When it comes to haunted houses in Columbus, there's a new bull in town, and it's not afraid of the competition.
The Brewery District's House of Nightmares is getting the Hollywood treatment and transforming into The TerrorFest for this year's Halloween season. And the owners say they're planning to become the region's main attraction when it comes to Beggar's Night entertainment.
"What we're doing this year is pretty amazing," said Dave Treisch, co-owner of The TerrorFest and a 20-year vet of the Columbus haunted house industry. "We're not holding anything back."
The new house has doubled in size with the addition of the Brewery Butcher, and the space has been completely re-mastered with special effects technology and an expanded cast of trained actors.
Treisch started House of Nightmares back in 1992, and it was voted Best Haunted House in Central Ohio six years running. After making the move downtown four years ago, financial strain set in, and continuing to run the house alone became impossible. That's when Steve Kopelman—owner of HauntedHouse.com and various haunted houses around the country—came to the rescue.
"I noticed Columbus had tremendous traffic on my site—[lots] of people looking for haunted houses to go to," Kopelman said. With Treisch's local experience and his own national influence, Kopelman feels he's got a winning combination. It's a fact he feels pretty strongly about, seeing as he's funding the $250,000 upgrade.
"It's by far going to be the most detailed house," Kopelman said. "It will look like a movie set with animatronics, cinematic computer-generated images, state-of-art sound and 65 actors in full movie makeup and costumes ... think of your favorite horror movie and put yourself in it."
TerrorFest in basically two haunted houses in one. You start with the foyer of the House of Nightmares, where a ghosts appears and starts talking to you. Then you're led through different parts of the house, including the ballroom, library and boiler room, where gory medical experiments are the main attraction. Then you head right to the Brewery Butcher, which features a haunted grave yard.
"We've recreated the Brewry District from the way it looked a hundred years ago," Kopelman said.
In order to fill the house and get the word out before its opening weekend Sept. 25-26, 8,000 free tickets have been set aside for anyone who is unemployed, enlisted in the military, or a working fireman or a policeman. Their families get free tickets, too. It's part of a national million dollar effort known as the "Scream Stimulus Package" sponsored by America's Best Haunts, an organization representing the 10 best haunted houses in the country.
"All you have to do is bring in proof of unemployment and three other people, and they're in," Kopelman said.
TerrorFest opens Sept 25 and runs throughout the Halloween season until Nov. 1. General admission is $17, or $27 for VIP treatment. For tickets, go to the new TerrorFest Web site.
