A peek into Virginia’s most blood-pumping attraction
Rachel Nicholas, Contributing Writer
Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor
When the sun sets and the moon comes out, the monsters come out to play — and the lambs of Virginia come to slaughter at Red Vein Haunted House.
Red Vein — based in Ashland — is one of Virginia’s more famous, or infamous, depending on who you ask. It is a fearful farm, complete with four different attractions all contributing to one story. This year was themed around bringing back Emily Redvyn, the feared “Ashland Witch.”
Guests start the horrid trip by entering the asylum, then move into the corn maze, venture through the woods and finally end at the house of Emily Redvyn. They are sent through tight hallways with flickering lights, foreboding music and plenty of jumpscares.
Actors come from all places, strategically hidden throughout the haunt to give guests the scare of their dreams — or nightmares.
As they exit, attendees are shot out at the gift shop where fangs, t-shirts and all things gory are available for sale. Many, though out of breath and frightened, are awestruck at the grandeur of the attraction.
“The production is pretty great,” said Virginia local Mari Torres. “There’s so many different areas and themes, like it has everything. At one point, we were all alone and it felt crazy, but it was so good. ”
WJLA ranked Red Vein first in haunted attractions throughout Virginia, citing its lack of reliance on “special effects and horror film reproductions,” and said their creation of original myths and legends is the best unsettling experience a guest could ask for.
It was also rated best in the state by fans on Scurryface, the leading organization for haunts and haunters. Voting for the best attraction in the U.S. will close Nov. 3.
The haunt was started in 2015 by the Red Vein Army, according to Ryan Sligh, Red Vein’s CEO. Sligh started Red Vein Army 15 years ago as a group that encompasses all things haunt, including prop makers, scenic designers, makeup artists and actors.
“I established relationships with different haunts around Virginia and with different haunt owners around Virginia,” Sligh said. “I started just working at their attractions as line entertainment and just taking some friends around. Then after a couple years we started getting hired to do their line entertainment, so then it became a business.”
Sligh has been haunting Virginia for the past 20 years, starting out as a scare actor for other haunts and picking up skills like set design, managing, lights and sounds.
Customers’ expectations have increased over the years in the industry, which Sligh said encourages him and his team to come up with new and exciting ways to keep them coming back.
Sligh references the term “Potter effect,” which describes being fully immersed in a fictional world, from the moment you step out of your car to the second you walk back.
“That’s our ultimate goal and every year we get better at it,” Sligh said. “We’re adding more and just growing out from that space. When you first walk onto the area known as Red Vein, you’re immersed in that environment.”
Scare actors help bring the sets to life, filling guests with terror as they traipse through these haunted hollows.
A tight-knit family, or cult
The actors at Red Vein hold a special bond with one another, some even describing the feeling as “cult-like.” On scare days, they start gathering at the farm around 5:30 p.m. dinner is provided to them each night as they hang around, talk and get into monster mode.
After donning their costumes, actors make their way over to the makeup trailer. Each wall is decorated with bloody heads, ghoulish masks and mockups for the perfect scary look.
VCU alum Emily Legge has been in the scare acting business since 2015. Going through haunted attractions as a guest in high school convinced her how fun and different the job would be compared to other local options, she said.
“After we’re done scaring for the night, we all like, gather around this big bonfire and exchange stories from our favorite scares of the night,” Legge said. “The managers nominate which person in their attraction had the best scare of the night and they give us a little pin. It’s just a fun little tradition that we do each night that just makes it feel more like a community than just a job.”
Before the actors head to their places for the night, they huddle together for a “pre-game” meeting. Kitty Barnes, Red Vein’s chief operating officer, gave a morale-boosting speech while the actors cheered and stretched for the haunting that awaits.
When all the “lambs” or guests, have been scared for the night, the actors convene for one final meeting where they talk about their favorite moments, according to Legge.
The feeling of family is shared among the actors, especially with Maddox Barnes, Kitty’s son.
Barnes just started his first year at VCU as a theatre performance major, but Red Vein has given him 10 years of acting experience, starting at just eight years old as a jester in a Jack in the Box.
“The adult would sing the first couple verses of the nursery rhyme ‘Ring Around the Rosie,’” Barnes said. “I would pop out of the box and say ‘they all fall down.’ It was an amazing feeling at eight years old to be affecting older people in that way.”
Barnes recalls guests sprinting away and feeling like the most powerful eight-year-old in the world.
Most scare actors at Red Vein agree that the feeling you get from scaring is like no other.
“You can never do anything like that when you’re not scare acting, so it is indeed very very powerful,” said Barnes.
Tickets can be found on redveinhaunt.com to check out this year’s frights. They also hold Christmas scares for those looking for something a little less jolly. Red Vein is more than haunted houses, as they offer a year-round escape room and seasonal haunted tours throughout Ashland.
As they say at Red Vein before the scaring starts, “have fun, slaughter lambs.”