Jason Egan spends about 13 months setting up one of the scariest haunted house attractions in Las Vegas. For one month, Fright Dome turns the Adventuredome at Circus Circus into six haunted houses with a new one dedicated to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Las Vegas Magazine’s Susan Stapleton finds out how he became the guru behind scaring the pants off people.
How in the world did you ever get into the scaring-the-bejesus-out-of-people business?
I started back as a kid. I had haunted houses in the basement, in the backyard and in the garage. As a senior in high school, I would dress up as kid characters like the Power Rangers and Batman. I loved Halloween then. A parent called with an October birthday for her son, and she wanted a haunted house party in the backyard. She had a budget of $400. At the time, that was a fortune to me. I rented a fog machine and had friends dress up. They loved it to death. The next day, all these parents called me. I made $5,000 that month. Then, in college at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, I set up a haunted house across from the Federal Building a few blocks off campus. I was the only game in town. It was in an old lightning rod factory.
How did you end up in Las Vegas?
Nebraska was amazing but I wanted it on a bigger scale. I looked at all the cities around, and Las Vegas had a major lack of haunted houses. In 2002, I was on Highland Drive with the Tomb of Darkness. It looked amazing.
How did you get involved with Adventuredome?
Circus Circus wanted to lease out Adventuredome for a Halloween event. The ironic part was that I already owned the name Fright Dome. I wanted to do these temp events around the country in black domes. I was 23 ... and the biggest hurdle was that people thought I was too young to do this. Michael Jackson came (in) 2003. People loved it to death. It became a staple item. Stevie Wonder, Paris Hilton, they all came. Twelve years later, we’re still crossing boundaries.
How did you get horror movies involved?
That started in 2009. We went to Lionsgate for the rights to Saw. They granted me and Universal Studios the rights to the movie. They loved that to death. In 2010, Saw said, “Can we do this again? It really helped promote the movie.” That year we did My Bloody Valentine. In 2011, the Halloween people came to us. That was an amazing year for us. Our 10th anniversary was in 2012, and zombies were so hot. George A. Romero custom-created a haunted house for us. In 2013, we did The Collector. This year, we approached The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the 40th anniversary. It’s such an iconic film. Even Michael Bay remade it.
How many Leatherfaces are there? Was it tough to cast for that part?
There’s one in the dome, then we’re running five to six in the haunted house. (Hollywood effects guru) Gary J. Tunnicliffe from Scream and Halloween is our effects guy. He did the mask. It’s pretty cool. Finding bigger guys is harder than you think.
