BY RICH HANF

Although I probably shouldn't be, I am always surprised when I learn about a haunt that is closing it's creaking doors forever. The last few years have seen quite a few recognizable names throw in the towel.....Terror on Church St. in Orlando, The Haunted Mansion in Kissemmee Fla., Spooky World Minn., Madison Scare Garden in NY, Jekyll & Hyde in Chicago, the Old Town Haunted House in Orlando, Zombie Xtreme down the Jersey Shore, and plenty more. Just this year IAHA President Liz Foral lost her Mystery Manor in Nebraska (after 20 years), Jeff Preston didn't do his Terror on the Square in Tenn. , and everyone's favorite Haunted House in the Chicago Land area, Dream Reapers Haunted House, went away too.

With things like the Rhode Island night club fire making fire & building inspectors all the more aware of their responsibilities and subsequent code enforcement, the price of real estate going through the roof making it almost impossible for would be haunters to secure a permanent location, a sluggish economy, the price of everything absolutely sky high...not to mention insurance being all but unaffordable.....starting up a new hunted attraction has become a challenge that many a home haunter is simply not up to meeting. With that in mind I think we are all kind of wondering what the future of haunting is and who are the haunters that will be bringing up the rear as the haunts and haunters we know today leave the business, go out of business, retire, or lose their location altogether.

In an attempt to get what can only be a general picture of who and what is on the horizon, I have decided (in conjunction with Hauntworld Magazine & Hauntworld.com) to do a year long story on some hopeful haunters. People who intend to pick up the mantle and take this industry into the first quarter of this still new century. I will track them regularly...introducing them to you, giving their respective backgrounds, telling you of their successes and failures. Most importantly we will get to see together how they meet their failures and challenges and how they turn them into victories. This will be a year long living breathing journey that we will all share together.

I guess you could call it the first ever REALITY HAUNTING series!!! Who will realize their dreams? Who will be left broke and broken hearted? Come with me now as I introduce to you some people that we will all get to know pretty well over the next year!!!!

Terror Team # 1.....our first spotlight focuses on three women from the Long Island New York area. They have spent the last few years visiting other haunts, going to conventions, cruises, and seminars, going to Horrorfind, Chiller Theatre, The Halloween Convergence in Sleepy Hollow NY, buying videos & books, and buying props at Transworld. They have done all this for the purpose of "educating themselves and networking." They are fun, personable, and focused women that range in age from the late 20's to the mid 40's (but we're not saying who is who) that are determined to get a haunt and make it work. They seem to be pretty close to realizing their goals.

Their names are Sharon Gillen, Tara Moon, and Dawn Mihalek. They were involved with a show in Dix Hills, NY so naturally I call them The Dixie Chix. Here is their background.

Rich Hanf.....At what point did you guys get together on this project?

Sharon Gillen.....Well, we had been friends for years and we really liked getting dressed up in costume. We enjoy that kind of theatrical stuff and were always looking for good causes to help out in. Another friend of ours had a pretty big piece of property and started decorating the front yard. As time went on it became more and more elaborate. At that time it was just me (Sharon) helping out and Tara and Dawn joined in later. This was about 4 or 5 years ago.

Rich Hanf.....So you guys were yard haunters whose display got bigger and bigger (as it usually does) and you decided to start charging a couple of bucks and giving the money to breast cancer.

Sharon Gillen.....Correct

Rich Hanf.....Now did people actually go into the house?

Sharon Gillen.....No, it was just the front yard and then the following year we actually built a 20 x 40 haunted house in the back yard. We actually sunk 4x4's into the ground and built a frame. It was pretty crazy actually but it worked. We ended up going to Chicago.....

Rich Hanf.....And you were blown away.....

Sharon Gillen.....And we were blown away...how could we not be? We were like kids in a candy store is what it felt like.....and by the time Halloween was over we had raised thousands of dollars...I think that year we raised something like $25,000.

Rich Hanf.....That's a lot of money!!!

Sharon Gillen.....Yeah...just through word of mouth. Family, friends, it was in a residential area but in a spot where the neighbors were ok...there was a school across the street for parking.

Rich Hanf.....So nobody was bothering you.....

Sharon Gillen.....Nobody.....everyone was in support of it and several neighbors actually came and helped out. The following year we did a 30 x 50 Haunted House in the back yard. We themed out the rooms, drew it out on a computer grid, and went to Chicago again.

Tara Moon.....Yeah, I had started out as the retail chick and Dawn did security. After that I was in the house doing a doll thing and by then it taking on a life of it's own.....growing on it's own. We were all into Rock & Roll and Horror so it was like a natural progression.

Rich Hanf.....So how did the split take place?

Sharon Gillen.....We really outgrew that space in the sense that in the last two years alone we had over 10,000 people come through and people started to trash my friends back yard. At that point she was just done...it was like... "you know what...if we're doin' this again it can't be here!!!".

Sharon Gillen.....Two other people that had been involved with us decided they didn't want to do it anymore...it had become too overwhelming for them...the amount of time and work that was going into it so they decided to back out. We weren't sure what to do next but our friends and family kept pushing us saying "do it again...do it again". So we said ok and we got together and formed a board. We created a "not for profit" status.

Tara Moon.....That way we could do a charity haunt for any worthy cause we chose. We didn't want to be tied to just one club or organization since there are so many out there.

Sharon Gillen.....In total there will be 11 people on the board but with each of us having our individual roles there shouldn't be any conflicts. It works for us.

What is your organization called?

TM.....Dragons Gate Productions

Rich Hanf.....So have you done a haunt as this new entity?

Sharon Gillen.....No we haven't.....we are leading up to that. We have done other things...

TM.....We have done other fund raisers like in Fire Island we did a Horror Circus, We did a Murder Mystery, we did Rocky Horror...we are very theatrical. They were all fund raisers.

Rich Hanf.....So where are you at now? What have you been doing to find a new location?

Sharon Gillen.....We were working with one site bit that fell through...it was just a piece of property, we were working with a restaurant but they couldn't meet the fire codes on their own let alone with a Haunted House, and we were working with a Castle but there were too many weddings at that time of year...so now we are working with some Fire Depts. and we are waiting to hear from them. We have been waiting for months and should hear from somebody this week. We had meetings, did a presentation, met with the people in charge of the area we want to use. If we get the approval of this one final fire Chief we will have our site for this year and probably ever more.

Rich Hanf.....What do you guys have to bring to the table? Do you have a show...do you have props?

Sharon Gillen & Tara Moon.....Oh yeah...we have props, we have lighting...we received a generous donation from someone at Chicago.

Rich Hanf.....Where do you keep your stuff?

Sharon Gillen & Tara Moon...(everyone laughs) Our houses (said together)!!!.

Sharon Gillen.....You asked us what we did...basically Dawn works and in between that time we are always doing something in reference to moving the project forward. It really is time consuming, overwhelming, and VERY expensive.

Tara Moon.....Being a non profit we have to pay for everything out of our own pockets and hope to get it back in October. We travel to other Haunts, take make up classes...everything.

Sharon Gillen.....This year people knew that we weren't doing the house so people wanted to rent our props and asked us to do things for them.

Rich Hanf.....There is a nice little business in doing that. You can go to wealthy neighborhoods and rent out your stuff to rich people for their Halloween parties...then it snow balls into other parties and events...hey do you put up Christmas displays...etc. It's a whole little sub genre that nobody ever really talks about.

Rich Hanf.....Let's get back to your plans for this year.....what happens if the Fire Dept. doesn't come through?

Sharon Gillen.....Well, I had a meeting with some town officials by me and they had wanted to give us a space last year. Everyone's intentions are good but a lot of things have to happen in reference to that space. We want to do the right thing and not turn down people that offer us space only to have to go back to them and ask for it again.....so we want to make sure it is right.

Rich Hanf.....Are you guys IAHA members?

Sharon Gillen.....Oh Yeah

Rich Hanf.....You may need to be a member in order to get into Chicago this year.

Sharon Gillen.....I think that being a Not For Profit will work towards our advantage.

Rich Hanf.....Considering how much time, money, and effort is involved with doing a haunt, I could never just turn around and give all the money to someone else....whether it's a charity or not (although that's exactly what I did in 1982.....it's a heart warming story but that's for another day). If it's a yard haunt where everyone is enjoying it...that's ok...but running a business only to give it all away has never really made a whole lot of sense to me. Do you ever think about making some money yourselves doing this?

Sharon Gillen.....I think that's a natural feeling. Maybe somewhere there is something we could do to make money...I mean, we need money to keep going.

Tara Moon..... And people we do make up on go out to bars and win money for their costume. Hopefully, one day, we can branch out and do something to make money

Sharon Gillen.....We are looking at some other haunts that do it for charity but the difference is the people running those haunts are allowed to take a salary. I think we have that potential here as well.....because the fact is that you are right.....it is all consuming, and it is a business...and most people don't understand that.

Tara Moon.....That's not my forte'.....right now we don't take money for haunting, we give it

Sharon Gillen.....Listen to her...she is saying 'that's all right"...she's just sweet basically...she's just sweet.

We all laugh. Basically we are doing this because we love it...we love the screaming, we love the sound, when it's happening and it's built and people are going through it and you rock them down to the ground screaming.....you can touch that sensation at that moment.....know what I mean?

Rich Hanf.....I think we do girls, I think we do.

Join us in the next issue of Hauntworld to see what happens to the Dixie Chix.....will they get their final Fire Dept. approval????? Will they have to reopen some doors in the local community they chose to keep closed last year or continue searching for the perfect location?????

THE HALLS OF BEDLAM

Our next victims...errr...subjects hail from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. They are a husband and wife team. Anyone who is on the IAHA Yahoo board will undoubtedly recognize her name as she posts often. I met them both last year when they attended my Transworld seminar on how to get into the haunted attraction industry. Their journey thus far has been a tough one, but they are not giving up. Ladies and Germs...Boys and Ghouls...say hello to Gail Strumberger and her husband Randy. I did this interview with Gail as Randy was not available.

Rich Hanf.....So how did you come to the world of haunting?

Gail Strumberger.....Well, we have always like Halloween a lot. We always decorated the outside of the house and visited other Haunted Houses. In fact, October 31 is my birthday!!!

Rich Hanf.....And you are how old?

Gail Strumberger.....You really aren't going to ask me that are you?

Rich Hanf.....I just got off the phone doing another interview for this article and those guys were all in their 40's.

Gail Strumberger...OK...well, I'm 50

Rich Hanf.....I'm finding that the average age of people wanting to get into this business is somewhat older than people might think....so you were always into the Haunted Halloween thing.

Gail Strumberger...Yes, we were. We decorated our front lawn and went around to other haunts.

Rich Hanf.....So you didn't decorate too much, just enough to keep the spirit going.

Gail Strumberger.....We must have been doing something right cause the decorations were good enough to steal!!! (She Laughs).

Gail Strumberger.....Actually, we never really thought of doing a haunt as a business. We always thought they were fund raisers or Jaycee houses. One day we were doing a search for more local haunts and all these places came up. We said "not every one of these places can be a fund raiser...so that's where we got the idea of doing a haunt as a business.

Rich Hanf.....What did you do next?

Gail Strumberger.....We went to Transworld..... for the first time in March of 2001.

Rich Hanf.....What was it like going to Transworld for the first time?

Gail Strumberger.....OVERLOAD.....We attended the seminars, and for a beginning haunter there was just soooo much information, so many people to meet and network with. It was fun putting peoples faces with their names.

Rich Hanf.....Even though you didn't have a haunt yet did you start buying props?

Gail Strumberger.....Oh yes...lighting and sound. Randys first and favorite prop was the "Count Grabula" by Ex-Mortis.

Rich Hanf.....So you leave Transworld in March of 2001 and you're excited and full of new found knowledge and friends and new props.....did you get a place to do a haunt that year?

Gail Strumberger.....No we didn't.....nobody wanted to give us a short term lease or rental.

Rich Hanf.....That's a pretty common problem straight across the board...just so you know. So what did you do after that?

Gail Strumberger.....Well, it was now March 2002 and we returned to Transworld again....and did the seminars again and networked some more and bought more props...same as in 2001. But it was kind of weird this time...I kind of felt like a leper. We would talk to people and they would ask where our haunt was and we would say we don't really have one yet...we are in the building stage.....and they would walk away from us as though we had no knowledge to offer anybody.

Rich Hanf.....Well, I didn't do that

Gail Strumberger.....No you didn't, you were wonderful. We bought things like bones and skeletons from Anatomical Chart Co.

Rich Hanf.....Were you IAHA members?

Gail Strumberger.....Yes we were

Rich Hanf.....Do you feel that being IAHA members helped you in any way?

Gail Strumberger.....Oh yes.....the networking and the information found on the message board was very useful.

Rich Hanf.....You know of course that information exchange was going on in the different boards that already existed.....especially Hauntworld.com.

Gail Strumberger.....That's true...and we did visit other sites regularly.....and we still do.

Rich Hanf.....So you left Transworld in 2002 with more props, more contacts, more information... did you get a location in 2002?

Gail Strumberger.....Well, we thought we did. We found a good location and there seemed to be a lot of support but there was an Alderwoman that just didn't want it. She was concerned about too much traffic etc. We had already secured permission to use a local parking area at night but that didn't matter to her. (An Alderwoman is a female member of the town council). That was in August and we felt it was getting too close to pursue anything so we just did what we always did....which was we decorated our house and went to see other haunts.

Rich Hanf.....OK...now we fast forward to March of 2003...I know you went to Transworld that year because I saw you there. In fact you came to my seminar on getting into the Halloween business. Was I right or what?

Gail Strumberger.....Yes you were right.....DAMN YOU.....we just sat there nodding our heads agreeing with everything you were saying. We didn't find too much else of any value in the other seminars because they were repeats of previous years.

Rich Hanf.....And how many people did I say you would do?

Gail Strumberger.....You said 5000 if we were lucky

Rich Hanf.....And how many people did you do?

Gail Strumberger.....4200.....DAMN YOU!!!

Rich Hanf.....People always hate it when I'm right because I always paint a somewhat grim and very sobering picture of exactly what it's like to get into this business. When I'm right it makes people stop in their tracks and really think about what they're doing. Losing all your money the first time out of the box really stops you dead in your tracks and that's what I try to warn people about.

Gail Strumberger.....One seminar we went to was supposed to be about lighting and sound. In reality it turned out to be a manufacturer who seemed to be defending why it sometimes takes so long to get an order filled that's placed at Transworld. We complained about it but who knows whether or not it did any good.

Rich Hanf.....There has always been something like that going on. I remember one seminar I went to where a magician was going to teach us all about illusions and special effects.....so he does trick after trick and when people asked him how it was done he said....."I can't tell you that, I'm a magician and a magician never reveals the secret to his tricks. People were totally pissed...here they are paying almost $300 to watch some guy perform and tell them nothing.

All I can say is that Transworld does take the attendee surveys very seriously, so if you complained about it I'd bet some action was certainly taken.

OK...so you leave Transworld....do you have a place lined up at this point?

Gail Strumberger.....Well, we did have a location and we were going to do a kind of tent show there but the local building inspector wanted so much stuff done it was like taking this temporary use tent and turning it into a permanent building.....so we decided not to do it.

Rich Hanf.....Then what...I know you did a show this year...how did you make that happen.

Gail Strumberger.....A friend of ours lives in a city that's trying to draw new business in - to revitalize its economy. The Mayor's office actually provided us with names of landlords that owned vacant buildings and it was through this method that we found our location. Trouble is that it was not the best location by any stretch. It was almost 3 times as long as it was wide, parking could easily have become a problem if we had done more business, we were not allowed to have any totally dark hallways, and the ceilings were white making it very difficult to keep the show dark.

Rich Hanf.....How was the show received?

Gail Strumberger.....Pretty well, the local newspaper gave us a "B". The building was 7000 sq ft but the landlord needed approx 2500 of it for his antique bicycle collection. After we lost space for fire emergency aisles we were left with only 2500 sq ft.....pretty small compared to the 7000 sq ft we thought we had. The only real complaints people had was that the show needed to be longer and the atmosphere wasn't that good.....and they were right but what could we do. The building inspector demanded we install an interconnected smoke detection system and run enough other hard wiring that we had $4000 to $5000 in unexpected expenses.....so we literally couldn't finish our sets. It was a case of the building inspector caring more about the fire inspectors job than his own.....and he got away with it. That money was supposed to go towards the house.....things like sets and scenery. Some people said we were more hype than show but what can you expect when you are hit last minute like that? I would follow people through to make sure they were having a good time and I would say that we had approx 80% customer satisfaction.

Rich Hanf.....But it wasn't enough was it? You just didn't do enough people and you lost a lot of money right?

Gail Strumberger.....Unfortunately, that's correct

Rich Hanf.....And how did that make you feel....to lose location after location then finally getting one only to be broadsided at the last minute and after still giving it your best shot lose your investment?

Gail Strumberger.....It felt like we were "gut kicked".

Rich Hanf.....I know.....there comes a time when you realize that no matter how many people you do it just won't be enough...it's too late...it's over and you lost. It makes you sick to your stomach.

They say be careful what you wish for...you may get it. You wanted to do a haunted house and you did...you didn't say you wanted to do a haunted house AND MAKE MONEY...LOL.

Gail Strumberger.....Yeah...I don't know what happened. Maybe cause we were so new. I thought that by being new we would attract people.

Rich Hanf.....I always thought it takes a couple or 3 years to build a following.

Gail Strumberger.....On the other hand I know we had a fan club. We heard through the grapevine that in several high schools we were all the kids talked about.

Rich Hanf.....Makes you feel good right?

Gail Strumberger.....Makes up for all the people that came out the other end that said....."that sucked". We both laugh. How do you take the sting out of that?

Rich Hanf.....So where are you at right now.....will you be back at last years location and do you have enough money to continue?

Gail Strumberger.....No.....no we won't take that location again. It just wasn't good for us. In terms of money...I don't know. We have a plan to rent out our walls during the summer to make the money we need to keep going. We also made some great business contacts in 2003 who said to call if we needed help finding a location. And we're aware of an opportunity that exists to help someone get a Halloween Fest together. We'll investigate that as well.

Rich Hanf.....Will we be seeing you in Chicago this March?

Gail Strumberger.....Oh yes.....we'll be there...but we won't be doing the seminars. We have kind of gotten everything we can out of them for now.

Rich Hanf.....check in with us next issue to see what progress Gail & Randy are making in securing a location and getting some funding.....or will they take their show to the fair grounds? See you then.

SCARED YET PRODUCTIONS

Our search leads us to the Kentucky area this time, to the home of 3 middle aged home haunters. They have started a company called "Scared Yet Productions". The ring leader of this trio of terror is Brian Ward who has been home haunting for 8 years. Over the past few years he has been joined by Jack Bixler and Michelle Rowan. Having decided to make the leap to pro haunting, they have been doing research for the past 4 years. They have been friends for a long time as the result of working in food production and distribution for the nationally known Pappa Johns Pizza.

Rich Hanf.....How did you guys come together. Did you grow up in the typical haunters way of always loving scary movies and haunted houses?

Brian Ward.....I can't speak for the other guys but I've been into Halloween as long as I can remember. I have always loved scary movies, trick or treating, Haunted Houses...the whole deal.

I remember my first Haunted House where my mom actually carried me through with my head buried in her shoulders.

Jack Bixler.....I not only had the love of it but I had the respect of it that it always scared me. Through what Brian has shared with us vision wise of what he wants to do I have had a growing interest in the business.

Michelle Rowan.....I guess I'm kinda like with Jack. We always went to Haunted Houses and horror movies as kids. It was always a fun time of year. Working the haunted yard with Brian is a whole lot of fun and something we look forward to all year.

Rich Hanf.....you guys have a favorite horror movie?

Michelle Rowan...Mine would be Halloween...Jack Bixler...Halloween or Session 9.....Brian Ward....Chainsaw Massacre

Rich Hanf.....OK...so you guys do the home haunt every year, and I imagine that every year it gets a little bigger and a little better.....do you get a lot of people coming by to see what you are doing?

Brian Ward.....We always get a lot of what I call drive by trick or treaters. This year was probably the biggest. We had 150 to 200 people come through.

Rich Hanf.....When you say come through do you allow people to actually come on your property or are they on the street just watching?

Brian Ward.....No, we set up a black plastic maze in the back yard. They come in through the driveway. Michelle is the gate keeper there.

Rich Hanf.....How about the corn stalks I saw?

Brian Ward.....The corn stalks were from 2 years ago. They were on the front lawn and that was a maze as well.

Rich Hanf.....OK...so you guys are having fun doing your front yard but at some point you said...hey this is pretty cool but maybe we could do our own Haunted House. Tell me where you're at in that process.

Brian Ward.....Well, back in 2000 Larry Kirchner had sent an e-mail out inviting everyone to come out to St. Louis for a behind the scenes of "The Darkness". It sounded interesting so me and Jack went out and did that. We spent the day there talking to everyone and going to see his other haunts. That kinda sparked the thought to start looking at it as more of a business and not just a one night a year thing. After that I was still in the mood to travel and Cydney was doing her Fright Night so we went out to "Rocky Point" and saw what she did. We had never seen anything like that around here so it kinda showed us how well it could be done. We don't plan on being the next Rocky Point any time soon but it did point out the differences that are out there compared to what's here in town. We are a major city with close to a million people population and you can count the haunts here on one hand.

Rich Hanf.....What do you attribute that to?

Brian Ward.....I don't know. The ones that are here are doing big business and most of them are owned by the same person.....we are going to try to change that I hope.

Rich Hanf.....So you're going to try to do something this October.

Brian Ward.....Yes...we're gonna try to do something this year.

Rich Hanf.....So, what have you done to make that dream a reality?

Brian Ward...Well, the three of us are on board now, we have our business plan together...we are looking at this as a business.....obviously it's gonna be a lot of hard work and a lot of time put into it...there will be very little return for the first few years...we understand that going into it....we are going to have to look for financing and have already talked to some people that are very interested in possibly backing us.

Rich Hanf.....How much you lookin' for?

Brian Ward.....To start out we're looking for $68,000

Rich Hanf.....Laughing...it could surprise you and go a little higher than that.

Brian Ward.....$68,000 is the beginning capital but not everything it will take to get everything going. We are relying on a couple of weeks ticket sales to get some money coming in.

Rich Hanf.....If I were you I would go for the full amount and not rely on the ticket sales because if they don't happen you're screwed whereas if they do happen it's easy to pay that money back.

Rich Hanf.....What exactly are you guys doing in terms of finding a location?

Brian Ward.....I tried to get this off the ground last year and location turned out to be one of the biggest road blocks or obstacles.

Rich Hanf.....No question

Brian Ward.....We are basically just driving around the city looking for places. We are looking for either a warehouse or old store front. We are hoping to do a 6000 sq ft show with another 2000 sq ft for storage.

Rich Hanf.....Do you go to Transworld?

Brian Ward.....I've been there the last two years and we are all going to try to make it this year if we can get in.

Rich Hanf.....Do you have a lot of props that you could put into a Haunted House?

Brian Ward.....I have a lot of stuff that I've collected over the years but I'm not real big on animatronics. I'm an actor driven scare type of guy. Our theme this year will be an asylum cause it cuts down on the make up and costumes you need and cuts costs on props because it doesn't have to be too elaborate.

Rich Hanf.....Are any of you guys good scenic painters...any artists in the group?

Brian Ward.....We're sure gonna try...there are a few people at work that we may be able to get some help out of....people that are good at building things and keeping them from falling apart. We'll see what we can do.

Rich Hanf.....Your biggest challenge seems to be the lack of a location.

Brian Ward.....Like I said, I tried to get this going last year. A lot of people I talked to just weren't interested in short term leases or didn't want to deal with the haunted attraction industry. A lot of people don't understand that it is an industry.

Rich Hanf.....It is certainly very tough...and expensive. If I might suggest...perhaps you should look for a partner...someone that already has an ongoing business going...perhaps a farmer that has a successful fall harvest business going. OK...what other plans do you have. Have you spoken to any inspectors?

Brian Ward...Not yet...we are really just beginning.

Rich Hanf.....OK...lets say you get this thing going. Are you looking for paid actors or volunteers?

Brian Ward.....I'd like to do both...some key people that would get paid and the others volunteers but the labor laws seem to say that we can't do that unless we are a non profit organization.

Rich Hanf.....I'm sure that would be the case.

Brian Ward.....We've been working with a small business consultant to help us get a business plan together. We have a 3 year plan but plan on making money in our second year.

Michelle Rowan.....We hope to get into some of the area high schools.....if for instance we go to their drama club or art dept. and they help build the Haunted House they are more apt to come and tell their friends to come. Fortunately, both Jack & I have teenagers. They hear us talking about it and get excited. A group of teenagers can hand out a lot of flyers.

Rich Hanf....I sure hope they do. We will check in next time with the team from "SYP". Will they find financing??? Will they find a location??? Will they survive to give some competition to the local monopoly haunt??? We'll all find out together!!!

ZOMBIE X TREME

It is Saturday morning February 7th and I’m talking to Jerry Dalessandro from Zombie X-Treme. Seems his best friend and partner Jack Lototolo got married just last night. When the happy couple were introduced to their loving family and friends at the reception, they came out to a disco version of "Halloween". At the end of the night Jerry says to Jack..."well, I’ll see you tomorrow". Jack looks at him and says "are you kidding...I’m going on my honeymoon". Jerry says..."listen, I want to build a couple of corpses in the shop...we have to stay focused". Jack says "my wife will kill me". At this point Jerry laughs...he was just kidding...kind of. This is the intensity and determination that are the boys from Zombie X-Treme.

Anyone who has been around for a year or two probably remembers Jack & Jerry from the Jersey shore haunt they did called ZOMBIE X-TREME. They burst onto the scene several years ago with a "big dog" attitude that won them both fans and critics (as people who put themselves out there are likely to have).

Their story starts off as many of our stories do. They began by helping out their local home haunter in Brooklyn NY and after several years of doing that they began doing their own home haunt. After several years of home haunting they decided to start sharing their knowledge and started putting out "how to" video tapes.....something they are doing to this very day. We all know that haunting kind of just takes over..... and the boys were no exception. By this time they had become obsessed with the idea of getting their own haunt. Now, up to this point the above story could be about almost any home haunter. This is where it takes a hard left. Although the boys were from Brooklyn they decided to hit the Jersey Shore in hopes of opening a professional haunt. They took numerous trips to the Jersey Boardwalk trying to find the perfect place.

One of those trips yielded a contact phone number. They called the number and were on their way.....to hell!!! Although they both had good paying professional jobs, both Jerry & Jack quit those jobs only to end up sleeping in their car on a side street in Seaside Heights N.J.. They threw it all away to follow their dreams. Anyone thinking that this was an easy thing to do had better think again. From problems with the local fire inspector to an unforgiving building inspector (they were not allowed to build their own walls...the inspector insisted that they use a professional carpenter...at astronomical rates of course) they faced road blocks at every turn.

They got open a week or so late for the 2002 summer shore season so they missed the biggest three days of the season...Memorial day weekend. From there it started to rain and pretty much didn’t stop for the entire season. Add to that a location that was tucked away in the back of a building and local ordinances forbidding them from advertising on the boardwalk itself... and you have a recipe for financial disaster. By the time Labor day was over Jerry and Jack were both celebrating the fulfillment of their dreams while lamenting the fact that financially the summer had been a disaster. Armed only with a positive attitude and what was left of their credit cards they headed straight into the Halloween season determined to make up for the summers short fall. Enter the villain...Mr. Greedy Landlord. He insisted on raising the rent for the Halloween season, so now there was that to deal with. Now it’s important to remember that come October the Jersey Shore is a ghost town. All the operators are in Florida counting their money. The word was that Zombie X-Treme had bigger crowds than anyone had ever seen that time of year...and that was probably true...however...although 500 people on some nights was more than anyone had ever seen down there in October, what seemed to be great was in reality too little too late. BUSTED...with Halloween being a losing season on top of a summer season that was also a loser Jerry and Jack had just one thing to hang on to...the hope of doing better next year as the opening expenses would be only a fraction of what they were the first year. Enter the Villain again. Thinking that they had made a killing during Halloween he had no choice but to raise the rent...again. That was the last straw. By the time spring had arrived the entire Zombie X-Treme show was in moth balls in some trailers in New Jersey and the greedy landlord now had tumbleweeds to try to get the rent out of. The landlord never did rent their location to anyone else even though the spot was offered to other haunters (myself included). As the clock started ticking towards Halloween 2003 the boys began their quest to find a new location.....Jerry picks things up from here:

Rich Hanf.....So what happened with you guys this year...did you get a place to continue doing Zombie X-Treme?

Jerry Dalessandro.....Well, almost.....we started looking around for location and we ended up in Staten Island New York.

Rich Hanf.....I worked there for 10 years so I know it well

Jerry Dalessandro.....We found this old hospital called Seaview which was perfect. It was in terrible condition...paint was literally flaking off the walls...it was totally run down and decrepit...but it was perfect for us. There were still people working in some parts of the building so we approached them with the idea of doing a Haunted House there and they loved the idea.

I mean, this place was really haunted. Jack and I would be walking around downstairs and doors would be closing and we’d hear noises. I was so psyched to do this place that I started yelling at the ghosts saying...hey it’s me and I’m gonna really haunt this place so you better get used to me cause I’ll scare people better than you!!! That’s how excited I was to do the show in this place.

Rich Hanf.....So what happened.

Jerry Dalessandro.....It was unbelievable.....one night I’m watching tv over my mothers house and on comes this show called "Haunted Staten Island" and guess what place they decide to showcase? Seaview!!! I’m sitting there and on the tv is the place I’m gonna do Halloween at. Well, right away I knew this was trouble......and was I ever right. All of a sudden the people at Seaview change their minds and didn’t want to have anything to do with us or the Haunted House. When I asked them why... they told us that after the tv show so many local kids had tried to break into the place .....and vandalize the place .....that it just wasn’t worth it. It was horrible.

Rich Hanf.....So what did you do next.

Jerry Dalessandro.....After the shock wore off I went right back to making the Creepy Collection...you know...our prop line. At this point I had no job, no income, had a baby on the way. The only thing that saved my ass was making my props and selling them on E-Bay. I needed more room to keep making props and my corpses so I moved out of Brooklyn and into Staten Island. I found a nice workshop and we live in a nice place over the shop. The shop is 45 feet long by 50 feet wide.

Rich Hanf.....What did you try next?

Jerry Dalessandro.....Well I went to this family entertainment place called Fun Time USA cause I heard they wanted to do a Halloween attraction. I told them about Zombie X-Treme and by the time I was done they loved the idea. I told them listen...this is the bottom line. I have thousands and thousands of dollars worth of props doing nothing in storage in New Jersey. Everything I have is tied up in there so I don’t have extra capital at this point. I can come up with $4000 that we can put into advertising or insurance..... but that’s about it. "I even signed a paper saying that they were not responsible if anything happened to me"!!!

Well, they didn’t care...they wanted me to get my own insurance. I got $1,000,000 for $3000. Then it comes down to they wanted me to bolt the walls in from the top instead of from the bottom into the floor.....and he wanted it mentioned in the insurance that they are covering the walls that are bolted from the top. The insurance will only cover us if we bolt from the bottom. On top of that they decided they wanted me to close as early as 9pm during the week and early on weekends too. Then they said that if we did over 15,000 people we would have to pay for security. By that time I had had it up to here so I said to Jack.....you go take care of this. If it’s green or red I don’t care anymore. Jack spoke to them again and walked away saying I guess it’s a wrap!!!

Rich Hanf.....Good...better no deal than a bad deal.

Jerry Dalessandro.....So we had three things go sour last year...we lost our place on the boardwalk, we lost Seaview, and finally Fun Times USA. Jack didn’t even want to come out of his house. I needed to do something cause now it was Halloween time so I said...yes it’s October, yes, I’m massively depressed, but to appease the Halloween Gods I’m gonna decorate my house with every mother f***in prop that I have.....and I’m gonna dress up and I’m gonna scare every damn kid that comes trick or treatin!!! That’s better than moping around the house on Halloween. Jack on the other hand.....moped.

Rich Hanf.....If I know you guys you’re not going to sit around too long!!!

Jerry Dalessandro.....No!!! I’ve already started looking. I also spend a lot of time down in what I call my "dungeon" working on props. I think I’ve made some pretty cool looking skulls already this year...and I’m working on some corpses and some other things.

Rich Hanf.....Are you going to Transworld this year?

Jerry Dalessandro.....I’m undecided at this point (February 04). I was going to go but now after hearing all this s**t I don’t know.

Rich Hanf.....Would you do HauntCon instead?

Jerry Dalessandro...I’M DOING HauntCon!!!...I’m going as a vendor with the creepy collection. I think it’s a good idea. Transworld don’t want us and I don’t think IAPPA is the answer. Perhaps a convention for haunters by haunters is the answer.

Rich Hanf...I know Hanf-A-Domous has predicted that although it will fall way short of being Transworld, it will be the best attended "event" in the industry and in 3 to 5 years time it will be a force to be reckoned with!!!

Jerry Dalessandro.....I think so too. I know there are a lot of people out there saying a lot of negative things.

Rich Hanf.....I think that any of us that has ever done any kind of show has to realize how impossibly difficult doing any show is. What Leonard is trying to do is an unbelievable amount of work and I think we all need to support someone that is trying to pull off something of this magnitude.

Jerry Dalessandro.....It seems that Transworld didn’t want us until they found out about HauntCon. I started thinking that the big stores like Party City will never buy anything from my creepy collection but at HauntCon, where lots of home haunters will go, I can sell one of this or two of that. If I sell only two corpses the booth is paid for. When it comes to HauntCon...this is it!!!

And so is this!!! Will Jerry & Jack finally find a new location...will they go to Transworld...will their Creepy Collection be well received by the smaller haunts and the home haunter set at HauntCon? How will having a new baby (Jerry) and a new wife (Jack) affect their efforts to find and then do a new haunt? We will have a lot to catch up on with these guys in our next issue.

ALLEY OF THE DEAD

Our last segment features a 36 year old woman who comes from the Dayton Ohio area by way of Vermont and Massachusetts. She has been involved with haunting for quite some time now and can boast what most would consider a successful run at it. Her name is Rhee LaFountain and after getting a college degree or two she decided that what she likes doing best is running a haunt and scaring people. What I like about Rhee (aside from the fact that she has all my books & tapes and calls me a haunting God) is that she goes it alone. She has no partners or friends involved with her. What she does, she does alone and that makes her different from everyone else we’ve spotlighted here so far. I caught up with Rhee the second week of February just before this story went to print.

Rich Hanf.....It says in your e-mail to me that you have been doing haunted things since you were 12 years old. What could you possibly have done at 12 years old?

Rhee LaFountain.....I acted in little non profit haunts. I was living in Bennington Vt. at the time and the local high school was doing a haunt to raise some money and I was 12 and by the time I was 18 and a senior I took it over. I ran it. Apparently I was the only teenager twisted enough.

Rich Hanf.....Well after all...it was Vermont

Rhee LaFountain.....Yes...there is a whole cow thing there.

Rhee LaFountain.....After that I pretty much fell into the non profits...I co-chaired them, I did make-up and costumimg, I organized actors...then all of a sudden I wasn’t happy pulling someone elses oars...and one day I was the Chairman. I don’t know what else you would call it...I was the one in charge. From there I went to a little haunt in Williamstown Ma. in the Berkshires. It was another non profit...a haunted trail called "Shadow Hollows". What I liked was that I no longer had to be a member of the organization that I was running the haunt for. I ran "Shadow Hollow" for 3 years...from 18 to 21.

Rich Hanf.....OK...now you are 21 years old

Rhee LaFountain.....Yes...I was now old enough to drink and I kinda skipped over haunts for a while and worked on getting my black belt.

Rich Hanf.....What does drinking have to do with karate or haunting?

Rhee LaFountain...Are you kidding...have you ever taken a black belt test? LOL

Rhee LaFountain...I was very much into Karate, I was in college, I found boys and alcohol. I took 2 seasons off and was just a person. We moved out here to Ohio in 91. I didn’t know anyone and was suddenly 800 miles from home. So the Jaycees come and knock on my door to welcome us to the neighborhood and I go to one of their meetings. At this particular meeting they were making arrangements to run their haunted house.

Rich Hanf.....Oh my God...what a coincidence.

Rhee LaFountain.....It was unbelievably.......ahhh....... fortuitous.

Rich Hanf*****(for most of you haunters out there...that means lucky)*****

Rhee LaFountain.....It just worked out well. They said, WE NEED A CHAIRMAN FOR THIS PROJECT.

My hand went up without me even thinking about it. It was like...ok...that should be me. So I ran the Northmont Jaycees Haunted House in Englewood Ohio from 1991 til 1998.

Rich Hanf.....So was it successful?

Rhee LaFountain.....Well, yeah...they kept bringing me back because I kept increasing attendance. They learned the more they left me alone the happier I was. Just leave me alone and I’ll make you a lot of money.

Rich Hanf.....How many people were you doing by the final year.

Rhee LaFountain.....By the time I was done I was running between 35,000 and 40,000 people through a season.

Rich Hanf.....NICE!!!

Rhee LaFountain.....For Dayton Ohio, it actually was. The Jaycees actually got into a bidding war over me. I had three separate Jaycee chapters trying to get me to run their haunt because they wanted to make money and they kinda sucked so they said let’s go get the girl that fixed Northmont. I went with a different chapter but they didn’t want to play by the rules. There was a little too much drinking, a little too much fraternizing with underage girls, so I said I can’t have my name associated with this and bailed. I went to another Jaycee chapter, the Huber Heights Chapter, and had to leave. Then I went to the Beaver Creek Jaycee and they did a haunt called the "Demon Dragway" with a racetrack. Now it’s 2001. I was at Transworld that year and started talking to a guy from a place called "The Psycho Path". It was about 15 miles away from where I was running the "Demon Dragway". They were in desperate need of someone to drag them out of the cellar so the property owner sent him to Chicago and he hooked up with me. I ran the "Psycho Path" in 2002 and it was the first time I ever got paid.....other than a six pack, a good party, and a jacket...I actually got paid.....and boy was it cool.

Rich Hanf.....How did you do in 2002?

Rhee LaFountain.....Increased attendance by like 20%. People call me the "Desolation Angel". It’s based on a "Bad Company" song. It’s like when your haunts in trouble you call me, I fix it, then I go away.

Rich Hanf.....Now in 2003 you told me that you got screwed somehow.

Rhee LaFountain.....Yes...in 2003 the guy who brought me into the "Psycho Path" decided that since he had testicles he could do it better.

Rhee LaFountain.....What he did was to hook up with Clear Channel which is the bane of all haunted existence at the moment.

Rich Hanf.....And how well did they do last year without your expertise?

Rhee LaFountain Well I don’t have official numbers...all I have is people that know what I do that went through it and everybody said it was.......bad. They said there was absolutely no flow, it wasn’t coherent, it didn’t make sense. They said that since they rent their effects from Scarefactory the effects were great but the lighting sucked, you couldn’t see them...it just didn’t make sense to anybody. They had Clear Channel backing them so you can’t beat that kind of promotion with Clear Channel running the Haunt. A lot went. They rock here. Their haunts always suck but you can’t beat the promotion. No other haunt can get on a Clear Channel Station. In Dayton it’s locked. There are no other radio stations other than those owned by Clear Channel. At least I have satellite radio so I don’t have to listen to them.

Rich Hanf.....So what did you do last year (2003)?

Rhee LaFountain.....I went to Spookyworld, and I got paid obscene amounts of money to throw Halloween parties for people.

Rich Hanf.....Using your props?

Rhee LaFountain.....Yep

Rich Hanf.....Do you have a lot of props

Rhee LaFountain.....Oh yes

Rich Hanf.....And where do you keep them?

Rhee LaFountain.....In my garage

Rich Hanf.....Of course...LOL So did you hook up with a party store or event planners?

Rhee LaFountain.....No, it was just people that knew me by reputation that would call and say Hey, I’m having a Halloween party and I don’t want to do the crepe paper skeleton thing. They would pay me like $2500 to do this. I would bring in all the things we take for granted...the skeletons, coffins, fog machines, black lights. People love that stuff. One woman said to me..."I saw a fog machine at Wall Mart". I said "Really, wait til you see what mine can do".

Rich Hanf.....OK...so you took some time for yourself.....you checked out Spookyworld.....and you did some parties for some rich people.

Rhee LaFountain....Yes...that’s what I did. I went to all the haunts in Dayton this year and really tried to be very open minded about it but all the haunts in the Dayton area suck

Rich Hanf.....We all know how easy it is to be open minded about other peoples haunts...LOL

Rhee LaFountain.....I’ll admit it.....it’s so hard to scare us it’s not even funny. You can at least appreciate the craftsmanship or the artistic side...but what if they come up with a new and exciting, and different startle scare.....something you never thought of.

Rich Hanf.....Did you see my gallows for example?

Rhee LaFountain....I love your gallows...Oh God I want one of those. So bad!!!

Rich Hanf.....That’s a good scare...for sure.

Rhee LaFountain.....I was watching your DVD and I fell in love

Rich Hanf.....And you’ve never seen that anywhere else have you

Rhee LaFountain...No...but before it’s over you’ll be able to say that Rhee did it too. Rhee thinks it rocks. No..I do it’s......ya know....and I went to Spookyworld and had Ed Gannon go over my plans for "Psycho Path" because I didn’t find out about this little coup til the end of August, and your gallows was one of my scenes. Ed is wicked smart with this stuff

Rich Hanf.....And of course his company is called "Something Wicked"

Rhee LaFountain.....And being from Ma. I say "Wicked" all the time

Rich Hanf.....So it all ties in doesn’t it?

Rhee LaFountain...He was great, he was willing to write me a letter of recommendation saying I wasn’t an idiot. The "Witches Walk" up there was looking for somebody new and if I wanted to apply for it he would have given me references and all that. Apparently he doesn’t think I’m insane.

Rich Hanf.....OK...so how far along are you now. You said you have found an old laser tag building.

Rhee LaFountain.....Yeah...this old building is now empty and available. It’s about 5000 sq ft. There are all these hiding places and ramps and it’s up to code. Wouldn’t that be heaven sent? I’m just waiting to hear back from the landlord.

Rich Hanf.....Got any money?

Rhee LaFountain...I have two investors. They are willing to give me $10,000 each and I have to come up with the rest. It’s not a lot but at least I don’t have to come up with a lot of props because I have them already. I still need investors cause I can’t do all this myself. I tend to not run my haunts as family oriented as certain people seem to be advocating that we need to do....it doesn’t make me any money. With people in this area at least, family doesn’t work. We have too strong of a teen based audience and they want the blood and guts. They don’t want "It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". They want the blood, the guts, the gore, Hellraiser, Freddy, all of it. Luckily for me that’s the way my mind works. My idea of a good haunt is a total mind fuck. That’s what I want...I want to play with their heads.

Rich Hanf.....OK...so how far along are you now?

I’m waiting for a call from the landlord that will come Monday and I have a meeting on Thursday for talks on the other property I’m looking at.

Rich Hanf.....What property is this? You didn’t mention this.

Rhee LaFountain.....I don’t have just one option. That’s not how I live my life. I always have a back up plan.

I like outside trails...and I’m talking to the people that own the raceway I told you about before. After I left the Jaycees came in and got drunk and a bus that was bringing patrons back from the end of the trail ran into a brand new Cadillac Escalade. About 15 people got hurt and there ended up being something like a $1.3 lawsuit.....so obviously the racetrack and the Jaycees no longer play. That means the raceway property is available and they liked me. I’ll talk to them on Thursday to see if I can rent the land. That’s all I need from them...just the land. That’s my back up plan. It could be ok.....the weather doesn’t really affect things because people come out in the rain. There is so little to do here in Dayton that people come out no matter what. I keep my prices at around the $7 mark because at that point we are cheaper than the movies.

So that’s it.....it looks as though Rhee is well on her way to getting her own haunt, but as we all know that is just the beginning. Will she get the laser tag building, will her landlord be ok or turn out to be greedy like the guys from Zombie-X-Treme? If that fails will she get the racetrack and if she does will she come up with the money...and then of course will she make that money back during the season or will she go bust? We’ll find out all this and much more...guaranteed...as subsequent issues follow Rhee and our other hopeful haunters.