PRESS RELEASE
 
TRANSWORLD’S HALLOWEEN AND ATTRACTIONS SHOW RETURNS TO AMERICA’S CENTER CONVENTION COMPLEX WITH 80,000 SF ADDED FOR CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION
2019 Expanded Show Will Feature Animatronics, Make Up, Special Effects, Lighting and More
St. Louis (February 4, 2019) – The Halloween & Attractions Show (HAAS) Featuring Escape Room City returns to the America’s Center with 80,000 square feet of added space for a new exhibition: the ultimate Christmas Show. In its 11^th year at America’s Center, guests will have access to two expansive presentations featuring holiday products from over 400 exhibitors, March 21-24.

The expanded show floor will feature the best animatronics, make-up, masks, special effects, props, Halloween merchandise, haunt design, lighting, concessions, food prep equipment and more. By popular demand, The Dark Zone and Interactive Pavilion which includes Escape Room City, returns with offerings specifically designed for the room escape, virtual reality and adventure game industries.
“It is a pleasure to host the HAAS show in St. Louis for the 11^th year,” said Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe, President of Explore St. Louis. “Our city is filled with outstanding attractions and cultural venues, and we take great pride in our holiday entertainment across the region. We’re eager to welcome the creative producers of the entertainment industry as they plan themed attractions across the globe!”
The Halloween & Attractions Show created the marketplace for the haunted house and escape room industry and has grown consistently over the past 30 years. U.S. consumer spending during Christmas season is approximately $800 billion ($8 billion for Halloween).

“We had record breaking attendance numbers last year,” said Jennifer Braverman, TransWorld President. “The Christmas Show is now the only trade show of its kind; we’re excited to offer visitors one show where they can plan for their entire holiday season.”

The 2019 show serves the interests and needs of buyers from amusement parks, zoos, aquariums, resorts, mall developers, corn maize’s and farms, retail establishments, haunted houses, family fun centers and operators of holiday exhibits and events.  It expected to draw nearly 12,000 attendees and generate approximately $5.1 million in direct economic impact for the St. Louis region.
 
Hundreds of exhibitors will offer: props and animatronics, games, costumes and prosthetics, concession supplies, ticketing and crowd management solutions (including technologies), music, décor, wrapping, and virtually any other themed product an operator or retailer might need around the holiday season.
 
The largest seminar series in the industry, educational sessions cover: theming out haunted attractions, discovering trends and practical tips, helping retailers and venue operators learn how to reach and appeal to consumers to grow their seasonal traffic and engagement, among others.

http://www.haashow.com    Learn more at www.haashow.com 

Watch a video of last years Haunt Show 

The 2019 Halloween and Party Expo with Hauntcon is happening this weekend in New Orleans January 25-27, 2019.  This show features everything you can image Halloween and party retail.  

Hauntcon is a small haunted house convention, with vendors, seminars and some tours.  If you own or want to sell Halloween retail get yourself to New Orleans for the show! 
 

Learn more about the Halloween and Party Expo by visiting their website www.HalloweenPartyExpo.com 

The biggest Halloween, Escape and Christmas Attraction tradeshow happens in March located in St Louis.  Learn more about that show at www.haashow.com 

 
 

Hell Fest is a horror movie set inside a haunted scream park where a rogue actor runs around killing patrons for real! Let me just start off by saying this movie wasn't scary, or original, and lacked good actors, director and witter.  This movie could be one of if not the worst modern day horror movie ever made.  What makes a good horror movie?  Well you need something original this movie doesn't have it!  How about good actors who can make you believe what is happening is real.  This movie lacked anything creative, good actors just top to bottom bad.  Personally I'd rather sit in a tub of acid than watch this movie again.  Okay you get it I hated this movie.  

Coming from a haunted house industry persons perspective this movie couldn't have been worse.  This movie tried to make a movie about a killer in a haunted house, and in doing so created the worst looking haunted houses, and created very false perceptions about the haunted house industry.  For example a clown actor runs over to a group picks up a girl and runs off with one of the girls... that would NEVER happen in a haunted house. Also wouldn't that be illegal maybe just maybe?  Another total false stereotype this film made about haunted houses is that haunts use REAL weapons.  During several scenes the killer was able to find for example a REAL ax stuffed in a fake dead body.  This would NEVER happen in a haunted house no haunt would use a real knife or ax to scare people or use as decor whereby the customers could simply grab it.  On several occasions the actors stop the guests, pin them down, strap them to a table and worse none of these things would ever happen in a haunted house.  The actors of this movie went into several haunted houses and in each case they're put inside alone left to wander around alone again simply would never happen.  Another scene had an actor jump on a young girl and straddle her all the way thru a fake dark ride.  The movie is filled with common industry rules that haunted house owners and operators would NEVER DO because its unsafe for both the actors and the customers. 

Lastly the notion that one of our actors would roam around the haunt, and start killing people as a sport, again would not happen.  Why?  Because for one groups always stay together so if you attacked a customer the rest would know.  Furthermore haunted houses have great security and actors are trained to be additional eyes and ears of the attraction.  If something looked out of place it would be reported right away.  Could something like this actually happen sure it could, and for Hollywood to plant such an idea in my view makes this libel for anything that could happen into the future.  



Not to get on a soap box but why does Hollywood preach liberal points of view, especially on gun control or violence against woman, when the movies they make create promote guns, death, destruction, violence especially against woman, sexism and worse?  Should they really be preaching to the rest of us?  

In closing, Hell Fest is a disaster of a movie, which creates a lot of falsehoods about attending a haunted house near you!  We can assure you that haunted houses are safe, a lot scarier than anything in this disaster, and most importantly safer!  Do yourself a favor and watch the new Halloween instead a very creative re-telling of a classic!  Thanks for reading.