Haunted Acres

   Haunted Acres is a haunted house hosted by the Nye Communities Coalition that typically occurs the weekend before Halloween. It includes a family night, where candy is passed out in a safe and fun environment for little kids, as well as two nights of terror, with the haunted house open for all.

  Located at 1020 East Wilson Road (the old Manse Elementary), this year’s event will run from October 26-28. Family Night on Thursday begins at 5:00 PM and runs until 8:00PM, and the scary days (Friday and Saturday) begin at 7:00 PM and end at midnight. Family Night is free, but the haunted house is $7 per person. This year’s theme is “The Cursed.”

  This is Haunted Acres’ 4th anniversary, having been created by Francine Winters, the previous Methodologies Director. Winters partnered with Youth Werks leaders Andrew Gonzales and Kaylee Harker. After Winters left the company, Gonzales and Harker took over the production as their own.

  Haunted Acres is a completely non-profit event that uses various grants and donations to continue, and all personnel working are volunteers. Every teenager from the event is found through the student body of PVHS or various youth programs connected to the Coalition, while the adults are volunteers from the coalition. This year some of the donations from organizations around town include water for the youth volunteers and candy for family night.

  The Nye Communities Coalition begins planning and setting up this event months in advance. They are tasked with building all of their own props and creating original ideas to keep the scares fresh and exhilarating. To keep the ideas fresh, they begin by “looking at what’s scary currently and going in the complete opposite direction,” says Gonzales.

  Haunted Acres is designed to be unlike the typical haunted houses that one would see in Las Vegas, such as Fright Dome or Hotel Fear. By avoiding movies and terrors that are popular that year, it becomes much less predictable.

  After they have an idea of the themes for the year, they set to work planning the layout and building any props, about three months before the event. They begin to actually place the decorations and fit costumes for actors approximately a month before.

  Volunteers sign up in the beginning of October and attend weekly meetings. In these meetings, the actors go through dry runs, where they practice what to do and how to do it, such as learning to become a character and getting their timing correct.

  The Family Friendly Night includes actors dressing up in various g-rated costumes: princesses, villains, and halloween icons (scarecrows, vampires, bats). Families can travel between various themed booths where the kids can participate in small games to earn candy.

  The next night, however, is far more exciting. Volunteers arrive early to help finish any last-minute setup, and then put on their makeup and costumes for the night. Makeup artists apply prosthetic pieces for various areas such as gore, fake masses growing from their body, and demonic looks. They work tirelessly for hours to bring their creations to life.

  After makeup and outfits are painstakingly finished, the actors get into position. When the gates open, the long night of screams and frights begin.

  Customers line up outside the gate to wait for tour guides to begin their journey. Once each group is brought inside, the group is given the rules and procedures. After that the tour guides lead their groups through the house, following a story that allows for full-immersion into the terror.

  Despite the apparent goal of the house being to scare people, the Coalition and volunteers work hard to ensure that everyone has a good night. Customers can choose to buy a colored bracelet, which alerts the actors to go easy on them, because they prefer less of a scare.

  The Coalition estimates that 300 to 400 people attend the haunted house every year, including people from Las Vegas, although they do not advertise there. This year they have advertised more  in Pahrump than ever before, so they hope to have more people attending.

  They have rarely received complaints in the four years that Haunted Acres has been running, the most common of which is “they want more [scares],” says Gonzales. Everyone that goes seems to enjoy it and return every year. The actors always seem to enjoy themselves, as well.

  Adrian Grimaud, a junior at PVHS, is one of the many volunteers at Haunted Acres. After three years of participating, he has learned how to scare people, which is evidently his favorite part of the event. He loves talking to the other volunteers and his friends in the tour groups after they pass through, laughing over their “scared faces.”

  The Haunted Acres volunteers put a lot of effort into making the night as fun as possible, and it will surely make for a spook-tacular evening. Make sure to attend the event this weekend.