maze, a train ride, a pumpkin patch, face painting… all of the fun of a family event. But we’ll also have day-time tours of the haunted hotel, so still get a little bit of that haunt side in.” The “No Scare” medallion will give younger visitors, and older ones too, the ability to control how scared they want to be. The medallion will be worn around a visitor’s neck and glows in the dark. This signals creatures and monsters along the trail not to scare the visitor who wears it. “We don’t want to lose the ability to scare people, but we also want to be able to give some of our customers the power over those fears and those monsters. This is something a child can wear that gives him control,” Tim Thompson said. “More than anything, we want to entertain people. If you can leave here and say you’ve enjoyed your time here, we’ve done our job.” And it is a job. Every year, the brothers hire more than 150 actors to portray the monsters and creatures in the haunted trail. Others, such as ticket takers, gift shop workers, make-up artists and managers, make up the more than 200-person staff. Paid staff means workers’ compensation insurance, liability insurance, licensing, training, and other elements of any normal small business. And paid positions translate into money coming into the county through taxes, as well as more money in employees’ pockets to spend on goods and services in Anderson County. “This is our seventh season,” Joe Thompson said. “A lot is changing, so it’s very exciting for us. Each year, we try to keep things exciting and keep things changing so people will come back. In the end, we just want to produce a good product that’s a quality value for the money people will spend with us.” Madworld opens September 22 and runs through November 4. For more information, call 864-436-6307, visit the website at madworldattractions.com, or check out ther Facebook page, Madworld Haunted Attraction. Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate. andersonmagazine.com
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13 Acres
Opens Sept. 30 - Oct. 31 CAll for info: 864-245-5640 FB - 13 Acres
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ocky Elrod has been making haunted houses since he was a kid. In 1991, he made a haunted house for Whitefield Baptist Church. Later, he’d go on to do haunted houses in Pelzer, Sandy Springs, and Greenville. Now, he’s bringing his talents to Anderson. Elrod and partner Korey Tilley are building a haunted attraction in the woods behind the Civic Center at the Anderson County Sports and Entertainment Complex. “Ultimately, there will be a haunted hayride, a haunted house, and a haunted woods behind the Civic Center,” Elrod said. Horror movies are what Elrod does best now. He and Tilley run Dead Farm Productions and just recently debuted their 30-minute horror film Spread the Fear. It was another movie, Nightmare at the Fair that led to the haunted house coming about. For part of the movie, the men asked TRZ Entertainment, the company that runs the fair, if they could film a scene during the fair. Those conversations led to Dead Farm opening a haunted attraction at the fair. More than 1,500 people went through the haunted house during the fair’s 10-day event. The success of the haunted house at the fair led to talks about a structure on the Civic Center grounds that would serve as a haunted attraction for area residents. Starting in June, Elrod and Tilley began building a three-story house that will serve as the haunted manor. “We’ll have back stories and family legends tied to what happens inside the house,” Tilley said. “But the house itself will become a character in the attraction. It will move on its own. There will be monsters in the windows and chains across the doors; the doors will be moving. I don’t think anyone has done anything like this in Anderson.” While both of the men have day jobs – Elrod works in remodeling and Tilley works as a delivery driver – they both hope that their movie production and haunted house company will become a permanent full-time September/October 2017