I think the main problem with this show is that it feels like outta being edited so that we actually believe the contestants are fearing for their lives. It's a game show. The viewers know it's fake, the contestants know it's fake, and the viewers know the contestants know it's fake. They really need to camp it up and get contestants that are more "cool, a haunted house game show" and less "ermagerd I'm totes dying in here".
When you're 17 a cow can seem dangerous and forbidden...am I alone here?
I've been thinking about this, and I think there must be agreements between the producers and the contestants. The contestants must be told NOT to say things to each other that would break the "story." These would include: "Don't be afraid, they're just actors!" "Remember, you can't really get hurt." "It's just a show, don't worry!"
There must be stipulations on what they're allowed to say, and it makes sense, since they're trying very hard to create a tense storyline, and to have people shouting out stuff like "it's just actors" would break the mood for TV, even if we all know it already. The contestants are probably also told not to hit or do harm to any actors. They also are obviously not allowed to say stuff like "I'll see you after the show" if someone is eliminated.
I wonder how much of the show is staged-- I don't see how the scenes where a spook suddenly "appears" in the elevator could be real. It appears to be a real, working elevator, and I don't think there is any way a panel could open up to let an actor sneak inside. It makes me question how much of the rest of the show is not simply staged as well. Thought that poor lady on the "H. H. Holmes" episode appeared to be in genuine blind terror. (As I probably would have been, even knowing it's all fake!)
> The contestants must be told NOT to say things to each other that would break the "story."
Probably true. But, I have a feeling that an entire game takes about three hours to film, so the editors have lots of footage and if the players do say things that break the story, that's just edited out.
> I wonder how much of the show is staged-- I don't see how the scenes where a spook suddenly "appears" in the elevator could be real. It appears to be a real, working elevator
I doubt it. I've never noticed the jiggling that we'd normally see in a moving elevator. Plus, there are a lot of cameras and monitors mounted on the inside of that elevator and that's much harder to do when the elevator moves around. I think the elevator is just a steel box they built in the middle of a warehouse. Then, when the elevator "moves" between floors, the crew is actually changing the sets outside the box. Maybe they've got three hallways behind fake panels and open one hallway for each player, sending them to different rooms in the warehouse.
At least, that's how I'd do it.
-- What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?
I don't see how the scenes where a spook suddenly "appears" in the elevator could be real.
Notice the lights go out first. You have a popout panel that looks exactly like the rest of the elevator, they step into the elevator while it is dark, crew puts the panel back.
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