Monsters Wanted Page #4

They get that many people

who come show up.

They get that big of a show,

that big of a production,

and it's got a lot of money.

And then,

at the same time,

in order to put on

a multimillion-dollar show,

you gotta buy

a lot of stuff.

- Hi, rich.

- Hi.

- Where--where are we?

- I'm not sure.

I haven't had coffee yet.

I think I'm in St. Louis

at transworld,

which is exciting.

I love transworld.

It has cool

Halloween stuff,

so we can figure out

whatever people sell

that we can make

with duct tape

cheaper, better,

and look cooler.

[Dramatic music]

- This is the Halloween

and attraction show.

We have over 500 exhibitors,

and we have probably

about 7,000 attendees.

- So it's a trade show

specifically for owners

of haunted--haunted houses.

There's really

only one trade show,

and that's this one,

so we typically just--

just do this one show.

- This is the show

of the year.

Basically, a lot

of our exhibitors

write all of their orders

at this particular show

for one year.

- If you--if you look

at all the companies,

they all kind of specialize

in a couple of different things.

Either silicone masks,

large costumes, animatronics.

So you see a wide variety

of product,

which really offers customers

a lot of different options.

- This is, uh,

one of our new products.

It's an attack zombie,

and her name is

sidewinder Sally.

She's--she's ravenous.

She is just like...

[Growls]

- Well, the company

is called Gore galore,

and we've been in business

14 years,

and we like to specialize

in giant costumes,

giant puppets, and

actor-operated animatronics.

- There's everything

that you could ever want.

If you can't find it,

it doesn't exist.

- I mean, it's not gonna

take a beating

against the wall repetitively

all night.

It's got a soft core.

- Yeah.

- You know,

but it's foam,

so it's not really

gonna hurt.

That looks really

f***in' cool.

[Tap]

- That didn't hurt at all.

- I know Halloween itself,

the holiday

is second to Christmas,

and sometimes I wonder

how close it is to Christmas,

because there's so much,

and Halloween's getting

bigger and bigger.

I don't even know

what kind of money

is walking around in here

today.

It's just crazy.

It's--it's great.

- If you look

at the bigger houses,

netherworld, erebus--

uh, God, the list goes on--

they have budgets of hundreds

of thousands of dollars,

so, uh, it varies a lot,

but literally,

from a couple thousand

to hundreds of thousands,

if not millions of dollars

for those companies,

each year in new product.

- I got books.

I got lots of books.

Got lots of books

and this is really just

walking down one aisle,

if that gives you an idea

of the size of this convention.

- There's people here

from Germany, Japan,

Puerto Rico, Australia--

all, literally,

all over the world,

people come to this show.

- It is the best show

that we run.

It is so fun.

Everyone loves it.

The people,

the exhibitors are amazing.

The buyers are real enthusiasts

and love what they do.

- As much as it's all

about scaring people,

it's still kind of

bringing you back

to what you were

when you were a kid.

What scared you,

what--what, you know,

you thought about at night,

and then, you know,

it's what you want

to give to other people.

That's the purpose

of the industry.

- Without the love, if you're

all worried about the money,

then it's really hard

to create product

that people--other people

can fall in love with.

So, I mean, you have to--

you've got to have

a passion for it.

I-I wouldn't be the same person

without it, so--

I couldn't--I couldn't

live without it.

- It's not all about the money.

It's about the love.

But we got 120 people

to pay to work it,

and almost $200,000 this year,

all said and done.

It's gonna work.

Not a religious guy,

but I'll pray.

- At the moment,

we're working on costumes

for our 80-plus actors

that we have to find

clothes for right now.

- Are we officially

at 80-plus?

- Yes.

- Aah!

[Laughter]

- I can't even see you.

- I love the nose.

- Wah-wah.

[Laughter]

- The big piece

of today's training class

is really

about scare tactics.

How we're gonna scare.

Things we're gonna do

to scare.

How we're gonna get into,

you know,

people's heads

to scare them.

So the first part,

we're gonna talk about

in that scare tactics stuff

is what we call

scaring forward.

As the scares go on,

the purpose is to scare them

to the next place.

Scare them forward

down the show.

Scare them

farther down the line.

- Actor training

is actually

one of the most important

things you could have,

because all the bad things

that could go wrong,

90% are because the actor

doesn't know what they're doing.

- What you want to look for

is loose-armed,

I'm-gonna-punch-you guy.

That's the kind of guy

who walks

through the haunted attraction.

He's more in attack stance.

His arms are loose.

He's, like, ready to--

he's ready to fight.

That's the kind of guy

that you want to keep

your distance from.

- Most of our cast has not had

any haunt experience,

so they have no idea

what they're about to face.

- They didn't tell me

it's going to be

eight hours of grueling work.

We told you.

It's, you know,

"oh, I don't like this guy

calling me, you know,

an idiot."

We told you they're going to.

Let's work on a response.

- If your actors cannot

put on a good show,

people will never

come back.

You can have

phenomenal sets,

and you can have

amazing props and prosthetics

and makeup and costuming.

If that person cannot

effectively make a scare,

nobody will come back

to your show.

- We're taking patrons outside

of their normal reality,

and we're putting them

into our reality.

We have to make that

appear real to them,

so that way, the fear

appears real to them.

- We are the predators.

They are the prey.

We're gonna kill 'em.

They're gonna be killed.

When you remember that,

anything they say

doesn't change the fact

that you want to kill 'em.

- Some haunted houses

throw you in a costume,

say, "this is what you

have to do for ten hours."

That's all you can do.

Pushing a button,

pushing a button.

You want

to strangle yourself.

- They're gonna get bored.

They're not gonna want to say

the exact same things

800 million times a night.

I encourage creativity

'cause that's kind of what

this whole thing is about.

It's about being creative

and having fun.

- We're picking janel

to go out to the haunt.

My fork was definitely

in my mouth

when we drove

past that cop.

- Megan?

- Yeah.

- How you feeling?

- I'm great!

- How many days

till the haunt opens?

- 13.

- How much is there to do?

- Tons.

This much

times a billion.

I think I passed tired

about a week ago.

I'm on to a slap-happy,

crazy sugar rush

to where 5-hour energies

kind of just take

the edge off a little bit.

This is when people start

snapping at each other,

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