeah, it was really fun to think about what projections are out there, what animations are out there, how do we use those and build those into our scene so that we can make sure that they get the right focus when people come through. It's fun. Yeah.

15:45 Yeah, let's talk about the bar that you're adding outside. We talked last year because we came here last year and we talked a little bit about your extension in the Q line area. So I guess for those that haven't been here before, there is kind of a massive midway as you walk from the entrance through to the queue line. Yeah, and then like at the an immersive que line that you were going through, So there's a lot of build up before you even get into physically inside the hunt. Yeah. Right, and then you still have the music area where you know, where people can listen as they're walking by, and there's a photo area. So there's a bar now that's right at the entrance. Is that right at the entrance? Yeah, And it's pretty fun. So we're not we're because of our local market and the demographic. We decided not to call it a bar, but we're going to call it a lounge. It's lurid lounge. Lurid for folks that are listening, is essentially really bright neon like cool colors, but also very lurid details, meaning it can be gruesome, it can be horrific.

16:42 So we decided to put the two together. So we have a it's a walk in think of if you were to think of some large theme parks that have created beverages. It's the same thing. So you essentially come into the lounge, you order through a QR system. We've partnered with a third party here in Utah, a really great coffee shop that also does selters, and we essentially went to them and said, here's the deal. We want to have really specific drinks that were made by great mixologists to make sure that we can tell our story in a different way. So, for example, one of our first zones is catacombs, which is all about the fear of being buried alive, and so as such, we have a drink that's literally called Buried Alive and it's a brown drink. It's got green floating bubbles and moss to it. It's very fun, very earthy, but also sweet.

17:33 You've got the electric chair e the Electric Cherry, which is up in the tower to be able to again, like that's an iconic component of our show. People always love it, and so we decided to add that Midnight Raith, which is a queue to the Cemetery that we talked about earlier. The Scarecrow, which is made with chai and is essentially a pumpkin drink for our new farm area that's all about scarecrows. We integrated the drinks. Each drink represents a different zone and then folks can also mix. We actually partnered with a Rockstar energy drink. We signed a very large monetary sponsorship with them over three years that went all the way to corporate to use them for naming rights as well as to get comp drinks that we can then mix. And so now we're able to we have these like base drinks and then you can add different flavors into it, like it could be a Rockstar lemonade or a Rockstar grape or a silver ice or whatever and do some really fun things from there.

18:29 And then the fun part is that we wanted it to also be a marketing opportunity. So all of these lights or all of these drinks glow. They have led coasters on the bottom of them, so everyone think, like when you go to the circus and you like see everyone with their cool glow toys. Same thing they're gonna be walking up and down the fire aisle or our area where this big midway to have glowing drinks that are fun and flashy and different colors. And then we created vignettes inside of our lounge that also are corresponding to the drink itself that allows people to take fun pictures, sell it up, put it on ig on Instagram, and essentially do the marketing for us, just to show that they're having fun and it's all part of the experience in our drinks. We decided some locations, some hundred houses are selling drinks for nine, ten, eleven, twelve dollars even for alcohol.

19:18 We said, screw it, We're into it for eight bucks. And it's just it's essentially it's a marketing opportunity, a lot of fun, and so that our capacity of that. First of all, I think people maybe if a chaperone's coming and dropping out their kids, or if there's some parents that don't want to go through, if they can sit in the lounge totally. It's open, like, you don't need a ticket, it's before you get into the ticket area, right, So you could just if you're hanging out for a while, you can be in the lounge. Yeah, yep, you can hang out there. You can be on the fire lane on our midway, you can hang out to where the food truck areas are. There's a lot to do and capacity of that lounge. Are you worried about a new thing? That sounds amazing. It sounds like people are gonna want to hang out in there, but you guys get really busy. Yeah, on weekend, we're actually not gonna let them stay in there. Oh okay.

20:06 We specifically turned it into a walk in walk out. Okay, you're gonna walk in, you're gonna order it. You can hang out there. There's lots of fun things to do, and we've really designed some just fun vignettes like to take you. You could spend an hour in there just taking photos. The whole room is decorated it is just decked to the t just to make sure that it's over the top, because we know it. It's the idea like, it's literally an entire venue designed for cameras and we want people to do that, and it's we're very clear about it upfront. Get your camera out, have some fun. But the idea behind it then is that you also can do your thing inside and then you come back outside to the midway and you're back into the factory, back into the characters, back into the monsters, and back into that experience as well of being in an old, abandoned factory. Cool. Okay, I think that's a lot to add for water, and talk to me a little bit about I know this is when we're recording this on opening nights. You guys just opened, Yes, And is there are there any other ticket options or things that you've changed for this year? No, all of our ticketing options are the same. So a general emission starts at twenty nine ninety nine, goes all the way to our rock Star passes, which are two hundred and fifty dollars a person.

21:14 We were surprised isn't the right word, but we were impressed that we had two folks from Orange County, California that we're here tonight, that both bought a Rockstar pass and essentially wanted to see what the factory was and what makes it so great. It's a really fun opportunity, and we put the price very high because we really want it to be special. Like they we haven't even ruled out the public sizzle reel or any information about our lounge yet, and we gave them a little sneak peak private tour ement and took some pictures inside. So it's a cool way for us just to show like the people who really want to like they want something really unique, and that allows us to do that. So yeah, so our ticket ranges have stayed about the same. We have decided not to raise prices just because we're keeping a really close eye on inflation a business model, our targets look great. We're above We're about eleven percent up where we thought we would be, which is great, and I think we'll hopefully stay on trend to continue through the waves of inflation. Right. So we are recording this, of course, on opening night, so you haven't really had a chance yet to see how this year is going to fold it up. It's just beginning to unfold. Indeed, a few hours in a few hours in right, But tell me so far, how was your attendance flicking And do have any other things partnerships or whatnot that you're looking forward to. Yeah, attendance is great. With it.

22:34 Back in March April, we were very concerned about inflation. We decided not to raise ticket prices, and so we just said, let's just go with it. We're very happy to see that we're above, way beyond what we thought we would be even with inflation. We did keep prices the same. Our attendance is up easily eleven percent. Beyond that, to have a line at opening night and have hundreds of people that are here on opening night for only a two hour window is pretty unique. I've never seen that in my time here, so that's been really great to see. Partnerships wise, we've brought on some really great new sponsors. One of the really cool things that we've done from a community perspective, we've been talking about all the things that we've been doing on our property, specifically all the new stuff that we've added, and so we extended that this year to our community and I sit on our Grainery District Board, which is essentially the neighborhood board here in this industrial area of Salt Lake. And we partnered with hotels and coffee shops and the food hall across the street from us, and a mall that's not too far away where our zombie b bus picks picks up. And so people when they come on property, part of their admission is that they're given a wristband.

23:45 So that wristband essentially lets them into the attraction, but then they can also come back throughout the rest of the season for fourteen bucks. Here's beend fifty dollars for a VIP and you can come back for the same thing for fifteen dollars. It's a steal. So people are able to them back to the property. And we thought, while they're coming back to the property anyway, how do we stimulate the economy, brings some economic development and like really help give back to the city because the city is doing a lot for us as well. And so we did that and we partnered with folks. So we reached out to the local businesses and just said, hey, these people are going to be coming back to our neighborhood anyway, would you be interested in giving them ten, fifteen to twenty percent off and in return, we'll market that for you. And it has been overwhelmingly successful. People are already using it our staff obviously that those partnerships have opened doors. Now. We just gave away one hundred dollars in gift cards tonight to our staff to a local food hall just to get people there and it brings people in the door for them as well, So that's been really fun to see. Because of that, we actually picked up a sponsor, a ten thousand dollars sponsor of wanting to be part of the party. They saw what we were doing and they saw how we were able to continue developing the economy locally for our our neighborhood, and they were like, we want in on that. How do we help do it? I think that's been really fun and certainly surprising to see how the community has stepped up to support us when sometimes where the spooky places it only opens for two months. Let's really not talk to the people over there in the corner, and we're a main staple and Salt Lake at this

25:15 point and we're happy to do some cool stuff. 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 Hantathon. 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 part for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Jgen, hont Topic Radio, Kevin Heinbach News TV, omni Adventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of Being, Emily The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Pealiochini. 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, say scary.

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