For 20 years, the Museum of Horrors has terrified Central Texans with a blend of fright and fun. The scares will continue in 2010, but with a different twist.

The haunted house has a new name: Dead Zone. Danea Anderson, a manager and one of the monsters on site, said Dead Zone will have an increased emphasis on zombies and vampires.

Meanwhile, the Texas Chain Saw Nightmare next door will feature ghastly images inspired by those infamous movies that have scared millions (and raked in millions at the box office).

 

With two full-sized haunted houses to populate, about five dozen characters lurk, creep, scamper and lunge out of the shadows to offer a heart-pounding experience.

John Anderson, owner and creator of the haunted houses, plans to retire at the end of the season.

“I’m 62, and I got my start charging kids 10 to 25 cents to go through my haunted house in the west suburbs of Chicago,” John said. “If you were my very best friend, you could even be a monster.”

He started a haunted house in Dallas 35 years ago when he moved to Texas. It was named the city’s best haunted house by the Dallas Morning News.

“Dallas was growing too quickly and I couldn’t keep up with the traffic, so I moved to Hillsboro,” he said.

John said people warned him that a large haunted house in Central Texas wouldn’t succeed.

“But I didn’t have a lick of sense and I did it anyhow,” he said. “We’ve been very successful and had a good time doing it. We’ve made a lot of friends — both customers and people who’ve worked for us. But it’s time for me to retire. We work all year to get ready for this. It’s time for me to sit on a beach drinking piña coladas and writing a book on haunting — what to do and what not to do.”

Meanwhile, plans are under way for the biggest and best scary experiences the haunted houses have ever offered.

Danea said Dead Zone will feature “an army of rotting zombie flesh,” and new special effects. In one area, people will watch a girl “turn into a zombie before your eyes.”

Dead Zone also will turn up the fear level a notch with zombie clowns.

“People are deathly afraid of clowns, and I don’t believe it’s all Stephen King’s fault,” Danea said. “We had one guy out here who was huge, and he talked about how he hoped we didn’t have any clowns.”

Although John is hanging up the mask, so to speak, Danea said she had no plans to retire anytime soon.

“I guess I’ll be out here doing this on a walker,” she said. “I’m not only a manager. I’m Dr. Frenzy Rigor Mortis.”

Danea and John aren’t related, despite sharing the same last name.

“I helped him with a haunted house in Fort Worth,” Danea said. “When he opened the haunted house here, I was living in Hillsboro.”

The short drive, and the chance to scare willing customers out of their wits, appealed to her.

 

“It’s the acting part that I enjoy most,” she said. “I worked at it and developed a character that I really liked. It’s fun. I enjoy the people I work with. We become like a family. Not everybody gets a chance to do something like this.”

John said Danea will take over the haunted houses when he retires, and he has no doubt she will do a frighteningly good job.

“She’s a big star out here,” he said. “She understands the parts of the business I don’t. She’s very diplomatic and does a fantastic job. Her character is one of the most loved and most visible out here.”

John said he will resume his role as Beetlejuice this year, a character he’s enjoyed playing for the past several years.

“I started out as this 6-foot-8 great goblin with white eyes, fangs and a punk rocker accent,” he said. “I decided to retire him several years back and became Beetlejuice. It’s not as scary, but everybody has a good time, and I can enjoy entertaining kids and adults.”

There are plenty of other monsters — between 50 and 60 of them — who will be happy to scare customers silly.

Those visiting the haunted houses aren’t the only ones having a good time.

“It’s a fun business,” John said. “I guess I cheated in life and had way too much fun. But if the goal is to do what you want to do in life, I did.”

Why do people pay money to be frightened?

“It’s invigorating — fun,” Danea said. “People who come out can experience an adrenaline rush while knowing no one will actually hurt them. It’s a memorable experience for everyone involved.”

Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

 

What does it take for the Museum of Horrors, newly renamed the Dead Zone, to scare Central Texans each October as it has for the past 20 years?

Lots of plastic skulls and skeletons. Rubber heads and body parts. Inspiration from ’80s and ’90s horror movies. Black lights and black-painted walls. Fake (and some real) gravestones. Mazelike interiors within two warehouses. Two-way mirrors. Fog machines. Screams, villainous cackling, shrieks and more screams. Nylon filaments that brush faces in the dark. Plenty of red paint to splash and drip on walls. Maybe a dozen chain saws.

On the human side, it takes annual doses of 50-plus volunteers willing to endure long makeup sessions and genial verbal abuse from area teenagers plus the horror houses’ creators and operators, John Anderson and Danea Anderson.

Johnny Darkness (John Anderson) and Dr. Frenzy Rigor Mortis (Danea Anderson) have kept the screams going for 20 Octobers at their haunted houses off Interstate 35 between Elm Mott and Ross.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

This year marks the 20th anniversary of when John Anderson left the competitive world of Dallas-area horror houses to transplant his successful house into Central Texas territory yet unclaimed by semipermanent horror houses.

“I went from where I could have a tiny slice of a big pie to the whole pie,” explained Anderson, 62, who turns over his operation this year to his ex-wife, Danea. “I’ve been doing this since 6 years old, but I got one or two (other) gigs left in my life,”

Anderson initially set up camp in 1990 on the west frontage road of Interstate 35 near Exit 345 but moved a few years later when he found a cheaper deal with two buildings across the interstate. He turned them into the Museum of Horrors, now the Dead Zone, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Nightmare. He, Danea and their help work on the houses throughout the year, even though they’re open to the public primarily in October.

What does he do the other 11-odd months of the year? A disability pension he receives as a Vietnam War veteran helps stretch his haunted house income, he said, and the occasional odd job.

Much of the houses’ scarifying comes through Anderson’s design: narrow corridors wound tightly to pack effects and hide sight lines; multiple entries to allow costumed (and chain-sawed) employees access to pop out at house visitors; creepy sound effects; fog; path loops that, with the opening of a hidden door, can force customers to retrack their steps repeatedly; water jets that spray visitors with “blood” (just water in a red-lit room); and more.

Anderson’s eye for bargains explain other house features. The grave headstones in front are real, picked up as unclaimed freight. A close look at some of the coffins in the Dead Zone’s first room reveals Detroit Tiger baseball team logo insets by the casket handles — the reason he picked up the caskets for a fraction of retail.

The invention that goes on in the Dead Zone/TCM houses isn’t only mechanical. There’s also some narrative building that goes on, notably the electricution of mass murderer “Sam Rellik,” who, visitors are told, killed 49 children “not far from here.” He’s killed, in an animatronic way, with “100,000 volts of electricity” even though the electric chair’s warning sticker lists 2,400 volts. Halfway through the tour, Rellik’s victims morph into 49 murdered cheerleaders.

Both Andersons, however, attribute the longevity of their Central Texas haunts to young audiences, word-of-mouth and a human desire for the adrenaline rush caused by a quick fright.

“Without teenage girls, haunted houses would be so boring,” he said.

For 20 years, the Museum of Horrors has terrified Central Texans with a blend of fright and fun. The scares will continue in 2010, but with a different twist.

The haunted house has a new name: Dead Zone. Danea Anderson, a manager and one of the monsters on site, said Dead Zone will have an increased emphasis on zombies and vampires.

Meanwhile, the Texas Chain Saw Nightmare next door will feature ghastly images inspired by those infamous movies that have scared millions (and raked in millions at the box office).

 

With two full-sized haunted houses to populate, about five dozen characters lurk, creep, scamper and lunge out of the shadows to offer a heart-pounding experience.

John Anderson, owner and creator of the haunted houses, plans to retire at the end of the season.

“I’m 62, and I got my start charging kids 10 to 25 cents to go through my haunted house in the west suburbs of Chicago,” John said. “If you were my very best friend, you could even be a monster.”

He started a haunted house in Dallas 35 years ago when he moved to Texas. It was named the city’s best haunted house by the Dallas Morning News.

“Dallas was growing too quickly and I couldn’t keep up with the traffic, so I moved to Hillsboro,” he said.

John said people warned him that a large haunted house in Central Texas wouldn’t succeed.

“But I didn’t have a lick of sense and I did it anyhow,” he said. “We’ve been very successful and had a good time doing it. We’ve made a lot of friends — both customers and people who’ve worked for us. But it’s time for me to retire. We work all year to get ready for this. It’s time for me to sit on a beach drinking piña coladas and writing a book on haunting — what to do and what not to do.”

Meanwhile, plans are under way for the biggest and best scary experiences the haunted houses have ever offered.

Danea said Dead Zone will feature “an army of rotting zombie flesh,” and new special effects. In one area, people will watch a girl “turn into a zombie before your eyes.”

Dead Zone also will turn up the fear level a notch with zombie clowns.

“People are deathly afraid of clowns, and I don’t believe it’s all Stephen King’s fault,” Danea said. “We had one guy out here who was huge, and he talked about how he hoped we didn’t have any clowns.”

Although John is hanging up the mask, so to speak, Danea said she had no plans to retire anytime soon.

“I guess I’ll be out here doing this on a walker,” she said. “I’m not only a manager. I’m Dr. Frenzy Rigor Mortis.”

Danea and John aren’t related, despite sharing the same last name.

“I helped him with a haunted house in Fort Worth,” Danea said. “When he opened the haunted house here, I was living in Hillsboro.”

The short drive, and the chance to scare willing customers out of their wits, appealed to her.

 

“It’s the acting part that I enjoy most,” she said. “I worked at it and developed a character that I really liked. It’s fun. I enjoy the people I work with. We become like a family. Not everybody gets a chance to do something like this.”

John said Danea will take over the haunted houses when he retires, and he has no doubt she will do a frighteningly good job.

“She’s a big star out here,” he said. “She understands the parts of the business I don’t. She’s very diplomatic and does a fantastic job. Her character is one of the most loved and most visible out here.”

John said he will resume his role as Beetlejuice this year, a character he’s enjoyed playing for the past several years.

“I started out as this 6-foot-8 great goblin with white eyes, fangs and a punk rocker accent,” he said. “I decided to retire him several years back and became Beetlejuice. It’s not as scary, but everybody has a good time, and I can enjoy entertaining kids and adults.”

There are plenty of other monsters — between 50 and 60 of them — who will be happy to scare customers silly.

Those visiting the haunted houses aren’t the only ones having a good time.

“It’s a fun business,” John said. “I guess I cheated in life and had way too much fun. But if the goal is to do what you want to do in life, I did.”

Why do people pay money to be frightened?

“It’s invigorating — fun,” Danea said. “People who come out can experience an adrenaline rush while knowing no one will actually hurt them. It’s a memorable experience for everyone involved.”