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Smarter, bolder, longer
Screamworld attraction better than ever, owners say
Like so many other things on this great, green earth, haunted houses, like wine, only get better with age.
So, it might not surprise you to learn that Jim Fetterly and Mike Darling of Screamworld fame say their upcoming season is smarter, bolder, longer and most definitely scarier than anything they have done in their 16 years of scaring Houstonians with their most genius attractions.
The History
In 1989, Fetterly opened his first haunted house in Houston, Nightmare on Fannin, with competitor Nightmares nearby. However, after two years as Nightmare on Fannin, a legal challenge sent Fetterly into a panic to change his attraction's name, only to find it was one of the best moves of his career.
Calling a colleague from St. Louis' haunted house scene, the scream king asked in desperation if he might use their attraction name, The Haunted Hotel, in Houston. With their grace, a new day was born for Fetterly's product.
"I had my radio advertising about to start, all 100,000 of my coupons printed, and my posters done and I ended up having to change the name and it was the best thing to ever happen to me," Fetterly said. "There is something special about The Haunted Hotel. It has some aura about it… it is incredible."
Joining the ownership team in 1995, Darling helped add to the terrifying threesome the venture had built: The Haunted Hotel One, The Haunted Hotel Two and The Fear Factory.
However, after twelve years in the duo's midtown location, Fetterly said it was apparent to everyone—The Haunted House needed to find a new home.
"Pretty much after twelve years down there, we saw that the writing was on the wall with property values increasing, our parking situation was horrible, customers were out on the sidewalk… it was pretty dangerous," Fetterly said. "We had to rent lanes of the road and we had barricades and police officers there to help control the situation."
The Move
In 2001, Fetterly and Darling found a bank to back the new project and the pair built a new 12,000 square foot facility on four and a half acres. The price: Over half a million dollars.
For months the pair worked to get the new attraction completed, tearing down their old home after over a decade of scares to be moved to the new location. However, Darling says the move couldn't have come at a better time when a huge storm brewing in the Gulf soon turned fierce for many Houstonians.
On June 5th 2001, Tropical Storm Allison made landfall, leading to devastation to the Houston area, flooding out where the great Haunted Hotel once stood, amongst area businesses and homes.
"We are very fortunate because as that took place, we started tearing down the Haunted Hotel and the Haunted Zone in 3-D and we rented four large shipping containers and we had all of our walls and our props in those shipping containers," Darling said. "Then, Tropical Storm Allison hit, and we were very fortunate to be out of there."
Fetterly agrees saying he and Darling were very lucky not to have been hit by such a terrible storm.
"Those buildings ended up with about 33 inches of water down there and we were very fortunate, because we were high and dry here," Fetterly said.
When all was said and done, the partners built a new facility with new goals in mind, new scares and a new name for Houstonians to become acquainted with.
In 2001, Screamworld was born, replacing The Haunted Hotel. Darling says it was one of the biggest decisions the pair made in the move.
"It was hard not to call this place The Haunted Hotel," Darling said. "But, we knew that we had something bigger and better here and we knew the future meant change at our new location."
Screamworld meets public demand
"The biggest complaint we had with the old location is that people wanted to do all three attractions, but they didn't want to stand in line for each location," Fetterly said. "So, in 2001, we said lets put all three attractions in one building and we were able to lower the price by $3 to all three attractions versus the best price you could get of all three downtown."
The new Screamworld debuted to the public in the fall of 2001, featuring one single line for three haunted houses built within the attraction's one building.
Darling says the changed allowed for better customer satisfaction and that they noticed fewer concerns since moving to the new location.
For 2005, Fetterly says visitors can expect a whole new experience with Screamworld, with Darling taking over floor plans and ripping half the attraction down to the ground floor.
"We went down to the cement and Mike did all the floor plans this time, and I was very happy about that… but, he came up with a design for The Edge of Darkness and the new 3-D attraction called Movie Monsters in 3-D," Fetterly said. "The separations are better this year and… it is a longer walk-through, no doubt about it."
Darling says about the ambitious project that a more valuable experience for Screamworld's customers was sought; the owners both agreed that the mission has been accomplished this year.
"That was our goal when we started re-designing these attractions. We wanted to get the maximum walk-through for our customers and we wanted them to, as they left the haunted house, be able to say that we have maximized the walking time," Darling said.
Movie Monsters in 3-D, Screamworld's new three dimensional attraction, boasts the professional talents of artist Christian Navarrete, in addition to the braintrust that customers have come to expect from Fetterly and Darling.
Darling, who is a fan of the oldest films in the horror genre, decided to turn back time when others are flooded with contemporary scream masters of the silver screen.
"I had seen some haunted houses in other states that had done some of the newer movie monsters, like Chucky, the Candy Man and Jeepers Creepers. That stuff works, but I think that this would be something the adults would enjoy," Darling said.
"We meshed the 3-D attraction with movie monsters and it is a nice mesh. I think our older audiences will appreciate it because they will be able to recognize some of the things we are doing in here. There are some contemporary monsters in there, but it is a great attraction dealing with some of the legendary classic monsters."
Of the new Movie Monsters in 3-D, Fetterly says Screamworld will become the place for the best three-dimensional scares in the region, if not across America.
"Visually, I know the 3-D attraction will be one of the best in Houston, if not the country," Fetterly said.
As the season steams forwards towards opening night, the geniuses behind Screamworld say that this year might just be the year they top anything they have done in the past. From ripping the attractions down to bare concrete to heavy research and education on what makes a great scare, the new season is going to be worth the work, Fetterly said.
"I think our customers can expect a longer walk-through, more scares and definitely more clever scares then ever before," Fetterly said.
"It is longer, scarier and better than anything we have ever had. If we were to put a scale on it, last year would have been a seven and this year is a nine." HH |
posted by Brandon | 9/14/2005 10:13:00 AM
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