Haunts

Haunted Houses are a frightening business. They offer spooky thrills and take you right to the edge ... and sometimes over. We explore three of the most terrifying haunts in the country: Nightmare New England, The 13th Morgue in Texas and Netherworld in Atlanta.  Are you ready to enter... The Haunts?

Nightmare New England

Interview with Mike Krausert of"New England's Largest Halloween Scream Park"

By Eric Pigors

Photos by Mystique Imagery

G&C: So, what bit you as a kid to make you want to do haunted houses as an adult? Was it a sick clown at Halloween, or Dracula?

MK: All of the above! Haunts are able to take you out of "reality" and distract you with the strange and the odd. I was always a huge fan of horror movies and monsters, so operating a haunted house was an easy choice for me. 19 years ago a friend of mine invited me to volunteer at a Haunted House he was working for; I was hooked the second I stepped inside.

G&C: Halloween these days isn't the same as I remember as a kid, when hundreds of kids roamed the streets. Do you have a favorite creepy Halloween memory as a kid you can share with us?

MK: When I was a kid I can compare Halloween to the scene in E.T. where every kid in the neighborhood dressed up and went trick-or-treating. I dressed up as the classic monsters - the Wolf Man, Dracula and Frankenstein - every year. I would get my "candy time" in early and rush home to make sure I could pull off some pretty sweet scares on my parent's front porch! My goal was to see my classmates hit the ground screaming. Over time, the thrill of the scares became more important to me than the trick-or-treating.

G&C. Ever spend the night in a real haunted house or run-down mental ward for inspiration? And have you ever seen a ghost?

MK: Yes! There was an old hospital in a suburb of Green Bay. This was the place we always explored late at night. There was a guy who lived next to this hospital who would "guard" the property. I remember stories of friends being shot with rock salt as a deterrent to trespassing on the property. It was here where my imagination ran wild and eventually inspired the scenes and back-stories of the haunts I would eventually design and build.

G&C: I would imagine the patrons must get pretty scared at your haunts. Have any deaths, brown or yellow pants stains seen on patrons as they come out of your haunt? If anyone keels over we could use some more corpses over here for the magazine!

Read the full interview with scary sick photos in  Girls and Corpses Magazine.  Order now at: www.girlsandcorpsesstore.com