In the Bozeman area, there are several fantastic haunted house fundraisers, such as the Anderson School Annual Haunted House, geared more toward children and put on by children, and the Pioneer Museum Haunted House newly revisited in Downtown Bozeman. A new Haunted House: Fear Mine is looking to target people who need or want a more fright-filled haunt experience.
Fear Mine is for a different target audience and is not looking to take away from the established local haunts. Timothy Schober has worked and managed nationally rated professional haunts in Delaware, Philadelphia, and California including Fright Land and Fright Factory. On a busy night, these haunts had 10,000 plus visitors. Now Bozeman gets the benefit of his love of the haunt and years of professional haunting experience. The Fear Mine is not for the faint of heart and is geared toward high school and college students or adults who truly want to be scared.

According to Tim, there are four types of scares. The ‘startle’ scare, the ‘distract and scare’, the ‘non-scare’ scare, and the ‘anticipatory’ scare. The ‘startle’ is when some one jumps out and yells, “BOO!” The ‘distract and scare’ is when the set-up gets you looking one way and then the scare comes from a different direction. The ‘non-scare scare’ is when nothing scary actually happens, but you are scared because of the effect the scene has on the senses. The ‘the ‘anticipatory’ scare is when you know the bad guy is coming, but it still scares you when it happens.

A good haunt employs all the different types of scares to create a multi-sense experience. Horror movies and professional haunts use the various types to create suspense and elicit a response from the audience. Counting the number of reaction screams helps the actors and management determine how successful a professional haunt is on a given night.

In addition to using a variety of scare techniques, a haunt is only as good as the atmosphere and actors. Tim says, “You can have the most advanced lasers, lights, and stuff, but if you don’t have actors who are passionate and committed to the haunt, it will not be a success.” If you are one of those people contact Tim to join the team, you can call him at 406-219 -SCARE (7227).

Haunting is a group activity and cannot be a success with just one or two people. If you want to know more about the haunt community and haunting visit www.hauntworld.com and discover for yourself the family-like network that exists in the world of haunting. The people who haunt for the love of the haunt are willing to help each other, share techniques and ideas, all for the betterment of the industry and community as a whole.

Due to logistical challenges, Tim is unable to put on a professional haunt this year. However, he could not go another year without the joy and fulfillment of doing a haunt gives him, so he will be doing the next best thing – a home haunt. The difference is that a professional haunt is in a location, such as a warehouse, or available house, and is for profit. The Fear Mine Haunted House will be located at Tim’s home and entrance will be one non-perishable food item per person. All food collected at the haunt will be donated to The Gallatin Valley Food Bank. Tips and donation will be used for the betterment of the haunt next year and beyond. The final goal is to have a full-size professional haunt every year beginning in 2012.

The Fear Mine Haunted House will be open Halloween weekend, October 28, 29, 30, and 31, 2011 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm each night at 71 Jackson Lane in Belgrade.

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Tim through the website www.FearMine.com

The Haunt is also on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fear-Mine-at-Feral-Gulch-Haunted-House/218378311520758 and YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFearMine or 406-219 -SCARE (7227).

Come and experience the chills and thrills of The Fear Mine Haunted House, if you dare.

Lee Strickler is a freelance writer and network marketing professional, working on her MFA in Creative Writing through the University of New Orleans, residing in Bozeman with her family.