Friday Fright Nights
Photo Credit: Samantha Ricci-Weller
Senior Austin Clouse takes one last look at the mirror before he slides into his mask and second personality.
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By Miranda McCullough & Peter Swanson, Pow Wow Staff
November 3, 2011
Filed under Features, Top Stories
Ever wonder what it would be like to scare people out of their socks and get paid for it? Well, we got the answer when we shadowed senior Austin Clouse as he transformed into Leroy Pig, a farmer in a butcher shop, at Bonner Springs’ 3rd Street Asylum haunted house.
6:OO PM
Austin Clouse and his fellow actors begin to arrive and have their makeup done by BSHS 2011 graduate Brenna Hoch and her mother, Rita Hoch. Most actors, including Clouse, have black paint airbrushed on their eyes and mouth to hide the skin color under the masks that they will wear. Other actors, such as clowns and zombies, have their faces painted white with bright colors or bloody gashes. “Blood” is put on faces and costumes to add a gruesome detail. Some clothes are cut with scissors to give a tattered and torn look.
Owners Mike Clouse, Jerry Hoffine and Steve Hoffine perform a “safety check” by going through the rooms and looking over and touching up details, testing electronics to see if they are working properly, and fixing anything that is broken. On our tour of the Asylum, we saw the rooms, while lit, have many details the average person may not notice when the lights go down and they are being chased by crazed patients.
6:45
Daylight is beginning to fade outside, as the time for frights has almost come. Anticipating the first groups to arrive at the top of the hour, the workers take their last preparations for the night. Clouse’s makeup is done and his mask is on, telling us he is ready for the night to begin.
“The mask makes me feel like someone else,” said Clouse, who becomes Leroy Pig, a monster pig-man farmer who slaughters his livestock, yes, that includes people.
The other performers put on their second faces and some do a last check on their rooms. Before the actors can take their places, one last review of procedures must be performed. As the hour draws to a close, the inside lights go out while the haunted sound effects come on. The first group of fright seekers soon arrives and waits to purchase their tickets for the Asylum. 7:00 PM
Darkness envelops the interior of the building and sounds of horror can be heard from the entrance. The fright-seekers go through the front door and up a set of stairs where they are admitted to the Asylum by Nurse Brenna Hoch.
Maneuvering through dark hallways and terrors, the visitors make their way down to Leroy Pig’s Pen, the room Clouse designed for his Senior Project.
“It took a total of 26 hours to get it done. All the wood is actually foam using a wire brush and a heat gun to make it realistic,” Clouse said.
As the group enters the room, they find a display case filled with human remains illuminated by a strobe light. From the ceiling hangs a lone orange light along with gruesome and bloody pig parts. Making their way through the room, they find a bleeding victim crying for help.
While the group is distracted, Clouse comes out from behind the display hitting a barrel for noise and using a cattle prod simulator for added effect. After the scare, the group runs through the room towards Claustrophobia, a 30-foot pitch black hallway of air bags. Clouse will occasionally run ahead into Claustrophobia to further frighten them in the hallway.
8:45 PM
As the flow of groups slows down, Clouse has a chance to reminisce on his past experiences at the 3rd Street Asylum.
“My first year I had a cheap mask and everyone thought I was good at what I did,” Clouse explained. “I went to a Halloween show and spent about $500 on my current mask and loved how real it looked and thought it was perfect.”
Clouse has always been in the same room, even before he decided to make it his Senior Project.
“I just got put in the pig pen my first year and really enjoyed it. My dad wants me to switch rooms, but I don’t think I will because I’m used to it and I know what to do there,” Clouse said.
Clouse said his most memorable moments were scaring two girls so badly that they fell to the ground and making a 24-year-old girl pee her pants.
Clouse explains that his favorite room in the 3rd Street Asylum is “the forest” because it has so much detail put into it. 11:30 PM
With so many visitors coming and going every weekend, closing time for the Asylum can vary.
Even though the “set time” for closing is midnight, the actual time is determined by how many late night guests arrive.
Actors say they can actually stay open much later than the posted closing time, and some actors may not get home until one or two in the morning.
With the long nights of scares and screams, Austin Clouse and his fellow 3rd Street Asylum coworkers say they love the energy and atmosphere that surrounds them when they enter the old high school building every weekend.
“It’s addicting to work here,” Clouse said.
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