WEBVTT - The Science of Haunted Houses 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.840 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.360 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.840 What's your earliest memory of a haunted house? Uh? Not 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:23.560 not a real haunted house where actual ghosts are supposedly 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.880 running around. We've talked about that's sort of thing in 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.920 the past, But I'm talking about haunted attractions. Place where 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.080 you go up, you buy your ticket, you run through 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.400 the haunted attraction. Various scary things happen, You encounter tab 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.520 blaws that are frightening, people jump out at you, there's smoke, 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.120 there's light, their smell, and you leave screaming and giggling. 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.479 My childhood home, really you grew up in a haunted No, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.239 but my dad loves Halloween, and so as as a 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.880 tenderhearted five year old, I remember going up to my 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.240 house and seeing that it had been transformed into a graveyard. 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.640 And my dad had because he were to the university, 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:02.560 and so he went to the department there and got 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.920 the you know, whole makeup thing and aged himself and 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.800 looked like he was like the grave keeper dude. And 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.200 then he also projected the pit and the pendulum on 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.880 the side of the house. Okay that the old film, 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.000 Yeah yeah, with the blade coming down slowly and you know, wow, 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.880 he went all out, he did. So that is my 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:25.120 first impression of what haunted house might be like. Okay, 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.320 you I think my earliest. I mean, my family always 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.080 made a big deal out of Halloween as well, but 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:31.800 I don't think we ever really set up a haunted 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.520 house per se. But I do remember when we were 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:40.080 living in rural Tennessee. Uh, my church group would go 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.720 every year to see this thing that was called scare Mare, 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.120 which we us kids are often referred to as prayer 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.800 Mere because the gimmick was you come to this little 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.040 rural church out in the middle of nowhere and they 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:54.400 put on this haunted house every year and you go 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.000 through it and it's one of these these fundamentalist Christian 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.640 haunted houses that that each room shows you that the 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:04.480 perils of a sin uh and you know, this is 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:06.480 what's gonna happen if you if you drink, this is 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.520 what's gonna happen if you listen to bad music, and 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.200 all the type of stuff you can you can imagine. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:13.960 And then at the end they empty you out into 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.720 a tent where a preacher sermonizes to you for what 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.920 felt like an hour or two and that was the 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:24.360 end of it. That was the prayer mayor portion of it. 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:27.399 And it was, you know, it was cheaply done, and 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.200 a lot of it was kind of it was very 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.360 heavy handed even at that age, but they were still 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.960 using some of the elements of haunted houses that everyone 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:36.880 is kind of used to that everybody does a chainless chainsaw, 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.600 a dude in a mask, somebody with blood on them, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.920 someone jumping out at you out of the dark, that 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.880 kind of thing. It's only really been since i moved 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.480 to Atlanta as an adult that I've gotten to really 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:52.760 experience a high grade, professional haunted attraction where they really 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.639 throw everything together and just wallop all your senses with 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.280 with frightful images, frightful sounds, frightful smell, etcetera. And I'm 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.520 talking about the nether World Haunted house right Another World 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:08.600 is I think one of the probably most esteemed haunted 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.480 houses in the United States and is a fine, fine example, 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.080 and we'll talk a little bit more about that. But 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.520 I did want to say that the church, the sort 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.440 of Churchill haunted houses. Forgive my punt art for the 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.799 genesis of the modern haunted house, because that's actually how 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.320 haunted houses start as a charity event. But right now 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:31.040 we have in the US over two thousand haunted attractions 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.000 that charge admission, about a thousand charity attractions, and three 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.440 hundred amusement parts that have various haunted houses. Um. And 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.280 I wanted to point this out because I did not 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.440 realize this that the average person will show out about 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.520 seventy two dollars on decorations, costumes, and candy for Halloween, 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.760 and total Halloween spending was six point eight six billion, 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.880 second only to Christmas in Christmas decorations. So Halloween obviously 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:01.160 is a big deal in our psyche, and uh, haunted 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.560 houses I think are the catalyst of it all. Yeah, 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.240 and and and then always gives me such a it's 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:07.680 such a big deal. It's always a big deal to me. 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:09.720 But it's such a big financial deal. Then why is 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.440 Thanksgiving Christmas? Why aren'ty always trying to to wean in 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:14.480 on it and get and show up in October and 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.719 steal some of the spotlight from from Halloween because they're like, hey, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.440 as long as you as you are dropping some dime 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.560 on decorations. Why don't you pick up a nice little 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.160 Santa Claus. Yeah, and I'm also off for let's start 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.880 Halween in September. I kind of started in March, so 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.479 I was gonna say, like in December. Yeah. Um. But 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.279 as you point out, Another World is a great example. 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.640 It's been in the business for sixteen years and it's 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:43.679 created by movie professionals Ben Armstrong and Billy Messina. Messina 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.520 did ffex on Franken Hooker and I think one of 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.880 the basket Case movies. To give you horror fans a 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.239 little perspective. Uh, they use original storytelling, so they don't 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.800 rely on Hollywood's stereotypes like Freddie or Jason. They have 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:03.840 thousands of effects. They create custom props, makeup masks and monsters. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.440 They have a ton of puppetry as well, uh, animatronics, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.120 and they have more than one hundred nether spawn, which 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.960 are their actors, some of whom are stunt actors. And 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.839 uh some of these actors are actually professional feeder actors 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.400 and some have day jobs. And this year they have 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:26.200 actual Beauty pageant winner Mrs Georgia, who transforms herself into 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.360 a ghoul. So you really do see people of all 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.200 different stripes joining in on this. So for this episode, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:32.400 we we thought, all right, we're going to do an 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.919 episode on the science of hunted houses, we should both 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.680 go to another world and actually check it out for reals, 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.000 you know. And uh, and so I went out. I 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.239 checked it out, I went through the attraction. I talked 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.800 to Ben, one of the owners and operators and the 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.040 minds behind all of this. And then you went a 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.200 few days later and you checked out the behind the 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:55.880 scenes stuff, So we kind of we kind of double 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:57.719 teamed it. I kind of got the user end of 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.480 it and you've got the behind the scenes. Yeah, it 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.080 was really cool. Got to see what it looks like 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.000 about an hour before the door is open, and it 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:06.080 really is like putting on a large scale theatrical production 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.480 every single night. Um, and we'll talk a little bit 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.839 more about the different elements, but it was amazing to 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.320 see all the actors getting into their costumes and I 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.760 think they've got seven different makeup artists. They've got a 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.760 room full of masks, which is amazing to see. So 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.480 the eight year old in me was extremely excited to 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.760 be able to go behind the scenes and go through 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.520 the maze and kind of see it in the partial daylight. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.000 Oh nice. We attended to grab a mask and sort 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.120 of hang out. I was actually I wasn't. Then I 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:36.960 kind of got that vibe of like, you know what, 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.200 that there are actors here doing that. You don't need 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.040 to dive in here and try to scare people. Right. Well, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.159 when I was there, I got a few quotes from Ben, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.120 so I thought we'd kick things off here and sprinkle 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.159 a few other quotes throughout. But here is Ben's answer 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.680 when I asked him, why, as humans do we like 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:57.120 to be afraid? I think when you feel fear, it's 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.840 a really up primitive instruct you know, when you're the 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.280 hunter or the hunter. It's a huge surge of a 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.000 journaline and people really enjoy that feeling of terror when 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.599 they know it's safe. I think you're really scared and 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.920 you think you're really gonna die. It's a bad, sickening feeling. 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.400 But when you get shocked and scared and then you 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.360 can laugh about it, it's so you floor feeling everyone phrase. 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.120 So that was some fun interview material to get there 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.240 because you can hear some of the craziness in the background. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.280 Because it's right outside side another world on a very 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:30.200 busy night. There's their chainsaws, they're screaming, there's laughter. I mean, 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.240 it's it's just a pretty awesome place to be. And 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.320 I think that what he's talking about and what you 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:37.440 just described to in terms of people really having fun 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.200 with it, is directly pointing to the benign violation theory, 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.680 which we've talked about before, right when we've talked about, 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.200 especially in our episode on laughter and humor and where 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.200 that comes from. I believe we call that episode Funny 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.160 or Die. We've dragged this idea out a number of times, 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.680 you know, the whole Uh, savor tooth tiger jumps out 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.560 at you and attacks you. Uh, you're dead right, But 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.680 if something else jumps out of you, you're gonna react 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.280 like it's a savor tooth and then it's not ha ha, 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.400 you laugh. That's the signal that I thought I was 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.840 gonna die, but not really. So this was the first 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.240 time I'd gone through a haunted attraction and in certainly 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.440 another world following that episode that we did. So I 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.560 was thinking about benign violation the whole time, and sure enough, 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:19.960 I'm seeing it certainly in everybody around me, but even 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:23.240 in myself. You know, I'm scared, I'm falling on the 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.120 floor because something jumped out of me from the side, 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.560 and then I'm laughing. Yeah, And I mean it's a 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.320 cathartic experience, right, I mean, there's no secret why we 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.880 want this and why we seek out this experience because 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.000 it really we are sort of built for that safe 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:39.880 tooth tiger, right. So um, it's kind of nice to 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.280 be able to exercise that in a safe place. And 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:45.960 also I wanted to say that Ben Armstrong had really 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.400 talked about how important safety is and haunted houses, and 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.720 this is a fine example. They have, you know, something 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.520 like thirty two surveillance cameras. They've thought of every single 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.360 safety aspect. When duty cops there on secure, you're ready, 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:02.360 you have to wait in a line before you go in, 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.160 and there's a lot of fun stuff going on with 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.400 you know, people and costumes kind of scaring you. But 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.839 then the the the security is there as well. I 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:11.920 imagine that they can kind of scope out who could 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.880 potentially be a troublemaker when they go in, because you know, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:16.640 you should be there for a good time. If you're 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:18.600 there to start trouble, you're the wrong place. Yeah, if 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.199 you just did a couple of shots at Yaga my 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.640 start and went through that, that could be trouble um 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:24.120 and they are on the lookout for that. But I 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:26.080 wanted to talk a little bit about the Haunted House 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.800 layout itself. Yes, you were not given a map when 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.040 you show up, because that's part of it. It's kind 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.480 of a labyrinth that you lose yourself in for a 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.160 few minutes, right, and they want to disorient you, so 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.560 obviously they have um built it so that they can 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.400 disordento you to the best of their abilities, and they 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.600 use what they call sixty degree walls or six sided 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.559 rooms to do this, and also ninety degree walls, and 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:52.960 the ninety degree walls are really try to get you 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.839 more through the maze itself. UM, but the sixty degree 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:58.720 walls the six sided rooms are really cool because they 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.080 have lots of corners to hide actors in what they 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:05.680 call scares, and it's easier to disorientate or disorient customers 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.400 and create mazes, and then it gives a different feeling 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:12.400 um of more familiar construction. And we talked about this 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:15.200 a little bit in our last podcast about maps in 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:17.840 our configuration of neurons and how they really like the 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.160 X Y access the horizontal on the vertical not so 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:24.640 much something coming at you diagonally, and they're going diagonal 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.120 on all of these rooms. We're not used to dealing 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.720 with those rooms. I mean, no matter how crazy the 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.920 architecture in your house is, chances are you're still dealing 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:37.079 with square or maybe in some cases rounded structures. Right. 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.360 So when they're thinking about the set design of this already, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.880 they've kept this in mind, this sort of natural scare 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.640 tactics of coming at you from diagonals and from all 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.960 different places. Um. And then they have something called scare 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.200 forward and through put. And this is sort of like 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.480 more on the business side, because through put is the 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:55.520 rate of people that go through the haunt, and it 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.640 helps to keep lines a little bit lower and keeps 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.000 multiple groups from crashing into each other. Yeah, I mean, 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:05.800 because not a very straightforward and boring but essential business level. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:08.280 You need x number of people to go through there 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:10.680 at a certain rate if you're gonna make money, and 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:12.719 if you don't, because if you're not making money doing this, 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:14.800 I mean, all right, it's all fun and games, but 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.880 but it's not a business. And really, you know, a 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:20.680 delightfully twisted way. You kind of have to think of 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.560 a haunted attraction like a slaughter house. You have a 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.720 bunch of cattle and you need to steer them through 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.520 the attraction at a certain rate without any hiccups. You 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:33.880 need to keep them moving. You don't except, of course, 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:35.640 you don't want the cows to freak out. You want 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.520 the humans to freak out, but to a point. And 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.760 then if the freak out goes a little a little 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:42.600 too far, then you need to be able to remove 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:45.240 them so that the flow can keep going. And if 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.680 you are someone who is going to go through a 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.280 haunted house and you've got a little bit of scarity pants, 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.719 here is a tip. You will want to stay at 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.280 the front. And I know that sounds counterintuitive. I know 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.200 that's that's because this is the thing every year my 0:11:58.240 --> 0:11:59.560 wife and I did do this when when we go 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.600 to another world, we're like, yes, we're gonna get up 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:03.600 there at the front. Were the brave ones. We love 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:05.800 this stuff. Let's do it. And then we indever, Let mean, 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.520 we still get you know, the Jesus scared out of us, 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.120 but we'll inevitably find ourselves in the situation where we 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.520 arrive a little too early, and then we spot the 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.959 monster in the corner, just standing there waiting to get 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:17.880 the people behind us, and we're kind of like, jump 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.840 out of me, I want it, man, We'll see. That's 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.120 the whole strategy. It's called scare forward. And what they're 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:26.600 doing is that they're they're really going at the sides 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.200 of the group and the back of the group because 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.440 the idea is again to get that through put out 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.040 there and to push the group forward. So if you 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.200 are in the front, you're probably not going to get 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.400 you know, an actor or a google or a monster 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.840 two inches in front of your face like someone in 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:44.800 the sides or the back of the group would. So 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.760 they're hurting you. They're essentially you're being herded by monsters 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.600 through a slaughterhouse. It's true, you are, and um, you know, 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:53.559 we should mention this is probably obvious, but there are 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:58.640 bunches of scare pockets throughout that maze, so little alcoves 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:00.960 and again that's why the six sided rooms are so helpful, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.840 because this corner's helped to hide people. Uh, and they 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:07.760 have a number of interesting ways to hide people. A 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.120 lot of hiding in plain site. Is it a statute 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.240 is it a person? I can't tell unless it moves, 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.720 or there'll be something that looks like a person and 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.040 you're you're watching it like all right, buddy, I'm onto you. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.839 And then bam, werewolf jumps out at you from the corner, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:21.600 and which is really cool. We'll talk a little bit 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.640 more about camouflage and a little bit um, but let's 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.840 take a quick break in when we get back, we 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:35.320 will talk about modes of manual manipulation. Hey, you, we're back. 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:37.720 We're talking about the science of haunted houses, of course, 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.480 as in haunted attractions. And I'll mention this again but 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.839 if you want to check out Another World online and 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:46.760 see their cool website, go to www dot fear world 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.560 dot com and you can see all sorts of clips 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.040 and images and some wonderful write ups about their attractions. Yeah, 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.560 and they are doing an excellent job, I have to 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.600 say of manual manipulation. In other words, taking our five 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:01.840 cents is and and of course you could argue that 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.240 we have many more than five senses, but there's main 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.520 five senses in manipulating them through all sorts of things 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.920 like our site in our orientation, yeah, sight orientation. This 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:14.320 is kind of like I guess in a way the 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.679 obvious one, but but some of the subtler ways they 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.120 do it may surprise you. I mean on a very 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:23.040 basic level. Yes, you're walking through these dimly lit corridors 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.240 and things are happening, and a lot of like especially 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.040 in other world, a lot of stuff is happening. You're 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.200 you're distracted by little details, say like some sort of 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.240 a ghastly frame and a picture on the wall that 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.600 seems to be watching you, some sort of holographic bit 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.560 of art here, actual skeletons just I mean, they do 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.960 a wonderful job just on the layout of the place. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.240 So you're looking at that kind of stuff, But then 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:49.680 there there's also other visual things, lights, lasers, moving fog, 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:55.080 moving monsters, and it all creates this chorus of confusion. Yeah, 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.760 And of course the lack of light is is the hallmark, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:14:59.600 and the reason for that is because if you're plunge 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.160 into tote old darkness, then you're not quite sure what's 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.000 going on. And so there are different parts of the 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.720 Haunt that are that are darker than others. But I 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.200 did want to just give a quick overview of our 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.160 site that of course we have rods and cones in 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.560 our eyes. Cone cells perceive color in bright light, and 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.640 rod cells perceived black and white images and work best 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:22.120 and low light. So who has something called rhodopsin And 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.080 rhodoption is a chemical that's found in the rods, and 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.200 rhodoption is really key to the ability to see during 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.360 the night. And it's the chemical that rods used to 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.640 absorb photons and perceived light. And when a molecule of 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.360 rhodoption absorbs a photon, it splits into a retinal and 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.440 an option molecule. This is important because these later recombine 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.440 naturally back into redoption at a fixed rate, but the 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.360 recombination is very slow. So the reason I'm pointing this 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.600 out is because when you expose your your eyes to 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.800 bright light, all the roodoption breaks down into this retinal 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:56.800 and option, and then if you turn off the lights 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:58.680 and try to see in the dark, you cannot because 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.080 it has to try to recombine line. And that's one 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.200 of the disorienting effects of playing with a light in 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.840 a haunted house. And here's a fun fact. Okay, the 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.280 retinal used in the eye is derived from vitamin A. 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:13.920 So if a person's diet is low in vitamin A, 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.640 there's not enough retinal and the rods, and therefore there's 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.760 not enough reduction. So people who lack vitamin A often 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.560 suffer from night blindness. Okay, so if you you want 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.480 to really be on to be prepared for your venture 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.760 through the haunted house, you want to bone up on 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:29.600 your vitamin you want to just stuck up on that 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.600 vitamin A. But I thought that was interesting. I mean, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:34.120 that's also like great because I know I'll be driving 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.720 at night occasionally when I can't help but drive at night, 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.040 and and I feel like I can't see anything. So 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.240 maybe next time I need a bone up on the vitamins. 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.760 There you go, There you go before you drive, before 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.960 you go into a haunted house, and drive into a 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.239 haunted house. Yeah, yeah, which is an entirely different attraction 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.800 from the future. But there's also different ways that can 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.680 manipulate your eyesight. And I saw one um example of 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.840 this online from a past another world um year. But 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.320 they had a room that was covered in illuminated dots, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:10.000 So everywhere you look there's just dots, and you could 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.560 not see the edges, you could not see anything. And 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.840 I thought, well, that's fascinating because that's really like obscuring 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.200 your ability to actually pinpoint your orientation, which is so 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.560 important and allow you to have sort of a fixed 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.919 established place in the room. And it's really frightening to 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.760 even watch the clip of someone coming at you with 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.800 dots on, of course, because they're they're melding into the background, 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:33.320 you know, I do you know you mentioned this to 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.120 me yesterday and I'm like, I don't remember the dots, 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.080 but now I do. Think I went through the attraction 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.520 the year that they had the dots, because suddenly there's 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.640 a person that's covered with dots coming at you as well, 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.440 and that kind of course throws you off balance, as 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.440 does their use of sound. Yeah, there is a lot 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.240 of noise going on in the haunted house, and those 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:51.680 clip and the clips that we played, you could certainly 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:53.679 hear the outdoor noise and on the inside you have 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.480 creepy music, you have loud noises coming from elsewhere in 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.719 the hunt. A course, you're hearing chainless chainsaws rearing up. 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:04.960 I mean, that's a staple. There's just no getting around 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.720 it when it comes to chain saw usage at a 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.760 haunted attraction, And it's all just creating this cacophony. But 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.000 then there they're also these kind of moments of not 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.080 quite silence, because you're not gonna get really silence. It's 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.320 not a really sound proof environment, but they'll be like 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.080 a calmn, I guess before the noise comes out of 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.200 your specifically like an air gun or or an airhorn 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.080 going off right next to your head. You know. Thinking 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.680 about the sensitivity of our ears, because we talked about 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.320 this and the Ignoble podcast, and we talked about how 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:36.760 if you're hearing is delayed, if you hear yourself talking, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.480 it's delayed just a fraction of a second. That can 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.960 just change everything in the machinery in the way that 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:46.119 you perceive sound. And um, it made me think about 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.439 the fact that your your ear is really important in 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.399 actually detecting the gravitational field as well and giving you 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:55.360 a sense of orientation. So when you have all these 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.720 different elements of sound coming at you, that can really 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.800 disturb um your sense of where you are. And I 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:04.760 was also thinking about something called the butt kicker that 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:07.280 they use. I love the name of it. It actually 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.800 vibrates the floor. Oh yes, yes, okay. And also in 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:12.560 the other world, when I was talking to you, Ben. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.760 He said, they've experimented with sub sonic frequencies, but they 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:18.680 decided not to use them because they have some odd 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.600 effects on people. Okay, change them in the Monster's that 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.280 kind of thing exactly, you start to grow hair everywhere. 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.560 It's it's it's not pretty. They definitely play with your 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.639 balance a lot. They're they're squishy floors. There's their floors 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.920 that feel uneven. There's there's kind of a metal bridge 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:38.480 over actual water that's shaky, to say nothing of the 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.680 solid bridge that goes through a spinning cylinder. That old 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.560 effect is uh that always gets because that just throws 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.080