Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: Showcase

Media Credit: Abby Harvey This year's Ski Sprites haunted house takes on a new theme, a condemned chemical factory. The factory has been shut down but it's not abandoned.

In keeping with their Halloween tradition, the Eau Claire water ski team, The Ski Sprites, will open their annual haunted house exhibit in the Eau Claire County Expo Center on Friday, Oct. 17.

The theme for this year's haunted house is a dilapidated chemical factory, or Fright Factory, that had many experiments go awry. It is set up as if OSHA finally shut the factory down, but the ghouls remain to haunt it.

Producer of the Fright Factory Jeff Ludwikowski said that there will be a condemned sign and rusted metal to create a creepy, authentic theme for the haunted house.

Ludwikowski spends a lot of time preparing for the haunted house each year and has a 40-minute video produced by a haunted house group in Salt Lake City that he studies to better scare those brave enough to enter the haunted house.

The Fright Factory employs the elements of surprise, sight, sound and distraction in their haunted house to better startle their guests.

Ludwikowski added that some of the best scares do not have to be loud.

"I have walked up to people and just stood there for up to 45 seconds," he said. "When they finally realize you're there they jump about a foot and a half."

Two years ago, Ludwikowski and his team constructed roofs over each room in the haunted house in order to better control the sound, which is one key sense to the scares.

Ludwikowski said the haunted house's claim to fame is that 50 people work at the haunted house on a given night, which gives the event a very interactive feel. He thinks the elevator ride in the haunted house also makes it a special event.

Halloween has always been Ludwikowski's favorite holiday, which led to him becoming more involved in the design of the haunted house.

A team of six people, including Ludwikowski, work to design the haunted house, all with the handyman experience needed to construct the Fright Factory.

He stressed the importance of volunteer help in the project. Local boy scouts lend their services to the construction and operation of the event, as well as community members who love Halloween.

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