Haunted Houses, Halloween Stores, and Employment Law

Halloween is a $9 billion dollar industry with more than 175 million Americans taking part. Haunted houses are a 300 million industry according to an NBC news article from 2013.

Consumers were expected to spend $3.2 billion on costumes and $2.7 billion on decorations with 35% of consumers going to a Halloween store to buy their costumes during Halloween. More than 36 million people were projected to visit haunted houses in 2018.

It is no surprise that Halloween is so popular, and people spend so much money on it. It is ingrained in our culture. Many Americans have fond memories of watching It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, carving pumpkins, going trick or treating with just your friends, watching Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes or, if you are like my mother, scaring yourself silly with the latest horror film (Mom, why do you do that? Even your dog is too afraid to watch.).

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make haunted houses and specialty stores come alive each October.

Preparing for an Intense Season

A haunted house will only be open, typically, about 6-8 weeks per year. Some haunted houses are open the entire year or transition their business to escape rooms or another venue in the off-season. The setup time can be four weeks or even more for a haunted house.  As with anything else that requires setup, businesses must invest capital to see whether they will eventually succeed. Not all ventures are successful, so it is critical that haunted houses, Halloween stores, and any other pop-up businesses effectively prepare to run successfully.

Here are a few things that these businesses can do to increase their chances of success.

• Start planning early. Every haunted house needs effective planning to ensure that they are prepared for the short season. That means planning the haunted house design and ensuring that the materials are ready to be delivered to prepare for the setup.
• Train your workers. As with any popup business or event, you need to make sure that you quickly bring employees onboard so that they are ready to operate the facility when it opens.
• Have a well formulated recruitment plan and clear procedures
  • For example, the 13th Floor Haunted House in Houston, will hire over 100 people for the Halloween season. All of these employees need to fill out I-9’s, complete W-4’s, and a number of things. You can look at an earlier article I wrote on the things that you need to do when you hire new employees for more information;

Some Notes on Safety and Haunted Houses

Working in a haunted house is not easy. There are a lot of things that the actors and actresses need to do to prepare to safely work in a haunted house. OSHA can also inspect haunted houses as it can inspect any other amusement park or attraction. I have written a bit about improving workplace safety here but there are some special considerations for haunted houses.

Haunted Houses must adhere to strict protocol regarding protection from fires as noted by this blog post from Quick Response Fire Supply.

In 1988, haunted houses were classified as “special amusement buildings” and specific provisions were added to that year’s version of NFPA 101: Life Safety Code. Overall, these include:

Every special amusement building must be protected throughout by an approved automatic sprinkler system that is properly installed and maintained.

If the amusement building has low lighting levels, it must be equipped with a smoke detection system, which will sound an alarm at a constantly attended location on the premises.

In buildings where mazes, mirrors, or other features are used to confound the egress path, approved directional exit marking that will become apparent in an emergency must be installed.

Here is a really great article from Entertainment Safety Solutions discussing the numerous things that all haunted houses should consider (and may be required to do) before they open. The article is too long to quote in its entirety, but it has some really great tips that everyone should consider. It discusses Fire Prevention, Detection, and Suppression, Electrical Safety, Exits, Emergency Lights (Illumination), and Egress, and Training.

The training listed in the article includes:

Emergency Response and Evacuation Procedures, including employee accountability assembly locations.

Fire drills.  Log evacuation times and any difficulties and mitigation efforts to improve evacuations. Fire extinguisher use.

Guest/employee safety e.g. do not touch or chase guests, ADA considerations, frightened guests/chicken exits, hostile guests.

Pre-opening safety checklists and inspections.

Hazard recognition.

Fire watch procedures.

Maximum occupancy limits.

Important phone numbers and radio procedure

Training is especially important, as many individuals will be new to the experience of running a haunted house and many of them are young and inexperienced in the business.

There may also be local requirements that operators must consider. For example, Illinois has specific requirements that must be followed for facilities in that state. All haunted houses in Illinois must be inspected.

Dealing with People

Haunted Houses also have one very unique aspect that is not found in many businesses: danger from customers. Physical injuries are common as noted by this article on the Huffington Post:

According to former and current professionals in the haunted house industry, it’s common for customers to freak out from fear and bust noses, bite arms and throw punches at the people they’ve paid to scare them. “It’s common, absolutely,” said Allen Hopps, who trains actors to work in haunted houses. “The problem isn’t the haunted houses or the actors, but the customers. They forget that people are actors and have a flight-or-fight reaction towards the person scaring them, not realizing one might be a 16-year-old girl.”

Also in the Huffington Post article, one operator said “I know one actress who scared a guy and he forced his way through a back door so he could hit her in the face,’ Hopps said. ‘Even so, she came back the next year.”’

Training employees is critical for understanding the best ways to prevent injuries. Such training typically includes rules against touching customers, maintaining the appropriate distance, and responding if someone lashes out. One of the major things that the haunted house operators can do is train staff before it opens to recognize signs of alcohol and marijuana impairment. You can read more about recognizing the signs of impairment here. Having your local sheriff or your worker’s comp carrier provide training on this topic may be beneficial for you business.  Many businesses also employ security guards or others to deal with unruly customers also. It is often best to prohibit anyone that is drunk, high, or seems like they would cause problems from entering the haunted house. Safety of employees is critical and it is important that employees are trained before a problem occurs and that proper safety precautions are taken for your employees.

Moving Your Business into Other Areas

Haunted Houses, Halloween stores, and pop-up businesses are temporary businesses. They do not operate the whole year. Many operators cannot afford to work full time as haunted house, but there are some options.

Many haunted houses have begun to move into escape rooms. For some farms and other owners with adequate land, the haunted house was their side venture. When branching out there are a few important things for business(es) to consider and how they will affect your employment practices:

1. Will the new venture be its own business (LLC, etc.) or will it be owned by the current business? There can be important considerations regarding insurance, whether certain employment laws will apply (based on the number of employees), how the businesses will operate, and what will happen if the venture is unsuccessful.
2. If the new venture will be a part of the old business, then how will the duties of the various individuals change? You need to make sure to update any relevant job descriptions to ensure that everyone understands their responsibilities.
3. Update the employee handbook and any policies as necessary to adequately describe the new business venture and any necessary policy changes.
4. Do you need to adjust your various coverages (worker’s comp, insurance, etc.) based on the new venture?
5. Are you now subject to additional laws because you have more employees or because you now have expanded into another state or type of business?
6. Have you followed the right regulations for your new business venture?

Conclusion

Haunted Houses and Halloween stores have a lot of requirements that they must follow. There are a lot of unique situations that apply only to them. However, every business has its own unique requirements and employment issues. Every business needs to consider what they need to do in their specific industry, state, and their particular business to maximize their chance of success. Most importantly, have a happy and safe Halloween- and don’t punch a haunted house worker in the face.

The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.