Mansion of Terror workers give yearly makeover to famous haunt

By Leah Kirkwood
The University Star

Monty Marion/Star photo  FACE PAINT: Most actors in the Mansion of Terror, located in Round Rock, wear makeup to accentuate the feeling of uneasiness in visitors.

Monty Marion/Star photo  BEHIND BARS: A large, horned beast stands waiting in a corner to startle unsuspecting visitors while a disembodied skull hangs from the ceiling in the Mansion of Terror.

Halloween is a unique holiday because, instead of focusing on feelings of patriotism, thankfulness or peace on earth, we all go in search of one thing — a good scare.

Haunted houses are a large part of the Halloween tradition. For decades, Americans have paid good money to test their nerves in attractions designed to spook and terrify.

The Lion’s Gate Film Competition named the Mansion of Terror Austin’s No. 1 haunted house. The line to get in Saturday night wrapped around the Round Rock shopping center, and many people were turned away when ticket sales ended at midnight.

Norm Glenn has owned the Mansion of Terror for three years, and he has 16 year’s worth of haunted house experience.

Glenn says the attractions are never the same as the year before. Props may be used repeatedly, but each room is re-themed and the scares are always reworked.

“We’re passionate haunters,” Glenn said. “We know what we like when we go into a haunted house, and you don’t want to go back to a haunted house and see the same thing year after year.”

A group of more than 60 people is needed to build and work the Mansion of Terror. Although the haunted house is only open in October, planning meetings begin five months beforehand.

The Mansion of Terror feature two haunted houses at one location. This year, the Asylum of Darkness is back and Pitch Dark replaced the 3-D attraction from 2005.

Glenn said what keeps people coming back to the Mansion of Terror is the unique element at the heart of each house. The Asylum of Darkness requires patrons to solve a puzzle before they can leave.

“They’re given clues throughout (the house), and it kind of builds to the last room,” Glenn said. “We thought if we could put a simple puzzle through the house that you have to solve it would kind of add to that element of not only claustrophobia but, ‘Am I going to find my way out?’”

Pitch Black is a totally dark haunted house. Each group of up to five people is given one flashlight to navigate the narrow hallways from room to room.

“There’s a lot of psychological dynamics that happen with that that, we’ve found, where if you’re not the one holding the flashlight, there’s some apprehension there,” Glenn said.

But the flashlights aren’t always reliable — they can “short out” at the most inconvenient times.

Jennifer Fielding, actor and director for Mansion of Terror, roams the houses in costume to make sure the operation is running smoothly and offers scare techniques to other actors. Fielding explained why she enjoys scaring haunted house patrons.

“It’s addictive; it’s an adrenaline rush. If they scream and then laugh, that’s my favorite because I know they had a good time,” Fielding said.

Glenn and his crew allowed me to work in the haunted house so I could get a feel for their line of work. My first stop was the wardrobe room to be transformed into a haunter.

Stephanie Ehlers is the makeup artist and costume designer for the Mansion of Terror. She also acts in the haunted houses as “The Crazy Girl.”

“I walk around banging a bloody baby on the ground with screws in her head,” Ehlers said. “I made someone vomit a couple of days ago.”

After I put on some bloody scrubs, Ehlers covered my face in fake blood, and then I was ready to scare.

I was assigned to an area in Pitch Dark called “Andy’s Room.” Andy Baker explained his design, which looks like a scene out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Bones and limbs hang from the walls around a demolished corpse, and a refrigerator full of body parts doubles as a fog machine.

“I like realistic, freaky stuff,” Baker said.

To avoid giving away the surprise, I’ll just say the scare involves Baker in a rubber mask with a pitchfork. Visitors try to exit a closed screen door, but Derek Carrington and his chainsaw block their path.

“People fall on the floor with terror, running and tripping out the exit door when they see me coming behind them with the chainsaw,” Carrington said.

Baker gave me some gloves and a bloody hatchet and instructed me to hide behind a wall near the room’s entrance until a group of patrons came around the corner.

My timing was a little off on the first scare. Even though I was the one doing the scaring, I felt anxious waiting for the first group, and I popped out too soon.

The next one went a lot better. The teenager holding the group’s flashlight jumped, and I suddenly knew why the haunters enjoy their jobs.

Baker would randomly yell out, “I smell barbecue,” right before a new group arrived.

With each group my timing got better. By my third or fourth scare, my screams were really scary and one girl fell to her knees at the sight of me.