Scare Tactics

Success is measured in different ways. Sometimes in really different ways.

“We have Jaycees who can’t wait for this to come around every year,” said Amber Kaufman, chairman of the Ventura Jaycees Factory of Terror, “because they absolutely love scaring people to death.”

The Factory, with its adjoining Maze of Massacre, consists of nine dark or strobe-lighted rooms in which gorey scenes of limb removal, alien autopsies, electrocution and other nasty things are performed by adults and high school students from throughout the community.

Like many haunted houses these days, the Factory comes with a warning. It is recommended only for those age 10 and older--though many younger children eagerly make the nerve-racking journey from bloody room to bloody room, albeit with parents closely in tow.

With a chain-saw-wielding maniac, a glowing, fog-filled entryway, an abundance of meat cleavers aimed at (or at least frighteningly near) visitors’ heads and menacing characters around every turn, the Factory is hardly the innocent, cutesy Halloween experience of many adults’ childhood memories.

It is more a sign of the maturing of Halloween.

“Originally Halloween was meant to be for small children, but things tend to be more aggressive these days,” said Kaufman, 24. “As time has progressed, things have gotten gorier and scarier.”

The 22nd annual Factory of Terror, running through Sunday, changes subtly each night, as different groups of teenagers take turns starring in the various skits of horror.

This year students from Buena, Oxnard, Rio Mesa, Newbury Park, Channel Islands, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Hueneme and Camarillo high schools, as well as a church youth group, will take part by the end of the Factory’s run. Proceeds benefit the participating organizations and the Jaycees, which provides leadership training through community projects for those ages 21 to 39.

Despite the smoke machines and the strobes and the loud music, Kaufman said the success of a haunted house can depend largely on back-to-the-basics scare tactics.

“The older ways of doing things can be a lot scarier. Illusion gets more of a response from the audience,” said Kaufman, who by day is an administrative assistant with Omega Technologies Inc., an aerospace tools manufacturer in Thousand Oaks. “If you try to get too high tech as far as lights and makeup, it can lose its effect.”

Steve Clay, head of the Los Angeles-based Fairy Tales Productions, said one of the keys to a successful haunted house is knowing your audience.

Clay is producing the theatrical Halloween Haunted House, running through this evening at The Esplanade mall in Oxnard. He said through flashlight signals from the folks at the front gate--one if a child, two if a teen--the actors performing the skits know whether to tame down or ratchet up their scares.

“It’s like rare to well-done, like a piece of meat,” Clay said. “If you have a group of 10- or 15-year-old kids, they are old enough that you can scare them a little more. For children 4 or 5, it is more of a visual thing.”

The theme of Clay’s Halloween Haunted House is Hollywood, with scenes from “Children of the Corn,” “The Shining” and other horror flicks depicted throughout.

“I hate horror movies. I cannot stand them. I get scared very easily,” Clay said. “I look at this as therapy for me. I get scared, but I love to scare others.”

And scaring young and old alike, he said, is what haunted houses are all about.

“A haunted house means you are going to get scared,” he said. “How scared you get is based upon the cast and how much they chase you.

“For younger kids, we use visual aids, trying to bring to life things they are aware of already, and show them that it is all based on imagination, that none of this is real,” he said. “If you can truly entertain someone in a fun sort of manner, you have succeeded.”

Mark Reyes, creator of the perennially popular Haunted Center, presented by the Young Artists Ensemble in Thousand Oaks, said his group leaves it up to a parent’s discretion whether to allow children through the haunted chambers. But generally, he said, the nearly two-hour theater-style production is intended for those age 13 and older.

The fifth annual version ran through Saturday, but was sold out weeks in advance. It was based on a series of theatrical scenes surrounding the story of Jack the Ripper.

“Because of the nature of the story, some of the stuff was rather grotesque,” Reyes said. “But more than anything, afterward the kids usually go, ‘God, that was pretty lame. Why didn’t they just rip her eyeballs out like they do in the movies.’ ”

Reyes said it is the unfortunate consequence of a violent society that as a creator of a haunted house he must stretch the grotesque factor to make an impression on some children.

“They are less innocent than they used to be,” said Reyes, who also had a Creepy Courtyard specifically designed for the younger children.

“The reason we chose the Jack the Ripper theme was because it seemed like kids weren’t reacting to anything anymore,” he said. “With the coverage of huge trials like the Menendez brothers and O.J. . . . maybe we have become jaded by that kind of exposure.”

Yet there remains room for traditional Halloween fun, he said.

“Halloween is still made for kids,” he said.

Jane Goldschmidt, executive director of the Ventura Boys & Girls Club, agreed that Halloween can still be more cute than terrifying. Goldschmidt was one of the organizers of the club’s Haunted House, intended for those age 12 and younger, running through tonight at the Ventura Harbor Village.

“We are always aware of the children and how scared they are, and we have staff who can make it easier for them by holding their hand,” Goldschmidt said. “We want them to get out of it a fun time, where they have made it through and get candy at the end. We don’t want them to jump out of their skins. It’s just a fun thing to do that symbolizes the holiday.”

This year, the house, as the story goes, belongs to a good witch. It is the goal of the visiting children to make it through the relatively low-tech abode, past spiders and a graveyard and other tried-and-true Halloween objects, to get to the treasured candy.

“It doesn’t have ooey-gooey stuff,” Goldschmidt said. “There’s nobody in a dark corner that’s going to scream and freak a person out.

“It is scary but it is not supposed to be terrifying,” she said. “There’s no shock value, just pure fun based on traditional Halloween characters.”

DETAILS

* Ventura Jaycees Factory of Terror, through Sunday at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, 7-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 7-9:30 p.m. Sunday. $7. Information: 650-6464.

* Halloween Haunted House, 7-10 p.m. tonight at The Esplanade, 195 Esplanade Drive, Oxnard. $5 adults, $3 children under 13, with proceeds benefiting Oxnard Police Department community programs. There will be a magic show at 5 p.m. followed by trick-or-treating and a costume parade through the mall. There will be a “Spooktacular” concert of Halloween tunes at 6:30 p.m. Information: 485-1146.

* Ventura Boys & Girls Club Haunted House, 6-9 p.m. today at Ventura Harbor Village, 1591 Spinnaker Drive, below the Santa Ynez Winery tasting room. $3 children when accompanied by an adult, $2 Boys & Girls Club members. Proceeds benefit the club. Village merchants will be open for trick-or-treating from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Information: 644-0169.