If you ever wanted to feel like you were part of a real-life horror movie, the place to go since 1991 has been Eastern State Penitentiary.
Each fall, visitors have participated in “Terror Behind the Walls,” a haunted-house style tour of the old penitentiary that results in blood-curdling screams and a bone-chilling experience.
As of September, “Terror Behind the Walls” has been rebranded and replaced by “Halloween Nights,” a shift away from pure terror to a venue that’s family-friendly, where there’s something for everyone.
“The marketing message for ‘Halloween Nights’ is that this is a large festival where visitors get to pick and choose their own programming,” said Brett Bertolino, vice president and director of operations at Eastern State Penitentiary. “We really feel like it’s a perfect fall experience.”
Replacing the notorious haunted-house experience, over 15 different activities are offered to visitors that range from scary, to family-friendly, to educational. Some options include four haunted houses, four themed bars, three live interactive performances and three educational audio tours, one which is narrated by actor Steve Buscemi.
“Visitors are loving the opportunity to create their own experience and not have to do everything back to back,” Bertolino said.
This change in operations began in 2021, when “Terror Behind the Walls” could not run due to the restrictions of covid-19. According to Bertolino, during this time they began running nighttime tours of the penitentiary, which proved to be very popular among visitors.
“We found that people really enjoyed learning about Eastern State’s history at night,” Bertolino said. “It kind of was a natural transition, so that was a really exciting time for us to try something new. And to see that it worked, that really influenced a lot of our thinking for 2021.”
Even if “Terror Behind the Walls” had not been impacted by covid, according to George Latella, M.B.A., a visiting food marketing professor who specializes in looking at business customers’ demographics, this would have been a business decision for the penitentiary to make either way.
According to Latella, this attraction has capitalized on millennials for the past 15 years, which is where they had their loyal customer base and key source of revenue. However, as this generation moves to a new stage in their lives, such as having children, who they are not going to bring to a haunted house, this had begun to affect visitor attendance and revenue.
“[Eastern State Penitentiary] wants to go after a broader audience, and they want to expand it,” Latella said. “Because you’re looking at a broader audience, you obviously get more people there and obviously more money.”
While “Halloween Nights” has been successful so far, this is not to say that “Terror Behind the Walls” will not be missed.
Billy Manchester, a patron who has been going to “Terror Behind the Walls” since he was a child, recently visited “Halloween Nights” and said he missed the more terrifying experience.
“[“Terror Behind the Walls”] was more fun to be scared,” Manchester said. “It was more real, and was more fun.”
Although “Terror Behind the Walls” will be missed by many, Bertolino is optimistic for the future of “Halloween Nights” and says revenue is up 63% since the change.
“Anytime you do anything new, I think there’s a risk,” Bertolino said. “But we feel like this is a calculated risk. We think it’s a risk that we are willing to take, and we think it’s an evolution.”
Allison Kite ’22 contributed to this story.
