The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Halloween is a year round event for haunted house owners
During the Halloween season, haunted houses bring people face-to-face with ghouls and goblins and other ghostly and ghastly creatures. For haunt owners, it’s a fulltime, year round job.
Derek Vitas who owns and operates the Spooky Ranch, 19066 E. River Road in Columbia Station, and Hauntville, 1579 W. River Road North in Elyria, has watched the industry change over the two and a half decades he has been in the business.
“Back when we started, you could throw up some black walls and slap some makeup on people,” Vitas said. “Now, houses have (computer generated imagery) effects, multi-motion animatronic creatures and 4D effects.”
The animatronics have grown in complexity as years passed and are more realistic looking, he said.
“Previously, we used regular animatronics, but people realized how fake they were,” Vitas said. “Now, hybrid animatronics are used that are a combination of actor-controlled and animatronics.”
Vitas said he works year round. His full time job is to develop better ways to scare people.
“We have a full time workshop where we come up with new ideas and create new props,” he said. “The haunted house industry is bigger than people think.”
To remain competitive, Vitas said he attends conventions and trade shows to buy new items for his haunted houses while visiting other spooky sites to see what they have. He said he spends about five weeks a year traveling for his business.
“The biggest change is keeping up with the latest video games and movies,” he said. “You can’t charge someone to come to a haunted house and walk through something that takes five minutes and charge them the same price as a movie. We want to make you feel like you are in the video game, in the movie, a part of the action.”
Different techniques are used to get more reaction from people who visit the haunted houses, Vitas said.
“It’s not just all scares, we fully entertain you,” he said. “There is a reason we set up scares in different ways. We make you laugh to sometimes have you let your guard down for the next scare.
“Constant scares get old and people get used to it. We are constantly coming up with ways to make it work.”
Ghostly Manor Thrill Center, 3319 Milan Road in Sandusky, started as a hobby and a home haunt that Billy Crisione said happens often when hobbyists decide to go into business for themselves.
Opened in 2000, Ghostly
Manor has become a tourist attraction and is open year round and expands to five haunted houses during Halloween for Lake Eerie FearFest, which is the name for all five of the haunted houses and is only open during Halloween.
“Providing entertainment for the entire family is key to bringing in new customers, and having something for everyone gives the opportunity for people to spend more time at the attractions,” Crisione said. “A lot of the scares are becoming more advanced and quicker to be able to keep scaring customers year after year.”
Costumes and things like makeup are more intricate, Crisione said. Ghostly Manor utilizes four to six makeup artists each weekend with some using prosthetics or half-masks in addition to a costume, he said.
While Lake Eerie FearFest advertises on the radio and billboards, word of mouth is the key to bringing people back year after year, Crisione said.
There is a competitive edge to the business with haunted houses trying to outdo one another, but sometimes they will work together to bring in new customers, he said.
“People that go to one haunted house are probably going to two or three in a season,” Crisione said. “So we cross-promote with different haunted houses in the area to attract their customers to ours and vice-versa with a coupon trade or promotions on the back of tickets.”
Forsaken Haunted House in Mentor is not open this year because of the industrial fire in July at Metal Seal Precision, 7333 Corporate Drive, off Tyler Boulevard. The haunted house received substantial smoke and water damage that forced the owners to tear everything down.
Owner John Eslich, who also owns Factory of Terror in Canton, said he has worked on haunted houses the past 13 years. Factory of Terror has a Guinness World Record for longest indoor haunted house.
Eslich said he plans about a year in advance. With a haunted house the size of Factory of Terror, it’s too big to completely redesign every year. Instead, components are added and certain areas are redone.
Eslich, who also is president of the Haunted Attraction Association, said technology has played a big part in the changes seen in haunted houses over the years. Computers have become more powerful and less expensive. Technology also has allowed vendors to make more realistic props.
“With haunted attractions, you get up close and personal with the stuff,” he said. “There’s no screen. It’s a very personal experience. You’re part of it.”
While some haunted attractions are for people looking for a good scare, others are searching for real ghosts.
Since 2009, Cathi Weber of the Willoughby Ghost Walk has lead ghost hunts in Willoughby Coal. The hunts are open to people of all experiences and attracts a lot of beginners looking to understand how ghost hunts work.
“A lot of times they don’t even bring their own flashlights,” Weber said.
This year, there were two hunts in September and two in October, but both sold out quickly. The hunts are only able to accommodate 10 people at a time.
“If you have any more than that, it’s more of a tour,” Weber said, adding that tours are something that could be available in the future. She said she plans to announce a new schedule in January.
Weber said she started doing ghost hunts in the 1990s, but has seen an increase in their popularity over the past few years because of TV shows like “Paranormal State” and “Ghost Hunters.”
“Obviously pop culture has an effect,” she said. “It’s totally acceptable to believe in ghosts.”
dscofiled@morningjournal. com @DrewScofieldMJ acass@news-herald.com @AndrewCassNH