2021 Question and Answer With Monster Bash Haunted House

MinnesotaHauntedHouses.com recently sat down with Jt Shupe of Monster Bash Haunted House, to discuss what's new at Monster Bash Haunted House for the 2021 Halloween Season!

What's new at Monster Bash Haunted House for 2021? Do you have any new rides, attractions, or special features that Haunt Seekers should know about?

We will be doing an "old west" style ghost town.
The town was a bustling mining town called "Prospector Gulch".
The town fell victim to an unkown force driving the residents out or killing them. Can you survive the night?

What are you most excited about for the 2021 Halloween Season?

For us it's getting back to having guests. We cancelled in 2020 to protect our actors and guests and we're really excited about getting back to entertaining our loyal fans. We also have a new prop which we home will provide some good scares.

What differentiates Monster Bash Haunted House from other local haunts in Minnesota?

Every year we change the theme of our haunt for starters.
Our haunt is also a charity; the board of directors takes no money for putting on/ managing the haunt. Most of the proceeds go to the arts in our local school district. A portion is kept to meet expenses of the building and improving our guests experience.

How long has Monster Bash Haunted House been in business? Can you tell us a bit more about Monster Bash Haunted House's history?

This is our 10th year, but 9th haunt. If you are curious about how this all got started you can review our history page at https://www.monsterbashhauntedhouse.org/about-us/history

What's your favorite experience since opening Monster Bash Haunted House?

Each of our regular haunters have some great stories. I think one of my favorite to tell is one time a family brought a young child into the haunt and this child was having a breakdown. I tried to sooth the child by talking to them and eventually removed my mask hoping that would help calm the child down. This was not the case, the child actually cried even harder when I took off my mask. I often wonder if I should just work the haunt as myself.

How long is a typical haunt experience at Monster Bash Haunted House from start to finish?

This is a tough question for us. It really depends upon the group. We keep groups to around 4 or 5 people. Some groups take up to 30 minutes to make it through our haunt, while others run through the haunt getting through in as quick as 10 minutes... some groups never make all the way through the haunt!

On a scale from 1 to 10, how scary would you say Monster Bash Haunted House is? Why?

Again a tough question.
This really depends on the guest. What scares you might not scare your best friend and vice versa. So it depends on you and whether or not we have anything which scares you (like clowns). I would say we are above average scary. We make a great effort to create a creepy/scary environment and our family actors get training on how to scare our guests.

How has new technology (i.e. animatronics, special props, etc) helped you to enhance Monster Bash Haunted House?

As a charity we are slow in purchasing new technology. We have a very limited amount of $ we can use to bring in new technology and rely a lot on our actors. We do however spend some money on new technology every year. This year we spent the most we have ever spent and hope our guests get a kick from the new feature!

Can Monster Bash Haunted House accommodate large groups? How many people can experience Monster Bash Haunted House together as a group?

We keep the groups we send through the haunt rather small. I don't recall ever letting a group larger than 6 through together. We feel that a larger group diminishes the experience for our guests. On the plus side people tend to have a better experience, on the minus side we tend to not put as many people through a night as some other haunts might.