Haunted House in Rudd brings the scares

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

For more than two decades the Rudd Haunted House has been a Halloween staple filled with spine-chilling scares.

The haunted house started around 1992, and opens on the weekends prior to Halloween. The Rudd Community Center houses the scares and maze that make up the haunted house.

“We started after the new school was built in Rockford,” said Dan Sinning, vice president of the board for the Rudd Community Betterment Center.

The haunted house charges people $7 for entry, and that money goes to help keep the building running.

People are able to rent the community center for weddings and receptions when it’s not being used to scare Floyd County residents, Sinning said.

The haunted house begins through a small door and leads to a smoke-filled maze with people and objects set up around most corners to make the haunted house-goers jump.

The prep work for the haunted house isn’t too extensive.

“Some guys from Osage came in this year, and they had it done by August,” Sinning said.

The attractions are split into two parts. On one side there’s the haunted house that mazes through, with people dressed to scare visitors, and on the other is a more children-friendly environment.

“We have a mini haunted house for them, and we have a box maze,” Sinning said. There’s also a game room that has different games every year.

Sinning suggests that only those age 10 years and up be allowed to go to the scarier side of the community center.

“If you want to bring a younger child in it’s up to you; we don’t recommend it,” Sinning said.

So far there haven’t been any major injuries from the haunted house, Sinning said.

“We’ve been lucky so far,” Sinning said. “A couple splinters here and there, but nothing serious.”

Sunday was the last night for the haunted house in 2017.

“It’s too hard with Halloween in the middle of the week to get workers in here,” Sinning said.

A lot of the people that scare the attendees have worked there most of their lives.

Jamie Schriver has been part of the haunted house for 16 years.

“I just like scaring people,” Schriver said. “I’ve done so many different rooms in here, I like all of them.”