The Fear Asylum haunted house in Brookings is scarier than ever this spooky season because of new additions, Sara Mack general manager Sara Mack says.
Located at 216 Sixth St. W, the Fear Asylum is in its 13th year of scaring. They are open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in October, Halloween and the first Friday and Saturday in November. Hours run from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., depending on the day of the week, Mack said.
The Fear Asylum offers more than its Haunted Attraction, Mack said. Options like the B-Block Breakout and Abduction Escape Room bring more scary
opportunities. Additionally, the company has an attraction called The Ride, where people can experience being taken in a hearse and buried in the ground alive.
When asked about what brought her to the Fear Asylum, Mack described the unique pathway.
“It was their second year open in 2011 and I went through at least a dozen times in one season,” Mack said.
Mack wanted to be a part of the Fear Asylum so much and she eventually ended up marrying one of the actors who connected her with the owner Buck Burdick to land her a job.
Before working at Fear Asylum, Mack went to cosmetology school and worked in Texas in retail and manufacturing for five years. She returned to Brookings and the Fear Asylum.
“I compare it to Monsters Inc.,” Mack said. “You know, we scare because we care.”
The Fear Asylum building used to be a hot tub store that Burdick owned and would transform it into a haunted house each Halloween. One year, he randomly decided to build a haunted house, which consisted of Burdick and six friends on a show room floor as actors.
There are about 35 to 40 people who play a role in the process. Technology, lighting, build crew, programming, props, and the actors are just some of the crew Mack said.
They have a program they call “The Show,” that controls everything that.
They start makeup and getting ready for the night at about 4:30 p.m. each day.
Mack says the attendance rate this year has been on par with past years even though it has been a colder year. With one-fourth of the haunted attractions
outside, the rain and temperature played a small factor in attendance.
New this year are a lot of different scenes Mack helped design. Some include a sewer, graveyard, an underground research facility and new additions to the C.E.C., or the Covert Experimentation Center, where the facilities staff has been turning patients into test subjects.
They offer three different admission costs. The Fast Pass for $40 includes the Full Experience with the 4D room and a guaranteed one-third of the wait time to the Haunted Attraction. For $55, the VIP pass will get people to the front of the line, into both escape rooms and the Last Ride. General admission is $25.
Tickets can be purchased on their
website or at the door and they take both cash and credit card, Mack says.
At times, they had the line down to the nearby Casey’s store, so they knew the wait time was past closing time making them sell out of tickets, Mack said. They will honor tickets purchased online to get in first. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to get through, depending on the size of the group.
Mack suggests not being the first one to walk in because the actors usually aren’t warmed up yet.
“They hit their crazy around 9 p.m.,” Mack said.
The most rewarding part of Mack’s job is hearing the actors go on about the great scares or the cool things they did after each show.
“I call them my haunt children. It’s a weird feeling,” Mack said.
Mack and Burdick credit the success of Fear Asylum to the actors because they are the heart and soul of the operation.
Past Fear Asylum attendee Jaden Weinkauf is a South Dakota State University Sophomore from Woodstock, Minnesota, studying animal science. Weinkauf decided to go the Fear Asylum because she had overheard describing it as a fun time. The day she attended was also her birthday so she thought it would be fun to go.
Compared to other haunted houses, she had been to what she thought was great for a smaller area with limited space. She enjoyed how some of the rooms were almost hands on and they had to do a small task.
“I really liked how the characters kind of get in your face,” Weinkauf said.
Weinkauf advises people planning to go to order tickets online and wear good shoes since sometimes the ground is uneven.
Weinkauf is not too scared of haunted houses and normally laughs the whole time. That said, she rates the Fear Asylum level of scariness eight on a scale of one to 10. Weinkauf would recommend it to other students, especially if they are looking for something to do on the weekends.
Mack says people should go the Fear Asylum because they can make a night out of it. If people are not scared, they can expect to at least be entertained by the theme and the artistry built into the process.
