Boo! TCT's Haunted Theatre is set to scare guests silly

Oct. 17—TUPELO — Tupelo Community Theatre's "Phantoxic" Haunted Theatre event is coming up, and it'll spook your socks off.

Running Oct. 19-21 and 26-28, and, for the first time ever, on Halloween night itself at 201 North Broadway Street, the Lyric's Haunted Theatre is in its 16th year. And as the event's director, Steve Miller, told the Daily Journal, it's not your average backyard haunt.

"We're considered a pro haunt," Miller said. "We have things in our haunted house that nobody has in this area" — things that will shock the visitors, not just with gore, but with sheer scope. You'll wonder, 'How did you do that? How did you get that in here?'"

Of course, the details of props and scares in the haunt are top secret — we can't go spoiling the surprises — but there will be 18 total rooms (six more than last year), and a full walk-through will take between 20 and 27 minutes.

On Thursday, Oct. 19, students can get tickets for $10. Regular tickets are $15. The haunt has no age restrictions, but TCT does recommend visitors be 11 or older. That said, Miller has seen parents carry 2- and 3-year-olds through the Haunted Theatre in years past with no trouble. And sometimes, it's the parents who can't make it through the first room.

The TCT does its best to create scares that appeal to all kinds of people, Miller said, and not just jump scares. In some rooms, haunt actors talk to the audience, telling tales and having conversations.

"We create a story with each room," Miller said. He considers the haunt a true theater production, and the set and prop designs are quite detailed. He recommends really taking time to look at and enjoy each room, rather than just anticipating being frightened.

Miller has been working with TCT for 12 years, and he's been director of the Haunted Theatre for the last six.

The Haunted Theatre is staffed and run entirely by volunteers. Some are classically trained in theater, and some are theater hobbyists. Lots of makeup artists volunteer because they enjoy doing special effects makeup. There are people from all walks of life who volunteer, Miller said, "but they have a common goal: They like to scare people."

And the haunt actors aren't the only haints in the Lyric. The theater has a resident ghost known as Antoine. Nobody truly knows where Antoine came from, Miller said. There are stories, though, that Antoine was once a caretaker of the theater, or perhaps a child who died there during or after the 1936 tornado, as Derek Russell of the Daily Journal reported in 2017.

While Miller isn't sure what exactly "Antoine" is, he's had enough strange things happen around him in the theater that he's certain something is going on. Lights he knows he turned off are suddenly back on; objects he's working on go mysteriously missing, and he finds them around a corner; 2-by-4s fall near him for no apparent reason.

"It's normal business," Miller said. "I just try to ignore it."

In the lobby, there are panels of mirrors along the walls. On one of the mirrors, there's a fingerprint that won't go away. You can clean it off, but it just comes back a few minutes later.

The fabric room is the most haunted in the building. Recently, Miller went in to get some fabric. Knowing the room's tendency toward unnatural activity, he moved quickly, leaving the door open and reaching for the fabric he knew was just inside. As he turned to leave, a box was right in his path — and it hadn't been there moments before. The box was big enough that, if Miller hadn't seen it, he would've tripped.

Active as Antoine is, it's unlikely he'll make an appearance during the Haunted Theatre events. He seems to avoid large crowds, Miller has noticed.

Addie covers education and general news for the Daily Journal. Contact her at [email protected].