As the sun sets on fall nights, a spot under the shadows of the Mississippi River bridge comes to life. Screams fill the air, and a nervous, never-ending line of people waits outside an all-black building, blending in with the dark.
That building is The 13th Gate Haunted House, and its frights have become a staple of the spooky season in Baton Rouge since it opened in 2002. It opens for the season this Friday, Sept. 27.
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The 13th Gate, put on by Midnight Productions, is a 40,000-square-foot attraction that sends visitors through a nonstop, thrilling and chilling experience. The haunted house has won many awards for its one-of-a-kind scene design and cast makeup. These spooks come to life thanks to a 150-member cast and crew that comes from around the country each year.
On this episode of 225’s Between the Lines series, we talked with The 13th Gate scenic painter and makeup artist Johnny Bullard about what goes into making new and exciting scenes each year.
Bullard has worked on sets of shows like The Walking Dead and films like Emancipation and Lisa Frankenstein. And he’s been working on this year’s new sewer section at The 13th Gate.
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“So, the first step in approaching a set or a scene would probably be research and development. I would probably go ahead and go on the internet, start looking at pictures, trying to figure out what the look is that we want, exactly what kind of materials we’re dealing with,” Bullard says.
“On this set, we’ve actually just been doing a lot of rusting and aging processes,” he continues. “We’ve been making a lot of organic materials, such as roots and vines, and right now we’ve got some pipes that we’ve been using again, and scenic painting and decorating.”
Go behind the scenes of the famous haunted house’s secret corridors and learn more about the attraction’s history in the latest episode of Between the Lines.