by Byte Staff
Who doesn’t love haunted houses? They’re an integral part of the American Halloween tradition. The actors, spooky sets, dull lighting and scary sounds hold a special place in the hearts of horror fans and for good reason. According to the Smithsonian, this tradition has brought joyful fright to the masses as early as the 19th century, though not exactly with the time commitment and polish of today’s haunted attractions. Interest in these types of attractions began to boom after Walt Disney opened Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion in 1969, making haunted attractions a staple of American Halloween tradition. After it became mainstream for patrons to pay to experience the frightful and spooky, Halloween horror attractions and haunted houses started popping up all over the country.
With this brief background in mind, let’s take a look at a more elaborate, modern example of these horror attractions. Located in Anderson, Indiana is the famous horror attraction, Indy Scream Park.
Originally founded in 2010, Indy Scream Park has become known as Indiana’s Premier Halloween event. When asked about how they go about recruiting scare actors, Indy Scream Park’s Marketing Director, Jon Pianki told us “We start initially in Anderson and then branch out from there, trying to employ as many people as possible. I think we bring in around three to four hundred actors each year. Each night takes around 150 actors to fully staff all the attractions. We just try to constantly reinvest in the park to keep it going.”
So obviously a lot of love and hard work goes into crafting Indy Scream Park. But here's the real question: is it scary? Well let’s take a closer look at the actual attractions. Indy Scream Park features five attractions:
- Pandemic: Mutation
- Zombieland: Unchained
- Brickmore Asylum
- Backwoods
- Rage 3D
