Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Taylor Winters.
Dr. Winters, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I love immersive theater. But there was a time, I didn’t know what immersive theater was. I first learned about it after I moved back to Los Angeles and dived back into the horror scene. I heard about new experiences that allowed you to live out your own horror movie—experiences that promised an active role in your own story, the ability to lose yourself in another world, and an escape from the stresses of daily life. All those times, I yelled at the protagonist for running up the stairs—now I’d see if I’d fall victim to the same mistake.
I attended my first immersive experience in 2013: an abstract, surreal experience in which audiences could be touched called Alone. Oh, and as the name suggests, you went through alone. I started my journey in an alleyway in downtown LA at 1 am in front of a nondescript entryway, and when it was my turn, I climbed into a rickety freight elevator that ascended into the unknown. The experience was scary, but it was also beautiful, interactive, and self-exploratory. I quickly wanted more, but how do I google an experience that operates on the periphery of a subculture?
In those early days of the Los Angeles immersive horror scene, most experiences were hard to find: they were nebulous, unknown, and often unexpected. I relied on my friends to pass on companies they heard about—but this information sometimes became a cruel game of telephone, and misinformed threats of waterboarding prevented me from attending. After missing a few experiences that I later heard we’re amazing (and that didn’t involve waterboarding), I sought out a community behind this—but again came out empty handed. So, instead of waiting for someone else to make one, I decided to do it myself to help me as well as the many others who loved this genre. Thus, Haunting was born, with the goal of fostering a strong community around immersive horror while also educating and empowering the audience and creators within.
Over the past three years, Haunting has grown into the go-to site for immersive horror information, reviews, and community. I created the community that I so desperately sought and gave them a platform to talk and make friends with other like-minded individuals. The site employs some of the best writers I have ever met, providing artistically beautiful, but critically informative reviews and news for new experiences. We also have an incredible map, calendar, and catalog of events for those looking for something to do on a specific day or a specific area. Finally, to expand this site to that outside of LA and to those who can’t make every experience, we often write “recollections”, or walkthroughs, of our experiences so others can live these events as if they were there.
With this, Haunting provides the perfect starting point for any newcomer trying to enter the immersive horror genre and provides them with plenty of friendly faces to say hi to at any experience they attend.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The first struggle I came across was the website itself! Before the website was created, I worked with some talented artists and designers to help set a color palette and consistent theming for the site, but when I tried to actually get the website running, I hit a wall: web designers are expensive! I shopped around for someone reasonable who had a similar design aesthetic to me, but I was not successful. So, I did what any good entrepreneur does: I taught myself to code.
My first iteration of Haunting was a far cry from the website that it is today, but it was a start. Over time, I added to it, I refined it, I deleted entire pages, and I let it evolve organically. New staff members helped define its direction and make it a team effort—connecting it to the larger community that I love. We have a core group of dedicated audience who beta test some of our new features as well.
Please tell us about Haunting.
Haunting specializes in being your gateway to immersive horror. It’s frightening trying to step into an art form that is designed to scare you—but we want to make it just a little less scary and a lot safer. We accomplish this by educating both audiences and creators alike.
For audiences, we put together a profile page for every immersive company in the LA area. Our writers and I have spent months writing out what expectations people should have when attending a given company’s show—with detail on themes, contact levels, and triggers. These pages also serve as a one-stop-shop for these companies, detailing all articles we’ve written on them as well as full details on all upcoming shows by them. These profiles also lead to one of Haunting’s defining features: our intensity guide. This guide group experiences based on a 0-10 intensity rating, allowing guests to find other events that are similar to their favorite companies and ensures that they have the right expectations before they ever buy a ticket.
For creators, we want to ensure that they can learn from the successes, and the failures, of others who’ve come before them. Beyond the traditional interview, we touch on specific issues that plague immersive creators and provide detailed written guides. Some highlights include a detailed eight-thousand-word look at the nuances, hidden costs, and potential pitfalls of producing immersive theater, an article providing thirteen useful lessons, and a statistically-driven look at the breakdown of immersive theater in Los Angeles. Further, as a creator and audience myself, I always offer free consultations with creators to help ensure that their show is the best possible.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would have learned that I can’t do all of this by myself. There was so much that I did myself because I had a specific vision for it—but when I opened it up to others, their creativity and ingenuity surprised me. Haunting is not mine anymore, it’s everyone’s. Haunting is what it is, not because of me, but because of the incredible staff that it has attracted, because of the vibrant community that supports us and reads our articles, and because of this art-form that I am so passionate about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Haunting.net
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/HauntingNet/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HauntingNet/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/hauntingnet
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
