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Vacant theater comes to life as haunted house

By Mike Skubal

Daily News staff

There are events that cross boundaries, mix memories and moments, place and pandemonium. The Rhinelander Fright Factory Haunted House is one of those events.

Haunted houses have grown in recent years as a way of celebrating Halloween, now a holiday as much for adults as children. Situating the Fright Factory on the site of the old Rouman Drive-In Theater has made the event even more of a draw.

For adults, memories walk the grounds hand in hand with mummies, vampires, and skeletons. A visitor enters using the old ticket booth, walks the bermed grounds past the decaying screen, many of the speaker stands still in place. Jim Nuttall, Nicolet College Theater Director, whose idea this was, "fell in love with the overgrown land." The experience is "as much in the grounds," Nuttall says.

The Fright Factory, with all the creative talents of the Nicolet Players, is an event overlaid on a storied place. Did you ever sneak into the drive-in in the trunk of a car? The terror then was whether friends would open the trunk and let you out.

You can visit this horrible place from 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, October 21 to 24, and from 7 to 11 p.m. Sunday, October 28 to 31. There will be a less scary version for youngsters on Thursday, October 28, and a "no scare' kiddie version for young children from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, October 30.

Tickets are $5 to enter, $3 for the kiddie version. Visitors will park in the parking lot of the new St. Mary's Hospital and walk across the street to the original ticket gate to begin their Halloween experience.

"George Rouman wanted us to do it here," said Nuttall, "He's a gung-ho guy. Putting the haunted house at the drive-in is much more difficult, there was no heat, water, or electricity, but the payoff is much more."

Visitors will walk the grounds of the drive-in before reaching the Fright Factory's complex, built around the original projection and refreshment booth. Nuttall hopes everyone will be "creeped out", and describes the whole experience as very "Blair Witch".

Twenty-four different environments make up the Fright Factory. Nuttall researched the whole project thoroughly, even taking aerial pictures of the site, as well as learning about the haunted attraction industry.

According to Nuttall, there are scenic houses that feature cool scenery, special effects houses, "goth" houses with blood and gore, and what's known as a "boo house". The Fright Factory, relying on shock, surprise, and anticipation, not blood and gore, is a "boo house". There isn't a chain saw in sight, no mayhem or electrocution.

The Rhinelander Fright Factory Haunted House, created by the Nicolet Players in conjunction with the Rhinelander Jaycees, promises to be a unique Halloween exoerience. Be prepared to be scared, and enjoy the anticipation.

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