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John Katsilometes

Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (4:38 p.m.)

This is an excerpt from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by Greenspun Media Group’s John Katsilometes. Next week’s guest is Fright Dome at Circus Circus creator and owner Jason Egan. For information about the attraction, which opens Oct. 3, go to www.frightdome.com.

Fright Dome covers about five acres at the Adventuredome at Circus Circus. What goes on in there?

We consider Fright Dome a whole night of fear. It consists of 25 rides and attractions, five haunted houses, Freak Zones, Scare Zones, Drop Demons, super creatures. It differs from a regular haunted house because it actually is the whole evening. It’s not like you go to a haunted house and you’re out 15 minutes later and that’s it. You’re actually there for the whole evening, and you might not even be able to get all you’re stuff done in an evening.

What is a Drop Demon?

That’s something we’ve added this year. We’ve tweaked them a little bit already, to enhance them even more. Drop Demons are characters we have suspended from the domelike structure, and at its highest point is 95 feet. We rig up cables and high-speed motors to let our creatures – we have an actor up there – and they drop down over our guests. We have a bat that comes swinging down at 60 miles per hour. We have this scary bride that comes down on a bungee at you. We also added some animated creatures that come out of the sky, too. They are animated ghouls and goblins that a company out of Ohio made for us. If you’re not getting scared from up above, you’ll get scared on the ground, by our strolling entertainers that comes up from behind.

Have you found that what would have seemed scary a generation ago now just seems stupid?

Yeah, I love some of the old horror movies, but now they are just not scary. I go to movies now and kids are just screaming to death. They really have stepped up the gore, stepped up the scare. They’re putting out all this great stuff … I try to see a lot of movies, to see the crowd’s reaction, to see what works. I watch the audience, because what scares them might not scare me. I’m not too easily scared anymore. I’m pretty jaded. I went to see The Strangers not too long ago, and there were such easy, simple effects. You don’t need a $25,000 animation every time – sometimes it’s as simple as a gunnysack over an actor’s head.