The DuBois family is preparing to host their 14th annual haunted house at their home on Crestbrook Avenue.
The Halloween season kicks off on Aug. 1 every year at the DuBois house on Crestbrook Avenue in Cherry Hill.
On that date, Brian DuBois begins to build his backyard haunted house. The structure is made of wood and is covered with a tent. It consists of approximately 10 rooms and contains a different layout and theme every year.
It’s very popular among people of all ages, drawing hundreds of visitors every season.
This is the 14th year the DuBois Family Haunted House will open its doors for Halloween. DuBois said he has always loved Halloween, but decided to start the haunted house after realizing some of the other haunts around the area weren’t quite as fun for his family.
“Everything was so expensive and the wait time was so long, it kind of took the fun out of it,” he said.
DuBois started small, having just a small set up on the front porch the first few years. The first years saw just a handful of local kids visit the display.
As time went on, DuBois began to think bigger and decided to move his display into the backyard.
“I said to (Brian’s wife Randi) one year, I think my idea is too big for the front porch. I want to do it in the backyard,” DuBois said. “At that point, she didn’t understand what we were getting into.”
“We had no roof. We had no walls,” DuBois added. “If it rained, things got ruined and that just made it look scarier.”
As the display grew and the props began to get more expensive, the display evolved into a walkthrough house complete with walls made of wood and a plywood roof.
“We started the structure about seven or eight years ago,” DuBois said. “It ended up being safer. We could attach things more securely. We could assure things weren’t going to fall. We were going to be sure if people were walking around, it was going to be solid.”
One of the challenges DuBois continued to face was keeping everything dry. A few years ago, he replaced the plywood roof with a tent.
“The tent helps keep a lot of the warmth in,” Randi said. “It keeps a good portion of the rain out.”
Setting up the house each year takes more than a month. Work begins in August with the tent set up. DuBois then puts up the boards for the exterior of the house before he begins visualizing the rooms.
“I spend two or three weeks just walking around aimlessly finding out how I’m going to lay out the rooms,” he said.
The DuBois Family Haunted House features a unique layout and theme each year. In the past, the themes have ranged from zombie apocalypse and alien invasion to board games and Broadway musicals. This year’s theme is urban legends, with each room featuring a scary story with a multitude of characters.
The haunted house features numerous live actors who volunteer their time to participate. The actors are all given a role and meet with DuBois prior to the haunted house’s opening to go over their parts.
There are three levels of scare guests can experience at the haunted house. The first, called “no scare,” allows guests to check out the decorations and layout without any scares taking place. All of the live actors remove their masks, smile and wish Happy Halloween as the tour goes past.
The second level, “full scare,” features fully costumed scare actors who will jump out at guests. The third and final level is a more interactive experience DuBois dubs as “code brown.” At this level, actors are allowed to touch guests’ arms and legs in certain scenes in addition to the other scares.
The most important thing for the DuBois family is to make sure all of the guests and volunteers are safe at all times. The attraction is very organized, with Randi stationed at the front of the queue line and relaying on a headset to DuBois and the actors what kind of scare level the next tour will feature. A maximum of six guests are in the attraction at any one time.
“We make sure everything is very safe,” Randi said. “I let them know exactly how many people are coming through and I let them know if it’s no scare.”
For kids who are too scared to go through the attraction, the DuBois family has created a “boo room” just to the right of the house. The room is kid-friendly and features coloring, crafts and activities for the children to partake in while others in their group go through the haunted house. The DuBois family will not allow a child to experience the attraction if the child says they don’t want to go through.
DuBois also makes sure the attraction is safe in case of an incident. Multiple fire extinguishers, emergency kits and first aid kits are stationed throughout the structure. There are also three emergency exits in addition to the normal exit guests take.
“It’s kids back there,” DuBois said. “You have to protect them.”
The haunted house is dependent on dozens of volunteers each year. DuBois estimates about 45 to 60 people volunteer each season.
“That’s my wife and her family members helping out with the queue line,” DuBois said. “That’s my mother and mother-in-law sitting at the front table taking donations and handouts we give to people. We feed all of our actors every night, so we need people to help with that. If we’re open on Halloween, we give them bags of candy because they gave up trick-or-treating for us, so we need people to put that together.”
Guests pay a $5 donation fee when they arrive. The donation is good for two trips through the haunted house. The donations cover a portion of the cost to run the haunted house each year.
“The money goes to paying our electric bill,” DuBois said. “It goes to the food we feed everybody each night. It goes to the candy we hand out.”
Though the cost of running the haunted house is high and the planning takes months, there is nothing DuBois and his family loves more about the autumn than hosting their haunted house and giving people a memorable Halloween experience.
“This is truly to keep kids in the neighborhood happy,” Randi said. “It’s something for them to do. We love it.”
The DuBois Family Haunted House is located at 721 Crestbrook Ave. in Cherry Hill. It will be open on Oct. 20, 21, 27, 28 and 31 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., with a rain date on Oct. 30. Guests are asked to give a $5 donation at the door. For more information, visit the DuBois Family Haunted House’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DuboisHaunt.
