Haunted Houses Go High-Tech

Haunted houses used to feature cheesy props covered with fake blood and a guy in a sheet who'd jump out at you. But today, haunted houses can be big businesses, and they're going to great lengths to give you a good scare.

A top attraction can make a killing, scaring up as much as a million dollars in tickets sales during the Halloween season. It's no wonder that many haunts are becoming bigger and more elaborate with more special effects.

"You could call it a spooky technological arm's race," Ben Armstrong, who worked in TV production before becoming co-owner of the Netherworld haunted house in Atlanta, told The Early Show national correspondent Tracy Smith. "There's haunted houses around the country doing amazing things every year."

Armstrong says the business of frightening people has gone high-tech.

"Now there's actually a number of companies that actually provide equipment to the haunted attraction industry that's very impressive … things that take people to another world," he said.

Visitors to Netherworld are greeted by a 20-foot audio-animatronic called the Slayer. If they get past the Slayer, there is a lot more scary stuff inside. There are more than 80 moving objects in this haunted house, and most are activated by unsuspecting visitors.

"All throughout the haunted house we have hidden switch mats that trigger big scares," Armstrong said.

Jay Wamsley works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but a couple nights a week he turns into a ghoul to scare people at Netherworld. He says all that screaming and laughing is a great release.

"I guess I've always been a bit of a — I won't say a prankster — but I've enjoyed my little jokes," he said. "This is really something where you can do some entertaining. They enjoy the adrenaline, they enjoy the laughter because they know they're being scared by something that's really not real."

It's not just ghouls and monsters, there are real life terrors, too. For example, a patron who is afraid of trucks will feel as though they are about to be run over by a 18-wheeler at one station.

Some experts say haunted houses have gotten better because they've had to.

"The public has become much more demanding," said D.R. Findley, who opened the Bayville Scream Park in Long Island this year. "They are jaded because of technology, so all their entertainment expectations have risen dramatically. So the haunted house industry has followed suit."

Findley's haunted mansion features Hollywood-style special effects.

"Without a doubt, some of the best things in the house are CGI effects," he said. "We have a ghostly librarian who is putting books away and then she breaks into a monstrous character. The rooms are very much like Hollywood sets because they encompass all the same things, be it special lighting, special audio, special effects. Everything that goes into the movie, we're doing here in these attractions."

Though this haunt has lots of mechanical scares, Findley says that can't replace flesh and blood.

"People want to feel the realism of a live person scaring them," he said. "An animated character even though it can provide great entertainment, its never going to be as spontaneous as a human being."