Ghost Upon the Floor

     There are few things this Ghost and Witch love more than being scared. For us, the haunted attractions the Hallowed season brings are a highlight of our year. Here in western New York, we are beyond lucky to be the home of "Frightworld: America's Screampark."

     Frightworld is one of the highest rated and regarded haunted attractions in the nation. Like we have in years past, we recently sat down with Stephen Szortyka, GM and Director of Operations for Eerie Productions and Frightworld, and pick his brain about what it's like to run one of the biggest haunts in the country, and what it exactly it takes to make us afraid.



Stephen Szortyka interview:

What a Witch: "Thanks for sitting down with us, Stephen. One of our favorite things about your houses are the balloon bag—rooms?—that never fail to get our claustrophobia going. They never fail to scare us every year. Why the lack this year? What is the upkeep for the “balloons” like?"

Stephen: "Every year, we like to switch things up and keep things fresh. Sometimes that includes moving, changing or removing things. “Claustrophobia” is a highlight of many customers experience here at Frightworld. Upkeep on the “balloons” is a process. Sometimes they are ripped and need to be sewn. This year, we have 1 of them in 1 of the attractions. Not going to tell you where, you will have to find it yourself!"


Ghost: "Haunted attractions have made the news lately for being forced to- under pressure- remove or close houses down that make use of asylums and psychiatric facilities and patients. We love Erie Asylum, and think it is one of your best houses. What are your feelings on this—is political correctness going too far? Or does the history of what happened at these abandoned places and deserve a place in the American consciousness of fear?"

Stephen: "This is a great question, but also a very tough question. Society has become more adaptable over the years. What used to scare customer back in 1990, with black walls, a strobe light, and some fog, no longer scares them. With society changing, so has haunted attractions all over the world. Our event is a high tech Screampark with top of the line technology that has evolved over the years to become the park it is today. Haunted attractions with asylum themed houses have been around since the start of haunted houses, for 1 reason, and 1 reason only, the customers want it. Speaking on behalf of our event and many other events out there, it’s not our intention to ever criticize or make light of any event, in favor of entertainment."



What a Witch: "We noticed you have a theme night for younger kids planned this year. What made you decide to do that, and what does it entail? How do you make Frightworld less scary for the ankle-biters?"

Stephen: "Our customers asked for it! The popularity of our event, both locally and nationally, has drawn interest from all ages. You’ve asked for it, so we are providing it: Little Frights with Lights. October 29th 2016, our little friends can come to Frightworld and check out the park with the lights ON and no monsters! To make this event “less scary” we cover up some of the more mature scenes, add lights to the event, and turn off the sounds. The kids go trick-or-treating at all the attractions, enjoy balloon animals and face painting. If they are brave enough, they can check out the attractions with an accompanying parent."

Ghost: "Technology in haunted houses has become a big issue. What are you opinions on high tech (the use of tv/computer screens, etc) versus more traditional scares? (One of our favorite things this year were the curtains blowing in the wind. So atmospheric, so affective.)"

Stephen: "Today, we have no choice but to incorporate technology! Its needed for many different effects. And that’s NOT a bad thing. Technology has allowed us to make our park more of an immersive experience for our customers. We now have full control of our customers and their scares when they enter our attractions. We focus on finding a happy medium between old school and new school. Like you mentioned, we still use something as simple as fans that blow curtains through the windows."



What a Witch: "What are you most proud of with Frightworld this year? Is there anything you can tell us about plans for the future?"

Stephen: "2015 and 2016 are mile stones for us here at Frightworld, for several reasons. #1: we are in the largest building we have ever been in. #2 We were ranked by BuzzFeed as #3 haunted attraction in the nation which received over 3 million hits in 24 hours. Along with other nationally acclaimed awards, we also hold #1 Haunted Attraction in Buffalo and the Northeast by Frighttour.com."


Ghost: "What are your favorite and least favorite things about running such a large haunted attraction?"

Stephen: "This business is our passion. The best thing about this is that we love our job and we love what we do. We love coming into work every day! What started out as a backyard Halloween party is now a nationally acclaimed Screampark! Every day I get to go something different, today I might work on marketing, tomorrow I could me on the road doing sponsor distributions and then the next day I could be detailing an attraction. It’s never a dull moment during the Halloween season."

Ghost: "Bonus/current events question: What, if anything, is scarier than the reports of clowns trying to lure children into the woods with candy and waving at adults at 2AM?"

Stephen: "What began as a marketing Technique for a movie coming out 3 years ago has turned into a freak viral trend today. I laughed when I saw the craze start back up. What’s scarier is the clowns we have here at Frightworld. Come get a real scare!"

Frightworld: America'a Screampark is located at 800 Young Street, Tonawanda, NY. Open October 14-16, and starting October 20th, Frightworld is open every night through Halloween, and also November 4 and 5th. 

      In 1999, the low budget horror film "The Blair Witch Project" was released. It's legacy would alter the course of popular horror movies for the next nearly two decades. The "found footage" genre went mainstream with the shakily shot film, alleging to have been real, found in the woods. The three people in the movie shown making a documentary of their own on a legend of the Blair Witch, a woman put to death for being a witch in the woods of Maryland, were also real. This was in simpler times, when the Internet did not so easily dispel (or, spread) rumors. The documentary, of course, was fictional, as were the actors, the film and the legend of the Blair Witch.



     However, that did not stop the film from becoming, at the time, one of the most successful independent films of all time, and a national phenomenon. The spirit of the "Blair Witch" would live on in parodies, a hastily produced sequel, and, most importantly, the formation of a genre. While lower budget horror films had experimented with the found footage concept-- where a film or portion of a film is presented as filmed from the characters' point(s) of view-- nothing so cemented the idea, or the effectiveness and bankable nature of the genre, in popular culture like the Blair Witch. While the hastily produced sequel, "Blair Witch: Book of Shadows," abandoned the concept, some of the most popular and successful horror films and franchises-- "Paranormal Activity" and "V/H/S"-- of the last 15 years took the found footage concept and ran with it to great fortune.

"Blair Witch" (2016)

 And so, roughly 17 years later, we have "Blair Witch," a sequel made and initially promoted in secrecy under the title of "The Woods." Nowadays, it is far easier to accomplish the marketing and buzz the original Blair Witch film did in 1999 without the aid of the social media we have today. While the years may have passed, little seems to have changed with how audiences are reacting to "Blair Witch." Critically and in terms of general audience opinion, the flick seems to have divided viewers. Some see it as an updated twist on a winning formula; others see it as derivative and dull. Yet others see it falling somewhere in between.

"The Blair Witch Project" (1999)

 So what do we think of "Blair Witch"? In this reviewer's opinion, there is more here to enjoy than not. Surely, with the technology available today for recording trips into the deep woods in search of a supernatural entity, there were opportunities the film missed. While it did feature a drone camera, it seems that so many more scares could happen on today's recording equipment. Also, while the film takes a bit to get its footing-- telling the story of the original's Heather's brother wanting to go into the woods looking for her all these years later-- the narrative is less of a slow burn than Heather's movie. And while the original film can be looked at through eyes that don't see anything supernatural about it-- this new edition into the Blair Witch lore takes an early, and far more firm stance on whether or not a supernatural force, the Witch, is at play.

"Blair Witch" (2016)

 For all the film's faults, it works so well by venturing in the footsteps of the original. There is a fear very primal about being lost in the woods, being hunted, and not knowing the nature of that which seeks you. There are some fantastic scares, creeps and questions in this film, and, this reviewer believes you can do far worse at the movies this theater than to see "Blair Witch." Scary, effective and shades of being both original and nostalgic, "Blair Witch," is one of the better scary movies to be released this year.

"The Blair Witch Project" film poster (1999)

John Wolfe

     A debate as old as the holiday itself, it seems. From the beginning, since the first child dressed up in a costume intended to frighten, the first pumpkin broken into to carve out a face-- Halloween, and the closely associated entertainment genre of horror has, throughout history, been attacked for being too scary.

What was once too scary for society. Can't someone incorporate this into a modern Halloween decoration? "House on Haunted Hill" (1959)

    In the 1950s, horror comic books like "Tales from the Crypt" turned huge profits for their publishers, and movies like "The Thing," "House on Haunted Hill," and "Creature from the Black Lagoon" reigned supreme. Much ink has been spilled and many keys tapped opining that horror gained such popularly at that mid-century time as a reaction to the horrors of World War II. The same has been said for the rise of Vampire stories in the mid 2000’s. The frenzy over True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and teen favorite Twilight came about during a recession (Stephen King has done a good arm chair analysis of this in his Danse Macabre).  At so many continuing points throughout our history, with an increase in horror's popularity, there is inevitably a backlash. Efforts were undertaken to ban and declare horror comics indecent, and the outlandish tales of 1950s horror cinema imparted a stigma the genre faces until this day. More specifically, even today in more strictly religious circles, Halloween is looked at as evil, a holiday of deception, of evil.

"The Peeper" in action (via Buzzfeed.)

      But we children of Halloween know that the meaning, and fun, of All Hallow's Eve is so much more than that. Halloween gives us all a chance to disappear from our lives. Whether that is from our every day work clothes and into the costume of a vampire, or to stop and revel in the fear of a zombie rising from his grave to devour you, instead of the all too real, daily fear of war, terrorism and human evil choosing your neighborhood to visit next. As we go through the cycles of public outcries around Halloween-- this costume isn't appropriate for a child, this movie ("Psycho," "Halloween," "The Blair Witch Project," "Saw") is too scary-- it seems to this Ghost that our trouble happens when the fear, the scare of Halloween comes too close to the real world.

Human version of "The Peeper" advertisement

     Meet "The Creeper." A Halloween decoration reportedly sold at Home Depot stores throughout Canada and the United States. While the human-faced versions have been pulled from stores in Canada, they remain available online and at stores in the United States, and have since inspired other stores, like Kmart, to start selling clown and zombie faced peepers. The dictation is simple, plastic and works by suction-cupping a man's face, with big peering eyes, surrounded by his hands so he can get a better look. Yes, the face is unsettling-- but it accomplishes this without the help of the supernatural. This man is not a zombie, a vampire or any variety of undead concoction. He's just a man, who shouldn't be there, looking in your window. Intending to burglarize your home, murder you, or worse. There's even a version with a finger tapping the window, which reacts to your own finger if you tap it against the window.

"Peeper" with finger that responds to yours by tapping on the window.

     The Ghost's reaction to this was complicated. At once, I felt fear and revulsion. This truly is that stuff that ran throw my childhood nightmares. While I loved to read tales of Frankenstein's monster made of dead body parts coming back to life before bed, I would lay in bed and think of how any person could climb up the side of my childhood house and into my bedroom. Nothing could be so perfectly picked out of the pumpkin patch of my most long-held terrors and thrown into Halloween in such a mass market way. While I agree this is scary, "The Peeper" certainty lends itself to the "is this too scary for Halloween?" debate. After complaints in Ontario, "The Peeper" has been pulled from Canadian shelves, and replaced with a supernatural version of the decoration, "The Reaper," which swap out the human peeper for the Grim Reaper. I actually love this version of the prop- looking out your window to see the Grim Reaper peering in, reminding you of the reason for the season. At the heart, Halloween, of course, reminds of us our mortality while allowing us to disappear into the costumed ether of fear.

Of course, the natural evolution in this fear trend would include clowns. (via Kmart)

     The question remains, however. Is "The Peeper" in its human forms too scary for Halloween? Or simply in too poor taste? Where does a good scare become an off color prank? What purpose does it serve to put in your window, unless you want a visitor to get the jump of her or his life when looking out your window to see a man looking in. While the Ghost is no prude when it comes to Halloween, I have seen displays-- realistic depictions of people hanging by a noose from a tree, or needlessly violent scenes filled with blood. For this ghost, whether something is in poor taste when it comes to Halloween is when a decoration or display or film has a sense of artlessness behind it. A Halloween display exploring a recent tragedy is just that, exploitive and bad art. Whether good art or bad art it is all Halloween art. And this ghost believes he comes down on the side that says "The Peeper" has the potential for being some very bad Halloween art. People are victimized every day by human terrors; let the jump scare your friend receives looking out your window be at the expense of the Grim Reaper startling you before you laugh, instead of a jolt of terror that a real person is looking in, ready to victimize you-- like too many have actually been.

     Buy the Grim "Reaper" instead?

It's always fun to fear the reaper.

Zombie Babies, Spirit Halloween Superstore

     A new autumn. What a Witch's little pumpkin has turned one year old. Reflecting on this last year has her thinking about some of the not so adorable moments in her little spawn’s life. Sometimes, kids are just downright creepy. It's no mystery to her why some of cinema's most iconic villains were pint sized terrors. Issac leading his “Children of the Corn,” Damien with his promise of the end times in “The Omen,” Rhoda who just wanted Claude Dagle’s medal in “The Bad Seed” … and her long lost cousin Maccauly Culkin.

"Children of the Corn" (1984)

     The wicked, evil child is a trope that makes for easy subject matter because, What a Witch is finding, everything about kids is unpredictable. We want to believe these cherub-looking, diminutive creatures are innocent and pure. When they are quietly asleep in their cribs, they look as if they couldn’t hurt a fly. But sometimes, even our cutest and cuddliest little guy and girls do things that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and have you running for some holy water.

"The Bad Seed" (1956)

     We've all heard the stories of babies talking and waving to... something. The person in the corner that grown eyes can't see. What a Witch birthed a baby vampire who doesn't let her get much sleep at night. Nothing makes the frequent late night and early morning baby wake ups more concerning than hearing that baby laughing with glee in an empty room, with no light and no toys in the crib. Her giggling little baby has even waved to what should have been empty space behind her, when she picked him up. Even the most mundane of baby stuff is creepy. It's amazing how many things an immobile creature who is unaware of his ears or that he has a nose accumulates. Baby monitors stand high atop this list. It all started when the little pumpkin in question was just a few days old. A very exhausted What a Witch sought late night refuge in the living room and forgot to turn off her baby’s monitor. There, in the lonesome dark, the baby-monitor projected noise in the empty room! Even more alarming is when said monitor captures the last image from before it was turned off. Often What a Witch will be looking at a glowing monitor, showing her an imposter baby, while the real one is slumbering in her arms.

Vampire Baby, 2016

     The vampire’s fun and entertaining toys—the kind that light up and make noises of all kinds-- take a sinister turn when they start turning on by themselves. Many times, the Witch hears the tunes of multiple toys, happy with their inhuman glee, setting off on their own in an empty room. In fact, she is hearing them now.

     Like the first leaf to darken, drop from the tree. Like the first gone from the air, leaving only a ghost of the dying summer behind. Like the first sweater you pull on over your shoulders, Like the first tombstone that appears on your neighbor's lawn, the first bed sheet ghost hung from a tree. Like the first hand that reaches up from the grave in the cemetery down the street, late one autumn midnight. Fall is here.


    And so, like that dusty, creaking corpse rising out of the crypt, we here at Ghost Upon the Floor will be doing all we can to live western New York's autumn to the its most vibrantly pumpkin orange, corn stalk yellow, spider black and tombstone grey possible. May your Autumn be full of warm mugs, forest walks over leaves, Jack O' Lantern glow and--- always-- things that go bump in the night. Happy Haunting.