Shownotes
In this episode of Can of Worms, we explore some of the best haunted attractions for the spooky season! Join us!
Use coupon code CANOFWORMS to get up to $10 dollars off of tickets at Nightmare on 13th!
Transcripts
INTRO
(suspicious spooky music starts to play)
Max: Here we go.
Cambria: Is this? Can we use this?
Max: It's a cover.
Cambria: Oh, great.
Max: (singing) Utah students of all majors, wouldn't you like to make a wager? Your knowledge, we will affirm in our pod called Can of Worms. (spoken) I am the Max, co-host of this show, and I'm joined, as always, by Cambria Thorley. Cami, how you doing?
Cambria: (laughing) Doing so good! I'm doing way better after that.
Max: That's great.
Cambria: That was awesome.
Max: Yeah.
Cambria: That was beautiful. Thank you. I'm so glad I was here.
Max: Yeah, thank you to Sing King on YouTube for providing the karaoke version of “This Is Halloween”.
Cambria: (singing) Sing King.
Max: This song relates to the holiday Halloween.
Cambria: It does!
Max: Which is coming up.
Cambria: It's coming up really quickly.
Max: Right now. That's– I'm gonna readjust my mic– right now that's about 30 days away. No wait, 21 days away. When this episode comes out, it'll be about 14 days away.
Cambria: Very exciting.
Max: So we're coming up on Halloween. What do you like to do to prepare for Halloween? I assume you like Halloween.
Cambria: I really like Halloween. Halloween is my favorite holiday.
Max: Out of like, what are the competitors?
Cambria: The other ones.
Max: Well, like, are you like a Labor Day fan?
Cambria: Sure, sure, I can get behind the Labor Day um, President's Day, I guess is fine. MLK Day is fun, yeah, for sure.
Max: I’m big on Arbor Day.
Cambria: Arbor Day is actually, I do like Arbor Day, because I'm like, wow, trees.
Max: Yeah.
Cambria: Pretty much Christmas is not my favorite holiday.
Max: Oh yeah.
Cambria: And Halloween easily beats it out.
Max: You're just kind of like, not like an Anglo sax–
Cambria: That's right, I'm not a Puritan, yeah.
Max: All right.
Cambria: I think Thanksgiving is what you make of it. Well, the thing that, well, the whole– with holidays–
Max: You get out what you put in.
Cambria: I'm like, but I was like, yeah.
Max: You put a turkey in the oven. You get a turkey back. Well, we're talking about Halloween. Which you like, which you love. What do you do to celebrate? I'm gonna close this because I'm not actually using it, just need it for the opening– this is a no notes episode. What do you do to celebrate Halloween?
Cambria: We usually I sit out in my yard and we have a little like fire block pit thing that we put on, and we will play music and just hang out. I enjoy I'm usually the only one out there of my family, because my grandparents go to bed, and I just, like, I will usually come up with like, some sort of contraption, because I think it's really funny to come up with something funny as a way to get candy to the children.
Max: So what do you what do you mean by that? Contraption?
Cambria: So, kids really like it when you throw things at them.
Max: What do you throw, baseballs?
Cambria: So, like, I have made– no like candy– but I so I've made like catapults before, and like different like means by which we have to get the candy to children, like, draw like targets on the sidewalk. And I'll be like, “Okay, you got to catch it.”
Max: What are the big fantasy catapults that nerds get mad at you when you call them catapults?
Cambria: Trebuchet.
Max: Trebuchet.
Cambria: Yeah.
Max: Can you do a trebuchet like that? But for Coke cans, for the kids?
Cambria: Okay, launching full pressurized soda cans, isn't– I wouldn't recommend.
Max: Well, they got to catch it.
Cambria: They do have to catch it, and it's hard because it's dark. It's dark, and I don't light it up.
Max: Like we should cheat out to the camera. Oh, maybe this is not gonna end up in the maybe it will. Maybe it will. Do you go to haunted houses?
Cambria: No, because I'm a huge, scaredy cat. I have gone before. And if my friend is like, oh my gosh, we're going to a haunted house, I will go with them, and I will be scared, but I'll do it because I love my friend.
Max: What haunted houses have you been to?
Cambria: I've been to– I think I've been to Nightmare on 13th before, a while ago. And because my friend worked there, and so we went to see him as he was in one of one of the actors.
Max: What's your friend's name?
Cambria: Kote.
Max: What's his address?
Cambria: Where does he live? Also, what's his social security number?
Max: You okay, you have go to nightmare and 13th to find out–
Cambria: He doesn't work there anymore.
Max: Oh no!
Cambria: This was years ago!
Max: Oh well, so you haven't been in years.
Cambria: I haven't been in years, but I do like driving past the big castle.
Max: At Nightmare on 13th?
Cambria: Nightmare on 13th, because it's so big and so castle. And I like seeing the animatronic, whatever they have on on top of the– I think that's fun.
Max: You know, Cami, I think you're not having been to a haunted house in a while is a great opportunity to take you to a bunch of haunted houses.
Cambria: Yeah?
Max: Yeah.
Cambria: Yeah. All right, well, yeah, as soon as you signed on to this podcast, I knew that you'd be forcing me to do things that I'm uncomfortable with.
Max: And it's true. You know, sometimes we do episodes where we talk about the whole history of whatever and whatever. And maybe, if it was a different kind of episode, we talked about the Gothic origins of Halloween pumpkins.
Cambria: All Hallows Eve. Spirits!
Max: And we're not doing that.
Cambria: Do you know the origin of Jack O' Lanterns?
Max: No.
Cambria: You don't? They used to carve radishes.
Max: That’s not real.
Cambria: That is real.
Max: It's not real.
Cambria: Look it up.
Max: My phone’s over there! I can't– Anyway, so Cami, we took you to a bunch of haunted houses.
Cambria: You did. You took me to three haunted houses. Three haunted places.
Max: Houses might be stretching it for two of them.
Cambria: Three haunted attractions.
Max: Three haunted attractions here in Salt Lake, what I probably consider to be like two of the most famous, and my personal favorite.
Cambria: Yeah.
Max: And that, that personal favorite was the first one we went to, we went to–
[CUT TO in the car audio]
Cambria: Right now we are currently driving to Black Island Farms to check out their cool haunted stuff. It's me and Max.
Max:Their haunted corn maze, specifically.
Cambria: Their haunted corn maze. I love a corn maze. Do you like a corn maze?
Max: Me? I love corn.
Cambria: Love corn!
Max: And mazes. Corn fields.
Cambria: Love to be there. I love to see it. And we are joined by our resident haunted corn maze and house expert. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Lilly: Yes. Hi. My name is Lilly Samples. I am the resident haunted house slash corn maze expert, I suppose. And the attraction that we're going to see tonight is called Nightmare Acres, which is Black Island Farms' yearly haunted house that they put on. I wish I could tell you what the first year I went was, but it's been a little while, and it's a tradition of mine and my friends to go every single year.
Cambria: That's awesome. Is it scary?
Lilly: Yes!
Cambria: Okay.
[Back in the studio]
Cambria: She was very knowledgeable, and has been to Black Island Farms, particularly, she goes like, every year.
Max: Yes.
Cambria: And so she knew–
Max: Yeah, yeah. She lives. She lived in Leighton.
Cambria: And I will say her being there did help with bravery quite a bit, because she would be the one who would charge first.
Max: I mean, yeah, for the Black Island Farms, specifically, that was, she was going way fast.
Cambria: She was going way fast. She was like, we're getting through this, and we're gonna do it. And I was like, I don't know about that. And she said, Nope, we're going and I said, that's great. I will say the draw– I love a corn maze. So cool.
Max: It is really cool.
Cambria: Black Island Farms is also– it's not– Nightmare Acres is just one aspect of it. There's also a regular corn maze. You can go get pumpkins. It's like a farm.
Max: It's a, it's a, you call it like a part. It's like, a big attraction.
Cambria: It's a huge attraction, yeah.
Max: It’s a huge attraction. You can ride slides. There’s food.
Cambria: There's a slide down there. You can do a tractor ride. They have magic performances. Max: The haunted house is just one of the things they offer. And you can do all of that for like, 30 bucks. It’s like a day trip.
Cambria: Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty good– yeah, it's a great, it's a full– it's a day event.
Max: Yeah, but they put a lot of stock into their haunted corn maze. We talked to–
[CUT TO Black Island Farms]
Robin: Eric Wanner, he is the director of the haunt, we're recording right now.
Eric: How’s it going?
[Back at the studio]
Max: He's a trained magician. So he talked a lot about perception and misdirection.
[Black Island Farms]
Eric: My other hobby is magic, and I'm into illusion and the two kind of tie together a little bit, and then, with the psychology of magic, ties into it by teaching tactics that sells the scare, sells the moment. I train all my actors scare tactics to be very aggressive in their jump scares, right? That's why we get the result when people come out and they've had a great time, they got– they got scared whatnot, and that's what we're out– that's what that's what we're all about. You paid us to scare you, so that's what we do.
[Back in the studio]
Max: Nightmare acres was really scary.
Cambria: Yes.
Max: It's really scary, especially at night.
Cambria: The sun set and then we arrived.
Max: Yes, correct. It was a lot more. The other time I went this year, I was there as the sun was setting, which is cool, but not nearly as scary. Because it's just big. It's like, 40 minutes. It's like–
Cambria: It's a big maze.
Max: It's a long maze.
Cambria: And it actually is a little bit of a maze.
Max: You will get lost.
Cambria: You will get lost because there, there are some like, obviously, you will always be able to find your way back through. However, there is multiple paths that you can take. And so I thought that was really cool.
Max: It's a maze, and you'll get lost, and sometimes there will be an evil villain chasing after you while you're lost.
Cambria: That is true.
Max: Which is one of the great joys.
Cambria: I think one of my favorite parts of it was the long– sometimes you would go just down a really long stretch of corn, and it was dark, and you and whether or not there was someone in there, it didn't matter, because you were expecting someone to be in there. And so it was kind and so it was kind of the anticipation also you're outside in the wilderness!
Max: But we would go through like, a couple minutes without anything scary happening, but we're still, I was still on the edge.
Cambria: Yes, no. It doesn't matter if there's anyone in there, because the point is, is that you're now expecting it. And so it's like tension that that kind of builds in the darkness and not being able to know what's next. That was really, really great.
Max: It's great, like simulated terror. There's even one section with a– I'm not gonna spoil it, but a man with a machine known for dismembering–
[Black Island Farms]
Eric: and that's my son right there.
(loud chainsaw noises)
Max: Your son wielding the chainsaw.
Eric: This one really loves chainsaws right here!
Max: For the audio listeners, a man with a chainsaw is approaching Cami! (even louder chainsaw noises) Cami just flinched.
Cambria: No! I did– that’s awesome!
[Back in the studio]
Cambria: There was a point where I found myself alone in the maze, where Lilly was like, well, actually, Max got chased off. And then, and then Lilly was like, Oh no. And then also turned a corner. And then I was like, I'm alone. In the dark. And I was like, Hello? It was a bit alarming. It's also, I will say, different from the other two, is that it's like, outdoors completely. And so when you are, like, outdoors, in the dark, in a corn maze, it's not like, there's not flashing lights in a lot of the sections, there's not, it's you're like, I am just in the wilderness.
Max: You’re like, what did I trip on? Yeah. It's pretty cool. There's also– not all of it is scary. There are some fun elements, some–
Cambria: Yes.
Max: I don't want to spoil it.
Cambria: We shan’t. Well, I do want to spoil it, but we don't want to spoil it because it's so fun to come across, and we don't want to spoil it because, like, we're not going to be spoiling any epic moments in there, because that's part of the fun. But they do have some incredible moments where it's less like what's around the corner and more like, all right? This is like, they have a little bit of like storyline and some plot line in the and some actors there who will do some cool things with you.
Max: And eventually there comes a section of like, almost like, gamification. Where it's– you're not waiting to be terrified, but you're kind of the enactor.
Cambria: Yeah. And it's really, really, really cool.
Max: Kind of, like arcade-y. It's cool.
Cambria: Intentionally vague, so that you go check it out and then be like, Wow, this is awesome. I was like, That. That part that we are not telling you about was definitely one of my favorite.
Max: It was great. And you should go because the prices are pretty darn good. As I said, it's 30 bucks for going to the like, going to Black Island Farms, going on the slide, going through their regular corn maze, which is not scary.
Cambria: It's still a fun maze.
Max: It's a lot more difficult to navigate through. And the haunted house. Which is very it's like, you can spend a day there and then do the haunted house. It'll all be like, 30 bucks.
Cambria: It's true, that is kind of the point of it. It's like, it's like it's meant to you can spend a full day there. You can go through you can go on the hay rides. You can go, but they do a not haunted haunted house, like spooky walk–
Max: The spooky lights.
Cambria: The spooky lights. That can't possibly be the name for it.
Max: We’ll insert him saying the name for it here–
[Black Island Farms]
Eric: Spectacular Lights. This is very kid friendly. So if you're if you have on your podcast, if you have people who don't want to take them to something spooky, like really scary, but something kind of spooky, this would be like a one or two spider at Fright Mares, because there's no actors in here. It's just all little vignettes of skeletons in different– we have, we have skeletons riding ATVs. We have, we have, we have things like that, little vignettes of skeletons doing different poses. Yeah, nothing, nothing, really in motion.
[Back in the studio]
Cambria: As someone who does not like scary things and who is generally always, always jumping, I love, I have always enjoyed haunted houses, because I– there is a level of ‘I understand, and I know that I will not be touched, I won't be hurt by this’, but it's still fun, and like for the thrill of it, and I still had a good time. And so if you're afraid of stuff, go with some friends, some people that you think are fun because it is worth it. And also, there is no haunted house around that if you want to leave, that they will not let you leave. They are always like people. They're always ready to escort you out. If you're really alarmed, you just let the actors know, and they will, they will get you out of there. You're safe.
Max: It's true. Also bugs. Make sure to get bug spray.
Cambria: Bugs. It is, it is open and farm land.
Max: Is an outdoor farm near a lake. A great lake. What was the second haunted house that we went to, Cami?
Cambria: Second, we went to Nightmare on 13th.
Max: And you've been here before?
Cambria: I had been there before, years ago, like previously mentioned, because my friend worked there. We went to see him, and we came back this time. And I was scared.
Max: Yeah?
Cambria: Yep. I was scared. We went through the first like the main house, and then we went through the nightmare asylum? The terror– Asylum of Terror? The secondary one, where it's like, a full, like, it's like, it's an asylum, and so you're going through and kind of seeing the story, and there's there's people. And that one was crazy.
Max: Yeah. And we went to both without Lilly. Lilly was not available.
Cambria: Lilly was not here!
Max: She was doing something.
Cambria: For Nightmare on 13th. And it was a huge problem, we learned very quickly, because suddenly we were not brave.
Max: We were leading ourselves. Well, okay, I was brave.
Cambria: You were brave. I did make Max go in front of me.
Max: You made me lead the way for a lot–
Cambria: That is absolutely correct.
Max: Which was a lot tougher than I thought.
Cambria: And I do it again.
[At Nightmare on 13th]
Max: So we're recording. Could you say who you are and what you do?
Phil: Yeah. So Philip Wright, I'm the Marketing Director here at Nightmare on 13th.
Max: And how long have you been with the company?
Phil: This is my fourth season. No, just a lot of craziness for me, specifically marketing. I mean, I have 75 days to cram in every type of marketing imaginable, to get people to come out during the season. So for me, very chaotic and crazy, but a lot of fun. And then for our cast, you know, we hire 200 temporary seasonal workers. And so getting people scheduled, getting people in costume, getting characters made. And then the biggest thing is, after every night fixing damage and repairs.
[Back in the studio]
Max: Well, the first one, I guess we should talk about the first one, first.
Cambria: The first one was fun.
Max: First one was fun. Kind of just like a hodgepodge of different horror things. You go through a pirate moss bayou–
Cambria: Lots of different– it's like their thing that they are really, really proud of is their sets and their set design is– it really, really immerses you. And that's definitely true. Their sets are insane. They look incredible. One of the coolest things that they do at Nightmare on 13th is a Day Haunt.
[Nightmare on 13th]
Phil: So day haunt is our haunted house lit up all the theatrical lighting. We put on some spooky music, but there's no actors, there's no animatronics, there's no air cannons, nothing. You just get to walk through the haunted house and just enjoy the sets and see all the scenery and everything that we built. And a lot of people come with their kids, or they'll come. I've asked a lot of people who'll be online. I'm like, why'd you come to Day Haunt? They're like, Oh, I'm coming tonight with my friends, but I just wanted to do some reconnaissance first and so that's a really good way. And I think that's a great reason why Nightmare’s good for first timers. And then, yeah, in general, like, if you are one of those types of people who eventually does want to get touched or grabbed or bagged over the head type of thing, I think starting with Nightmare will definitely still scare the crap out of you without maybe traumatizing you.
[Back in the studio]
Cambria: And so it is, I will say, their set design is fantastic.
Max: It is cool, if a little eclectic, because you're going through the bayou, then you go into a haunted house, and then you go into a movie theater.
Cambria: Well, you're hitting, you're hitting all the phobias.
Max: You're hitting all the phobias, all the genres–
Cambria: All the different scary biomes, the genres, yes.
Max: The biomes?
Cambria: The scary biomes. I said what I said.
Max: I think you're right there. You're right there. And they got some cool characters they have, like the serial killer at the end of the first attraction, you know, I felt like was one of he, you know, he's a, kind of a slasher character, who kind of felt like he had a lot going on, like, backstory wise. I didn't look into that. They had dragons?
Cambria: Yes! They have two big animatronics. One was like a huge, like demon, like devil Balrog, kind of guy with huge wings that you would walk and look up, and he's like, 20 feet above you, and you're like, Oh my gosh. And then you would go into the next there's a huge, like ice dragon, so there's like, snow falling.
Max: That was cool.
Cambria: And those guys are cool, but I love animatronics, like puppetry and all that stuff. That's my favorite.
Max: You got a piece of merch with those two guys.
Cambria: I did! I bought a bandana for $7 that had those two guys, the fire and ice bandana, because I liked it so much. And also, one of the workers was like, You look like you need a bandana. And I said, Well, I love supporting business.
Max: But this one has a lot of, sometimes very tight little pathways–
Cambria: Like twists and turns and ramps and–
Max: And some really, like, tight bridgeways into a small little room that I'd be like, wait, I have to walk through that? Like, really weaponizing the location. And, you know, the hauntee haunt? What do you call this? The haunt, the haunted–
Cambria: The haunted?
Max: Well, we're not haunted. The hauntee– I think its hauntee.
Cambria: Customers?
Max: Maybe. With a customer, you know, weaponizing the customers, needing to walk through the path. And then by the time we get to the second one, a haunted asylum.
Cambria: I think, Asylum of Terror, is what it’s called.
Max: Asylum of Terror, or something like that. Not to be confused with Asylum 49, which we didn't go to.
Cambria: We didn't go.
Max: But I can talk about when we get into the next section.
Cambria: Yeah, we were in the dark, literally, literally, lights turned off, and I could not see. So I was, I was literally, like, I had to reach out and find Max in front of me, because I could not see.
Max: There were sections that were, we were bathed in complete darkness.
Cambria: Complete darkness, and also didn't know where we should go.
Max: And sometimes we'd, yeah, I had to. It was a lot of, like, switchbacks, which are not great when you're in the darkness–
Cambria: Which is a little bit the point–
Max: –where's the edge of the wall, do the pivot here? That was really fun. And sometimes they'd have, like, trash bags of bodies, like, punching bags.
Cambria: Like hanging from the ceiling, you have to, like, to go through and like, things are dripping on you, just a little, like, a little bit of mist that was like, Oh, this is unfortunate.
Max: That was rough, you didn’t like that. And sometimes, you know, the ground would (sound of falling ground) fall.
Cambria: Like, you go out with like a seesaw ground, and so you'd get there and it would fall under you. And that was unfortunate. At one point we were like, Oh, we're trapped in this room. And then it's just they and then eventually you'll be able to find the door. But there is a moment where we're like, what do we do?
Max: Yeah, and yeah, because that's, I think, for haunted houses, for me specifically, we can get into why you go to them now, but I really love seeking out that sort of visceral, my mind knows that this is not real, but my body does not care. My body fully thinks that I'm going to die. That's a very you know, it's messed up that I just said that and kind of weird, but I like that feeling. It's like a fun to experience that in a safe place–
Cambria: The thrill.
Max: And I had that a lot at night at Nightmare Acres. I had that a couple times, like two tree times at Nightmare on 13th, one of them was when we were just in a padded room, with no exit, and the lights were going, (various alarm sounds), really bright, and then complete darkness–
Cambria: And it was red.
Max: Yeah, and some person was in there.
Cambria: And of course, every time it was dark and they would be in a different spot, and it was very scary. And I used Max as a meat shield.
Max: I was like, Well, what do we– do we die? Is that it?
Cambria: We die. And that's how you get out. If you die in the game, you die in real life.
Max: And then they opened a door, and we got out.
Cambria: But yes, it was part of the thing. We're just like, yeah, about and then they will be like Ahhh.
Max: That second attraction does end with you dying, in a way, though. Which is fun. I guess we did kind of just spoil it. We’re no gonna spoil how it happens, but good stuff, good actors, great sets, some fun situations to be in.
Cambria: I will say, a recommendation: bring some earplugs. It can get really, really loud in there, and some of the– Yeah, like, there's some crazy electricity sounds and stuff, and I think it's still scary, but earplugs can be helpful there sometimes that it's just so loud.
Max: Yeah, absolutely. Also. Use the promo code.
Cambria: Yes!
Max: Our fine friends at Nightmare on 13th has supplied us with– is it 10% off?
Cambria: They said it was like up to $10 discount on tickets. If you use the promo code:
Both: CANOFWORMS
Max: Is that, no caps, no spaces?
Cambria: That's, let me pull it up right now, so I have specifics.
Max: Oh my gosh. No notes Cami.
Cambria: No notes.
Max: No notes.
Cambria: No notes.
Max: Anyway, yeah, use the–
Cambria: Coupon code, all caps, no spaces. CANOFWORMS. So give people up to $10 off tickets if you'd like to include it in the podcast.
Max: So all caps, no spaces, that's kind of more like a (shouting) CANOFWORMS!
Cambria: Yeah. So like, (shouting) CANOFWORMS!
Max: I guess I shouldn't have done that in the mic.
Cambria: It's all right.
Max: CANOFWORMS!
Cambria: CANOFWORMS! So use discount code CANOFWORMS when buying tickets for Nightmare on 13th for up to $10 off your tickets.
Max: I can't believe we did the sponsor. And we didn't get paid.
Cambria: We didn't get paid at all.
(significant and somewhat comedic pause)
Max: So the third location we went to was the big one, the grand Mambo of it all, not Asylum 49– Fear Factory!
Cambria: Fear Factory!
Max: Which is probably the the most well recognized haunted house in the state, one of the most well recognized haunted houses in the country.
Cambria: One of the most famous, yes.
Max: One of those famous. They took a factory and they said, let's make this a haunted house.
Cambria: An old cement factory that they were like this place–
Max: I didn't know it was a cement factory–
Cambria: –this place looks awesome. Let's turn it into a place. And they do. And it does look awesome.
Max: It does look really cool.
Cambria: It looks really cool. It's the big one that you drive past on like, the freeway, and you see, like, the crazy murals.
Max: What freeway?
Cambria: I don't know.
Max: You don't know?
Cambria: No, dude.
Max: I-15.
Cambria: On I-15.
Max: If you go I-15, north or south, depending on where you are.
Cambria: If you go on I-15, you see the huge building with the crazy murals on it that looks big and scary. That's Fear Factory.
Max: Yeah.
[CUT TO Fear Factory]
Rob: Rob Dunfield and I'm a co-owner of Fear Factory.
Max: How long have you co-owned this place?
Rob: This is our 15th season this year. Yeah.
Max: So you've been here since the start?
yeah, since the beginning. In:Lilly: That's really cool that you guys made something out of it!
Rob: Yeah, we tried to roast marshmallows out of the fire. And, yeah, we're constantly kind of
evolving with the times, kind of new things in pop culture, or we've gone away from a lot of licensed characters. We don't have any characters that you would see in movies necessarily anymore. We've gone away from that, and we have created a lot of our own iconic characters, like Carl Mossman, the factory caretaker. You may meet him here tonight. He's around, and each one of the zones are 12 main areas of the haunted house. We call them, and each one is kind of a different phobia, or focuses on a different fear that a person may have. It may be fear of heights, or being buried alive, or clowns, or snakes, or spiders, or all different but you'll find all those phobias inside the factory brings them out of you, and it will find a way to scare you, whatever your phobia may be.
[Back in the studio]
Max: I was pretty brave.
Cambria: You were pretty brave.
Max: I felt pretty brave.
Cambria: There was, there was this particular moment where– that I had a great time with, and that you– it was a nice switcheroo, because there was a moment where you are, when you're walking through, and this– Fear Factory is really cool because it's so– it uses its space, so you're like, going upstairs, you're going down, you're seeing over, and at one point you do find yourself walking over a grate that looks down over what you're walking through, and it's a see-through grate. So one point you're seeing down, and I thought that was the bee's knees. And Max is a little bit afraid of heights.
Max: A little bit?
Cambria: Quite a bit, quite a lot afraid of heights.
Max: Yeah, luckily, we did have Lilly to help out.
Cambria: Lilly was back!
Max: Lilly was back for that.
Cambria: Which was great. Thank goodness she was there for that one, because that was–
Max: She was moving quickly. And let's say, yeah, the actors are jumping–
Cambria: Jumping on the grate–
Max: –and it's very safe, although it'd be crazy if it wasn't.
Cambria: No, it is very safe.
Max: But it is, it is safe. But Fear Factory is kind of built off these 12 sections, kind of like how Nightmare is, but they try and have, like, lore connecting it. Which is the big thing that hypes up Fear Factory, which is that they have these characters with backstories, and the factory got struck by lightning and it's alive, and there’s a heart.
Cambria: Yeah, cracked the foundation and the heart started growing. There's a heart underneath the ground and a brain in like, the very top tower.
Max: And there's Carl the Caretaker, who's trying to torture you. And he's like, I'm taking you through all these sections. And then after every section, he's like, Oh, that wasn't that wasn't good enough? Wait till you see this one.
Cambria: I love me some lore. That's something about me, way to my heart? Tell me some lore.
[Fear Factory]
Rob: That's our idea. A lot of people love the little deeper dive and a little more intricate storyline. Some people don't care at all and just want to come and scream and have fun. And that's fine. And you can, lots of kids do that and don't see any of the storyline. And then others were really into the storyline. You can go on our website and read the histories and read the obituaries, read about how the factory was struck by lightning, and later the crack in the foundation, the heart appeared and started beating. And then we realized the factory was alive. It was actually consuming the fear of the people that came here. We have a creative team of people. We take input from a lot of our team, from our makeup artists and our creative directors and our tech team and the build team, and we kind of all come up with different ideas. A lot of the theme of this factory coming alive and the storyline is actually developed by a person who's on our team, creative development team, but originally started here just as a young actor, as a teenage actor, and has been here almost since the almost the beginning, if not it's been here probably 12 or 15 years, and he's now one of our creative directors and also on our build and tech team. And he makes and creates a lot of these sets and stuff. Very, very creative mind.
[Back in the studio]
Max: The set, just not really this, less the set design, but just the use of location was pretty incredible.
Cambria: They do some incredible stuff. And once again, emphasizing like, being able to see over through, like, the clear grates of like this, this hallway you're walking, being able to see what you've already walked through was really, really cool, because they do a great job of, like, lighting up. It's, you're like, Oh snap. Like, look at how like this it is, like a cohesive unit, and you can kind of see everyone around it, which was awesome.
Max: Or even seeing stuff you're going to do. It felt very similar to the listeners who have played Dark Souls, it felt very similar to, like, Dark Souls level design, where you're going through an area, and it feels like a long way to weave through this whole zone, and then you unlock one shortcut. And he's like, wait a second, I was right next to that the whole time? And you can, you can see where you're eventually going to end up in your you're in your mind that's so far away, but you make it through and it's like, oh, wow. And all everything's like, layered on top of each other in cool ways. So you go through a zone and then you'll come back through the same zone, but like on the other side of a fence, like, minutes later, it's very cool.
Cambria: They had the clown section, which was really bright and colorful.
Max: That was pretty fun.
Cambria: It was really awesome. I liked the clowns.
Max: The thing that Fear Factory got that most people don't, is that clowns are really funny. And these guys were really funny. Bunny rabbit clowns.
Cambria: They were they were cracking jokes. It was great. I had a headband on, and so they messed with that, because we did do the Touch of Fear.
Max: That's a good time to mention we didn't go to Asylum 49, which is pretty famous for its contact. You can– they can touch you. They can pick you up. They can throw you in boxes. Fear Factory doesn't have that, but they have, they called it light touching. So, which we all did.
Cambria: We all signed up. It's called Touch of Fear, where you put a glow stick around your neck, which signals to the actors that they can, like, kind of poke at you a little bit. And the most that they will do is like, like, guide you with the back of their neck. They're never, like, shoving they're never harming you. They're just kind of like, like, maybe like a swipe down the arm or shoulders, or sometimes they'll like, ruffle your hair. Like the clowns did that to me. They liked they changed my hairstyle.
Max: They know where to touch, though. They get, like, right at the pressure points, which may be the most uncomfortable part about it, because, like, I'm like, Ah! Oh, I tap the mic there– like, ah, you know.
Cambria: But there's also never a point where it's like, if you're like, really, truly uncomfortable with it, you can take it off at any point. And if it's not around your neck, they're gonna be like, nope. Like, if you're just holding it, if it's in your pocket, whatever, I will back off.
Max: Literally went through that when we were outside in the courtyard. There's the devil guy who was messing with us, and I took it off, and he's like (backing off noise). It was pretty humorous.
Cambria: I think my favorite thing is, when we were putting them on, there was a scare actor right next to us, and as soon as we put them on, they were like, Oh! And like, came over and said, Oh, welcome, welcome. And that was pretty fun.
Max: I felt more a part of the crew. I felt like I was with family, in a way, which was–
Cambria: When you’re here, you’re family.
Max: –the actors are, you know, I don't want to be throwing superlatives, maybe the best group of actors.
Cambria: Yeah. They had some really great ones.
Max: Nightmare is great, but it's a lot of it's a lot of prosthetics, a lot of makeup. You can't really see who you're with. Haunted Acres is wonderful, but it's a lot of kind of younger people. It's a family business going in, and they're doing a great job. But here it's like, oh, we have, like, people of all sorts of shapes and sizes and ages.
Cambria: And some of them who have been working here from the beginning, and like, the creative team and the directors, who are all part of it, and they've been building this lore for so long that it's like, a really great, cohesive unit.
Max: Yeah, and that was really cool.
Cambria: I will say I really had such a fun time at Fear Factory.
[Fear Factory]
Rob: We have two zombie buses that shuttle from the Gateway Mall back and forth all night, bringing people from there. You can park, eat dinner, ride the bus over, ride it back at the end of the night. So that's kind of a fun experience. Yeah, you got to do it next time. It's free, so you can jump on the Gateway. Ride it. Ride back as much as you want. Last year was our debut of the 21 and older bar called the Dark Spirits. As you exit, exit the haunted house, you'll– it's not open tonight. It's open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sundays too. But when you come out, you'll see that little area out there. It's cool, little setting and fun place to hang out after and decompress with friends and talk about the experience and just chill for a while.
Max: We should have taken the zombie bus on a Thursday.
Rob: And then hung out at the bar, and then go back later!
Lilly: Perfect plan!
Max: It would have been.
Rob: All right, next weekend. There you go.
[Back in the studio]
Max: It was kind of a fun time. And I think because it was the third, at least for me, because it was the third haunted house, it was probably the least scary, which is not a slight against Fear Factory, it's just that I'd been to two haunted houses in the past week, and I was kind of ready. I was brave.
Cambria: I was pretty scared, like I usually am, but and I but I had a lot of fun, even though I was a little more trepidatious about this one, and which could easily be because we've done two before, and I was kind of getting into the mode of it, or because it was just– really it was the lore.
Max: I agree.
Cambria: I will say, one of the coolest things about doing this was talking to people at each of the places, like, how passionate they were about like, No, this is the thing that we love to do. And we talked to them about what, what is the thing like? Why? Why do haunted houses? Why is scaring important? Why? Why care about it so much?
[Black Island Farms]
Eric: I've been doing haunted housing for over 30 years. I started out with a bet with my dad. It's like, Hey, can I I don't want to go trick or treating. Can I just have whatever's left over in the candy bowl at the end of the night? He's like, Sure. So I dressed myself up in coveralls, and then I got the hood I turned backwards, I put yellow eyes in it from the craft store. I put a slit, and then I put that around my face backwards, then put the snowmobile sock over the head with the eye in the mouth, and I could see through the little slit. And I got the gloves, I got boots, and I stuffed my front with a big pillow, and my arms are all distorted because I put all clothes in there, and I just sit on the porch. And when kids would come up to ring the doorbell, I'd scare the living tar out of them–
Max: That’s a classic.
Eric: –and they would just run. I remember one kid kind of hit me in the stomach, felt the pillow like, oh, it's no big deal. And then as soon as they rang the doorbell, I got up and scared the living tar. And as he ran away, as he ran away, he went, “I should have hit you harder!”
[Nightmare on 13th]
Phil: I think it's the same thing with why people watch horror movies. I think they just love that adrenaline rush. I think they like feeling creeped out. They like their hair standing up. They like screaming. I personally can't relate, like I said, not my thing, but I think it's just the same that same thing. They just want to be freaked out and scared and and especially like in our haunted house, they want to be immersed into a different world.
[Fear Factory]
Rob: People either love haunted houses or they hate them, and it's either whether they can kind of differentiate between reality and fantasy. Some people, it's too real and too much, and they just hate them and don't want anything to do with them because they don't like being scared. Other people can realize that, yeah, it may be scary. I may get started, I may scream, may wet my pants, but I know I'm gonna live through and I know I'm gonna come out okay, and hopefully I'll laugh at the end and be able to joke about it in the end, but, and that's, I think, the difference, and that's what I tell parents when they say, How old can you bring kids to the factory? And I say, Depends on the kid and what their level of understanding and how, if they're really, really terrified, I encourage them not to bring them until they kind of can understand and realize that it's safe environment. They're not going to be tormented for the rest of their life, for coming one year, one night.
[Back at the studio]
Max: Because a lot of these people, people who've never– who've done other things, but their entire lives have been dedicated to haunted houses. So they know what they're talking about. They're always visiting haunted houses. They're always trying to get all the new fangled tricks, and what do we do?
[Fear Factory]
Rob: There's a thing called the Legendary Haunt Tour, which is put on by the Haunted Attraction Association, and they choose a city that has some of the best haunted houses, and they contract those haunted houses to stay open a weekend after Halloween, and then all the haunted houses that have been operating and shut down on Halloween, the owners then fly to that city and go to those haunted houses the following weekend.
[Back in the studio]
Cambria: I will say I was much more excited after talking to everyone about each place, because it felt a lot more like, oh, like they're doing this because of the art, for the love of the game, like they love to do this. And so it makes it a lot more exciting. It's like a really great community, like the people who work there. It's like–
Max: Oh, yeah, we got to know haunt actors, yeah.
Cambria: We talked to the haunt actors. We talked to some of like the makeup artists and like the costume designers. They're like, No, we love to, like, make it all connected, or do what's fun for, like, the specific actor, or what we think is cool. And we always like, are pitching different things. And it's just such a community building experience that it, it's very epic.
Max: You get out what you put into it, like Thanksgiving. You know, if you go in trying to get like myself, trying to get like these out of body experiences, you can get that in a few places. But if you go into those places looking for cool set designs, looking for cool costumes, you'll get it. And because of that, each person sort of has their own favorite haunted house.
Cambria: Yes. I think, I think Black Island Farms did probably the best of like, having the longest span of silence that really builds the tension. Because so often, like, the horror movie thing of, like, no, they don't show you the monster until the very end, because what the audience builds in their head is way scarier than what it actually is. And so I think they do some of the best job of, like, building that tension. And they have some really, really cool elements in there that just make it so fun.
Max: And with, like, Nightmare and Fear Factory, it's kind of like, new room, there's probably going to be- less Fear Factory, but definitely Nightmare, it’s– new room. Probably gonna be a scare in this room. But, you know, Black Island and some points in Fear Factory just like, nothing? I just gotta go through nothing happening?
Cambria: And I think Nightmare has some of the coolest sets ever. And so like, just looking around the room, even, like, like, when you get scared, you're like, Oh my goodness. But then seeing all the details is great. And then Fear Factory has such–
Max: (scared) Oh my goodness! (interested) Oh, my goodness!
Cambria: Literally, no, that's literally what I was doing, I was like, oh! Oh, okay, okay, I see you. And then, and then Fear Factory has such cool, like, just the connectivity about it, and like, everyone knowing each other, and–
Max: It's fun. Fear Factory is a lot of fun. Scary if you're not a brave guy like me. And you said you liked Touch of Fear, do you think you'd ever do something like Asylum 49? Where they have the full contact, where they can pick you up, put you on a table, throw you in a box. You think you ever do that?
Cambria: So, mmm. Mm. I don't know, because I'm fine with being, like, picked up, but put in a box, or, like, strapped down to a table, I don't think I would do well with.
Max: I've been to Asylum 49. We did not go for this, I probably would have liked to, but a guy like me, which I'm tall, they can't pick me up, they can grab me, they can bear hug me, but they can't throw me into a box, which would have been fun. They can't do that. So I was just kind of like hugged by guys in ghillie suits when I went to Asylum 49. And I was like, Oh, hey. At one, this one won't make it in the episode. But one time, at Asylum 49, I was with a big group, full contact. We were walking around in a dark space trying to find our way out, and I got grabbed and taken away from my group, and I was like, Oh, bye, guys. I didn’t think I was ever gonna come back.
Cambria: Did they bring you back?
Max: No, no. What they did was they took me to another room, and the dude told me, (scary voice) Your group was going the wrong way. And he just guided us to the exit. But I've heard stories of people being like, grabbed near the end of Asylum 49 and taken back to the beginning.
Cambria: Yeah, so this pitch is not good. I don't know, I don't know about that.
Max: Would you go to one of these places again, or maybe another haunted house? A haunt, as they say.
Cambria: I would absolutely, I would absolutely, yeah, I think it's really fun. I love it. Especially, it's way more fun to go with people who love it. And especially, like, with having Lilly and you in, who are really excited to be like, No, this is gonna be really fun, I really want to show you this experience and, like, why we love it. It's great, which is true about anything. Care about your friends! Do things with them!
Max: That can't be the lesson for this episode.
Cambria: That's the lesson for this episode!
Max: Okay. Support your friends and your businesses like Nightmare on 13th, Fear Factory, Black Island Farms. Remember with code–
Cambria: CANOFWORMS
Max: CANOFWORMS, you can get up to $10 off at Nightmare on 13th for your tickets. So please use that. (Cambria’s phone rings. It is her brother.) What are you getting? Do you get a phone call?
Cambria: I'm getting a phone call.
Max: From who?
Cambria: From Judd.
Max: Oh.
Cambria: We don't need to– this can–
Max: You want to put him on? Do you want to– ask him to close out the episode.
Cambria: Hey.
Judd, on the phone: Hello?
Cambria: What's up, will you close out our episode?
Judd, on the phone: Oh, absolutely. Thank you guys so much for listening, uhh, BOOGILY WOOGILY! I bet you got jumpscared, because of how spookily good this episode was.
(Max and Cambria interrupt this terrible outro)
Cambria: Alright.
Max: That was a fallback.
Cambria: Yeah, unfortunately, I apologize, listeners, that was really bad.
Max: Let's just, let's just cut the head off while we're still here. Thank you guys so much for listening. Stay tuned for the next episode, which is gonna be about parking!
Cambria: We'll see you–
Max: We'll see you, then.
Cambria: We'll see you, then.
Max: Talk about the– a little, you know– an easy topic, parking on campus.
Cambria: Can of Worms–
Max: Should go down like a cheap margarita.
Cambria: Yeah. Can of Worms, signing off.
Max: Can of Worms…
Cambria: BOOGILY WOOGILY!
(Max and Cambria scat the outro)
END
