Doing pic-a-day for October, all from Haunted Verdun Manor/Thrillvania twenty years ago

Let's start with the color flyer for that season. It's a digital mash-up done as a homage to the Baron Verdun over the manor flyers used in 1984 and 1989. That's DarkFang standing in for the Baron, Gruff representing Sam Hain's Hayride, and a random corpse out of Cassandra's Labyrinth.

Here's the back of the flyer - no scanner, so it's a quick cell phone pic. The phone number has changed, but that's still the correct website.

I should also mention that Thrillvania is still in operation and is open for the 2020 season. I know the owners/operators, though it's been years since I had any contact with them.

Guess it would help to give the layout back in 2000 as well.

Well, the first thing is to get your tickets ...

So, let's step up to Verdun Manor. These were taken from the queue area directly in front of the manor, in the cemetery.

Fog was made with a MEE fog machine and was true water fog. It was shut off in colder weather to keep from freezing either the patrons or the fog system. On a still night the fog would build up until it was as high as the manor.

Flame-throwing demon atop the manor. Cheating a little 'cause it's a good pic - this is from the year before. In 2000 it was a different, wingless demon holding a staff.

This was the demon in 2000 - a somewhat smaller fireball would come from the head of the staff. I don't have a pic with the flame

Front porch of Verdun Manor at sundown, with one of the greeters at the entry door and a resident just hanging out.

We'll get to the dragon - Nefarious - in the background later.

A shout-out to the fog machine & the camera's flash for sprinkling "orbs" all over the photo.

The dining room, first major scene in HVM. Per the legend, Verdun rose from his grave to find Vincent Carruthers had purchased Verdun's old manor and was throwing a housewarming party (or apparently hosting a wedding reception, judging by the set dressing). Verdun was not pleased and slaughtered the guests.

A bit deeper into the manor and you'd find Carruthers in his study, heart in hand ...

This scene was always somewhere in Haunted Verdun Manor, though it would sometimes move around as the patron path changed from year to year. Here's Carruthers from 1998.

Blood pumped through the chest hole, too.

Next up - the bedroom, complete with possession. The actress was on a hydraulic platform (under her control) and could rise and seem to float.

The bed gimmick was built by another FX house; this was the only season we really used it. Worked flawlessly, but was too slow for what we needed.

One photo is taken from the "back" side, where no patron would ever see it from - thus the exposed control cable and water bottle.

It was also pretty underpowered - you had to have a very lightweight person on the rig for it to work.

Lab annex with Rocky - a big puppet. Patrons actually walked past Rocky and would be facing away from him when he lunged at them. Originally Rocky had more motion and was operated from a cubbyhole behind him. By this season he was simplified to just the lunge, and was operated by the actor in the lab annex by a lever dressed to look like a big switch.

At the end of the lab annex was a Distortions electric chair prop, one of the first they made. The motion was violent enough that it eventually tore the head off from the body - it was redressed as a decapitated victim with the head strapped onto the top of the chair.

Lance Pope talking with Stella through the grating of the lab annex.

The main lab was on the other side of this hallway.

The main lab. Patrons get a good look from two sides, and a window on a third. Every time we found some neat looking apparatus, it wound up in here.

There's two of those "ray guns" FYI. They're actually farming implements, showing that a little ingenuity goes a long way.

This set was leased as a location for television ads, at least one music video, and three movies before the 2000 season. It appeared in the Thrillvania TV spots as well, of course.

The first photo was taken from inside the lab - the rest are all from a patron's point of view.

Another look at the lab annex (and Stella). After the lab was the transmorgification hallway and the staircase down, with Death looming overhead.

I'm skipping over the more realistically graphic & gory scenes in Verdun Manor, as Twitter is a fairly general audience. There was a lot of over-the-top stuff.

The rest of Thrillvania was toned down from the stuff in Verdun Manor.

Three animatronic werewolves. Motions ranged from just lunging, to a clawing attack, to waving around/working a chainsaw. I want to say all the mechanics came from Distortions but I'm not sure. They were all customized once on-site to various degrees.

The chainsaw werewolves, usually found near the end of Verdun Manor, often chasing folks out the exit.

One was in an alcove in the butcher room (near the end), one was in the pantry/kitchen prep room (upstairs), and one was out in Voodoo Bayou.

I did this myself back when I first started at Verdun Manor - back in 1989 - before I brought my own werewolf character in to run around Verdun Manor.

And a couple more from later seasons - this particular actor made this werewolf character his and played him for several years.

One last photo today - this is one of the few taken with patrons going through the house.

Mentioned earlier when he was in the background of a pic - here's Nefarious, a big flame-shooting dragon animatronic in Voodoo Bayou.

Patrons walked over a pontoon bridge 15' in front of him.

Showing off how much motion he had.

The difference between 1999 and 2000 - the hands on the ends of the wings were replaced by horns. This also lets you see him in daylight, at rest.

I'll call your attention to the rotating beacon light on the left for the next photo ...

This is what the Bayou looked like during operation, with Nefarious resting. The two arches are the two ends of the bridge, and you can see that hazard light on the right side, just above and to the left of the hanging corpse.

The other photos are with the fog turned off.

Came across a video clip of Nefarious & re-encoded it ... no sound. This would have been one full cycle of his animation. You can see it in this tweet.

Nefarious was part old-school animation, too - a motor drove a series of cams on a shaft that triggered different actions (various flames, lights, the wings, etc.) Only the head/neck/jaw was driven digitally, and that show box was triggered from a cam.

Oops - one extra for today, as it's the thirty-second anniversary of the film's release ... driving the collapsing hallway in Verdun Manor was a modified full-size standing Pumpkinhead. It started as a first generation prop made by Distortions; Lance made several customizations to it.

Cassandra's Labyrinth of Terror, the second walk-through haunt at Thrillvania back then. Also the reminder that Thrillvania is still there, and is open for the 2020 season.

Above the entrance was Mortimer Thorn (host of Lance's Thorn Hall haunt, 1989), an animatronic from Boneyard Productions and voiced by John Denley. I should still have the script we wrote and the audio file around here somewhere.

Here's the 1998 facade ... Cassandra's was also smaller then.

Before we go inside Cassandra's, let's look across the road at Sam Hain's queue line - and at Gruff and Bobo. Animatronics by Distortions intended to entertain patrons in the hayride queue. They wound up attracting a knot of people every night, watching their shtick of grumbling, farting, and bitching at each other. Had to re-route the queue to accommodate their devoted fans.

These two photos were taken before the set was finished.

Here's how it looked in-season. The attached machine would blow fog & flames.

The surrounding set was all Lance - and he had a ball coming up with all the graffiti. Wish I had clearer photos of it.

Gruff also graced the front of the color flyer for 2000.

Inside Cassandra's (which was a lot lighter in tone than Verdun Manor). This vampire in a coffin could be triggered to sit up straight and scream.

The scene before the vamp-in-a-box would violently throw a flayed corpse the length of the room - over your head - and snatch it back. Not sharing a photo as it was fairly gruesome.

An extra photo I came across - this is Voodoo Bayou and Nefarious about a month before opening, taken from the upper side porch. We'd have to clear the cattails out of the middle of the pond before opening.

More about the Cutting Edge bus later.

And one more extra photo - a better look at the "Eviscerator & De-Boner" attached to Gruff & Bobo.

The first scene in Cassandra's was a hallway with various things in jars and tanks - a nod to certain old freak shows. The idea was to give the patron's eyes a chance to adjust.

The baby in a tank - with fish - usually got the most attention.

Cassandra's, the spider hallway. Black lights, with a fan stirring the webs ... they got thicker as you went down the hall.

The spiders got bigger, too, until you got to the 6' wide momma spider at the end. She was on pneumatics and would leap down and out with a strobe light on her. Last photo is with flash, all the others are ambient lighting.

Did I mention that Cassandra's had clowns? Evil clowns, up close and in your face in claustrophobic spaces?

The clowns would often roam the midway as well ... The jester clown was another regular actor, playing him across several years.

Clowns and puppets go together, right?

Stepping outside of Cassandra's for a day, here's a closeup of Rocky, the big puppet near the start of the lab in Verdun Manor.

Rocky was originally operated by a puppeteer in a tiny room behind him.

The next year his motion was simplified so the actor in the same scene could trigger him. In later years (and the last two photos) he was moved downstairs. At least you could see more of him then.

Another big puppet was Sherri, in a shack out in Voodoo Bayou. She could be run from the actor's backstage area, and often one of the actors on break would take her for a spin to see what puppeteering was like.

Finally, as it's #WerewolfWednesday, here's a teaser of Bloodfang and Loon A. Tik in the actor's backstage area.

One of Cassandra's larger scares was this flying demon; the set housing it had to be built with 16' ceilings to accommodate the motion.

That's Lance Pope adjusting it during set construction.

Jumping around a bit, here's Lance's Yellowfang posed on a mannequin inside Verdun Manor. Lance didn't suit up as a werewolf that year.

The shaking catacombs in Cassandra's; this elaborate set premiered in 2000. Everything moved, with fog and strobes - which is why there's no good pix of it in action.

Best overall photo I have is from setting it up in the preseason. I want to say the base was from Distortions, and it was modified by us (Wolf Studios) to fit in with Cassandra's story.

And as a bonus, since it's #FursuitFriday, a visitor who performed for one night in Cassandra's back in 1999, prowling the hallway of caged creatures ... I'll let him identify himself if he wants to.

Random scenes inside Cassandra's. The hallway was a forced perspective set. At the end it was only six feet tall - made critters look particularly large and threatening.

More extras - another werewolf who would come out and act when he could. Again, I'll let him identify himself. Second pic was after a long night in the fog in front of Verdun Manor. These two photos are from different seasons - the markings on the suit are different, not running when they got wet.

The third main attraction: Sam Hain's Hayride. Trailers were fitted with a operator's cabin with lights and soundtrack. It also blocked line of sight so actors could get up close for scares.

More hayride pics, mostly in daylight. It was only in operation after dark.

One of the Verdun hearses was set up by the hayride exit, with one of the teenage werewolves behind the wheel. This particular werewolf was the lead singer in the werewolf death metal band that had been a scene inside Verdun in past seasons.

Another of the Verdun hearses, out on the midway. The werewolf skull hood ornament came from Lex's shop.

You can also just make out the Cutting Edge bus in the background. Soon, soon.

Many of the actors had fun customizing their own props - this was all the work of one of the hayride regulars for their own character.

Granny Lupus in her Voodoo Bayou shack. Here she was just doing short shows to entertain the queue, much as she did back when Verdun Manor was in Forney, Texas.

In 2002, Granny Lupus' Séance Theater premiered, a sort of dark Enchanted Tiki Room with a ~20 minute show hosted by Granny. Here's a video (by others) of the Séance theater in operation.

Here's Granny with her blouse pulled down to expose her inner workings. Lance always voiced her.

Granny was originally from Lifeformations - she was used in their trade show circuit before we bought her gently used from them.

One of her sisters sits in a coin-op fortune teller's booth at the Winchester Mystery House.

The extra pic for today. Another werewolf - who would work at HVM when they could - and DarkFang, a regularly appearing werewolf.

We're in the home stretch now!

Doctor Phineas' and Lady Cassandra's Pandemonium Carnival of Oddities & Illusions, or, as we called it in-house, "the magic stage." This was pre-season, minus the props.

Doctor Phineas and Lady Cassandra themselves. The flame-breathing is a VHS screencap from one of their shows. The last photo is Doctor Phineas and DarkFang entertaining (or harassing) a pair of patrons on the midway.

Doctor Phineas performed for many years at Verdun, and delivered a stirring eulogy at Lance Pope's funeral.

A good place to add these pics - see the magic stage in the background? This lion statue was originally placed as a cenotaph for the four-leggeds of Verdun Manor. At the time, Karloff (wolf) had passed away but had not yet been added.

Lance's own cenotaph was added to it in 2003.

The regular werewolves in 2000. From left to right they are (1st pic) Loon A. Tik, Snort, Silvermane, DarkFang, and Kanis; (2nd pic) Bloodfang and Harold.

The original posts on Twitter cropped Kanis out of the thumbnail, so the third photo of Kanis and Darkfang was posted to make up for that. Happily that tweet cropped on their heads.

A bunch of werewolf photos - (1) DarkFang, (2)Loon A. Tik, (3)Loon A. Tik, (4)DarkFang, (5)Bloodfang and (6)Harold. Some are from other seasons.

Obviously, it was another #WerewolfWednesday.

Four more photos - a mix of Harold, Loon A. Tik, and Bloodfang. Oh, and an unknown patron.

Last one for today - werewolves & patrons pose for a photo on the midway.

On to the Cutting Edge bus, "on loan" from Todd James / Cutting Edge. The bus was present for several seasons ...

... during which it was "blown up" (controlled propane ignition) several times each night. You could feel the heat from fifty yards away, and could hear the "whomp" sound all over the park when it ignited.

We went through a *lot* of propane with the bus - as much as the rest of the flame effects combined. It wasn't a continuous burn, more just a big fireball.

Of course, the bus had a very toasty driver, replaced each season.

Here's a sequence of a single burn, across a few seconds. You'd get the big fireball on ignition, then it would die down as the propane load was burned off.

This is what it looked like from the midway entrance.

An extra added bonus today - mainly 'cause I wasn't sure where else to put this, but didn't want to leave him out - Kevin, who really, really, really liked Full Metal Jacket. His homage to Hartman roamed the midway, offering "verbal interaction" with willing patrons.

The Friday before Halloween was always the largest crowds of the season. Just getting ready to open ...

... so naturally, a bunch of werewolves!

The backstage werewolf green room ...

... and some werewolves from 1999.

I'd just like to post this collage of the actors, techs and managers of the 2000 season. Hell of a crew!

And that's it for this trip down memory lane for the Haunted Verdun Manor / Thrillvania 2000 season. Hope y'all enjoyed it!