The story of the lifelong haunter is pretty standard throughout the industry. A kid, raised on horror hosts and backyard haunts, will get the bug and put on a spook show for their hometown. Decidedly rarer is the late-in-life convert, a full-grown adult who finds their way to haunts as a second, or even third, act in life. Even rarer still is an entire family that doubles down on Halloween, using the holiday not just as a time to get together but as a chance to build something for themselves. That was the case with the Laiche Family, and their exceptional Northshore triptych of haunts, RISE HAUNTED HOUSE.
This Tikfaw, Louisiana staple was born from the most humble of circumstances nearly 15 years ago when Shontay Laiche’s nephew decided he wanted to host a Halloween party for his school friends. Shontay’s husband Nevelle and brother-in-law Davey thought that was a wonderful idea but decided to add their own spin with the addition of a haunted house. So the adults put their skills together to build a crowd-pleaser of a backyard haunt, with Davey acting as contractor and Nevelle as a software engineer. After All Hallows Eve had faded for another year, the family decided that this was just too much fun to do only once. Lucky for them, they had just the right piece of land to make their fledgling frightmare a reality.
“The first structure of Rise ended up being built on a piece of land originally designated for apartments,” said Shontay. “Our family has always been close, taking on projects together. The appeal was not so much the horror of it all but the opportunity to be creative together. There are so many Halloween enthusiasts out there and we really wanted to do something fun for the community.”
Starting with one main haunt, the original Rise Haunted House, now grown to three total haunted attractions, the Laiche family took their cues from a myriad of regional and national haunts; taking notes and inspiration for how to best put their skills and ingenuity to best use.
“We go to several conventions a year and love interacting with the haunt community,” said Shontay. “Most of our inspiration comes from networking. Otherwise, we see what Universal does at Halloween Horror Nights and other haunted attractions around the country. From there, we take bits and pieces to craft our story into something wholly our own.”
With a story that traverses all three haunted attractions, Rise Haunted House is fairly singular in the region for its overarching narrative and devotion to that foundation year after year. As the story goes, a scientist named Henry Risewell lived in the house with his wife. When his wife suddenly grew ill and died, Risewell decided, in his madness, to conduct experiments on guests in the hopes of bringing his wife back from the dead. Now a bed and breakfast, Rise Haunted House is simply a lace-lined honey pot to lure unsuspecting guests into Henry Rise’s trap before falling prey to his insidious machinations. Later, in need of a place to house his failures, Risewell built the Asylum; where his former guests, now inmates, roam the halls in an endless cycle of malignancy and madness. Along with the Hayride, where the animal/human hybrid atrocities of another megalomaniacal madman, Dr. Ulysses Cavanaugh, are set loose upon unsuspecting riders, each of these stories are rife for horrific interpretation with the Laiche Family preferring a tamer, if no less terrifying, brand of horror entertainment.
“Back when we started the haunt, we agreed as a family that we would stay as family-friendly as possible, with the hayride being especially great for kids, or adults, too afraid to enter the Haunted House,” said Shontay. “We like to ride the line of making our scenes and attractions friendly for all ages while also giving you a good scare.”
Much of that effort is in the hands of a dedicated group of local actors and performers who come back year after year to play their part in this great macabre melodrama. That passion for community is best exemplified by the Laiches though, as RISE HAUNTED HOUSE was built to be a source of ghoulish joy and wholesome familial creativity for the entire region.
“We feel blessed to do this every year. Families don’t always want to work together but ours does and the haunt is a fantastic reason to collaborate,” said Shontay. “Our kids are now grown and working with us and that generational love is what brings you the haunt we have today. RISE takes a lot of time in the fall, with a lot of support from family and friends coming together to support what we do with a passion that’s infectious. Without them, we wouldn’t have a show.”
RISE HAUNTED HOUSE is open on select nights throughout October until a special “Lights Out Night” on Nov. 2. To get tickets, and learn more about their myriad of attractions, please visit risehauntedhouse.com.
See y’all in the moonlight.
