Wow what a year 2019 has been! It’s a new year and a new decade. Let’s take a look back at Terror 29’s first year. 

I’ve had the idea of creating a haunted house since I was young. Halloween has always been a big holiday growing up, as my parents used to do a home haunt and different Halloween displays. My father, who is a magician, also performs magic for trick or treaters every year. I knew someday I’d want to create a haunted house. Finally January of 2019 the LLC paperwork was filed and Terror 29 was born. Although, it was many months in the making just leading up to that. But creating the LLC was an official moment, and I knew the spooky journey was just getting started. 

In March some of the Terror Team took a trip to St. Louis to attend one of the largest haunted house conventions in the country. It was great learning at the seminars, networking with other haunts across the Midwest, and of course shopping the trade show floor. We got to see new products/scares for 2019 and meet the best of the best in the industry.

Fun side note, we purchased the dead body prop at this convention. His name is Spud, and was one of the props that our attendees talked about the most. It looks real. Like really real. So we loaded it up in our vehicle and drove home when the convention was over. The funny part of the story was wondering what would happen if we got pulled over with a realistic looking dead body in the car. Haha!

The Beginning Days of Terror 29

On April 15th, we officially got the keys to the warehouse at our current location. We spent a couple weeks and multiple truck loads filling the space with all our Halloween props and decor. There were also many hours spent on taking the blueprint from paper and chalking it out in the actual warehouse. 

May 15th we began building the frames for the walls. And by June 15th pretty much the entire haunt was assembled with frames. From there it was time to start putting up walls! 

Basically from May 15th all through the summer we spent hundreds and hundreds of hours painting, theming, and continuing to build out the haunt experience. I remember after each room was finished I would say, “This is my favorite room.” It kept getting better and better. 

On the warehouse side, the boiler room was one that was finished closer to the end, but the attention to detail turned out amazing. Focusing on attention to detail for the entire haunt experience was a top priority. A prime example is the shelf hallway leading up to Frank’s room. It’s simply just a hallway to get from one room to the next. But, with all the props and design layout it makes the environment feel real. 

On the circus side, the illusion hallway was one of the first parts of the haunt to get set up. And it took a long time! We tweaked the lighting for a good couple of weeks to get it just right. The clown finale was the last thing we finished and turned out really cool! A lot of our Terror fans also loved the zombie room. Some even thought that our Headless Woman illusion was an animatronic prop. Plot twist! She was real!

Of course there were things we didn’t even get to the first year and are so excited to add on for 2020. 

Thanks to Everyone Involved with Terror 29!

Thank you! Star, Frank, Squigglez, Striker, Brittany, Slaughter, AJ, Homeless Jon, Bearded Lady, Ringmaster, Elephant Man, Headless Woman, the Zombies, our Doctor clown… our techies Kaitlin, Maddy, Tidus, Heather for running the gift shop/tickets, my parents for being there every minute of the way. Andy for being the genius behind building the haunt. Trevor and the Terror 29 investors. So many people I’m forgetting and I can’t thank everyone enough. I love you guys!

Let’s bring in 2020 bigger, better and bloodier!