Afraid I have to jump in with some classic Control Booth Parade-Rain.
For background, my company installs haunted houses at our local theme
park every year, so I've put in my time in the trenches. Given that you are building a maze that the audience will be in, making exit routes difficult and obscure in a very dark environment, a LOT of attention has to be paid to
safety, and you will / should come under a lot of scrutiny from fire, building, and electrical authorities.
When we do it, we
build the maze from 4x8 hard walls. We submit plans to the building and fire departments. Licensed electricians install a
breaker panel and outlets to run lighting and effects, as well as exit signs and
emergency lighting. There is an
E-Stop system with strategically placed switches that will kill all the effects, turn on lights and
play a recorded announcement.
We pay a lot of attention to emergency exit doors,
ADA accessability,
ingress for emergency responders,
etc. We avoid all kinds of flammable materials, use class-A rated paint, and hose the whole place down with flame retardant. All
props and dressing are attached so securely that you cannot pull it down by
hand. Because people will try. Before we open we get electrical, building and fire inspections. And every year, those departments shut down many attractions that didn't jump through the hoops.
I'm not saying you can't do it, but I am saying you can't do it casually. You need to start talking to your Authorities Having Jurisdiction months in
advance. If you keep a friendly relationship with them, chances are they'll want to help you. Based on the size and scope of you project they'll make judgement calls about what you can and can't do, and how you should do it.
Imaging having hundreds of people inside a maze, in the dark, when a cheap electrical
cord makes a spark and starts a fire. It takes a lot of planning to get to the
point where the outcome of that scenario is everything's fine, and that's where you need to be.
By the way, every actor inside the
house gets punched at least once every year, and there are always minor medical emergencies when a patron gets scared and runs into a wall or something. It's a risky business, and takes a lot of mitigation.