Garage Becomes Darkride in California!

DAFE Member Transforms Home Garage Into 1st Annual Darkride.

It’s always made more sense to me to lead your audience through an attraction with a ride vehicle, as opposed to a walk-through. You could control what they see, and just how they see it, like a director does when shooting a movie. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been interested in this unusual medium of darkrides. When I was about 12 years old, I created a ride-through haunted attraction in my parents garage. Although It was pretty crude, I thought it was well themed out. I built the ride vehicle out of wooden planks and skateboards that could be manually pushed and guided from behind.

My wife and I bought a house back in ’99 with a 2-car garage. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I could transform the garage into a ride-through haunted attraction. So that’s what I did. It’s called Scream in the Dark. I’ve been slowly working on it for about 3 years now. I thought I’d finally throw a Halloween party for friends and family for a test run this year. It turned out to be quite a success. I sent about 30 to 35 guests through (some kids rode double). The kids seemed to be genuinely scared, but curious while waiting in line. Just the results I wanted.

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This article ©2003 Rick Murphy and used with permission.
Photos ©2003 Rick Murphy, and used with permission.
You may contact the author through DAFE at .