[MONA LOCKE] This haunted attraction comes alive from late September
through the first week of November.
Each season, thousands of visitors
pack the streets with the line
stretching for blocks,
sometimes with a two hour wait
as Halloween nears.
(scary growl)
Inside, every corridor
and twisting passage is designed
to deliver the perfect fright.
- We’re excited and you’re in for a treat!
- And for the actors, it's what they live for.
But when the screams fade and the season
ends, the work doesn't stop.
During the off season, Scott Kolling
and his crew stay busy building fresh sets
and crafting the next round of fear that will greet visitors
when fall returns.
(creature growls)
- I'm joined here today
with Operations Manager Joey Falaschi.
Thank you for being with us.
- Yeah, thank you for being here.
-So tell me, how long have you been here at Georgetown Morgue?
- This will be my 10th season here with the Georgetown Morgue.
- And what does operations manager do exactly?
- I do anything from walk around, help people
that are scared out of the haunt,
maintain the haunt, and, pretty much
help my staff do whatever they need to do
to get the job done.
- And how many people does it take to to get this job done?
- It takes about 50 a night to get everything rolling.
- Wow, well, would you mind taking us on a tour of behind the scenes
to see how it all happens?
-Absolutely. Let's go.
-Perfect.
What exactly does
it take to put on an operation like this?
- Well, it takes a few months
of planning our route, seeing
how we're going to build our scenes,
and then after that, you know, executing it.
Lighting, sound...
- 50 people.
- Yeah. It does.
-And how many people do you have in each season?
-We have about 25 actors in the scenes
each season, as you can see
like we have different doors through this back hallway,
that will let us into our scenes and out of our scenes
so we can move seamlessly through scenes
and get each person through the haunted house.
-I see.
And then how many people come visit the Morgue?
-I would say about 40,000 a year, give or take the season.
-40,000?
-Yeah!
-Within a couple months?
- Yeah.
Within about 23 days.
- That's a lot of people.
- Absolutely.
- Rumor has it that there's ghosts that reside here.
Is that true?
- Yeah.
We've definitely had some props
in the haunted house that will go off without power or air.
- So they just go?
- Yeah.
And, we couldn't get it to stop,
so we actually had to take out the prop.
Still in that area,
we have a lot of shifting and moving, but
there's not a prop in there to work with.
- Is that kind of scary to work here?
-It is when you're all alone
sometimes it's nice to have a co-part in the building with you.
- Yeah, and this used to be an actual morgue?
- Yes.
So we do have a full history
online of how the morgue came to be.
And now we're entering our costume room.
We've got a lot of masks and costumes
to work with here for our makeup artist.
- Where the magic happens.
- Exactly. In fact, would you like to get into a costume?
- Sure.
Why not?
(♪♪)
- Would you like to be a cannibal today?
- Oh, that sounds good.
Here we go. Is it happening?
Am I looking scarier?
- Do you want to scare people?
- Ummmmm... the whole shebang!
- Do some
highlights first, just to bring it out and then
probably a little color work.
(♪♪)
We do have people who wear masks as well,
so that can help alleviate
some of that time that we take
for the makeup.
But yeah, we spend a good two hours
before the show
to do all the makeups in the cast.
- Close your eyes. It's like spa.
- Munching Mona.
The Morgue Maniac!
(♪♪)
-Thank you, Haley, you did a wonderful job.
- Absolutely.
(ghoulish growling)
♪♪
-Watch CityStream Tuesday nights at 7 on the Seattle Channel,
or find us anytime online at SeattleChannel.org.
♪♪