Former crew members of longtime haunted house open ‘Slaughter’s Realm’

BLACKFOOT — Two former crew members from the long running “Dr. Slaughter’s House of Terror” have joined together to run their own haunted house.

“Slaughter’s Realm Haunted Attraction” at 405 Northeast Main Street in Blackfoot will be in operation until the end of the month.

“There’s a lot of (haunted houses) where it’s super duper cool to look at, but there’s not a lot of scare,” said Tom Waters, co-owner of Slaughter’s Realm. “We really wanted to bump that scare factor up.”

In 2018, Dr. Slaughter’s closed its doors for good after 18 years. At the time, Waters was an engineer and Eric Johnson was a staff member. The duo weren’t ready to be done.

“You can’t just stop doing haunting houses,” Waters said. “We decided that’s what we wanted to do and so we just did it.”

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Waters and Johnson, who spent around 11 years and five years working at Dr. Slaughter’s respectively, decided the timing was right for Slaughter’s Realm. They were able to get around 15 former staff members to come work there as well.

“We’ve had a lot of good reviews and people are loving it,” says Waters.

People who come to Slaughter’s Realm will be able to go through many frightening scenes, including a dark forest, an old asylum and a house of clowns. Waters said that it’s scary enough that adults have taken one look at the beginning and opted out of the experience.

“We’ve had people that won’t even go inside. They make it to the door and decide it’s not for them,” Waters said.

While Waters said the lighting and props are important in making the experience frightening, what sells it are the actors.

“They do the brunt of the work,” Waters said.

If people are too afraid to continue, they can inform the actors, who will direct them to the exits.

Waters and Johnson plan to bring Slaughter’s Realm back to Blackfoot next year, and they plan to step up the fear factor even more than they already have.

“I can tell you that we’re gonna add an extra layer of fear next year that nowhere else in the valley has,” Waters said.

Kids younger than 8 are encouraged not to attend, but Waters leaves that decision up to parents. The price of admission for a general ticket is $10 and a fast pass ticket is $15.