Coming back from the dead?

Haunted house owners face a spooky ’21 after the pandemic forced many to close last year

Greg DeFatta needed the exorcism bed. So this spring, he maxed out his line of credit at $200,000, bought the bed that shook as if possessed, bought the clown costumes stained with blood and added hundreds of other items to his online cart. Maybe that would draw crowds to his two haunted attractions in San Diego, businesses that have supported his family for more than three decades but that were shut down in 2020 by the pandemic.

“‘Devastating’ is a great word to describe the Halloween season last year,” said DeFatta, 61, owner of The Haunted Hotel and The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park. “It was scary. It was horrifying. And if we can just get through this year, we’ll be fine.”

That is the predicament this month for hundreds of haunted houses, a staple of the Halloween season and an attraction that embodies the financial struggles of small businesses across the country as the economy limps toward recovery.

Consumer spending this Halloween season is expected to reach a record high of $10.1 billion, according to a survey from the National Retail Federation. An estimated 65% of Americans intend to celebrate this Halloween, up from 58% last year, and nearing the 68% who said they would celebrate in 2019.

For haunted house owners and workers, the renewed excitement made possible through vaccinations is a hopeful sign that a strong spooky season this month can make up for last year’s lost revenue.

Of those Americans who planned to celebrate Halloween this year, 18% said they would do so by visiting a haunted house, down from 22% in 2019, according to the National Retail Federation.

“We’re trying to bounce back this year,” said Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, vice president of Full Moon Productions, which operates several haunted houses across the country, including The Edge of Hell, which was founded in 1975 in Kansas City, Missouri, and is considered one of the oldest commercial haunted houses.

Some places are continuing to incorporate masks with their costumes or demanding that workers be vaccinated, Arnett-Bequeaith said.

She also said some larger haunts have spent over $1 million over the years to keep up with an audience’s expectations.

Now owners of large haunted attractions are seeking upscale props, such as animatronic demons and projectors that can display high-resolution zombies — expensive features that can slim the profit margins or drive up ticket prices.

For those whose haunted houses are their sole source of income, the six-week season is do or die. This year, it is even more critical.

“It’s a lot of anxiety,” said Michael Jubie, owner of The Headless Horseman, a haunted house and hayride attraction in Ulster Park, New York.

Jubie said he lost about 75% of his income last year. The Headless Horseman used to employ 375 people. Now it is about 190. “It’ll take 10 years to recoup,” he said.

The haunted attraction industry, with about 1,200 locations that charge admission, generates an estimated $300 million in revenue and spends about $85 million on advertising, according to America Haunts, an organization that collects data for the industry.

“It’s like 20 Broadway shows every night,” said Dwayne Sanburn, owner of 13th Gate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Between COVID last year and Hurricane Ida this year, the attraction “really got hit,” he said. But profits this month were up about 20% compared with last year, he added.

ERIN SCHAFF/THE NEW YORK TIMES A woman screams while walking through The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park on Oct. 19 in San Diego. The operators of haunted attractions around the country are hoping to bounce back after the pandemic shut down many of them in 2020.