The House of Shock is staging its final show this Saturday, November 1st. Once the final frightened entrants leave its gates, the production itself is over. There are rumors of House of Shock coming back, of course, but in a form not even remotely close to how it currently stands. Co-founder Ross Karpelman says he's waiting until the bitter end to decide. "I can't process the future until we close the doors on this," Karpelman says. "then I can think about where I'm gonna go from there. I have a lot of options on the table."
Whether it's selling the business outright, auctioning it, tearing it down, or continuing it in another facet. Come Sunday, we'll know. If we were to have it continue, it would be something totally different. We've been doing the same thing for twenty two years and I think we've taken it as far as it can go. The characters are old, the storyline is old. We would maintain the intensity that we've been known for. That intensity comes from years of performance and work onstage — though he no longer has a hand in it, founding member Phil Anselmo is best known in his involvement in metal group Pantera — and many members and volunteers are musically inclined. Their work behind the scenes comes in handy as well.
Those iconic pyro shows night in and night out cost tens of thousands of dollars to maintain, even though the group supplements some supplies with materials from other shows. It's a little known fact that the same people putting on House of Shock's pyrotechnics have had a hand in Nickelback's touring production. Money is money, and that's what House of Shock says is the most difficult thing to come by thanks to such an expansive show. The goal was never to make a profit, though. Says Karpelman:
It's all come down to this. We're done after the year anyway, but it's nice to be here and see that we mean a lot to the community and that people are sad to see us go. Not as sad as we are, but it's nice to know that we are appreciated. We've reached that goal that we were going for. We've always wanted to be intense, to find that line and step over it. To know that we've done that is very satisfying. Check out House of Shock in its current incarnation one final time this weekend. If you get the haunted house blues, you can rest assured that House of Shock inspired many, many other great horror shows throughout Louisiana.
· House of Shock's Grand Finale: Inside the Iconic Horror Show [Curbed NOLA]
· House of Shock [Curbed NOLA]