And joining me today on Weekend Focus is my special guest, John Norman, with the Wells Township Haunted House in Berlin, Ohio. Sean, how are you today? Great, thanks for having me, I always appreciate it. Always good seeing you buddy, and this time of year I always think of you, because you're out there cooking up some good scares.
You and the rest of the team there at the haunted house. In full swing all October long, let's get the goodies out of the way here, and then we'll get into the scary stuff. Let people know when and where are the times, they need to be all during October. We're open every Friday and Saturday and October doors open at six o'clock, I'm sorry, the box office opens at six o'clock doors open at seven, and we shut the box office down at 11 p.m.
And every tour we'll get through, right? We'll get through, I don't care if we're there until one o'clock in the morning, everybody's here. Sure, that's happened sometimes, hasn't it? Pretty late?
Yeah. So talk to us, John, what can people expect this year? There's always something different new, and I can't imagine even if you guys could probably leave it the same several years and people still wouldn't complain, but I know you're always changing up something, adding something, a lot of entertainment, not only scary things going on inside the house, fun things going on outside the house too. We've actually, one of the things we did that we're pretty stoked about, sounds weird to say that, but we've lowered our price.
Okay. This year it's a $14 general admission, and that includes everything. It includes the zombie challenge, it's extremely popular, and also access to the escape room that we built. So it's all included $14 general admission gets you everything this year, there's no combo ticket, upcharge, any of that stuff.
We sat down with the end of the season, and just kind of thought, you know what? I think we need to be cheaper, because I just thought that the higher charge we were getting to, and other places we're getting to combined was just too much. So let's be different and just go back to basics and have some fun. Now the zombie challenge, what is that?
Because I know zombies are so popular, I talked a little bit about what the zombie challenge is. The zombies, we built a side attraction, it's a 6500 square foot building, it's a maze, full of zombies, and you've got to make it through that maze before the zombies get you in. We put a flag football belt on you, and you go through, and the zombies are going for your belt instead of your neck. Ah, that's one other thing I want to talk about.
You can be touched in the haunted house, right? I mean, the characters can kind of grab you, kind of grabbing at your feet and things, or maybe your shoulders, or trying to reach out. Yeah, I mean, there's some training that our guys and girls go through on how to do that. He's safely and effectively, effectively is more, sometimes you got to get creative with how you do it.
But yeah, it is a haunted attraction that we do allow our actors to get up close and personal. And Sean, you guys are on Facebook too, right? While we're talking to you, if anybody wants to find you there, how can they do that? They do it.
We're on Facebook, whilst I was at haunted house. We just eclipsed, we're closing in on 15,000 fans on that Facebook page. Wow. Really cool.
And speaking of fans, you guys get fans from all over. I know there's been weddings with haunted house. You guys have been featured on different paranormal investigators that have been through there. You've won various awards.
I mean, it just continues year after year. You just continue to rack up different things. We just, I've got, I just responded to an email this morning on someone asking for restaurants that are taking a 10-weather here, because they're coming in from out of state. Wow.
Two or three days ago asking for me to recommend them a hotel. So they're coming from several states away. And as far as awards, I got no problem bringing up. I loved one of the ones that never gets old.
We were just fan voted number one in Ohio and number 10 in the United States. And I was a legitimate poll taken by a group in Illinois. Wow. That's awesome.
You guys got to be proud of that. I'll say congratulations because I put a little brilliant Ohio on the map there. Right? Yeah.
Exactly. We're both brilliant guys. Right. Well, we better clear it up that we're from brilliant.
From brilliant, exactly. Again, we're talking with Sean Norman today on weekend focus. Well, it's now in the haunted house in brilliant. And Sean, I got this from your Facebook page.
I loved it because this sums it all up. Most unique, most intense, most insane, high-energy, high-octane live action haunted attraction you've ever seen. Yeah. That really does.
It's all your Facebook page. I thought, that sums up in one sentence when it takes me 28 minutes to talk about. Yeah. And that came up with somebody that came up with that one of the professional haunted house review organizations came up with that.
We thought, you know, we're going to use that. It sounds good. Yeah. And your location, you know, and I didn't really think about this because being from the area, I kind of forget it.
Just 40 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh. It's kind of, we're kind of centrally located around. It's just a hop, skip, and jump from many people from bigger areas to come on down and enjoy the haunted house. Yeah.
I don't think a lot of people don't realize that we're that close to downtown Pittsburgh in this area. It's not that far of a drive. And we're, you know, Robinson Township's 20 minutes outside of Wierd than that. You know, so it just seems like it just takes longer to get there.
We're so used to going to St. Clair'sville for all of our fun stuff. And so we're close. And it's not that far of a drive to come down and check it out.
And it's completely different than what a lot of people are used to. A lot of people are used to our place now because we've had, you know, so many of them come through. But those that are used to haunted attractions are used to certain types of set up. The self-guided walkthrough and we're not that.
No, no, definitely not. Different characters. What are you throughout the haunted house people? You're, they may or may not recognize you.
They might run into me there. There's, I don't want to do it too much, but there are several outside characters that you'll see out there. Sparky the clown, the dead cowboys. And the clown.
I don't know, you know, with the movie, it and everything. It's just everybody. Well, our clowns really think he's sissy is basically what they say. They use different words and stuff in private.
But, you know, when they clock out at the end of the night, you know, they go back to their, to their, their dislike for that guy. And he think he's taking up all their thunder. Yeah, exactly. Clowns, you can never go wrong with clowns, right?
Never. I'd be watching, you know, someone will go through a house and they're acting as if nothing can get to them. And they step into a room full of clowns and they cower to the floor. That's the end of it.
Right? Grown men probably come out with their interiors, I'm sure. It's funny. Sometimes watching some of the guys come running out of there and then when they realize that they're, that it's over, they stop running.
They start walking as if they were the toughest guy on the block. They weren't acting that way inside. And Sean, while we're talking about the Wellstownch at haunted house, we speak of people coming through what age groups, how young do you recommend? It's too young for the haunted house.
Where does it start? It's rated art because it's a horror movie, let's be honest. But we don't recommend to under 12. But we've had, I just gave a t-shirt to a young girl that came through that was screaming and crying when she stepped into the gift shop.
Her eyes lit up because she realized she made it. Yeah. Like her challenge. Yeah.
So will anybody come through? We just don't recommend that parents who have 12 and under to drop their kids off to go through. Right. You know, it may be too intense for them.
I still get to come through there Sean. You've tried and tried to claim to be in your late 30s, but you know, I act like them. So at the age when it might be late 30s. It might be because I love paranormal, but I know if you're involved in it, you'll be hiding around a corner somewhere if you know that I'm going to go.
I promised you. Yeah. You've also promised not to, but I told everyone that I know Sean will call ahead and say, you know, Paul's just stopping down to take a look at it sometime. And you'll call a few people to be hidden at house while you're taking me through showing me.
And you'll suddenly disappear and then Paul will find himself on the way back on the chainsaws and put him in every room. No mercy, right? Yeah. I'd be in a corner crying in that place.
But it's Sean speaking of you know, not just the haunted house. I know every year you guys find bands from around the area entertainment. You mentioned a gift shop. I know there's a concession stand.
So there's really a lot going on. It's not just while you're waiting your turn. It's not just waiting in line in your board. I mean, you really guys think from inside to outside you've got us covered.
Yeah, we've got we've got a massive tent. So we're open all weather. We've got a massive tent out there that the party tent that people can get under if it happens to be raining. The zombie challenges out there.
And like I said, everybody gets admission that you don't have to upcharge for that. So while you're waiting, you can go through the zombie challenge. We're fortunate to have some of that. I mean, some really fantastic bands to play.
You know, they just sometimes catch yourself just stopping for a minute. Listen, it's just so much for me. There's so many things going on. But sometimes you're like, listen to these guys, you know, plus I get a really cool angle.
I do from backstage. I can see everything because I'm allowed to be there. Yeah, I know a guy. But yeah, the bands are great.
We've got the burn barrels. We've got the 50 foot screen. It's up on the up on the building. It's playing.
Hopefully we get some private stealer game up there for me. But the burn barrels to concession stand. There's all those different things you can do because it's not it's a different type of haunted attraction. It's a different setup.
You're not standing in line constantly while you're there. You're free to go and do these other things if you want a hot dog or bathroom break any of those things. You want to stand by the fire? You want to go get a close look at the band?
All those things you can do without losing your place in line. Okay, perfect. And Sean, when we talk about the haunted house, obviously a lot of the scares are set up. So that building truly has been said when we talk about this on the show has a past to it.
And it said to be haunted. What is it? I read on your Facebook page. It's over 170 years old.
That building. Yeah, it's some of the things that go on inside of there. You know, for example, yesterday, I was in there and I had to shut all the lights out. And I was left by myself.
And nothing good comes with me being left unsupervised first off. But I'm going to tell you what, when you're walking through that building and you're by yourself and you know it and you're shutting out lights, you know that feeling like when you were a little kid and you didn't go into the basement? Ooh, yeah. That's what I'm not.
Yeah. It's scary. Kind of get the goose bombs. Kind of just, you know, somebody watching me kind of just feel like you're not alone.
I'm going to get pinster. You know, somebody's going to try and take my wallet. Something. Wish I know when you're in your buy.
I get some people and we'd hide in the series. That's terrible. Yeah, turn the tables around on you. It's not fair, not fun.
Because I know you do that to me. Again, we're talking with Sean Norman with the West Town Ship Haunted House in Berlin, Ohio. Sean let people know where the haunted house is located. It's right there on Market Street, right off Route 7.
That's it. Right off Route 7 in Brilliant. It's the easiest way to do best directions we can give is Route 7 in Brainer, Ohio. There are signs along the way haunted house, right?
Through town and things that will point to the direction. You guys can't go from one end to the town to the other without running into it. And if you're on one end of the town, you're not sure you see somebody just say, hey, where's the bell's town? They know where it is.
They'll point you in the right direction. Yep. Yep. Yep.
They sure will. And Sean, talk to me a little bit about coming up. I know October, you told me every Friday and Saturday night at the haunted house, but also coming up in November beginning part is something special. This is different because you started out in the beginning in September with a lights on tour, but this is a lights out tour.
Yeah. This is completely different, completely over the top. This is, you must navigate the Wellstown ship haunted house and zombie challenges and complete darkness. We do five people per group.
You must sign a waiver. You get one glow stick per group, not per person. One glow stick per group. And how that works is Ernie, our door chick will basically open the door.
He'll snap the glow stick, throw it in and in you go. And good luck. You're on your own. You're on your own.
You're on your own. You have no tour guide. You got to navigate the entire place and complete darkness. And it is stocked full of bad people looking to do bad things.
Wow. Tell us what this is again. I remember we did a brief one last year and it was fantastic for us. It was so much fun.
But it's November 3rd and 4th, the same time, same price, completely different. If you're afraid of the dark, this is not for you. I can take that challenge on by myself. I can go on through that house by myself in the dark.
I see it. I can tell it. When I first sat down and I thought this guy is nothing. Yeah.
I'd be in the corner and probably have to change my clothes and change my pants by the time that one was done. That might be an idea for our gift shop is an underwear section for people who need a pair on their way out. That's what I'm thinking. You might be.
You might be. You could really actually wear them out. If you need one of those shirts that say I survived the Lights Out Tour or Lights Out, Wells Town Chip haunted house. All kinds of things are.
But yeah, people want t-shirts you guys have got it all. They can buy in a gift shop there. Sean, any other thoughts while we're talking to you about the haunted house there? Well, it's Town Chip haunted house.
We've talked to people coming from all over and featured on some programs. I know many awards. How many years now does this make for the haunted house? I don't like to ask that all the time.
This is our 15th year. We've won 15 years. 10 years in this new location. It's ours forever as long as you want to do it.
Like I said, the $14 general admission covers everything. We have a three-minute escape room that starts to place off. And good things happen if you don't get out. See, on radio, you can't see that sarcastic look.
We're looking winky face it. I'm doing it right now. But yeah, you got the three-minute escape rooms. I'm sure great things are going to happen.
The attraction itself, which again, we have alternate endings. We have 90% of the place gets changed every single year. We're not very smart for doing that. It's not very business savvy, but we're not doing this to make a ton of money.
We're doing this because we've got a group of people that are fantastic at it and enjoy doing it. One thing is for sure, no one wants to think they can ever predict what's going to happen there, especially with you. You should just mis-run predictable. If you're involved in it, don't get too comfortable with thinking that you can predict what's going to go on through that thing.
That's the last thing. You've got to get that out of your mind. We love those mis-direction scares. We love to set it up where you think that scare is coming from the left.
We take it and bring it from the floor, or from the ceiling. Just to set the way it's set up. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to watch.
We've taken since December now. We're into December working on this place to get it ready for our program. How many characters people approximately do you have working in their shot? In one night, on a Friday or Saturday night in October, we'll have upwards of 80 plus.
That's just actors that does include Ticket Booth, the gift shop, the administrative and security icon or outside character. That's just actors in rooms that will be up to 80. We can pull it off with less. We'd rather not.
I love it when we have a huge staff of people show up and I start creating places for them to hide. Wow. I was going to say you hit the nail and head there to security. I think they're going to be able to get out with Sean's friends running around that place.
I know Wells Township Police Department there. Nobody wants to mess with Sean. We've got younger, stronger guys that are handling that nowadays. We've got 40 cameras inside and out and multiple police officers working in the yard, working inside the house, working in character.
They're dressed up. They're working with the teenagers. They love it. We've got a pretty secure place.
If you try that, our patience is not very... You're going to be removed from the house. You're going to be giving a slice of paper that makes you go see the judge and pay a couple hundred dollars for your actions as well. Yeah, that's going to be even scarier.
We don't want that kind of scarier. We're getting the yell scared out of us the way it is at the house. Sean, let us know if anybody has any questions. Is there a number or any help?
Can I get in touch with you guys? Just check out the Facebook page. The website, the Facebook page has all the stuff. The phone number is on there as well.
You can get in touch. We have the fine folks over at Lawton to be taking care of that. I've actually not known the answer to something called them and got it. So, maybe what's going on?
They take real good care of our folks at Collin. I like to Sean with the Wells Township haunted house. It gives something for kids to do through the year because as you said, this isn't just something that can be put together over. It takes months and months.
As soon as the haunted house is closed for one season, it's practically time to start. As you said, when you change the room, start replanting for the next season. So, a lot of times kids that may not have anything else to do. This is giving kids in a community something to do.
It teaches them how to work together. It teaches them responsibility. I know we've talked before. The experience you get there, you can even put that stuff on your resume.
So, I mean, it really builds character. We have teenage high school students from all over the tri-state that are working with us, adults as well. We donate in the neighborhood of $10,000 a year to various charities, organizations, fundraisers. We're doing scholarships for our staff that are graduating high school.
We did $2,500 last year. That's something I've always wanted to do. Our staff has always wanted to do. We're very proud.
It sounds like I'm patting myself for our staff on the back now. It's not something we normally talk about. We just enjoy doing it. It feels good.
Well, you should pat yourselves on the back because you're doing a lot of great things for the community. It is appreciated. Did you ever think, I know at 10 years at this current location, you said, I know it started out initially 15 years ago. I helped them one year when it very first started out, by the way, at the old location.
I was involved in that. I don't know if you remember that or not, but I was. I was hiding behind walls there and helping scare people. I had a lot of fun with that.
Did you ever think it would grow into what it's become today? I had an idea that it could become big. Once we got into a new location, I knew it wouldn't be long because of our location. It's just fantastic.
It's in the forefront. It puts it in the forefront of people's minds. Hey, that's it's that time of year again. Let's go.
We're friends with several area, other area haunted attractions. It's a hotbed right here. Other haunted attractions. The bigger cities are seeing more people from down here go there because it's kind of expanded there.
They realize that there's other places to go and it's a lot of fun to go to these places. You're right. There are a lot of haunted attractions around the area. You can almost make a weekend out of it around how we make a couple of weekends.
We hit one here and hit one there. I don't want to use my airtime if you will to plug somebody else on attraction. There's one little dude in Toronto, Ohio. His name is Will.
I won't give his last name because I don't have his parents permission, but he's called Will's Gautier Haunted House. It's in downtown Toronto. You look it up. It's a 10 or 12 year old little guy that's doing a haunted house in the side yard.
We took about 60 of our people there last year and we had the absolute time of our lives. This kid's doing it for all the right reasons. He's donating money to the town. The money he makes, he donates to the town toys for kids.
This little guy is fantastic. Anybody listen to this? Will's Gautier Haunted House is in downtown Toronto, Ohio. He's a little guy putting together a 10 minute haunted house and he's charging two bucks a person to go see.
I encourage you to spend way more than two bucks on this guy, but it's just a fun time to go check it out. It truly puts his heart and soul into it. I'd love to have him in my yard. He'll probably continue to do bigger and better things as he continues to experience it and gets older.
He's going to open one up and shut us all down. I think that's awesome. I think I read somewhere on another news channel, an article or a story on him and I thought that was pretty cool. I kind of forgotten about that.
It's fun. It's scary. They did a good job. They got the right mindset for it.
I bet that made his day when all of you showed up. We made our day when we went through. I'm sure they were excited when we rolled in with motorcycles blaring and we made an entrance. But we left there with perpetual smiles on our faces.
Look at my face now. It's been a great time there. Sean, what comes to the Bellstown Chippon House? Let us know again the evenings and what time it's open every Friday night in Saturday night in October.
Yeah, every Friday in Saturday in October and then the lights out tour is November 3rd and 4th. It's completely different. You're talking two completely total different shows. If somebody's thinking, I'll just go in November.
You're not going to get the show. You're getting in October. You got to check that out as well. But come back and see us at the end of the beginning of November for that lights out tour.
You won't be disappointed. It is fantastic. What did you think of? I know you've been through it in the dark.
Have you tried to navigate through the whole house in the dark? If you can imagine the level of anticipation, because you and I are about 5 feet from each other. When you're in there with this book, you can't see that. You can just see immediately right in front of you.
You know it's coming. From what angle? It's coming from where it's coming from. Your sense of surrounding everything is gone.
You can't see. You can hear you can smell. But you know something's coming and you have no control over it. You can't even flinch.
Just trying to imagine how long it would take. How long does it take approximately? Like the regular during the regular Friday and Saturday nights throughout. How long is the tours usually last?
The October tours are, it takes about 30-40 minutes to that. This is not a quick in and out of the house. It's an evening. You're coming there for an evening.
You're going to be hanging out. You're going to be there for experiencing the entire show starts when the car door opens. The show starts when the car door opens. The outside character is sometimes only letting you get out of the car.
And then the lights out to where it's hard to tell how long that's going to be. We had people, we had plans in place for when one tour catches up to the next. So there's not that Congo line. Plus, what fun is to have two glow sticks in one group.
It's Zach. Well Sean, again Sean Norman of the Wells Town Chipau in the house. Any final thoughts here as we wind down? I always appreciate you coming down here to talk scary things with me.
I appreciate you having me. We've been so fortunate to have one of the world-class on attraction in the small town of Brinall Island, Jefferson County for 15 years. I'm appreciative of the folks that come out and see us every year. I know that sounds like I'm supposed to say that at scripted, but we really truly appreciate the be able to look out into our yard and see over a thousand people standing there waiting to get in to see what we've created and spend their hard on Cabbie-Jaunas.
In the latter, they scream in the house the happier you are. Yeah, because it means you know. Plus, you're always saying the smiles on their face that they'll, but this case, if they're screaming and crying, then... Yeah, it's a plus.
It's a plus. It's definitely a plus. Well, Sean, I appreciate it. One last time, let us know Wells Town Chipau in the house of Brinall Island, Ohio, where it's located there on...
It is on Market Street right off Route 7 as you said. Give us the hours again. We are box offices open at six o'clock. Close at 11.
The first tour goes in the door at seven. It's a great night. It's a lot of fun. It's...
You'll enjoy it. People will enjoy it. And perfect. Don't worry about if there's how many groups are there.
It doesn't matter if you have to be there until one in the morning. Every group will get... Right, we stop selling tickets, but we stay open until everybody gets in. And it's all weather.
We've got a massive party ten out there, courtesy of party rentals, that people can hang out under it and hold way more people than we'll see. So, it's everything's covered. It's a good time. Alright, well Sean, Norman, buddy, I appreciate you coming down and talking to me today.
Thanks for having me, always.