HAUNTED HOUSE WILL OPEN SOON

JACKSON -- If you're looking to get a jump on the Halloween spirit, the Jackson Jaycees are promising a ghost of a time beginning this weekend.

Friday night marks the opening of the Old Toll Road Manor, also known as the annual Jaycees haunted house.

"We've been out here every night since July 4," said Jeff McClanahan, Jackson Jaycees president. "People don't realize what kind of work goes into one of these."

The inside of the house, situated along Old Toll Road just off of Highway 74 in Jackson, has been rebuilt by the Jaycees. They also repainted the outside and added a new roof. In all, the organization spent about $6,000 on the house, McClanahan said.

Most of the preparations are done to make the house safe for the thousands of people who go through it each year, McClanahan said.

For the past four years, the Jaycees have "haunted" a house off Highway 25 south of Jackson. That house, known as "Hotel Yell," didn't hold up structurally for a fifth year, said Donnie Glueck, chairman of the haunted house committee.

"We found this one last year and started pursuing it right away," Glueck said. "It was perfect."

Visitors will be treated first to the swamp room, then to the grave of Freddy Krueger, the psycho-killer made famous in the motion picture series "Nightmare on Elm Street." They then venture upstairs to the dungeon and lastly through the darkened maze.

The haunted house is the biggest fund-raiser of the year for the Jaycees, said McClanahan. More than 5,000 visitors are expected, he said.

"We normally draw people from as far away as Sikeston, Ste. Genevieve and Poplar Bluff," Glueck said. The haunted house is popular with high-school and college students but also with families. Lots of people bring their kids, he said.

"Some kids we have to escort out right away and others really like it." he said. "It all depends on the kid."

McClanahan said most of the Jaycees enjoy working in the house on the designated fright nights as much as visitors enjoy being frightened.

"Normally, the Friday and Saturday night before Halloween is when we get the biggest turnout," McClanahan said.

The Jaycees put as much emphasis on the safety factor of the house as they do on the scare factor, he said. All stairwells are lit, walls are padded and floors are reinforced, he said.

Special effects added to the typical Halloween gore make the house scarier each year, McClanahan said. "Each year we do this the special effects get more sophisticated," he said.

The haunted house will be open Friday and Saturday night from 7 to 11 and again on Oct. 24-26 and Oct. 29 through Nov. 2.

Admission is $3 for adults and $2 for children. McClanahan said there will be a lighted sign at Old Toll Road marking the entrance to the haunted house.