Realm of darkness
CMU alumni operate charity haunted house for students and Mount Pleasant residents
An odd scream echoed throughout the neighborhood as a group of friends escaped from the backyard, their hearts racing and looks of terror plastered across their faces. They paused and looked back at the house before suddenly laughing.
The house they ran from is owned by Todd and Scott Kinsley, a pair of brothers that grew up running haunted houses from their parents garage and their friends' basements. Now, the two CMU alumni run The Dark Realms Haunted Yard, which is celebrating its second season.
The yard is opened on Halloween and Nov. 1 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at 501 N Arnold St. with a special “less scary” hour from 6 to 7 p.m. on Halloween night only.
"There was a girl who almost peed her pants and that's kind of what I want," said volunteer actor and Clarkston junior Tom Alty. "We almost got her."
With the Dark Tiki Island theme, the yard is set up with tents featuring elaborate decorations and is the only haunted yard in Michigan to use UV reactors.
With lights flashing, fog creeping from intimidating corners, lasers unexpectedly shooting and an intimidating laser vortex tunnel, customers are told to enter at their own risk and anyone under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
The event is free, but donations, which are given to the Humane Animal Treatment Society (HATS) of Mount Pleasant, are appreciated.
"I think it's a great thing, especially since we aren't charging someone a set amount and that people are donating," said greeter of the yard and Livonia senior Kaitlyn Okopny. "It's just amazing."
Before opening the yard, The Kinsley brothers attended the Midwest Haunters Convention, a weekend-long convention where they were trained in scare tactics, makeup and were also given promotion advice. They used that advice and Todd's experience as a sound designer to create the almost entirely homemade yard.
"We'd like to expand if we could find some kind of charity or business that would want to partner with us that has land or a building," Todd Kinsley said. "We have more than we have out there now, just because we don't have space for it, so if we could find some type of strategic partner, we'd love to expand somewhere else because there's not much more we can do.
The haunting stretches across the entire backyard and can take up to seven minutes to get through.
"I've scared a couple guys, which is great because I know girls are probably easier to scare and guys can be more of a challenge," said volunteer actor and Cheredin senior Branden Wheeler. "They jump and it's fun. One guy said, 'don't tell anyone I screamed like that.'"
As the yard is solely funded by the Kinsleys, they rely on volunteers to play the horror actors. This year, most of the actors consisted of the Student Accounting Society, HATS volunteers, and "some people who knew them and thought it would be fun," according to Scott Kinsley.
The volunteers are put through a short orientation that consists of going over safety and tips on how to scare people to keep them moving. Those interested in volunteering next year can go on their website, darkrealmshaunt.com, or message them on Facebook.
Both the number of volunteers, amount of donations and attendance, which has included people from both Midland and Big Rapids, has doubled since last year. The yard took approximately 60 hours to set up.
"[The UV reactors] go back to our glowing mini-golf business," Todd Kinsley said. "We wanted to be original with that. In Vegas and a few states down, you can dark light mini-golf indoors, so we thought, 'wouldn't it be cool if you could do that outdoors?' So we had the course we bring to all our events and had the black lights already, so it was like a bleed through from the mini-golf. It makes us different, because other people do black light haunts, but as far as I know, we're the only outdoor black light haunting, and I know we're the only ones in Michigan."
Despite the echoes of scared customers they hear throughout the neighborhood, the Kinsley's have yet to go through a run of their own haunted yard.
"We're tough to scare," Todd said.
