Pick a room, any room in the Castle of Chaos this Halloween season, and you won’t find a guy trying to scare you with a chainsaw.
What you will find, though, is a bunch of local improv actors who offer clues, laughs and a decidedly different Halloween experience.
The Castle of Chaos is a distinct change of pace for thrill-seekers from the formulaic haunted houses and corn mazes that appear around the country in October.
Castle of Chaos creator James Bernard is crossing his fingers in hopes that his $70,000 venture, most of which he put on credit cards, will at least break even.
But Bernard stands behind his goal of donating a portion of the proceeds to University Hospital, specifically to send child burn victims to a summer burn camp.
“Burn camp is a [victim’s] first chance to experience normalcy again,” said Bernard, who is also an occupation therapy aide in the hospital’s burn unit. “For staff, it’s awesome because we see them in the burn unit from being hurt to out on a river braving whitewater rapids or throwing a football?it’s really neat to see them get out there.”
The burn camp hosts 11- to 17 year-olds, and costs $250 per patient.
But it’s worth the money, said Bernard, a camp leader who’s seen what the interaction does for burn victims.
“[Burn victims] are just different in everyday life, but in camp, they’re not,” Bernard said.
Bernard has pledged to donate at least $250 to the burn unit, and possibly up to $1,000, if the Castle does well.
The Castle of Chaos is the first interactive haunted house of its kind in Utah. But its theme of a “Clue”-esque interactive murder mystery for the masses isn’t exactly new. It’s been hugely popular on the East Coast for years?and it’s about time this type of thing makes a debut in Utah, Bernard said.
“This was big from where I’m from in Rhode Island,” he said. “To me, this is better than any haunted house out there. It’s better than bowling. It’s better than a movie. It’s better than the cheap thrill of a chainsaw. That’s fun every few years, but it’s just not scary any more.”
In fact, Bernard wants Castle of Chaos to be everything but scary.
His primary goal is to entertain. He wants to find a prosperous niche in the Salt Lake Halloween market by enticing people to return, not only to explore all the rooms, but to enjoy the entire cast.
“We want it to be unique?something that is so different that people can’t wait to come back,” he said.
Participants are brought into the first castle ante-chamber through a drawbridge. The rules of the game then become readily apparent as they are dictated by the evil king: Everyone is now a slave and needs to find three items to get out. The slaves are prompted to gather clues and enlist the help of the actors in each room to find the items and solve the castle’s mystery.
Altogether, the castle covers 30,000 square feet. “And we just slaved over every square foot of it,” said production assistant Laura Bedore of building the rooms.
Bedore managed to get some props from the CBS series “Touched By an Angel” to put the final touches on the rooms.
Bernard built the castle and its maze of rooms in the rear of a craft/novelty warehouse on 4650 S. Highland Drive with the help of a long list of friends. Some of those friends are members of his own Mythic Realms club, a local swashbuckling, full-armored, combat role-playing organization.
The script and concept for Castle of Chaos were devised by Jason Siner, a screenwriter from Los Angeles who has had several years of experience with the Rhode Island version of the castle.
Bedore, one of the founders of the improv troupe “Quick Wits,” will assist with the production, and with directing the children’s side of the show, “The Dragon’s Castle.”
She gathered many people from her talent pool of “Quick Wits” and other comedy troupes, like “Knock Your Socks Off” and the “Skinny Lincoln’s.”
Bedore and Bernard also recruited several drama students from local high schools.
From the dungeon and the French cook’s kitchen, to the blacksmith’s armory and the slave mine, all the actors stay in character all the time, all night, including supporting staff.
“Everybody’s in character, even the guy in the parking lot,” said visitor Micah Neilson.
While some of the castle’s rooms and characters rely on comedy to give clues, other clues are grounded in drama.
One of the spookiest rooms is the princess’ tower. Her body lays under a burial shroud while her spirit cries out from the grave in soliloquy.
Another room parodies Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.?
And while it might seem childish to run around with item cards, dodge guards and talk in character, Bernard hopes the drama engages visitors in a way that brings out their imaginations, making it memorable.
“We made it like Disney World,” he said. “It’s one of those things you can go back to time and time again.”