Episode Transcript
Nightmares on the Rogue in Medford, Oregan started as a
youth center fundraiser and has grown into one of the
state's most celebrated haunted attractions. That's coming up on today's show.
Welcome to the show. I'm Philip on the Haunted Attraction
Network show. We bring you the news and stories you
need to prepare for Halloween. This podcast is just one
(00:29):
part of what we do. You can find videos, articles,
and our free weekly newsletter linked in the show notes today.
Nightmares on the Rogue began in twenty twenty one as
a three thousand square foot community haunt and has since
expanded into a thirty thousand square foot Halloween destination with
three fully themed haunted houses and a bustling midway. In
(00:50):
this exclusive interview, owner Devin Price shares how a fundraiser
turned into a professional grade production, they created a process
behind the three haunted houses, and what he's learned about
star retailing, pricing, and building a haunt that gives back.
You can also watch the full video version of this
interview on our YouTube channel that's also linked in the
show notes. Okay, here's devn.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
My name is Devin Price and I am the owner
of Nightmares on the Rogue Haunted Attraction in Medford, organ
We are a thirty thousand square foot entertainment venue. We
mainly specialize in haunted attraction, so we have our Halloween Festival,
which has a lot of vendors and then things to
do like tarot card readers, character artists, and I think
that really sets us apart in the area. We also
(01:31):
have three attractions on site, completely different themes. One's Junkyard Circus.
It's the typical clown homp both in an industrial twist.
We have Invasion, which is our sci Fi Area fifty
one attraction, and then Temple of Terror, which is like
if Indiana Jones was a horror film. So three completely
different haunted attractions, and our goal really was for families
to come out and make a whole, entire night out
of it. So we started in twenty nineteen. I was
(01:54):
the director of a youth center, so we had an
afterschool program, summer program, preschool. It was a large facility
and we were looking at creative ways to do a
fall fundraiser. I come from a place Selexity, Utah, where
I grew up going to these big haunted attractions, and
one in particular was called Rocky Point, and they would
take Hollywood sets and put them into ship them from California,
bring them to Utah, and I just loved it.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I loved every second of it because it was like
walking through a film.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And so I've always had this in the back of
my mind where one day I would run a haunted attraction,
and I pitched it to my staff and said, hey,
we should do a haunted house. They surprisingly agreed, and
we go all the kids to make spooky props, and
within thirty days we set something up in our youth
center and it was a hit. We had the community
come out and support us, and I thought, you know,
this is going to be something fun we do every year. Unfortunately,
(02:39):
twenty twenty happened and with the pandemic, we had to
transition to an emergency childcare facility, and ultimately we closed
down the youth center.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
But we kept still getting emails of hey, are you
going to do the Haunted house?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
You're going to do the Haunted house, and so I
looked at my wife and I was like, you know,
I think there's a demand.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
In our area.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
And so we did a trip in October of twenty
twenty we traveled to seven different states, went through thirty
different haunted attractions, and then we went through the attraction
trade show in Saint Louis and we decided we were
going to go pro, as they call it.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
So I put my.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Thirty thousand dollars in savings. We got a three thousand
square foot building and we did our first haunted house,
and we called it Ninemares on the Road because we're
in the Rogue Valley and we really wanted to set
apart an event where it would be a haunted house
and a festival. And back then we only got two
food trucks and a tarot card reader, but it was
something way different than this area had, and we had
a three thousand square foot hunt probably took three minutes
(03:28):
to get through, but people still loved it. And we
had a five year goal where we wanted to get
a facility big enough to house kind of a bigger
city haunt film. And so here we are five years later,
and we achieved that dream in that goal, and so
we have ten thousand square foot facility that houses two
of our attractions and then another outdoor attraction and then
an entire festival. And really I love the motto that
(03:51):
a couple haunters say, Where's You can't scare everybody, but
you can't entertain everybody, And that's our ultimate goal. We
don't claim to be the scariest, and we don't try
to be the scariest. We are scary, but really we
just want people leaving having a good time, laughing at
their friends and making an entire night out of it.
So we really wanted to make it a point that
you're not going through the same haunted house three different times.
We wanted to completely create different stories, and ultimately that's
(04:13):
what we wanted to do, tell stories. And so our
first haunt that we designed this year is called Invasion.
It is actually inspired by a trip I took when
I was seven years old to New Mexico and I
visited Roswell and I just loved the old nineteen forties
fifties alien sci fi phil and I thought it was
something different than this area had, and so we really
wanted to do a sci fi haunt. And so you
start in, you come into Area fifty one, you're greeted
(04:35):
by our general and he's right in your face, and
you realize there's a crystal that is found on Earth.
It's the most important crystal, and that's why these aliens
are coming and then chaos ensues.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
And so that's our first attraction.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
The second one that we planned this year's Temple of Terror,
and this really kind of embodies who we are with
Nightmares on the Roague is really we want an adventure spirit.
I just love the old Indiana Jones movies. I love
going through the Q line at Disneyland through Indiana Jones
and we really wanted to have that adventure fill and.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
So that's kind of that attraction.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And then we kept having people reach out to us
and say, do you have clowns in your hunt?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Do you have clowns in your haunt?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And obviously it wouldn't make sense to put a clown
in a temple in the wilderness or in Area fifty one,
and so we thought about it hard. We didn't want
to just do a typical circus, and we had a
lot of junk yard stuff lying around, cars, different things,
and we were actually watching the VMAs and Chapel Ron
did her song and there was a bunch of rodeo
clowns and they were on these cars and stuff, and
(05:30):
it kind of hit me as like that's kind of
a cool different approach to the typical just in your
face clown and so that kind of what birth the
idea of Junkyard Circus and so kind of has that
industrial twist. When those three attractions, we wanted to make
sure we had an icon character associated with all of
them that is all over our marketing that the community
the public can meet when they come to our festival,
and that's tied to that specific attraction, and then that
(05:51):
we're telling a story from the beginning to the end.
So some of the challenges that we have, I assume
all haunters have, and that's that the public kind of things.
A haunted house is something you put up in a
couple of weeks and then they get to go through
and then they leave. And actually it's a year round endeavor,
and so we pay our entire staff, we have a
facility that we pay rent year round, we have insurance,
(06:11):
we're dealing with a lot of different expenses and so
really for us this year, looking into how's the economy
going to be with different things with like tariffs and
other things, and we're like, we need to have an
attraction that's both profitable and affordable and so one thing
we did this year that we've never done is we
allowed people to break out whether they wanted to do one, two,
or all three attractions. And so last year we had
(06:32):
a general mission, it was thirty dollars, you got everything.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
This year you can break it up.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
If you want to do one Hunted House for fifteen dollars,
you can two for twenty five or three for thirty.
And then obviously we have our fast pass and up sales,
but we really just wanted to provide an opportunity for
any family to come, even if they can't afford normally,
and actually it ended up helping us. Our tickets are up,
our average ticket price ends up being our standard general
mission that we would have had when you take into
fast pass and everything else into account, and so it's
(06:58):
really worked out for us, and I think that the
communities really liked it because those families that can't afford
a thirty dollars general mission ticket are at least getting
to come. And honestly, people come and if they do
buy one, they like it so much they go to
our box office and upgrade to the others.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So it ends up working out.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Growing up in Salt Lake, I saw these mega haunts,
and that's in my mind. We have to be that,
and so everything I'm doing is trying to emulate that.
But like you said, we don't have seventy thousand people
come through in October. We are limited about certain things,
and so I have to be realistic. When I came
into this area, there were a lot of people who
had passion, but a lot of the haunted attractions were
(07:33):
more of those local mom and pops in the backyard
of something, and they didn't really have anything.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
That a larger city would have.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
There were a couple of really good ones, but I
felt like there was this niche in the market that
was untapped, and so that's kind of where we thought
we would head into is really focus on quality, really
focus on the entire event, And for us, it's been
about slowly making those milestones where our ideas are super large,
but we have to do what's realistic in how many numbers.
And so for instance, year one my job, my idea
(08:02):
is like, I'm going to go buy a giant gorgle
ore and I went in to the trade show with
that in mind, and I actually talked to a really
prevalent haunter and he has a really big haunted house
now and all this stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And one of the biggest in the industries.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And he really put things into perspective where his first
haunt they only spent nine thousand dollars on and it
was a lot of little props, and then it took
him twenty five years to get the dragon he wanted,
and he's like, you can wait on a gorgle ore
and so little things like that that are these bigger
props where in your mind you're looking at these videos
and you're like, oh, if.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
That haunt has it, we have to have it.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
But for us, our customers don't necessarily know because they're
not going to these other markets, and so they comfort
to us and it's bigger and different than they've ever seen.
And so really evolving with where we're at and not
really thinking of the industry as our competitors, but more
locally and for something that for me with this is
a passion project and wanting to go toe to toe
(08:54):
with these other states haunts, I had to really like
kind of tone down.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
It's like, you don't need to do that.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Who are actually paying you your money or the people
that are in your market, and this is what they need.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
What would you tell the twenty version of yourself.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I would say it's going to be a lot more
hours than possible. I would say, cherish the time with
your family when you're spending not doing the haunted attraction stuff,
and also really just appreciate them more. I have my wife,
and I'm lucky that she runs this with me. I
know a lot of haunters their wife like lets them
do it and they're off on their own. And she
grew up not really going to all these Halloween things.
(09:29):
Owning a haunted house was probably the last thing on
her Bingo card. But she's fully supported me in my
dream and actually that's why I wore this hoodie tonight.
She got me this for Christmas in twenty twenty, before
we even had a haunted house. All we had was
a name, just because she believed in me, and from
every step of the way, she's been there. And I
don't think we would be able to do this if
I didn't have a supportive partner.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Children.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I have a five year old and a two year
old and they're here all the time, and you know,
it really takes a toll and then they love it.
But when they're here long nights. You can see with
they're throwing fits into all their tantrums, and so really
having a supportive base around you that understands how much
work and time. So I would tell my twenty twenty self,
I know you have these big ideas, but listen to
your wife. She's always right in terms of what to
(10:09):
spend money on, how to grow smartly and not overdo things,
and then really just lean on people because I think
those first three years I try to do too much,
and this year it's been way better.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Having staff being able to.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Do everything tell me about the future.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
So there's numbers that I think we can hit based
off other markets and haunts that have told me. I
know for us, we had to go into it educating
the population of what type of event and haunt we are.
So we took a couple of years to get people
to be like, oh, this is the haunted attraction and
this is that. So this year we have seen our
highest numbers. We had a five year business planning. We're
(10:44):
at that time, so I'm in the process of what
does it look like now, Like do we sign our
least for three more years or five more years? Is
this a space that really lends itself to the type
of event we want. What I would focus on if
we continue is quality. I think I want to do
stage shows outside. I want to do more with the
actual event space, and then just leveling up the haunted attractions.
But in terms of size, like I've been looking at
(11:05):
different buildings and I'm like, I don't think we can
have a thirty thousand square foot building. I couldn't staff it,
I don't have the funds to build it, and so
I think we're in the perfect spot for this area.
And so it's just really forecasting what does our growth
really look like. I don't really think we can raise
our prices anything, and I don't know if I would
want to. So it's just how do we continue to
provide experiences that people can pay for and do this
(11:27):
because at the end of the day, there's way more
than me that depends on this. I have so many
staff where all year around they're looking forward to this,
and so I think if I stop tomorrow, i'd have
a mob on my hand.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So we'll see.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Is there anything I didn't ask you that you think
it is important?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
You know a lot of people who are hunters will
tell you don't do this, don't do this, and like
they'll go in your face and you're like, you want
to do this, don't do it.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I would say this. I would say do it if
you're very passionate about it.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
It is a lot of hard work and I don't
know what the future holds, but I do know that
I don't think I will regret doing it. I think
that I've made memories. I build something that this area
hasn't seen. We're going to be part of Medford's Haunt
history for however long it is, and I can always
look back and say that I challenged myself. I'm a
marketer and storyteller by trade, so my background in education
(12:12):
and in my professional career is within marketing and business.
I didn't really have the experience on how to build
sets and how to light stuff. And I think that
I've developed skills here that will help me when I
want to build a house or when I want to
do something else. And so there's so much I've learned
while doing this that extends beyond just being a Haunter.
And I really think that you have to go into
(12:33):
it this doing it because you love.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
It, and I do Today's episode was edited by me Philiprinandez,
with post production by David Swope and original music composed
by Chris Thomas. Support for today's episode comes from Gantum
Lightning and Controls. Gantum eliminates attractions worldwide with the world's
smallest intelligent spotlights. From Dark iWork in Other World, Super
Mario Land to Hagrid's Bike. Gantum goes where other fixtures
(12:59):
can't see what you're missing With a free demo, sign
up at gantum dot com slash demo. That's scantum dot
com slash demo. The h a N Team includes Daryl Plunky,
Emily Luis Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin BYRNS and Omniadventures. Until
Next Time, Stay Scary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network production.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.