Haunted house’s final weekend of 2018

By Scott Bellile

Locals have one last weekend to experience the “R-rated” fright of Spooks on Spurr.

The new haunted house, located at W10121 Spurr Road, Maple Creek, opened Sept. 28.

It will wrap up its inaugural season with two more nights of scares Friday, Oct. 26, and Saturday, Oct. 27. The house is open from 7 p.m. to midnight each night.

Tickets can be purchased at the door for $20 for general admission or $30 for fast pass.

“It’s a rated-R haunt. It’s 16 and above as a recommended age,” said Sam Switzer, creative director for Spooks on Spurr.

Visitors will see why in places such as the kitchen, where the walls and countertops are awash in realistic blood and gore. There is less violent but still unsettling imagery elsewhere that children might not respond well too, such as a bedroom full of creepy and dismembered dolls.

“I want a haunted house for an adult,” said Switzer, a 15-year veteran in the haunt industry. “Something that’s actually going to scare me. Werewolves don’t do it for me. … Vampires, to me, they’re not real. They’re like unicorns.”

Switzer said the attraction makes adults feel fearful by depending on realistic, human-like fiends to lurk the halls. And Spooks on Spurr is a “touch haunt,” meaning the creepers may lay a hand upon your elbow, knee or shoulder.

Some people might even experience personalized terror during their visit thanks to Spooks on Spurr’s security system, Switzer said. For example, if a worker overhears talk among visitors that their friend Jim is afraid of clowns, then that worker will use a walkie-talkie to alert an employee across the house to dress up in a clown suit. Then the clown will keep an eye out for Jim and perhaps greet him by his first name.

The setting for Spooks on Spurr is a rural 5,000-square foot mansion built in 1842. Today the house belongs to Pat Williams, who also owns The Waters Supper Club in New London.

Williams has owned the house since 2012 and the land around it for longer, so he has heard his share of ghost stories from neighborhood residents who insist it is haunted.

When Williams obtained his permit from the county to operate the haunted house, he said the worker asked him, “Ain’t that house haunted already?”

Williams responded, “Yeah, but I want to make it official.”

Dressed in a creepy mask, Sam Switzer, creative director for Spooks on Spurr, poses for a photo at the bar with doorman Jeff Maney and construction manager Ron Thurk.
Scott Bellile photo

Switzer is convinced something supernatural is going on inside. He said one morning at 4:30 a.m., he saw the figure of a woman in a white dress holding a lantern in the third-story window. He has also found unusual scratch marks inside the room.

But beyond scares, the house also aims to offer fun. Rather than standing in line waiting their turn to enter, visitors take a number and get called inside when it is time. Meanwhile, they can socialize around a fire pit or snack on an array of food including hotdogs, burgers, nachos, hot beef, chili and funnel cake fries.

After visitors make their way through a two-story maze of rooms, they end their journey with a plunge down a 32-foot slide.

They then have the option of grabbing beer from the bar and listening to a disc jockey or live band, depending on who the entertainer is that night.

Billie Jo Thompson, also known as DJ Boop, has been in charge of the music on several nights this season. She said attendance has been great, with the highest night attracting between 400 and 500 visitors.

Thompson said now that the Brewers are done playing baseball and this is Halloween weekend, Spooks on Spurr hopes to break its attendance record Friday or Saturday.

After Halloween season is over, Switzer said he hopes to transform four of the house’s rooms into an escape room operation.

He also plans to change 30 percent of the haunted house next year so people can return to a fresh experience.

“We’ve got big plans,” Switzer said.