- Terror on the Fox continues to deliver spooky frights for their 29th Halloween season.
- The haunted experience offers northeast Wisconsin an opportunity to enjoy an immersive Halloween event, thanks to the passion of those working to put it on.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
You can't have Halloween without the spooky stuff.
Terror on the Fox has been giving northeast Wisconsin the heebee jeebes for the last 29 years.
"We are a total immersive experience," said Terror on the Fox General Manager Ted Sprangers.
Their goal is simple: to make sure you have fun getting scared.
"Part of the experience is having that mindset that when you're coming here, you're going just to kind of get away from the world a little bit," said Sprangers. "So you want to experience something that feels a little, just a half-step out of reality and be entertained."
The brainstorming of ideas of what customers will actually experience happens far in advance.
"They start with a thought of I'd like to do this, or I saw this in a movie and maybe I could recreate it here," said Sprangers. "It's a process that really honestly starts last Halloween."
"From there, it's just taking that idea and making it a reality," said Liz Barlament, the Terror on the Fox Production Manager.
Among her long list of responsibilities, she is tasked with planning and building the sets.
"We need to know how we're getting the customer from Point A to Point B," said Barlament. "Every scene I build, I try to have a spot for an actor to exist, so like a little corner they can hide in, something they can pop out of."
Liz knows a thing or two about scare-acting; she's been doing it for 17 years. But there is a method to the acting madness, things they teach their scare actors during summer training.
"We do spend a lot of time just doing a lot of improv activities, actually, because that's what we're doing," said Barlament. "You never know who's going to walk in that room and what situation they're going to bring into your room."
Spooky season is only a small part of the year, and the sets and costumes aren't cheap. But the business works because the people working at Terror on the Fox, consider this more of a passion project than work.
"I know myself included along with 99% of everybody else on our staff has a regular job. That's the job that keeps the lights on at home. This here at the haunted house at Terror on the Fox is what keeps the lights on in here," said Sprangers putting his hand over his heart.
"Spooky season, as you say, commercially obviously is maybe about eight weeks long. For us here, it's more of a state of mind than a time frame.
During Halloween week, Terror on the Fox will be open every night between October 28th and November 2nd. You can find tickets on their website.
