The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Keep your eyes open
Ghostly Manor Thrill Season puts months of work into seasonal scare Lake Eerie Fearfest
The namesake haunted house at Sandusky’s Ghostly Manor Thrill Center is described by General Manager Billy Criscione as pretty scary, if not the bloodiest, most horrific thing you’ll ever experience in the name of a good time.
“It’s high-startle,” he says during a recent phone interview.
One of the few haunted houses open year round, it involves an actor who takes you through and who “will give you one of the best shows out of any haunted house in the nation,” Criscione says. “It’s that good.”
Maybe so, but now is when Criscione and his staff get serious.
Ghostly Manor Thrill Center — a family-friendly destination in Perkins Township, about four miles south of Cedar Point, that also boasts mini golf, a motion theater, Skateworld, bounce houses, an escape room and a
laser maze — also gets in on the season-scares game. As it has each year since 2012, the family business is presenting Lake Eerie Fearfest on its grounds.
It runs weekends through October.
“With Ghostly Manor, you typically have one to two actors back there scaring you,” Criscione says. “During Lake Eerie Fearfest, we had another four haunted houses and the haunted trail, and we add another 70 or so actors scaring you throughout the six different attractions.”
(While not everything at the complex is included with Fearfest admission, Ghostly Manor is, which brings the attraction total to six.)
Ghostly Manor was built at the beginning of this century, Criscione says, and has been tweaked throughout the years since. In 2010 and ’11, they added a seasonal haunted house, The Gauntlet, but then wanted to go bigger, which led to Fearfest.
“It was a big jump, and we learned a lot about how to handle those types of crowds and staff, which we didn’t know,” he recalls. “It kind of hit us — ‘Oh my gosh, this is a lot of work.’”
For one thing, there’s all those needed extra bodies.
“The hardest thing is getting 75 to 100 actors hired,” he says. “We get a lot of actors who don’t show up the first night or quit after the first night because it is fun, but some people don’t realize it’s a job.”
That part of the process comes late, but work on the next year begins soon after one season ends.
“Honestly, we never stop thinking about what to do to improve it. At the end of each season, we get together — we go to our favorite little Mexican place next store. There’s about 12 to 15 of us that get together to brainstorm new ideas for next year.”
That brainstorming, Criscione says, continues for several months, and then it’s time to build.
“The two months prior to October is when we do the building and the planning and get everything together. The worst part is August is hot, and it’s outdoors. It’s in buildings, but the buildings are not airconditioned.”
Criscione says they don’t completely change all four houses from one year to the next but do typically make a change. This year, while houses Eerie Chateau, Quarantine, Darkmare return from 2017, Caged is gone, replaced by the new Dead in the Water.
“It’s been the majority of our focus the last month,” he said of the attraction, which will involve a ship’s scene, wharf, cave, swamp and “legendary monster.” “It’s what we’ve been brainstorming for the last nine months.”
He doesn’t want to spill all the bloody beans when it comes to Dead in the Water.
“Our disclaimer is ‘You may get wet,’” he says. “We haven’t really unveiled any information beyond that, but in small print we say ponchos are provided.”
Again, part of that “we” is his family. His father, Bill, is the owner, and his mom, Jayme, handles networking and public relations, while his wife, Laura, tackles design and creative.
He says every year the staff in general look forward to Fearfest.
“It’s nice having yearround actors — they know what to do. They know what do expect” Criscione says.
“Thirty to 60 days in advance, everybody’s always asking, ‘Hey where am I working this year?’
“They get excited about it. It’s a fun season. It’s different from what they’re doing the other 11 months of the year.”