Grimes Castle provides thrills

Grimes Castle gates opened for the first time on Friday the thirteenth and by Saturday night nearly 1,000 people had walked, ran and screamed their way through 4,000 square feet of the horrific halls. The screams echoing through the Carson City building, Saturday, were as consistent and ear-piercing as one would hear at a wild rollercoaster ride.

Valerie Kelly moved from south Florida to Carson City to haunt Grimes Castle as Grand Witch, after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma scared her out of her home. She said frightening Northern Nevadans has been well worth the move.

Two girls told Kelly at the entrance to the castle, Saturday night, that they weren’t afraid, but by the time they reached the end, they were hugging each other and screaming.

Theresa Kelly, Valerie Kelly’s mother, said she hasn’t had the guts to venture in to it.

“I’ve been here from the building of it, you would think I’d be brave enough to go through it,” Theresa Kelly said. “But after hearing the screams and seeing the white faces I haven’t worked up the courage.”

A cast of more than 30 volunteers douse themselves in blood, inflict fake wounds on each other and scream themselves horse for the sheer enjoyment of inflicting terror.

Michael Curtis has always adored Halloween. He’s volunteered in haunted houses and even constructed his own home haunt to scare the children in his neighborhood. But that hobby became too expensive for him so he said he’s delighted to volunteer for Grimes Castle as a grave robber.

“It’s almost like I feed off of their adrenaline rush, when I scare people and all of a sudden their adrenaline is pumping my adrenaline starts pumping -- it’s like a high that I get all through the night,” Curtis said.

For the Hogans, Halloween is a frightening family affair.

The Grimes Castle director and make-up artist, Dan Hogan, has worked as a Halloween fiend since he was a teen, He fondly remembers the time a news camera crew was following 46-year-old man and his two sons through a haunted house in southern California. Hogan was standing perfectly still in werewolf costume when the father walked up and said, “Oh look son, it’s fake.”

“I immediately went into character and he dropped to his knees screaming, ‘Mother of mercy, help me! Please don’t hurt me,’” Hogan said. “Then I scared him completely out of the haunted house and into the parking lot.”

The shrieking man abandoned his two children in the haunted house while Hogan and the news crew trailed him.

“That’ll stick with me forever,” Hogan said laughing.


His wife Bree Hogan said Halloween decorations fill their living room, kitchen and the front of the house this time of year. She said she once scared a high school football player into wetting his pants in front of his friends.

They’re passing the tradition on to their 5-year-old daughter McKenzie Hogan, who’s been outfitted with three gaping lesions to her head. She introduced herself with a hiss then a smile.
“Scaring someone is an art,” Dan Hogan said. “We won’t just scare you, we’ll mess you up for life.”

He said in designing a haunted house, there’s more to creating the ability to terrify, than just installing guts and gore. The Grimes Castle has a mythology involving mad scientists, experiments on clowns and ghost hauntings.

“It all depends on the room and how the victim was killed,” Dan Hogan said. “Some victims look better slashed. Some victims look better beaten.”

The Borrelli family came to enjoy the Halloween spirit.

“I like being scared,” Michelle Borrelli said.

“That’s why I come, to watch them run,” Glen Borrelli said of his wife Michelle and his daughter Megan.

They wandered through the castle of long, dark hallways, mad scientists’ laboratories and cemeteries to be bombarded with the insane ramblings of clowns and ghosts.

“No clowns!” Megan Borrelli said as she ran out of Grimes Castle

“Look at her – she’s shaking,” Michelle Borrelli said as her 12-year-old daughter Megan held out a trembling hand.

“She practically dragged us out of some of the rooms,” Glen Borrelli said. “I wanted to enjoy the scenery.”

“You just about broke our fingers,” Michelle Borrelli teased Megan while massaging feeling back into her hand.

Castle doors open at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays until Oct. 31.

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Video on the way:
Due to technical problems I haven't been able to produce the video that I shot. As soon as we resolve these difficulties, I'll post it well in time for Halloween.