Haunts of 2008

This year I've done something a little different. Instead of directing another Doomtown as expected, I helped out my friends at the rather large-budget Haunt of the Living Dead in Mesa. Thanks Glenn Rae, Kyle, Matt, Scott, and all at that haunt.

Secondly, I guided a tour of Belleville, Illinois's most haunted places. Thanks to Zia Nizami, Beck, Dave and Sandy at Lincoln Theater, Maureen Morris, and all who helped me organize this undertaking (sic) and research. Pics are below. I'd gotten a lot of support, and will be heading up a much larger touring event next year.

I also visited the #1 ranked haunted house in America, The Darkness, in St Louis/Soulard. Amazing, in terms of budget and sheer scope. Although I have mad respect for Larry Kirchner and his team, I wouldn't rank it the best, as AOL and others have touted. There were a few actors who clearly weren't into it; one actor had her normal-clad, bored boyfriend sitting on a chest in the middle of a room in full audience view. I chalk that up to lack of tight management on a slow night. But for the most part, the actors were great. And the props, Jesus. You're gonna see a lot more real-looking candle LEDs in all haunts across the country soon.
They DID do something I've never seen before: a haunted garage/machine shop. THAT got me!
Lastly, on my last day on the trip, my sis and I had breakfast at St Louis's very, very haunted and hauntingly beautiful Bevo Mill. Stunning building. Great (and cheap!) food, too.

_{Your host. Photo by Becky Holthaus}

 

_{The Koerner House. Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

_{The Koerner House, from the back. Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

_{Allison's Common Scents shoppe. At the turn of the nineteenth century, it was a pharmacy.
Now haunted by something cold. Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

_{Allison's guard dogs, who don't like to go near the staircase in the back of the Shoppe. Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

_{Keil's, home of the ghost Lulu. Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

_{LOTS of ghosts here, including a woman killed in the Hindenburg tragedy.
Possibly part of the reason the building's name's changed so many times over the past 100 years. Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

_{Occasionally the Lincoln Theater staff will hear the sounds of a little boy scampering up these stairs
near the projection booth. He's one of at least three benevolent ghosts that reside in the theater building.
Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

Bevo Mill in St Louis. Not on the tour, but was a haunted old, beautiful place I fell in love with.
You should see the inside.

_{Bevo Mill, Augustus Busch's old "house." Photo by Nicholas Holthaus}

 

Lastly, when I realized I wouldn't be directing Doomtown, I offered to help my friends at
Haunt of the Living Dead in Mesa, as your favorite lech, of course.

_{I've come for your daughter, Chuck. Photo by Scott @ Haunt of the Living Dead}