The most famous haunted house in the world, championed into being by an aging movie studio mogul and advertised on television screens across the nation, was built to be a haven for wayward spooks and goblins. The mogul in question, Walt Disney, was said to believe that The Haunted Mansion was only theirs to build and not theirs to decorate or furnish. That, he said, was a job for the ghosts. The creepy clowns and kooky crawlies at the largest haunted house in Mississippi certainly approach their own moonlight work from a similar philosophy. Perched right on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico, this Gulfport, Mississippi Halloween-time staple is a sprawling temple to the rampant, feverish glee of carny spook shows and the joys of unfettered creative reclamation. Their secret is a simple one: to create a home for nightmares to take root, built with the manic expertise of Louisiana’s movie industry, utilizing an unending supply of unique props, gags, animatronics and forgotten set dressing from Hollywood projects long laid to rest, now given new life in pursuit of good, old-fashioned horror.
This is Terror on the Coast.
Owners and Operators Kevin Mitchell and Lawrence Barattini never intended to become Fright Night Connoisseurs. Their day jobs are running Sideshow Props, one of the most respected and utilized prop rental and set dressing companies in Louisiana. Anyone who has seen “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” “Interview With A Vampire,” “The Magnificent Seven,” or “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” has admired Sideshow’s work; a team of wizards able to craft worlds of fantasy and future from a few two-by-fours and some rusted-out machinery. Kevin and Lawrence represent both sides of the artistic coin, with Kevin being the master builder and Lawrence specializing in scenic and set dressing work. Combined, their prolific efforts contributed to the legacy of moviemaking in the Gulf South, but also led to having some storage issues with their backlog of equipment. Props take up a lot of space; warehouses of specialized items, paintings, furniture, and oddities are often kept hidden from the world for years. It was Kevin and Lawrence’s stroke of genius, ten years ago, to take these well-loved props, along with their set dressing expertise, and give them new life in the form of a haunt.
“That first year, we had no idea what we were doing. We just put out a call to social media for anybody with haunt experience and gathered a core group of around 15 to get started,” recalls Kevin. “We were drawing out rooms on the floor and utilizing whatever we could find from our selection of props. That’s why I like to call us The Little Rascals of haunts, we’re a ragtag bunch of creative types looking to put on a show with what we have on hand.”
That first haunt featured an incredibly ambitious fifteen rooms overflowing with well-loved and reclaimed props from Hollywood films and TV shows. Each new year brought further expansion fueled by Kevin and Lawrence’s unique style of following their inspiration wherever the props may lead them. The result of this madcap approach has created a haunt as eclectic as it is labyrinthine, stitched together from the discarded remains of movies long lost or forgotten, coalescing in less of a cohesive narrative than a thematic cacophony of screeches, wails, and weirdos stalking through the blackened fruits of Kevin and Lawrence’s collective imagination.
“This year, guests will walk through 43 distinct horror films,” says Lawrence. “No room matches the room before or after it; everything is different. Eighty-five percent of the stuff in Terror On The Coast is from major movies and TV shows. That is why the caliber of our haunt, from props to workmanship and acting, is world-class.”
Terror on the Coast represents the triumph of making do with what you have, a baroque production crafted by titans of the entertainment industry with the kitsch and personality of a home haunt. A true community affair, the entire team at “Terror” is either literal or found family. While Kevin and Lawrence work meticulously to make sure each cobweb and disembodied leg hang with precision and care before opening night, once the lights go up and the guests start rolling in, it’s the actors who are given full run of the asylum. Unlike most haunts, Terror on the Coast gives full creative freedom of character and backstory to each individual performer, allowing them to plan their own makeup and scares within the specific constraints of each scene. This mentality, of allowing these eager ghouls the freedom to find their freak, has fostered a decades-long loyalty, with some performers driving over an hour each night to get their scare on. Collaborative to a fault, Kevin and Lawrence trust the expertise of their performers to create something special for guests year after year.
“We usually build the rooms unsure where the scare will come from. But we just do whatever we think would be cool,” says Kevin. “Then, after we name the room, our actors populate it with their characters who, with our costume and makeup team, all work together to create something terrifying and unique.”
Terror on the Coast may have begun on a lark, but it has cemented itself as a staple in the Gulf Coast Haunt scene, expanding the central experience into a nighttime extravaganza, with a fleet of food trucks, a bar, and a full horror show for guests waiting in line that plays out twice a night. The stars of that show, a pair of garish clown siblings played gleefully by seasoned haunt performers JD Daniel and Sydney Kahl, stalk guests throughout the night, setting the stage for the descent into cinematic nightmares awaiting guests in the haunt itself, the culmination of a decade’s worth of following one’s wicked whimsy.
“I believe that if you plan art, it ends up like white bread, bland and basic,” says Lawrence. “But if you give it room to grow and expand, it can become something wholly unique, its own entity. That’s what we try to do here year after year.”
Amongst its many accolades, Terror on the Coast is certainly unique, an experience that is both all-consuming and homegrown, crafted with a special mixture of corn syrup blood, elbow grease, and love. It seems that good horror never dies; sometimes it needs just a dash of paint and a renewed purpose. Terror on the Coast is where monsters go to be reborn and ply their terrible trade to the dreadful delight of the shrieking masses, fueled by the rascally creativity of top-tier artists and the enduring power of movie magic.
See y’all in the moonlight!
Terror on the Coast runs throughout the Halloween season, from September 19 – November 1.
Get your tickets at terroronthecoast.com.
