Scene: North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2012 Page: 7 of 12
twelve p. : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
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Photo by Michelle Heath/Senior Staff Photographer
Photo by Michelle Heath/Senior Staff Photographer
Head makeup artist Whitney Mcintosh does Nathan Finley's makeup at the Parker House. Finley, administrative coordinator at the Health and Wellness Center, opens the"haunt"as
the Reverend and explains the rules and tells the story of the Parker House.
The Parker House is a nonprofit
and donates its proceeds to the
Heroes of Denton County.
Most haunted houses, however,
are not. Starting a haunted house
can cost $50,000 to $60,000, East
said, and the most successful see
15,000 to 40,000 people in six weeks.
At The Parker House, customers
pay $17 each. Other "professional"
houses can charge upwards of $50
per person.
"Depending on the type of
person, it takes anywhere from 25
to 40 minutes [to get through the
house]," Morgan said. "Some people
just are scared out of their minds
and want to get through, and others
are super into haunts and want to
check out everything."
Being in the haunted house busi-
ness is a yearlong endeavor. In
between traveling to trade shows
for props, East must develop his
characters to keep customers inter-
ested.
"We have to update at least every
two years or else people will get
bored," East said. "We have to
work on character development,
and like right now, we're working
on creating names that are catchy,
like "Tank the Butcher."
Full of fright
Each crew leader is responsible
for a designated section of the
grounds and the house. There's
a graveyard, mazes within the
house and sectioned off areas with
"themes."
Salas and East make sure every
detail, down to scratch marks,
hydraulic wolves and buffalo hides,
is taken into consideration.
"People bottle scent specifically
for haunts," Salas said. "These are
just things you have to have. You
have to consider sight, sound and
touch, so basically all five senses to
get the full experience. "
Eventually, The Parker House
will include a haunted hotel next
to the dilapidated house and
possessed trails on the grounds.
Darkness falls over the prep
area, and the actors begin to prac-
tice their characters on each other.
There's always something to be
done though, as a blood-drenched
victim yells to Salas, "Jill, we have
no zombies!"
She stops sorting through a pile
of masks and wigs and just laughs.
"That's just simple everyday stuff
around here, like another corpse
rotting in a tub," Salas said. "And
what better way to fulfill your
community service than to come
out here and make people pee their
pants?"
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Scene: North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 100, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2012, newspaper, October 26, 2012; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth291775/m1/7/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.