For most of us, we turn up at a haunted attraction, pay our money get some scares and go home satisfied. We don’t really think about what’s happening behind the scenes - JUST that we have a good time.

The Mansion of Terror in Austin, Texas is a successful haunt mainly due to the enthusiasm and dedication of its owner Norm Glenn. In fact it is so successful that last year they experienced an exceptional season with an increase of 65% in patronage.

Following the success of the Haunt, filmmaker Javier Rivera thought that it would be good to cover the whole 4 months of the attraction from build out to tear down. Not sure of what he would get, his film shows an interesting side to what really goes on behind the masks.

Along the way there are some shocking outbursts from the crew but these are expected. As Norm says “with such a large crew trying to pull of such a big production, there is going to be a bad day or bad moment over those four months. What’s good is that those are few and far between. I have simple rules that everyone respects everyone else. Of course, Javier is going to pull those moments that are the most shocking the same way news portrays what has shock value.”

Although these scenes are interesting I found myself watching the documentary, desperately wanting to see more of what was going on INSIDE, see some of the audience reaction shots and learn more about what actually made this event one of the best in the US.

I also was hoping the film would be longer as it seemed to fly past very quickly and I am sure a lot of material ended up on the editing room floor.

Despite these comments though the film is very entertaining and is very well put together. As testament to this, the movie actually scored 2nd place in the 2007 Chicago Haunt Con convention where it was viewed by thousands of haunt professionals around the world.

If you want to find out more about The Scare then please visit their site, where they do have some copies available for purchase. If you are interested in what’s going on behind all the screams then it really is essential viewing. Lets hope that Javier goes back in 2008 for a sequel!

Our thanks go to Javier Rivera for the review copy and Norm Glenn for his time.