2000s

Still Killing Time At Nightmare Estates

Follow the signs and the giant ghost to Ohio's best haunted house/trail...they'll leave the light on for ya!

 

 

Bonehead Lies Down On The Job

With more tricks and gadgets at his disposal this year (and maybe even a new pal), Bonehead has moved from behind the front desk to more comfortable surroundings!

 

 

Never Trust Bus Drivers In Red And Green Sweaters

Freddy takes you down the highway to hell!

 

 

This Ghoul Wants To Add To His Collection

Always a slot just for you!

 

 

NIGHTMARE ESTATES-The Haunt They Could Not Kill!

One evening as Nightmare Estates owner Don Thornton labored deep within the labyrinth like thickets getting the attraction ready for opening, he was startled to hear breaking foilage and crashes in the underbrush heading rapidly in his direction. Being alone inside the Estates is creepy enough, and with Blair Witch Project all the rage he wondered just what it was making all the noise. "All of a sudden I saw this guy break into a clearing, stop, look around, and start walking down one of the trails. When I asked him if I could help him, he told me that his car had broken down on the highway and he was looking for the BP station!"
Well, as scary as gas prices are BP is still about the only thing you WON'T find inside the confines of Nightmare Estates. The attraction, now in its fourth year (2nd at this location, it was the former Nightmare On Glenway), is built on the grounds of an old putt-putt golf course and provides a unique combination of haunted house, trail, and small buildings. Gazing upon it from the outside you would never dream just how large the attraction is once inside. The Estates is owned by Don and Amy Thornton and the Director of Actors is Randy Patterson. They are not only great haunters but a great group of people as well! This year the Estates are creepier than ever, with many of the foilage areas having been allowed to grow and form virtual tunnels around the trail. The two story tall ghost wildy flapping and contorting on the roof (powered by hot air) shares space with a ghoul being hung from a gallows. This will not be a haunt that will be hard to spot! We visited the Estates late one Saturday night under a full moon. A large crowd awaits entrance into the haunt, and while we sit near the exit speaking, it is obvious they are leaving satisfied, if a little breathless! One group of teenage girls comes barreling out the exit with Michael Myers hot on their trail. After dashing to safety, they realize their parents haven't come out yet. It takes another 5 minutes for the parents to emerge, having gotten lost inside the pipe maze.
Since many of you don't know the back story of Nightmare Estates, I'll give you the condensed version (courtesy of Don's very cool business card). The Estates was once a luxurious country vacation spot owned by Ivan Tepe ('Doc Heartless'). Ivan performed all sorts of research, both normal and...radical, to say the least. Over the years the failed experiments began to mount up and only the labyrinth like mazes of the Estates kept them from wandering off the grounds. Eventually, the city of Mason began to realize that the hotel like exterior of the Estates was only a front for the increasingly erratic Ivan to use for gathering 'volunteers'. Ivan continues to wander the grounds, as do his failed experiments, just waiting for any passers-by to wander off the beaten path.
Don goes on to explain some other hazards of being a haunt owner. "We got our license to operate the day before we opened. Even though we were fully in compliance with smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, and lever pull fire alarms, the former fire marshall gave us all kinds of other strange things to do. It was crazy around here-he wanted Loveland Castle to have a complete sprinkler system (the Castle, of course, is made out of rock). He wanted us to pave the parking lot even though the Beach (a block away) has an all gravel lot like us, and the owners of our lot told us we couldn't do it. He told us we would have to license our bus (yearly, one of the favorite scenes on the tour) even though it doesn't run-it's just a prop. Without a license, they told us it would have to be classified as junk and disposed of. Luckily for us, he was removed from office and we got our permit the very next day!"
There are new scenes this year along with favorites from past years such as the School Bus, the Foggy Cemetery, Jason's Shack, the Doll Room, the Bridge Over Troubled Waters, the Hospital Complex, the TV Room, Crypt, Jail Cell, and the Crates. Some rooms that look familar have a new spin to them as well, like the Bates Motel and the Zombie Toolshed. The Blair Witch area has been redone and made into several themed scenes. Bonehead's girlfriend has an impressive scene. An evil fix-it shop is also among the new scenes along with a new home for several Roswell aliens. These, along with many other fantastic tableaus, await you along the way. The rooms have the expected attention to detail. Director of Actors Randy Patterson said, "That's one of the things that sets us apart from other haunts. They might have a nice prop on a table in a room and nothing else. In our haunt, that room will be FILLED with stuff. It'll look like a real medical lab, living room, kitchen, or hotel room." Many of the rooms have little touches that you may not notice the first time through-there is always something new (and usually bloody) to discover.
The black-clad Randy also prowls the underbrush at the Estates, making sure that the actors are on top of their game and moving them around so that everyone gets some time off and isn't bored. Characters such as Freddy, Bludzo the Clown and Leatherface are really great and demand your attention. The actor playing Freddy really knows the character and even sounds a lot like him. Leatherface takes a pratfall with his running chainsaw that is part of the scene, but looks totally spontaneous. Bludzo uses his knowledge of the pipe maze to be everywhere at once-behind you one second, in front the next, and sometimes above you!
Of course, the most memorable actor at the Estates is the one you never see! Once inside Nightmare Estates you enter a hotel lobby where you are greeted by the poster boy for their print ads, who just happens to be comfortably ensconced in a coffin. Although I didn't get a chance to talk to Rick (the actor who supplies the voice for Bonehead) this year (since he was on the job and busy), last year he told me "We have a lot of fun with this. People look all around when they hear the corpse start talking, but they'll never see me. I vary what I say to people-we keep it kind of mild for kids but for adults we can get extreme. It's all in fun, though-if someone's real quiet and doesn't talk to the skull we keep it serious. But most people seem to get into trading insults and jokes and go with it." This year not only does Rick have a new hiding place, but better technology as well. Video monitors show what is going on outside the house, allowing him to spot potential victims and learn their names, not to mention give them a hard time in line as well! "You in the hat! Face forward! It's time to die!" We all get a laugh as we see on the video monitor the young man in the hat snap to attention, wondering where this command came from! Depending on when you go, you might even have corpses talking to you from both sides of the room, so be prepared!
Even haunt owners can feel fear on the job...just not for the same reasons the customers do. Amy Thornton shared several interesting events at the Estates over the summer. "When we started getting things ready for this season, we found that a cat and her kittens had decided to take up residence inside our school bus. It was really eerie, hearing the noises their little claws made on the metal floor of the bus. You would hear all this creepy noise but never see them, and could never really tell what it was. Then there are the thuds. Don and I will be working in one section and hear something loud and heavy drop to the ground on the other side of the Estates. Of course, when we go there we never find anything."
Which brings us to Pepe.
"Every once in a while, we would look across the street and see a bunch of what looked like cats but were really skunks. We just called them Pepe and his babies (since, of course, all skunks are named after Pepe LePew, the Warner cartoon). They never bothered anything. One day we could smell the skunk scent but couldn't see them. I told Don it was time to go home...I didn't want a surprise meeting!" Definitely a case where what you DON'T see is scarier!
Pepe is about the only thing about Nightmare Estates that stinks. The tour time is long, the effects are great, detailing is exceptional, costuming and makeup are good, and the actors enthusiastic. There is something here for fans of all types of haunts. Despite the efforts of the former fire marsall, Nightmare Estates continues to deliver the scares to the city of Mason-it is the haunt they could not kill!