Creepy Hallow: Landscaper Raises His Family's Haunted House From the Dead

To say Jeff Fasel is a horror buff would be an understatement. 

Walk into the cubicle he uses at , and you're greeted by a dismembered mad scientist mannequin. His cellphone ringtone plays the theme form Halloween. And when Fasel gives a tour of the 10,000-square-foot haunted house at Creepy Hallow Halloween Fun Park, it's like watching a kid show off a new toy.

"Growing up, I rigged speakers in the front yard (to play scary sounds) and had tombstones with my brothers' names on them," said Fasel, who runs this Halloween attraction, which is in its first year at Fawn's Landscaping. 

The origins of Creepy Hallow, ironically, began with an ending. In the late 1990s, the nursery and garden center Fasel's family owns in Glenwood, Busy Bee, had its own haunted house and hay rides during Halloween. When Busy Bee moved to a smaller location eight years ago, the business stopped doing the haunted house because the space was too small. Fasel tried to get another haunted house going over the years, but the plans always fell through.

It wasn't until Mark Tracy, Fawn's owner, asked Fasel about his family's old haunted house that things started to look up. Tracy suggested that Fasel use his 45-acre lot to create a Halloween wonderland. 

"He said, 'I've got big buildings. You should come on over and check them out,' " Fasel said. "I was like, 'This could work. ... We could lay out everything we have (from the Busy Bee days), go to the Halloween show and pick up some new props and have a really nice haunted house here."

But Fasel didn't stop with just the haunted house. The idea grew into a haunted house and a haunted hay ride. And a corn maze. And carnival rides. And a petting zoo. A neighboring farmer donated a pumpkin launcher and lets Fasel shoot the gourds into his field, and and  are some of the local eateries providing concessions.

"We have all the family-oriented stuff during the day for the younger kids and then at night we have the haunted house, which we call the Blood Shed," Fasel said. 

One of the sweetest parts of reviving the haunted house for Fasel has been working with his old crew. Of the 30 people who help put together Creepy Hallow, only five or six of them aren't from the Busy Bee days, he said.

"When we first started building it, we looked at each other and said, 'We're back!' " Fasel said. "It's a good time. It's fun. We have a good time with it."

And that feeling rubs off when fun park workers deal with customers, Fasel said. Everyone strives to make the Creepy Hallow experience a personal one, he added.

"It's not like you're just paying a ticket price, and it's a free-for-all," he said. "We bring the kids on the hay ride, and we hype them up. ... We're telling them stories. We're doing more one-on-one action."

If Creepy Hallow is successful, Fasel said he wants to keep adding new attractions to the fun park. And not simply to indulge his love of frights. Fasel has practical considerations, too. 

"(Tracy and I are) both in the gardening and landscaping business, and anything attached to housing has been horrible the last three to five years," he said. "We needed something to help bring some of that up. So hopefully in the next couple years, we'll build something to keep our families fed, keep our bills paid. 'Cause the way it's been rolling, if spring isn't good and the weather doesn't cooperate, the way the economy is going, you may as well forget being in that business unless you have something else you're doing to pay your bills."

Creepy Hallow Halloween Fun Park

Where:
When: From 6 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from 6 to 10 p.m. Sundays. Later hours during Halloween week. The fun park is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays (the carnival rides stay open during the night).
Price: The fun park costs $12 for adults and kids 11 and older; $10 for kids 3 to 10; free for kids younger than 3. The Blood Shed Haunted House is $16, and the Hollywood Horror Hayride is $12. A combo ticket runs $26.

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