If Utah does one thing right as far as horror is concerned, it’s the haunted attractions that open up around Halloween. On any given evening on October, if one has the opportunity to survey the Salt Lake Valley, they would see multiple spotlights ascending to the skies signaling that a haunted attraction is open and ready to do what they can to scare you.
On 3300 south and West Temple, you will find one of these spotlights alerting us that Castle of Chaos is open and ready to do its best to scare you. I was actually fortunate enough to be invited to Castle of Chaos’ Media Night where I was able to talk to one of the biggest contributors to the attraction as well as walk through the castle itself.
I showed up early hoping I would be able to talk with someone who could give me some insight into what the Castle of Chaos was and some of its history. I entered the rear entrance to find a line of between 20-25 people lining up to get their costume so that they could participate in the castle’s activities. I met with Jesse Harris, the Assistant Casting Director who took me to a room in the back filled with people being made-up. At this point, there were two things that really made an impression on me. First, that the folks lined up waiting for their costumes and being made up were referred to as actors, and secondly, that the makeup that was being applied was of very high quality… more on this later.
Jesse introduced me to Caleb Durant, who works in multiple parts of the production from preparation and security, to actually acting in the show itself. Because it was noisy in the back rooms of the castle, we walked into the attraction itself, found a nice quiet spot, and he was kind enough to answer some of my questions:
Mike: How long has The Castle of Chaos been in existence, and how long have you been involved?
Caleb: Castle of Chaos is currently in its ninth season, and I’ve been around since 2007.
Mike: Even though you’re not one of the owners and you’ve only been around since 2007, have you ever discussed what the impetus behind organizing and opening The Castle of Chaos?
Caleb: Sure! James who is the owner and the original founder not only loves to scare people, but he loves to tell a story. Which is why, unlike other haunted houses, we do interaction. We talk to people. We try to have a base storyline that makes everything tie in together, so we’re not only scaring you, but we’re putting a show on for you.
Mike: Having been going to these kinds of attractions for many years now, it seems like many times there will be groups of people that get hung up at one point. How are you able to tell the visitors a story while keeping the flow of people in mind?
Caleb: It’s a matter of experience more than anything. There is a lot of timing issues that we are aware of and it’s up to the actor at a certain stage of the haunt, and how busy of a night it happens to be, to know when to let people progress without causing a hold-up.
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Mike: I know that you’ve only been around since 2007, but what changes are you aware of that have happened since its opening?
Caleb: The first few years, it was more of a murder of a mystery type of thing. It wasn’t so much scaring as much as acting and interaction. We’ve since gone more towards the scaring aspect of things but kept the acting. My first year, which was 2007, because it was its seventh year, we did a theme of the Seven Deadly Sins. So there was a very heavy storyline, people collected cards as they went through the attraction. That was the last year of the heavy mixing between the two (the murder-mystery theme and the haunted house).
Mike: So it seems that this is more of an experience than just walking through the haunt with people jumping out at you.
Caleb: Absolutely! I won’t name the other haunted houses that I’ve been to, because I’ve only been to a couple of them, but when you go through, they scare you, they get you to jump. Then they back away and just do their thing. My personal role here, as the vampire lord over the vampire gents, is I jump out and I smack the wall to get my scare, but then I talk to the people. I interact with them. I ask them questions. They can ask me questions sometimes. Again, it’s a matter of flow, but in the beginning of the season here while we’re slow, I can keep them in my room for a minute and a half without any problems.
Mike: Tell me about some of the rules and regulations that you guys have to abide by.
Caleb: Well, one of the biggest rules is that since we’re a family-oriented haunted house and we actually have kids that will come here and act, there is no swearing, once you get into costume, there’s no smoking. Truth About Tobacco is one of our sponsors, so during the show we don’t let people take smoke breaks. We try to have everyone have a happy experience. We try not to offend anyone. We have very distinct
ways that we handle younger guests as opposed to older guests. If an actor or actress is under the age of 16, we put them behind a barrier so that they can’t really interact directly with the guests. For younger kids (in the audience) who don’t like to get too scared, we actually sell something called the Monster Be Gone which is a red blinking light that they wear through so they’ll get the initial scare, but not get in the person’s face. So they can experience it without getting too freaked out.
Mike: So can you give me any insights into what the people should expect when they come through?
Caleb: Well, we do have a brand new effect that we have just finished and will be doing tonight that involves an elevator. We’re in a single story building, so if you want to see how that works, you’ll have to come through! However, we have tons of effects that we do ourselves that are great.
Mike: So, you’re open for a month, or two months per year, at least in this capacity.
Caleb: Well, we’re actually open in the spring for the Spring Scream as well. We have college kids coming home for spring break and we open on the weekends for them.
Mike: During the off season, is this building used for anything else? Are you getting everything ready for the upcoming season?
Caleb: Oh Absolutely! We do murder-mysteries here. They’re like interactive games of clue. They’re not scary. It’s not like the traditional setup where you sit down and have dinner, and then they act it out on stage. We actually have you walk through the part of the house picking up clues, interacting and bartering. It’s actually very cool.
After the interview was over, it was time to take my run through the castle itself. It wasn’t until then that I finally understood what Jesse and Caleb had been referring to when they referred to the participants in the attraction as actors. The attraction itself mixed one part regular haunted house, and one part theater. Just as one would expect, there were many of the ingredients to a regular haunted house that one expects, there were also portions of the path that opened up to allow actors to perform short sketches that one would see in the theater or in a movie. In fact, in the beginning of the procession, we were treated to a story told by a southern gentleman about the tragic earthly end of his wife. I was very impressed with the accents that were used and the improvisational skills in which the actor used as he interacted with us. What I thought might have been an awkward interaction between the guests and the actors ended up being a very fun and interesting bit of theater regardless that it only lasted a few minutes. I was very impressed with the acting skills of the cast in that sequence.
I don’t want to give too much away regarding the experience itself, however, it was clear how much time and effort went into putting on this production. There was little repetition throughout the experience. The guest is taken through areas where they are merely expected to watch, to actually having to step into a casket in order to progress through the path. The effects were excellent, the atmosphere was very creepy, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I made my way through the Castle of Chaos.
For More Information:
Castle of Chaos online: http://castleofchaos.com/
KSL News Story about the Castle of Chaos: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4605485
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