North Texas Daily

John Jacob Hough / Contributing Writer

If you happen to see a little blood on sculpture studio senior Keegan Arnold’s sleeve, don’t worry, because it’s probably fake.

Arnold is the committee chair for Fear Factory Insanitarium, a haunted house run by the Lakeside Community Theater in The Colony at 6303 Main Street.

Since 2008, Arnold has helped design, build and perform in the haunted house, which is held in Lakeside’s black box theater every fall.

“Because of our space, we have to create a unique experience,” Arnold said. “With other haunted houses, what they build is what they are stuck with every year.”

When Arnold first volunteered with Fear Factory in 2005, the haunted house was very different from the way it is today.

“The first year they had the rooms divided by sheets on ropes that were stretched across the room,” said David Wallace, artistic director for Lakeside Community Theater. “Before Keegan [Arnold], there wasn’t really a theme. The idea was just ‘Let’s scare people.’”

Since Arnold took over Fear Factory, it has become one of the main fundraisers for Lakeside Community Theater. The money raised by the haunted house even allowed  Lakeside to renovate their theater in 2012.

Throughout the past couple of years, Arnold has not only designed the layout for Fear Factory, but he has also developed plot lines for multiple characters. He also participates as a character named Baby Face to get a better feel for what can be changed to give guests the best experience.

Today, “Dr. Lucius Blackburn,” an evil doctor played by Wallace, greets guests as they arrive.  The story goes that Blackburn took over the Rosehill Hotel and turned it into an “insanitarium” where he performs experiments on his patients.

After entering through the façade designed by Arnold, guests are forced to navigate through dark, disorienting mazes and scenes reminiscent of an evil hospital.

Much of the passageway is bare or filled with physical obstacles, as opposed to being filled with visual props, but Arnold believes that this is part of what makes the haunted house special.

“Sometimes your imagination is a lot worse than what you’re going to see,” Arnold said. “If you just put some gory thing in front of people they’re not really going to react as well. You have to add the interactive element to it.”

History senior Cody Schultz volunteers as a security guard for Fear Factory and said the setup does a good job of giving customers a good scare.

“I’ve seen people come out and run all the way to the bottom of the parking lot,” Schultz said.

It is a common occurrence to see guests leave the haunted house short of breath and even disoriented from the experience.

“There were six of us going in, but only two of us came out,” Allen resident Rachel Morton said. “I came into this thinking I wouldn’t bee too scared, but it was a lot scarier than I thought.”

Fear Factory Insanitarium is open 8 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday until November 2. Tickets are $18.

Art director and David Wallace as Dr. Lucious Blackburn, and committee chair Keegan Arnold of the Fear Factory Insanitarium. Photo by Larissa Mathews / Intern Photographer

This creepy face haunts the enterence to the Fear Factory Insanitarium. Photo by Larissa Mathews / Intern Photographer

Actor Krysten Hahn gets her make-up done for her character “Giggles”. Photo by Larissa Mathews / Intern Photographer

Part of Hahn’s costume as “Giggles” is an undead baby perturding from her abdomen. Photo by Larissa Mathews / Intern Photographer

Fear Factory actor Jason Herrington applys make-up to his neck for the character “Minos”. Photo by Larissa Mathews / Intern Photographer

Patrons of the Fear Factory run away in terror. Photo by Amelia McBride / Contributing Photographer

Artistic director David Wallace as Dr. Lucious Blackburn, and committee chair Keegan Arnold in front of the Lakeside Community Theater Fear Factory Insanitarium façade entrance before show time on Friday. Feature photo by Larissa Mathews / Intern Photographer