Updated as of 10:03 a.m. on Oct. 31 to include video.
Dean and Starr Jones were 7 years old when they had their first taste of special effects makeup when their parents pulled them out of school to watch the production of the 1968 movie “Killers Three.”
The brothers watched as an FBI agent got shot three times, fake blood spewing from his chest. Immediately, they both took an interest and learned how to recreate the scene by high school.
After growing up watching horror movies and doing haunted houses for church and boy scouts, the duo went on to Hollywood and garnered a combined total of two Emmys, six Emmy nominations and 162 makeup credits for both movies and shows — most notably “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and several of the Star Trek movies.
In between films, the brothers came back to Alamance County to do a one-off haunted house.
“It was going to be a one-time event, and we came back and found this place,” Starr said. “We did it for the first year, and then it grew. And 35 years later, we're still doing it.”
The Original Hollywood Horror Show has 12,000 square feet of space, filled to the brim with haunted attractions such as a haunted house, maze, pirate ship and magic shows. Every year, new attractions are added.
“We have different rooms and sets that you see as you walk through the show, it's much like walking through a film set,” Starr said. “We actually use this as a back lot on some of our productions that we've done.”
Details from horror films — both classic and modern — are packed into every corner of the house, including “Scream,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “American Horror Story” and “The Ring.”
“There's so much going on when you walk through the show. You can walk through and miss things you didn't think that were there,” Starr said. “That's the fun part. They walk around and say, ‘I didn't see that was there. I didn't see that character, I didn't see that prop.’”
The brothers didn’t let go of their roots, though. All of the makeup, costumes and sets are built in house.
“It's so much visual to see when you come through the show,” Starr said. “We build everything here that we have.”
Over the last 35 years, Starr said the horror show has built a community in Alamance County. Both scare actors and customers come back year after year.
“One of the main reasons we do this is because of the community involvement kids like when we were little,” Dean said. “You'll see back here tonight, we'll have small children with their adult parents working on the show. It's a big influence.”
Dean said he will often ask children if they want to see behind the scenes to get them interested in the special effects.
“I'll pull kids in and ask, ‘Have you ever done makeup?’ They'll see something they're interested in, like making that monster. They'll have hands-on experience working a fog machine, working the lights,” Dean said. “It's a lot of opportunities here to get involved in things you may have not had an opportunity to do in your lifetime.”
Part of building a community is to give people a place where they feel like they fit in, according to Dean, just like how horror helped him fit in when he was young.
“My favorite part is watching the families that come here and the kids have the experience like we did when we were kids. We have a lot of people who are not extroverts. They're social misfits,” Dean said.
Starr attributes the success of haunted houses to the thrill people feel when they walk through it.
“I associate it much like going on a roller coaster. People love to go on a roller coaster and feel that thrill of going down that hill at a very rapid speed, very quickly, and it's just adrenaline rushing,” Starr said. “That's what it is for haunted houses — to walk into somewhere and see if you're going to get scared and see what's around the corner.”
Dean said horror will always bring in a crowd.
“Even when the economy is bad, even when all other movies are failing, horror movies are always doing well because it drives you emotionally,” Dean said. “It does something to you psychologically. It’s such a strange thing.”
After 35 years, The Original Hollywood Horror Show has become an iconic part of the county, Starr said.
“It's become a tradition in Alamance County, and it's something people really enjoy coming back to and visiting every year,” Starr said. “When the weather gets cold and there's a little bit of chill in the air and there's fog, they love to come out to the haunted house.”