The Rocky Point Haunted House offers attractions of Olympic proportions
Patrons at the Rocky Pointed Haunted House in Salt Lake City can “Light the Fear Within” in eight different attractions, each with its own featured fear.
The house opened in 1979 and averages 55,000 patrons a season, something it should do again this season, said Cydney Neil, the attraction’s owner and producer.
Fangoria Magazine and Fright Times, among other magazines, rated Rocky Point the top haunted house in the nation, Neil said.
“It’s just an overall really terrific experience,” she said. “Many, many people come here from all over the country. Every inch is either entertaining, fun or frightening.”
Neil said it is the professionalism of the attraction that makes the house so successful.
“It’s just the professionalism of the sets, the actors, the whole experience,” she said. “We have a pretty large budget, so we are able to do a lot with that.”
From Chris Hansen’s point of view, however, the budget is much smaller than he is used to.
Hansen, who has been the makeup director for five years and has worked on forty movies in Los Angeles, said the budget for the haunted house is significantly smaller than that of the movies he has worked on.
“I like being creative in a budget-conscious way,” he said. “It’s really a challenge and a lot of fun to see what we can pull off. I also like all the goofy kids.”
The house employs nearly about 250 actors, nearly 100 of which must be made up every night, said Shawn Gordon, one of the 13 makeup artists in training.
The 13 artists that are employed under Hansen work for free in exchange for the opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade, Neil said.
“It’s training in the lab and the technical aspect of the job,” Gordon said. “It has a lot of good experience in behind-the-scenes training. We learn essentially how the pros do it.”
Neil said, “We have a very structured theater and makeup-effects program. We really train them to go on professionally. We mold our own masks, and they learn that whole process as well as painting skills. Every night, they have an opportunity to practice as they prepare for the show.”
Gordon got started in the program in 1999 after he won a Star Wars costume contest in which he was dressed as Darth Maul. An employee of Rocky Point saw him and suggested he work at the attraction, he said.
Anyone interested in the program should send photographs of any past work as well as commit to working the length of the season, Neil said. She said she may start charging people to attend the program in one or two years. The educational experience would cost about $30,000 at an accredited school, Hansen said.
“A lot of these people had never done makeup before, and now they’re experienced,” he said. “They’ve now been exposed to foam rubber, plastic molds, teeth and contact lenses. They’re coming out of this with a hell of a lot of experience.”
The makeup artists’ shift starts around 4 p.m., when they begin preparing the actors. Throughout the night, they freshen up the makeup as it wears off, Gordon said.
“We spend a good part of our time doing touch-ups on people that have sweated or something,” he said. “It keeps us busy throughout the night. Then the actors come in after the show to get their makeup removed.”
Rocky Point is located at 3400 South State Street. It opened Friday the 13th of September and will close Nov. 2. The house is open 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 7:30 to midnight on Friday and Saturday.
The eight attractions are the Haunted Mansion, Creepy Classics, The Dark Mines of Moria, the Psycho Circus Tent, the Bat Caves, the Insane Asylum, the Slasher Wax Museum and the Web of Mirrors.
Tickets cost $13 for adults plus $2 for the Web of Mirrors. Fast passes, which allow patrons to go straight to the front of the line, are an additional $3. Children six to eight years old are $8 each. Coupons for $2 off are available at 7-Eleven, Blockbuster Video, Godfather’s Pizza and Cricket Stores.
-kcartwright@cc.usu.edu
Makeup artist Shawn Gordon holds up a cast of Max Molina´s teeth. (Photo by Zak Larsen)
Max Molina, an actor at Rocky Point Haunted House, holds a mouth tray filled with dental alginate in his mouth to get a mold of it. The mold will be used to make a set of vampire fangs. (Photo by Zak Larsen)