The build for Chestermere’s annual Haunted House is on schedule to frighten anyone who takes a walk through the house of pain.
“We have a lot of guys working on it, a lot of talented guys,” said Haunted House mastermind “Dr. Giggles,” or Mike Koroll.
“The build is going well, it just makes it a little harder working out in the cold weather,” Koroll said.
He added, “We’re managing, we just bundle up and get it done together.”
Luckily for Koroll he has an amazing support system of friends and neighbours who are willing to help him work on the haunted house when he is unable.
“When I was at work they were in here just getting stuff done,” Koroll said.
Koroll has also met people who are willing to help in any way they can, including someone who is qualified in special effect art.
“He did the spiral in the wheel of pain, and then he did the zombie emporium while I was at work, so that’s pretty awesome,” Koroll said.
“When you look out there it’s like, ‘Oh god’ but we’re on track we just have to crush this week. That’s putting it simple,” Koroll said.
He added, “We’re not ahead, but we can get it done.”
Koroll had to overcome many challenges while preparing to build the haunted house this year, including finding the proper carnival style tent, blocking off the street to make it safer for everyone, bringing in food trucks, and a sudden snow storm.
Koroll had to bring in a construction heater which he would periodically pump heat into the haunted house to temper the air.
Although the haunted house is on track for opening the last two weekends in October, there is still a lot of work that Koroll needs to get done.
“We’re excited to get the lights and sound in place, and actually see it get scary. It’s not really scary yet,” he said.
Koroll is excited to show off all of his and his neighbours hard work, and to scare anyone who dares to enter.
“My scene was pretty crazy, what we were able to achieve to put a false ceiling in a carnival style peak, looking at it like, ‘Wow that’s pretty cool.’ It took two evenings, we had to get heads around how we were going to do it, and then it was just a matter of doing it once we figured it out,” he said.
The support that Koroll receives from his family, friends, and neighbours makes the haunted house a reality.
“The support has been incredible, my buddies, my buddies’ wives have all been supportive they’ve given up their husbands for a while,” Koroll said.
“They see me rolling in late, and then staying out there late, obviously I couldn’t do a fraction of that myself. They’ve been knocking stuff out of the park all week that we’ve needed to get done,” Koroll said.
He added, “I know it puts a lot of stress on everybody not just me. We work out butts off.”
Koroll and his neighbours are working on the haunted house every night until it’s too late to continue.
“My buddies are in and out all day, as soon as I get home from work weather it’s four, five, or six maybe I grab something or maybe I don’t to eat and then we just get at it until it’s too late to keep going.”
Although the team working together to build the scariest haunted house they can are all working long hours, along with balancing other jobs and hectic schedules, it doesn’t feel like work to them.
“Sometimes it’s just getting there, getting your head around something, that’s part of the excitement, otherwise we would just slap up the same props every year if we didn’t care,” he said.
Koroll is most excited for people to see the wheel of pain.
“We’ve never ran anything big and mechanical like that. It will be a heart breaker to take it down,” he said.
Families are encouraged to take a walk through the house of pain by bringing at food or cash donation for the Chestermere Food Bank from 7:30 p.m., until 9:30 p.m. the last two weekends of October.
