Page 12 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, October 18, 2019 MEG Building hosts a Haunted House – again Basement will become horror show for next two weekends, beginning tonight – don’t let that awful scream scare you By Mark E. Vogler M ark Andrews goes to great lengths to make his annual Haunted House in the basement of the Marleah Elizabeth Graves (MEG) Building a scary place. “I went through 175 screams to get the one I wanted,” Andrews said in an interview this week as he worked to get the local Halloween attraction ready for its opening tonight (Friday, Oct. 18). “I spent three hours trying to find the right scream. And the one I like … It’s only three seconds long. Do you know how many Homer Simpson screams I went through? But the best I could find was a woman’s scream,” he said. The basement of the historic building seems in disarray, with loose props and materials scattered over the floor and leaning up against walls. There are pieces of plywood that are freshly painted. But Bob Catinazzo, Andrews’ longtime friend and his chief collaborator on the Haunted House, guarantees that all of the loose ends will come together by the time it’s ready to welcome visitors at 6 p.m. today. “He’ll be changing things between 5 and 5:30 and all the way up to opening,” Catinazzo said. “I think this year is going to be real, real good. And all of the credit goes to this guy. For him, it’s a labor of love,” he said. Area residents – from young children to senior citizens – who want a thrilling, but frightening fall experience in an old, historic haunt can stop by the MEG Building at 58 Essex St. from 6 to 9 p.m. today (Friday, Oct. 18) and tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 19) and next weekend (Oct. 25 and 26) during the same hours. Admission is $5 for everyone. Scaring people for charity The MEG Foundation and the Saugus High School Drama program will be the beneficiaries of this year’s fund-raising efforts by Andrews, Catinazzo and friends. In the past, money raised from the Haunted House has been donated to Saugus We Care, the Saugus Anti-Drug Coalition, Saugus Youth and Recreation, the Friends of Saugus Parks, and Miles For Miracles, a charity for Boston Children’s Hospital. “We try to keep it affordable. And for a small haunt, I think we do a pretty good job. And it evolves every year,” Andrews said. “There are mainstays like the electric chair and the guillotine. But we like to change it up a little so people don’t see the same things they saw last year. We change the route in the basement. And the movie pictures we change every year,” he said. Andrews – who began dabbling in the Halloween hobby of haunted houses out of the basement of his own home 13 years ago – has been perfecting it every year until the crowds got too big and he and his friends moved into the old Cliftondale Schoolhouse, which is owned by the Town of Saugus and leased to the MEG Foundation. This is the ninth consecutive year that the MEG Building basement has been converted into the town’s official haunted house. Andrews expects a collective crowd of more than 1,000 visitors over the four weekend nights. Andrews, a member of the Saugus High School Class of his brother Rich, Rich’s son Anthony and Catinazzo to organize the haunted house. But, he said, he gets plenty of help from volunteers. “There are a lot of people who are involved that make it happen,” Andrews said. “Acting, painting, setting it up, pulling stuff out of storage, taking money at the door, and guides to bring people through A FRIGHTENING SCENE: Mark Andrews dons a scary clown’s mask as he sits in the electric chair in the Saugus Haunted House, which opens this weekend at the MEG Building. (Saugus Advocate photos by Mark E. Vogler) 1987, attended classes in the old schoolhouse in grades one through four. He believes the building may be inhabited by friendly spirits. Sometimes while alone in the building, he said, he can hear the sound of people walking when there is nobody else around. Andrews has that kind of imagination that can add to the spooky allure of an old building. He’s got familiar fright masters, like the slashing Freddy Krueger and Pennywise, the scary clown. This year he’s got an axe murderer on the loose. A few years ago, he had the Easter Bunny electrocute Santa Claus, and Santa’s bag was full of body parts. Help from “the drama kids” Andrews works closely with the various rooms,” he said. “We got the creepy music going on. Each room has a different soundtrack,” he said. But the main ingredient that gives visitors a chilling feeling is the cast of actors who volunteer to dress up in masks and costumes – many of them easily recognizable from contemporary horror movies. “We do the majority of the ideas and planning. The drama kids [from Saugus High School] come up with some good ideas, too,” Andrews said. All of the kids who participate can earn community service hours at their school. Andrews estimates that he’s put in about 200 hours preparing this year’s Haunted House since he began working on it a month ago. He works on the props at his house and installs them in the basement of the MEG Building. He has spent about $2,000 on electronic equipment and devices and other material he needs for the project So, was it worth all that effort to find the right scream? “It’s going to be loud and it’s going to get people’s attention, that’s for sure,” Andrews said. WHERE’S THE REST OF ME? Mark Andrews demonstrates what it’s like to be the center of a gory scene when he’s the man cut in half.
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