Maximum Terror

Vote for Terror!

2007-10-04T18:09:00.000-04:00

So we've got less than 25 hours before "it" all begins again. Screaming, shrieking, freaking neighbors. All the good stuff.

If you like what you see and run from, be sure and vote for us on

http://www.hauntedhouseratings.com/hauntedhousedetails.cfm?HauntId=315

Acting! Thank you!

2007-09-30T23:21:00.000-04:00

One of the strange points of pride we've always had in producing a Maximum Terror show is the theme we put behind each event. More than just a random collection of monstrosities, there's always a thread of backstory that links the scenes together. This is usually showcased in a movie that we put together for the audience. Sometimes it's part of the set up (as in Undead Idol, where the tour groups were introduced to it by our Backstage Mangler), or at the very least it's "out there" for visitors to enjoy, as when it was running as part of the line entertainment in Scary Tales.

We're still working out where the story behind Zombie Nation runs, but if you'd like a peek at it now, it's up here on the interweb. Let us know what you think!

We've got bodies!

2007-09-28T01:22:00.000-04:00

Last night was the haunt's official casting call, and wow — what a turn out! Dozens of folks, signing up for multiple nights of the event at a clip. We showed the full videos of both our Scary Tales and Undead Idol shows, and then groups of volunteers were taken on exclusive, behind the scenes tours of the haunt build. Things right now are at about 80% constructed, and about 70% operational (smoke machines, strobes, music, etc. still have to go in — the generators were only turned on yesterday). The volunteers (or frighteners, as we like to call 'em) got to take a run through the EXTREMELY claustrophobic BioSleeve 1031, see the military checkpoints, check out the med labs and shock posts — and even with a lot of the lights on, we still had quite a few jumpers.

As one guy said, "This is some dark genius!"

It's never too late to get in on the fun. There's a place for extroverts and introverts, you don't need acting experience, we'll get you where you need to be so you can have a 6 foot linebacker falling on the ground, crying like a baby. If you'd like to scare because you care, get in touch with Cathryn Oulighan at the Stamford Museum: 203.322.1646, ext. 6530, or via email volunteer@stamfordmuseum.org

Survive The Maze

2007-09-28T01:09:00.000-04:00

One of Maximum Terror's showcase features is what we "lovingly" call the OCD maze. That can stand for any number of things, this year we may decide it means the Outdoor Confounder and Dementia. It always absorbs an inordinate amount of time, proportional to the rest of the haunt build, it occupies every other sentence coming from our creative director, it requires rebuilding after every night...

But it's all worth it, for the disorientation and chills it delivers to the unlucky mortals who arrive at its entrance. Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Seriously, though, for those among you who have invested enough time in visiting our Web site that you'd also follow our little blogging adventure, I've got a special treat. An easy way through the labyrinth, and a cruel way to leave your friends behind. It's an online maze game that gets you focused on following a pathway. When your brain is in tune with the structure of a maze, like this game helps you get, it's scientifically proven that navigating a similar real world space is 30 to 40 percent easier. Try the online maze out for yourself!

Graveside Stand Off

2007-09-19T04:34:00.000-04:00

It's just a week to go! Will you stand up to the zombie hordes, or fall on your knees and beg for mercy? (Until they eat your tongue, at least.

Bone up on your zombie-facing skills with this fun and gruesome game, The Last Stand.

Major construction commences

2007-09-17T01:13:00.000-04:00

If you are a museum member, or have a chance to visit before the haunt begins on Oct. 5, you may be amazed at what's gone up in an amazingly short amount of time on the meadow out front. Three massive tents including a dozen or more set pieces, an outdoor graveyard, the infamous OCD maze that confounds and terrorizes all who wander in. It's all come to (un)life in less than three weeks, once more a testament to the maniacal drive of my brother Pete and his deranged vision to keep Connecticut screaming. (No limits on the scream thing, though, feel free to come from across state borders.)

It's a round the clock enterprise between Pete, my other brother Keith, our father, the rest of the family, friends and volunteers. Those hollow eyes you'll see are not all just makeup!

Can you outlast the rotters?

2007-09-17T01:07:00.000-04:00

Naturally, it's part of our self centered human nature to presume that if there ever WAS a real zombie infestation, "I'd be the one to make it through!" After all, we all in our own deluded way consider ourselves smart, savvy, with still enough of the species' survival instinct bubbling around in our DNA. And if that guy in Shaun of the Dead can make it...

Well, sorry to take some of the spark out of your shamble, but as this Zombie Simulator shows, all us living meat puppets would be overrun in no time flat. Oh well, I for one welcome our new flesh eating overlords...

And They Call Us Twisted

2007-09-13T19:36:00.000-04:00

The Electrification of Human Corpses

In 1780 the Italian anatomy professor Luigi Galvani discovered that a spark of electricity could cause the limbs of a dead frog to twitch. Soon men of science throughout Europe were repeating his experiment, but it didn't take them long to bore of frogs and turn their attention to more interesting animals. What would happen, they wondered, if you electrified a human corpse?

Galvani's nephew, Giovanni Aldini, embarked on a tour of Europe in which he offered audiences the chance to see this stomach-turning spectacle. His most celebrated demonstration occurred on January 17, 1803 when he applied the poles of a 120-volt battery to the body of the executed murderer George Forster.

When Aldini placed wires on the mouth and ear, the jaw muscles quivered and the murderer's features twisted in a rictus of pain. The left eye opened as if to gaze upon his torturer. For the grand finale Aldini hooked one wire to the ear and plunged the other up the rectum. Forster's corpse broke into a hideous dance. The London Times wrote, "It appeared to the uninformed part of the bystanders as if the wretched man was on the eve of being restored to life."

Other researchers tried electrifying bodies, with the specific hope of restoring them to life, but with no success. Early nineteenth-century experiments of this kind are considered to have been one of Mary Shelley's main sources of inspiration when she wrote her novel Frankenstein in 1816.

City of the Dead

2007-09-05T02:25:00.000-04:00

While you're waiting for us to unleash the hungry dead on your tasty carcass, kick your imagination into overdrive with this cool little diversion. Urban Dead is a multiplayer online game, with an involved and involving survive the zombie horde theme.

It's a text adventure — that means all played out in words, for those of you spoiled on X-Box visual crack. But painting gruesome pictures in your head is a great way to fear yourself up over what's in that shadow we've got waiting for you. The one that moves. And is following you along through the haunt, getting closer...

Scream A Little Scream

2007-09-01T22:38:00.000-04:00

So while we want you to do your absolute best shrieking and eeking within the walls of our zombie containment center, here's a chance to warm up the ol' fear vocals.

This online screaming contest promises $500 smackers for the best scream.

Imagine all the Maximum Terror tickets you could buy for you and your friends with that green!

This is my BOOMSTICK

2007-06-27T01:10:00.000-04:00

Greatest zombie hunter ever? Bruce Campbell. If you haven't seen Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and especially the looney Army of Darkness, you're missing a great, grisly good time among the rotters of the underworld.

Remember: shop smart, shop S-Mart.

Dead Things Rot

2007-06-13T00:15:00.000-04:00

I always liked that title. I used it in a script I wrote for Hellboy creator Mike Mignola (name drop alert). This was in the Hellraiser comic I helped make happen, back in another life.

This partcular afterlife, though, is all about interpreting the spawn of George Romero. Zombies are the theme for this year's haunted adventure, and planning moves along to bring visitors a memorable visit among the Living Dead.

Why zombies? Because really, nothing ruins your day like something green and rotting trying to tear off chunks of your flesh with its teeth, all the while hissing "Braaains!" Except maybe clowns. Anyway, I'm aiming for calling this year's scream time Zombiepalooza. But we'll see how the votes net out.

Wherever that shakes out, be assured of a buncha new shrieks. We've got claustrophobic experience. Hellish lords that loom over the crowds and stalk about in inhuman fashion. And, of course, more lurching corpses than you can shake a shotgun at.

We'll be documenting the process here as we bring slithering things together for the main event. And making a few snarky observations on the state of fear as we shamble along. Stop by now and again, see how a haunted attraction comes together.