House of Horrors

Horror, brought to life. But instead of vampires and ghouls, this New York haunted house is filled with serial killers -- actors playing criminals like H. H. Holmes, who drugged his victims and sold their bones to science. Down a murky hallway is the dining room of Ed Gein -- a killer whose acts inspired movies like "Silence of the Lambs" and "Psycho". "His parents and grandparents all lived with him in the home and when they would die he would cut parts of their flesh off and make a suit for himself, making himself a matriarchal woman in his family." John Harlacher has directed a haunted house experience each year since 2005. This year, he yielded to audience demand for a serial-killer themed house, a sensitive subject because of the real-life victims involved. "What we tried to do here was rip away the mythical facade and show them for the disgusting disasters of humanity that they are which is terrifying, that's what's terrifying about them." Terrifying is what Scott Kozel tries to be each night as John Wayne Gacy -- a Chicago man and clown for charity who *** and murdered dozens of teenage boys. The actor says he's seen the toughest audience members lose it. "Last week I had one guy, bigger than me, biceps the size of my head screaming like a little girl. He actually was trying to climb the wall to get away from me." Most audience members, though, seem to enjoy the thrills and chills.