The Year has Begun

I know for most people the year starts In January but for us at Dr. Haunt's the year started last weekend. We had over 50 actors working their butts off with an energy level that was off the charts. The customers came and felt the mood base on the new design which is totally awesome but the actors as always took control and made the customers feel the intensity! As always not all customers could finish all three attractions - we had two customers faint; two run off into the tree line to escape the physco clowns; and the highlight of it all was everyone that exited Chamber of Fears had nothing but great comments to give us. never in my 7 years have we had an opening night as good as this. It is going to be an amazing year base on crowd response.

I had a complete stranger look me up on facebook just to tell me how much they enjoyed the show - this year is going to be great we had people from Plano, Ardmore, Norman, Sherman, Denton, Fort Worth, and Gainesville come through and with word of mouth we should be expecting huge amounts of customers thsi year.

Looking forward to the remaining 15 nights!

Fresh Meat

"Is it scary?" the group of teens ask!

The only response they get from the man in solid black biker attire is a deep throat laugh.

Then a few seconds later he grabs his mag lite and bangs on the metal door making a sound that ha made grown men jump. He opens the door and simply says "Fresh Meat".

The chills run down your spine - for the first 4 years of our haunted house this was the man that greeted our guest. I simply call him the man as oppose to actor because there was no part of his look or his voice which was acting. This was who Tom was... the type of man you did not want to make mad and then meet in a back ally.

So as the 2009 haunted house season is about to begin, the words Fresh Meat play in my head. Tomorrow night I will host actor training for community members that want to act inside our haunted house.

Dr. Haunt's has been around for 7 years and during that time we have won more awards then any other haunted house in Texas or Oklahoma but each year as we grew from 12 actors a night to 50 actors a night we saw the need for quality control - thus actor training was born.

So in less than 24-hours I will have fresh meat before me to learn the scare tactics that we use inside the haunted house and to ensure we always stay true to our first review "the Most Hardcore Haunted House in North Texas". This is a badge of honor that we wear - I mean no other haunted house in Texas allows their actors the freedom that we do and thus creativity is born in the moment.

Dallas Scariest Haunted House

Catacombs Part II

So during my last post - I was saying how amazing and scary the catacombs were but I forgot to mention how dangerous and deadly they were.

Last Monday we were adding detail throughout the haunt - you know the usual cob webb here; bloody head there; creepy moss everywhere...

So we swept the room - yes even haunted houses need cleaned every now and then and the catacombs was a masterpeice. I looked around in awe thinking this was truly an amazing design - one that will blow the minds of our customers. So after my moment or all awe - I pulled the emergency exit door shut thus blocking out my daylight and headed towards the actor back passage in the dark. I have gone this route 100s of time but for some reason - something was different and I walked eyebrow first into the edge of a catacomb. I knew immediatley based on the pain - that this was going to bruise.

I headed out and got an ice-cream cup (only thing we have in the freezer) and placed it on my eye. Then when it started to melt I ate it on the way home. That night about 3 hours after the catacomb incident my eyebrow had a bump the size of a ping pong ball. I thought my eye would be swollen shut by the morning at this rate. So I went to bed with an ice pack on my eye. To my surprise morning came and the bump had decreased and it was not that noticable. I went to my job and as the day progressed so did the black/purple shade on my eyelid. By day two I had people wondering why I only put purple eyeshadow on one eye until they realize it was a black eye.

I am still amazed how when I walked into the catacombs edge only my eye got hit. It sounds like one of those stories that you here a victim of abuse make up - I fell down the stairs and got this black eye but it is the truth. Unless..

Of course, it could have been the ghost of Julian Haunt that hit me in the eye and I just thought I walked into a catacomb.

Dallas Fort Worth Haunted House

The Catacombs - The Scariest Room

In 2003 after our first season was over in Gainesville for our haunted house, the best actors sat around and discussed what was good, what was bad, and what we wanted to do different in 2004. This tradition has stucked around and this is why every year our haunted house gets more and more creepy!

Well from that group discussion they decided to expand the catacombs in 2004. This work so well that in 2005 and again in 2006 the group wanted it to be our exit since it is truly a terrifying place to be! Then in 2007 and 2008 we moved it closer to the front to get customers in the mood very early on. This worked as in 2007 we became the only Texas or Oklahoma Haunted House to be Nationally Ranked by Fearnet.

Well my friends it appears in 2009 it gets even better. The catacombs is now double in size which means over 50 corpses just lieing around waiting to greet/get you!

In 2009 customers will get a first hand taste of what it feels like to be underground with rotting corpses and little creatures. The key to the catacombs is trying to figure out which is a rotted corpse and which is an actor but then with 50 corpse and 4 actors I have a feeling you will be screaming!

But rest assure that Catacombs has an emergency exit for those of you that feel it might be too much. I mean why else is Dr. Haunt's constantly reviewed as the Most Hardcore Haunted House in Dallas Fort Worth!

Crazy, Demented, Deranged, or a Visionary

Kim “Hey give me a hand – there a really awesome dummy that’s been hiding in this body bag”

Emily “Oh wow, he’s really good but the blood splatter does not look realistic”

Kim “Well first we would tie up his hand and feet using duct tape”

Emily “Then we would put tape over his mouth so they can’t hear him screaming”

Kim “So if we hit him in the head the blood would flow this way”

Emily “But if we stabbed him in the chest it would be more like this”

Kim “Let’s make his hair color black and let’s put a pair of underwear on him so he’s not naked”

Emily “All we have are these boxer briefs”

They were Calvin Klein Boxers and this is how this poor soul became known and lovingly referred to as Calvin. It was shortly after Emily and I made Calvin apart of our attraction that Emily had a dream in which she became a monster inside our haunted house – if memory serves she killed somebody. Does the haunted house make you crazy or are crazy people drawn to the haunted house. Well, for people that know me they will tell you I could fall in the prep category but…

Crazy, demented, or deranged is what some people might call me or think it takes to be the designer behind Texas and Oklahoma’s Award-Winning Haunted House ; it has been reviewed as the most hardcore haunted house in Texas. There are over 100 haunted houses in Texas and Dr. Haunt’s Chamber of Fear was reviewed as the most hardcore! But I would prefer to be called a visionary over the other options!

We started designing Dr. Haunt’s Chamber of Fear in 2003 when we were a single attraction of 6,000 square feet. What our customers loved was the fact that every year they could depend on us to bring an entirely new haunted house for them to enjoy which at the beginning designing 20 new rooms a year to fill 6,000 square feet was somewhat easy. By constant redesign this would always keep everyone guessing and makes us truly unique- since the haunt industry standard is 25% change up with 75% the same. Now we have over 15,000 square feet of space with three attractions and it’s become a badge of honor to always redesign. It takes a full 10 Months to redesign all three attractions. We started in November and will finish this Month!

That badge of honor… it reminds me of my high school theater department when the students use to design the sets, decide lighting patterns, create the costumers, and do everything by ourselves. We had amazing faculty that would challenge and allow us this option by giving us the room to grow and explore. Our department would mock other high schools in which there faculty would be in charge of designing or worse yet they purchase the professional designs or had their costumes made by local costume shops. I always thought the purpose of our theater education was to learn to be a set designer, costumer mistress, light designer, etc. But I guess instead those other schools were teaching there people how to be business managers by outsourcing goods and services. I actually quit my junior year when I was Technical Director because our new theater faculty members were no longer allowing the students to do it themselves and instead wanted to purchase designs (we became like the schools that we mocked)!

So my principle, integrity, and creativity walked away and here it is a decade latter and I am producing Theater for the Living! Yes sometimes it’s a comedy -when your friend wets themselves, but of course if you are the friend -it’s a tragedy and we definitely know how to serve up the Thriller or the Horror genre! So my rule is we do it new every year – new ways to scare the customer, new lighting, entire new walking paths, entire new scenes. Throughout the season I evaluate what worked and what did not work. Those that don’t work get deleted while the Scenes of Scream get expanded. But it is those scenes that are brand new that leave my actors, the press, and friends asking “How do you come up with that?” No I’m not a serial killer but yet I do think how this would happen to make it realistic. That realism is what our customers feel each year when they come and this is why we emergency exit 1 in 4 customers that throw in the towel and cannot go through the entire haunted house.

So the secret to being able to produce an award winning haunted house that has been named Texas Most Frightening Haunted House Well I’ve watched over 1,000 horror movies to get inspiration for scenes, make-up, and costumes. Yes even the oldest school black and white can inspire – remember 2007 the Year of the Zombie?!? Or when I am shopping I see something what you might use in everyday life and think if I put this twist on it… yes with a twist, some blood, a finger or two I could make this work. I spend hours in my workshop at my house designing new one-of-a-kind props – I wonder what the neighborhood children would think if they saw the heads (oh wait Suburbia already came out). But the main factor is the people I surround myself with – they are the most creative and energetic people I know and so when you put more then one in a room it is amazing to see what they come up with.

The scene creates the mood for the haunted house and then we place the sounds, the scents, the lighting, and the actors and well, you have no chance but to scream but then again that’s a good thing because you came to be scared. But just know through our craziness, demented, and deranged ways you are guaranteed an Amazing Haunted House Experience at Dr. Haunt’s Chamber of Fears Scream Park

Clowns of Death and Horror

So the summer is coming to an end and Fall is almost here - which means Halloween and haunt season! I cannot contain myself as we have spent over 1,000 hours recreating Bloody Fun - the Clown Attraction at Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear and although I might be bias... it is the Best Haunted House Clown Attraction in America!

As the designer of this haunted house I have found myself scared - yes one night when locking up I carried scissors to protect myself from these clowns from Hell. Yes, my friends would laugh at me - what haunt manager is afraid of clowns well if you had 6,000 square feet of clowns; 100 portraits of clowns looking at you; and then all these dang clown dummies looking at you... I think you too would carry scissors, a cross, or a gun. But of course none of these are known to stop psycho clowns!

So anyway after 1,000 hours and over 40 different people putting in there two cents we are done with 6,000 square feet and are up to 80 pennies and the psysco Best Haunted House Attraction in Texas!!!

The amazing thing is this is our #2 attraction out of three attractions. Of course we still have Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears which is the Nationally Ranked Haunted House.

So if IT or Bozo makes you go in your pants then my friends Dr. Haunt's Bloody Fun is a place where you should where depends. For those that say Clowns aint scary... I dare you to try it because we will make a pant's-wetter out of you!

The Spirit of Julian Haunt

On October 31, 1808 Julian Haunt was borned in the area that would later become the town called Gainesville, Texas. When he was 14 years old he killed his family and was sent to live his life at Cooke County Hospital for the Insane. On October 3, 1832 Julian started a killing spree at the hospital for two days. He killed over 70 people on that two day period. On October 31, 1832 Julian faced a jury that found him guilty of the killings and sentenced him to death. He was killed on October 31, 1832 by hanging at the age of 24. The newspapers across the country had called him "Doctor Haunt". Dallas Fort Worth's Scariest Haunted House is Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear

The spirit of Doctor Haunt has been felt in Gainesville since his death. A number of strange and unusual deaths have occured on October 31 in Gainesville for the past 170 years.

The Haunted House, Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear opened in 2003 and each of the actors that have portrayed the infamous doctor have done so for only one season. After portraying the legend "Dr. Haunt" on October 31 the actors have felt a curse and have quit working at the haunted house completely. No actor has ever been Dr. Haunt on October 31 and returned to work the following year. During the first season we had two main Dr. Haunt's in 2003. Neither actor has ever returned to that role. In 2004, a female took on his namesake and was one of the best Dr. Haunt's but on October 31 prior to the end of the night she had a nervous break-down and was hospitalized for two weeks. Then in 2005 we had two guys playing doctor haunt and both moved away after their expereince. One joined the military while the other left town. In 2006 a local played the Doctor and no cast or crew ever saw or heard from him again. The actor did not even attend the end of the year party in November to accept his awards for his role as Dr. Haunt. In 2007, it was once again a female that portrayed Dr. Haunt. She left college shortly after that and moved to West Texas.

Then there is the Dr. Haunt from last season, 2008. This actor played Dr. Haunt and says he will come back in 2009. Although this actor has not re-entered the Chamber since October 31. Some of the cast wonder if the curse has been broken while others wonder if a new legend is beginning. Since on October 31, 2008 the three females went missing from the haunted house. The character that played Dr. Haunt as well as one other actor was brought in for questioning in regards to the three females disappearnces.

Any way you look at it and if you ask any Gainesville local, they will tell you that Dr. Julian Haunt's presence and spirit is felt around this community.

Texas and Oklahoma's Scariest Haunted House Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear

Fear & Scares

Fear a four letter word that can mean anything. So knowing that an amazing haunted house has to have fear and knowing that fear can be anything and is different to each person, how can I go about creating an environment that allows for Fear after Fear????

Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear Highest Fear Rating in all Dallas Fort Worth for Haunted Houses

So the first thing I do is think about the Fears that people have. I like to focus on our adult population and although a crazy spouse or mortage payment could give some people a real life scream - we try to avoid that. Fear of creatures, the dark, tight spaces, being trapped, crawling, unknowns touching you... these are all the things that makes An Award Winning Haunted House in Texas and Oklahoma

Then after you have a list of fears thenj you begin putting them in an order which makes sense and usually you build them up. Nothing is worse then a haunted house that climaxs in scene one. The customers want to be built up for a scare just like a great movie but don't get me wrong - we'll get you early too!

The scares are the fun part for the actor. You have an amazing design to work with and then you add your personality into the scenario. So in a dark room do you get beakens of light - through your voice, portray many voices, or just produce sounds. In a tight hallway do you allow a little water to drip - although we know this torture to be inhumane - no governments are after us and the UN has not caught on!

Texas & Oklahoma's Scariest Haunted House

Afraid of My Own Haunted House

It's a bit ironic that most people know me as the Scream Queen, that carzy women that owns a haunted house and although everywhere else I like my alone time... I am afraid to be alone in the haunted house I have created. Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears is a Horrifying Texas Haunted House

For the last seven years I have spent over 5,000 hours of man-hours inside Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears - building walls, designing scenes, creating costumes, adding in the mood lighting and yet all of this I do but I just can not do it alone. The sounds that are not sounds that I have invented echo through the walls and off the ceiling. The thought of the previous ghost sightings inside this very building. Or is it when the homeless man broke in and made his home here that I wonder is he back? Sometimes I see the mouse or skunk that is to blame for the sound. Sometimes I assume it is the wind or the trees outside but I find my happy place (my IPOD so loud that is drowns out all other sounds). Of course this does nothing for my safety or aletrness as I have been working alone in the building only to find one of my crew to walk up and touch me. Yes, that will be the day... you will read in the Gainesville Daily Register - Haunt Owner Killed by Actor. Then from the heading you read in the story the actor only approach the haunt owner who was caught off guard, pee on themself, and then died of a heart attack!

Of well, I guess it is great for business that the Queen of Horror is afraid even in her own domain. So I guess it is easy to see why we emergency exit 25% of our customers. Texas and Oklahoma's Scariest Haunted House is Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear

The great part is it is not just me who is scared in this truly haunted place. About 30% of our actors do not want to be in a scene alone as well as when we play games like tag or hide and seek we always must play in teams as nobody is brave enough to high in the haunted house when it is pitch black.

Oklahoma and Texas #1 Rated Haunted House Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear

Creating a Scary Haunted House

Creating a scene that sets the mood for the entire haunted house is very important but there are lots of factors to consider when creating a scary haunted house. At Dr. Haunt's we think we have it down and that's why we been named Top 31 Scariest Haunted Houses in America


First and foremost, you think about the actors and the actors scare because eye candy is important but a room that any level actor can work is a most. To do this we ensure in every scene we have at least four possible ways for an actor to scare the customers. During our first season we learned this lesson. A single scare for a great actor in a room gets kinda of boring after you've done that same scare 40 times in one night let alone 100 times every night for the entire season. So by having a scene with multiple areas/ways for an actor to scare we guarantee our actors have more fun and freedom as well as our repeat customers never get the same scare during the same season. The other reason to have multiple scares is you provide 'boo' scares for rookie actors and allow for scene acting for veteran actors. Our actors is why Dr. Haunt's is the Most Hardcore Haunted House in Dallas Fort Worth

Then after thinking about how the actor will scare in a room then we go about thinking from the customers perspective what do they see, how will lighting play into that, and how can we trick them. Our attention to detail ensures that no one person can take it all in during one visit to our haunted house and this also adds to why so many people come back multiple times during one season. Dr. Haunts Chamber of Fears is the Most Frightening Haunted House for Oklahoma!

Over the years we constantly redesign every room every year so that our customers get something new weget rid of scenes that were not our favorite and expand scenes that rocked. In 2002 our clown room was on fire. In 2003 we expanded it by 400% to really make our customers scream. Then in 2008 we gave the clowns 6,000 sqaure feet of their very own to call home in the attraction Bloody Fun. For the last 7 months we have been working on redesiging Bloody Fun. We have built new walls, worked on new tricks, and most importantly brought in a lot of eye candy for our customers to enjoy!

The Clowns

Have you ever wondered why so many people are afraid of clowns? Maybe it is because I am in the haunted house industry that I have notice this but what's the deal.

As a child people have these at kids birthday parties for entertainment. You go a circus and the clown car gets the most laughs from everyone so why in the world are the clowns also the most feared in the haunted house. The only thing scarier then a clown in the haunted house is a clown with a chainsaw.

You know I can think of scarier things - snakes, death, the grimreaper, a demon, or a person posses by a demon - yet all of these things are known to be scary and never make their way to a kids birthday party and yet the clown does.

For a generation out there known as Generation X - the movie It! is the reason most are afraid fo clowns but for me - it really just scaried me of any person or beast coming up through a community shower. Yes, I was the freak in middle school that did not want to be left alone in the shower room for fear of this scary guy coming up through the shower drain. Most other middle school kids after gym were afraid of their peers seeing them naked in the shower while I did not want to be alone!

Of course, that same generation and the Generation Next also have Krusty the Clown to look to from the Simpsons. A clown that is overweight, smokes, and kinda looks like a drag queen acting to be a guy. Yes, I'll admit that is scary!

So the next time you are at a haunted house and see a clown, just think he's that drag-queen we call Krusty and I bet you will not be as scared. And when you hear that clown music just know that death is waiting for you especially if your at Dr. Haunt's Bloody Fun attraction.

Texas Scariest Haunted House

Best Scares

Every year over 200 volunteers give their hand at scaring the victims that attend Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears. Usually their is a process to the madness of scaring inside a haunted house and no it's not like stage acting as our actors only have 5 to 10 seconds to create a character and scare you.

We like to think that we know something about fear and scaring since on a great night we can emergency exit over 100 people (an emergency exit means - I'm too scareed to finish this haunted house)! Heck in 2008 only 75% of customers actually finished all three attractions at Dr. Haunt's while about 25% quit before they got to the Chamber of Fears mental hospital scene (which was a sight to see).

So here's are the best scares in my opinion:

- Imagine a pitch black maze and you and your friends are trying to find the way out. Then a 6 foot man easily weighing over 250 pounds with the hillbilly accent says 'I've got a lighter'. So he pulls out his lighter so him and his friends will be able to see he pushes the started and a flame comes on but the last thing him and his friends see is a clown coming in and blowing it out. The scresams could be heard throughout the entire haunted house and then the clown disappeared into the maze. This scare literally lasted 5 seconds but I guarantee it was 5 seconds that none of the customers will ever forget!

- Then their's always the split personality role an actor can play. There were these two females that had just come out of the clown room and was headed down the hallway. The only was a little scare and calling for an emergency exit. We have one of our safety people ask them if they were okay and the one asked how much longer and we assured the two females that they had been through the worst part and it was almost over... so they decided to keep going and we happily assisted them down the dead end hallway which got smaller and darker until it was pitch black. Right as the two females were feeling around in the dark and turned around. A masked character in overalls came into the room and in a deep trucker voice said 'smile it's the last picture of your life' a flash from a camera went off and the overall trucker disppeared. The next scene that the two females approach had to assist them in emergency exiting since one of the females had a panic attack. Her breathing returned to normal about 20 minutes later.

- the disorinetation room where customers came and could never find their way out was always fun. the room was called the cow room since it was done up in black and white; had non-stop fog; and stribe lights that could make you go insane. This room was funny and scary. For tough boys we would make them do push ups to get out or sing 'i'm a little tea pot'. But the best was to let them try and find their way out and when they give up we would put them to the challenge. It was one of these challenges that was a personal best. The girl entered the room on her boyfriends back and she never wanted to let go. After they tried to find a way out for 4 minutes they agreed to my conditions. The boy and girl must seperate. i brought them to seperate corners and left them alone for 30 seconds. I then went and got the girl and let her out of the room. She asked for her boyfriend and I told her he had already gone ahead. That poor scared girl ran all the way through the rest of the haunted house.

- The alltime classic goes to the boys in the endless hallway. The customers would come through this hallway of doors and have to find the right door. Some doors led to dead ends, others would not open, and only one went the right way. Well a guy and a girl on a date opened a door which led to a bathroom scene which was a dead-end. The actor got the scare of surprise by coming up behind them and the girl was so scared that she jumped back and feel into the bathtub full of blood.

Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fears cast at the end of each night gathers around to tell stories and give away the best scarer of the night prize. It's fun to set around and tell these stories. Stay tuned for more of Dr. Haunt's Best Scares!

Most people have never been to a haunted place but every person has known fear. It is fear that drives you to be the true person you are. When we are calm we act as our best self, much like we give our best impression on a first date but when we are comfortable in a relationship our true self shows and this is fear... nothing but ourself. When you are afraid do you fight or flee???

In 2003 I came to volunteer at a place called Dr. Haunt's Chamber of Fear, the haunted house attraction had come from New Mexico where it was rated the #1 haunted house in New Mexico. At first I thought it would be fun to be an actor inside this haunted house and so I started volunteering. It amazed me of the number of actors that could literally scare the pee out of customers but the actor was afraid to be left in the haunted house alone. Why was it that even the actors of this haunted house attraction are scared in it. I have found even myself afraid to work alone in this haunted house. During the first season two different volunteers at the haunted house swear they saw a ghost/spirit/ or unknown image. The first volunteer was out working on the lawn when they saw a black image of a person floating above the ground for a short period of time before it disappeared. At first we all thought this was just ghost stories but he was willing to swear on his 'babies eyes' and if your Italian you know that's a big deal. The second sighting came when we were playing a game of sardines. The entire group minus two were hiding inside the safe room when we heard this scream. At first we all laugh because we thought it was funny but then we realize the scream was one of true horror. The two volunteers were togther coming through the haunt when one of them saw a white face in the clown room. We do not have any dummies with white mask and everyone that was in the building was accounted for. Then of course there are the times when you are working in the haunted house and feel a presence or hear sounds.

It was only after the haunted house was hear in Gainesville, Texas for the last 3 years when we learned the reason the haunted house moved from New Mexico to Gainesville was because the New Mexico community forced the haunted house out of town. The haunted house cast and crew were accused of being satanic and a number of mysterious deaths occured involving the haunted house. The local tribal leaders of the indian tribe in Santa Fe believe the haunted house was cursed.

I personally do beleive in ghost but I believe the spirits can be good or bad. One of my friends whose really into the afterlife and spirits told me that spirits and ghost are attracted to our haunted house attraction because they know they are welcomed. I guess we do welcome them as long as they stay at the haunted house and not at my house.

http://www.drhauntshouse.com/ Scariest Haunted House in Texas and Oklahoma's