For the 12 years a warehouse in Lafayette has housed Evil on Erie, it has been the place to go for a haunted, bone-chilling experience. But in the hours before every Friday and Saturday night of October, the building loses its spooky exterior. Instead, pop music blares loudly as volunteers share hot dogs and kids run around in grotesque makeup.
After closing last year due to intense flooding of the warehouse, this upcoming Halloween weekend will be Evil on Erie’s last, said Jim Slaven, Homestead Resources board member. This decision was a result of many factors, including drops in volunteerism, the age of the warehouse and the resources required to keep Evil on Erie afloat, Jim Slaven said.
Evil on Erie, featuring more than 20 rooms tailored to different phobias, is home to volunteers of all backgrounds, working on anything from makeup to construction to electronics, Jim Slaven said. Its profits fund Homestead Resources, which supports local community members with buying and keeping their homes.
As this year is the last chance to enjoy Evil on Erie, there has been a higher turnout from both community members and volunteers, leadership team volunteer Molly Dixon said. This year, Dixon has met people who remember walking through the rooms of the first Evil on Erie and volunteers who have come back after 12 years, she said.
“It’s great because we get to see these people, and we haven’t seen them forever,” Dixon said. “It brings back that family atmosphere that we had, and it’s just great to get to see all the familiar faces that I’ve seen.”
This year was the second time Ian Baker, a sophomore in psychology, attended Evil on Erie, largely because this will be its last year, he said. As someone from the Lafayette area, Baker noted the local presence of Evil on Erie.
“I remember seeing billboards for it when I was in elementary school,” Baker said. “Even growing up around the area, in high school, I remember people would talk about (acting) in it, so it was a community thing that a lot of people knew about and put work into. It was just a thing that everybody talked positively about.”
Evil on Erie is a family in a literal and figurative sense, Dixon said. Dixon, who is Jim Slaven’s daughter, grew up around the haunted house business, and so did her siblings, nieces and nephews, she said. Since this youngest generation’s exposure to Evil on Erie started when they were toddlers and even babies, they began acting from a very young age, Dixon said.
“It’s a great confidence builder because I get to watch them being 10, 12, 13 and interacting with strangers that are double or triple their age, and they have full confidence and can talk to anybody if they want to,” Dixon said. “It’s a great confidence builder for any of our actors. You get used to being around strangers, being yourself, being creepy, being weird and learning how to put yourself out there without being judged.”
Evil on Erie has actors from as young as 10 to as old as 68, Dixon said. For all ages, acting in Evil on Erie is a rewarding experience, Dixon said.
“We give out badges at the end of the year,” Dixon said. “If you make somebody pee their pants or poop their pants, we get badges for them. It’s such an ego boost for the kids. They get that little bit of joy (after) all the hard hours and all the work that they put into it, and they get to say, ‘I made someone pee their pants.’ It’s such a fun moment. How many people can say that in their life?”
Masks are displayed Friday at Evil on Erie.
Lina Lingo | Staff Photographer
Ten-year-old Grayson Slaven is acting as an elf in the Christmas room this year, he said. While people may not find the room’s theme as scary as others, Grayson Slaven has found ways to catch them off guard, even almost winning a badge this year, he said.
“It is challenging sometimes, but also very fun,” Grayson Slaven said.
While many in Evil on Erie are related, the warehouse is a place for everyone, Jim Slaven said. Especially for younger volunteers, Evil on Erie is a second family of people who “scare to care,” Jim Slaven said. In particular, Jim Slaven remembers an introverted teenager who joined Evil on Erie as a volunteer years ago, he said.
“We learned the next year that she had been battling cancer since she was a baby, and that she’d missed most of school,” Jim Slaven said. “She wrote us a letter when she’d come out of remission and had come back, saying that (at Evil on Erie), for the first time in her life she felt normal. She felt like she was just another kid because everyone treated her just like part of the family, and so she kept the next year or two trying to come back, but things got worse and worse, and then she did pass away.”
For Jim Slaven, these stories are the true impact of Evil on Erie.
“That’s the reason we keep this going,” Jim Slaven said. “If we can help one kid like that to have some normalcy, to make them feel like there’s something that they can have that’s their own, then we put the hours in to do it.”
With Evil on Erie coming to its end, Dixon said she will miss its presence in her life. She believes the community of Lafayette will feel the same way, she said.
“We’re a great addition to the neighborhood,” Dixon said. “I love our neighbors, and I’m so used to talking to our neighbors and seeing them. We get confidence from them, and they talk to us all the time. Not having the neighbors and being here for the community and seeing everything that goes on is going to feel very empty.”
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