"There are small haunts put on by organizations, like schools, and driven by volunteers; outdoor haunts with sprawling mazes where ghosts, ghouls and slashers hide; and haunts that live permanently in their spaces but open only during the weeks before Halloween. New York City’s Blood Manor falls into that last category.... Jim Lorenzo, Blood Manor’s owner and operator, said that he has to 'do 365 days worth of business in 23 days.'... Come Nov. 15, Mr. Lorenzo will hand his landlord a check for '$200,000-ish,' paying rent for the entire year.... 'We had to show financials because the landlord couldn’t understand, how could you afford to pay rent all year long'..."
From "The Bedeviling Work of Designing and Redesigning Haunted Houses/If you’re looking for the ultimate home renovation project, try opening a haunted house" (NYT).

१८ टिप्पण्या:
So these are companies that occupy housing for a year to make hundreds of thousands in a month. What about the homeless? Why not give them a place to live for all that money? You think a house is haunting, try living on the streets of NYC.
Those living on the street largely choose to do so.
You let them live in any property like this and it will be trashed very quickly.
I'm sure Mondami would approve.
The internet informs me that the movie is called House on Haunted Hill from 1958 with Vincent Price but I think I might have been thinking of the Three Stooges short where a suit of armor gets inhabited by a ghost. That or any number of episodes of Scooby-Doo.
It’s like grain crop farming. You put work in over the spring and summer and get your one payday when you harvest in the fall.
"The internet informs me that the movie is called House on Haunted Hill from 1958 with Vincent Price...."
I've seen that movie many times (all back in the 1960s). Check it out. The Price character is offering money to those who will stay overnight in the house. I've always remembered the line: "The only ghoul in the house is you."
Ah, yes, it's a "memorable quote" per IMDB:
Frederick Loren: Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, love.
Annabelle Loren: Darling, the only ghoul in the house is you!
...it wasn’t a haunted house but one of the teachers from my high school ran the local costume shop, Halloween Hall. (I think it was good for business he had only one arm and tucked the sleeve into the pocket of his lab coat or jacket.) Of course me being me I asked about the economics and yes you work like crazy for two months and it covers your annual. It helped it was in an old agricultural building. I heard he sold out to a chain and made a mint…
Taking someone out to a haunted house = Worst. Date. Ever.
Halloween corn mazes may keep some farms in business.
Probably most of his insurance liability happens in those 23 days. If he actually has business insurance.
Wandering thru the dark and waiting for some dumb-ass to grab me is not fun.
A haunted house should be full of wonder and imagination - with the spooky edge. They should also be fun for kids.
Hall of skulls. When it all becomes an overly gruesome and dark - I lose interest. It feels like it matches our overly dark culture.
Christmas Tree Shops have always been an economic mystery to me. I don't mean the places that sell Christmas trees. I mean the chain. How do they stay open 52 weeks a year?
(I see that they are now in bankruptcy--but mainly due to their being bought out by Bed, Bath & Beyond).
There are in fact businesses designed to lose money for tax purposes.
Worst date ever was when I took a nice Jewish girl out on a first date to see The Deer Hunter. I thought she'd like it because Meryl Streep was in it.
On cable, the HGTV network even has a series where six contestants live inside the “notoriously haunted” Bihl Manor in Fremont, Ohio while they renovate it.
I tried to watch one episode. Boring.
My 4 year old granddaughter has discovered ghosts and the Ghostbuster movies. Turns out we still had her Daddy’s old toy proton pack in a box in the basement, along with a bunch of ghostbuster action figures and related toys. Sometimes being a pack rat pays off.
I don't see what the draw is with haunted houses. I mean, you *know* everything is fake to try and "scare" you.
Last time I was in one, a young lady in a black face covering (like nylon+spandex covering) kinda jumped at me and I (playfully, I might add) stuck my face right up to hers and said "Boo!" and she said "That's not very nice" and I said "Hey, you're the ones scaring little kids."
Who can afford to renovate a house for Halloween, a one day event? Who pays money to visit one? Whatever happened to trick or treat and wearing costumes being enough for one night?
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