Clyde’s Open for Guests

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Sean in full makeup

It took some time and a few setbacks but House of Screams is finally open. This past weekend was our first and we’ve been pretty busy. After overcoming issues with power distribution we managed to open our doors on Friday. Admittedly there are still a number of things that need to be worked out, but we’re steadily moving forward. One of the issues I’ve come across is that their site states, “Unfortunately this event is not handicap accessible.” under the house rules section. I assure you that this is false! If it was really not handicap accessible then I wouldn’t be there, acting near the back of the haunt. I have an extra wide wheelchair that has issues with most ADA complaint doors and I can manage the haunt with minimal difficulty. Why that statement is on their site, I’m still unsure. I have mentioned it to them though and I haven’t gotten much response and nothing has changed on the site. With that aside, lets get to the fun of our opening weekend.

Friday was a pretty rushed day as we were determined to open. Unfortunately slow, we got a few people coming through but there was a lot of down time between groups. It was kind of nice though since it gave us the opportunity to talk to the other actors to optimize our performance. In the back by Clyde’s house (where I have taken residence) it was really dark and seeing oncoming groups was nearly impossible so everything was done off of auditory cues. In the end, it all worked out well even without working animatronics and we had a great time. We all left with plans to return the next day to work out some snags in the scenes and deliver a better haunt experience.

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Students from ASU after going through House of Screams

That didn’t exactly happen the way we planned it out. A local microburst tore down a number of power lines and street lights alike. I heard that a few still managed to make it there or were there before the storm hit and got somethings done. I, on the other hand, stayed home because there were a lot of intersections blocked with the damage. In the end, we didn’t open because there was no power to the building. So we held some hope that things would be better for Sunday.

While we did have power the next day and the animatronics working, Sunday was a bit more of a rough performance. Not many groups came through and it was a short night to begin with. We ended up opening an hour late due to makeup and trying to fix a few of the lighting problems throughout the haunt. Now the area in front of Clyde’s is lit enough that we can see people coming and we have better ambient noise in our section. Yet with things in a better working condition, we are getting better. So feel free to check out House of Screams’ Facebook page to get updates on if we are having any last minute changes and if you’re in the area, come and try to survive Clyde (I know I’ll still be fighting to survive into early November). If you do happen on by, come see me in front of the house and I’ll invite you in for “dinner.”

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