Fang-tastic: Vampire-centric haunts scare up spooky fun

Vampires have sunk their big pointy teeth into everything that's considered pop culture these days.

Author Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" book series has been a runaway success, as have Charlaine Harris' best-selling Sookie Stackhouse novels and L.J. Smith's "The Vampire Diaries" series.

Television and movie adaptations of those books have proven to be extremely popular as well.

So it's no wonder that bloodsucker characters continue to be a big draw at haunted house attractions.

Unlike, say, zombies and other undead creatures of the night, which tend to be seen as grotesque, vampires are often perceived as being at least as sexy as they are scary.

Vampires are also "more threatening," according to Allegra Shurtliff, a scenic designer for Nightmare Mansion on Redwood Road.

"They're charming you and seducing you one minute and then the next they're trying to drain your blood. That's a large part of the appeal," Shurtliff said.

She has also played a vampire character in haunted houses, and while Shurtliff is content to stay behind the scenes these days, she says she enjoyed playing a "more exaggerated" version of herself when she worked for the Rocky Point Haunted House location and for Castle of Chaos.

"When you're a vampire you're more free to say things — and do things — that you normally wouldn't do," she said, laughing.

Of course, Shurtliff says that playing a vampire is "pretty demanding" as well. And Cori Hoekstra, another haunted house veteran, agrees.

"You've got to be able to keep people off balance. You're trying to make them laugh even as you're getting ready to turn on them. That's not easy," said Hoekstra, the casting director for Nightmare Mansion's sister "haunt," Castle of Chaos, on 3300 South.

Like Shurtliff, Hoekstra has played vampires and believes that, while "everybody wants to be a vampire, not everyone can be a vampire."

It was her task to select a revolving cast of actors for the "vampire-centric" Castle, which features nine fanged characters that terrorize the customers. "I think a few people were surprised by how demanding it is," she said.

Nightmare Mansion only features a couple of vampires. But there are also assorted zombies, ghouls, serial killers, chainsaw-wielding maniacs and other fiends.