MANSFIELD — Vic Amesquita has been involved in the haunt business long enough to know one important thing.
If you want to remain relevant in today’s competitive fright world, you must constantly be improving.
“Working to stay in the top echelon of haunts …. that’s the challenge …. and that’s what makes it fun because so there are so many good attractions in just Ohio alone,” the owner of Blood Prison said Wednesday morning.
“If you want to be named with those in the top tier, you have got to be competitive,” said Amesuita, about to launch his ninth Halloween haunt at the former Ohio State Reformatory, his eighth as the leader of the fright.
The annual Halloween season month-long fright-fest is a fundraiser for the Ohio State Reformatory Preservation Society.
His crew of about 25 was busy Wednesday morning was busy prepping the site for its Sept. 27 opening night, a haunt that will feature more than 120 live actors.
“There are things at each attraction, I think, that makes them unique on their own,” he said.
(Photos of Blood Prison characters that guests may run into during the upcoming haunt season. Photos courtesy of Blood Prison. The story continues below the gallery.)
“We have an iconic character in the Warden’s Widow. And we have an iconic building in the Ohio State Reformatory. Those things right there are big components of how we stay relevant because we try to do everything at the highest level,” Amesquita said.
It’s not enough to just create dark mazes, toss down wooden pallets and straw bales, according to Amesquita.
“I have been to haunts where that’s basically is what it was. But it has got to be more than that today,” he said.
“Now, people want a Hollywood production. They want to feel like they’re in an actual scene that you’ve created. You have got to get all the good props and you have got to know all the good people who make all the good props.
“We visit other haunts. We’re all friends. We all talk to each other. It is a competitive thing at the end of the day, but it’s friendly competition for the most part.
“There’s always some people out there that like to try and get under your skin but I don’t really associate with them,” Amesquita said with a laugh.
Just like each season, Blood Prison has new scares during a frightening tour that will take guests about 45 minutes to walk through.
“We focused a lot on some changes at the beginning and the end of the haunt. Without giving too much away, we did some really cool things … added a lot more tech stuff to give it a little more visual appeal,” Amesquita said.
“We changed a lot in the middle sections, too. We try to keep it as fresh as we can every year. But yeah … noticeable difference at the beginning and the end,” he said.
Blood Prison 2024
Blood Prison will be be open on weekends from Sept. 27 through Nov. 2. The haunt will be open Friday and Saturday nights from 7 p.m. to midnight and Sundays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. It will also be open on Halloween Night from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Gates open each evening at 6:45.
Tickets must be purchased for a specific usage time to prevent large lines from forming.
Tickets must be purchased online at the Blood Prison website.
In addition to the 6-foot-7 Warden’s Widow, Amesquita’s cast of actors has grown again in 2024.
“As of today, we have 123. The truth is, I’m still getting applications every day and we’ve got to a point where we just don’t have any more room. If I hired everybody that we’ve had applications for, we’d probably be about at 175 actors.
“I’ve talked to some other people at other haunts and some people have had it good (in terms of actors) and some haven’t. So it’s not like an industry-wide thing, I don’t think.
“But for here, if they want to come to work, we’re happy to have them because it takes a lot of actors to fill a big building like this.”
(Richland Source photos from a Wednesday morning walk-through of a portion of Blood Prison.)
