“There are people that get so terrified, they’re just in tears.” – Rob talks scaring the bejezzus out of people!

Rob has a fiendish plan – he wants to scare you so much you cry. And although it sounds terrible – its part of the fun! After the success of last years inaugural Great American Nightmare in California, Rob brings the haunted house experience – based on three of his movies – to Arizona and Chicago. He explains the early genesis of the GAN with AZCentral, including his families involvement with carnivals and what makes a perfect show that keeps the audience interested from beginning to middle to the screaming end!

Find out more about Great American Nightmare here: greatamericannightmare.com

To read excerpts from the interview, click >>>

Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare Ed Masley, The Republic

Read the full article: azcentral.com/rob-zombies-great-american-nightmare-scottsdale

In many ways, Rob Zombie’s move into haunted attractions seems a natural extension of his brand. He launched his career as a horror-rock icon in the ’80s with White Zombie before directing his first horror film, “House of 1000 Corpses,” in 2003.

But his roots in haunting go much deeper than White Zombie. Seated in a trailer at Westworld in Scottsdale, where one of two Rob Zombie’s Great American Nightmare attractions is out to scare visitors senseless, he’s wearing a denim jacket with a Cramps patch on the back and a “Jaws” shirt, looking less imposing than he does onstage and smiling often as he talks about his love of haunted houses.

“I’ve always loved them, ever since I was a little kid,” he says. “I mean, most kids do. But my experience with them was always a little weird in the sense that when I was young, in the early ’70s, the family business was they would work carnivals, especially my grandparents. That’s what they did for a living. So my parents did it, too. And me and my brother would have to go to these carnivals and be there all day, every day, because that’s where our family was working. So we would just hide in the haunted houses and play in the haunted houses all day long. And the fascination has never left me.”

Zombie’s family did a little bit of everything, from food concessions to running the rides and working in the gambling tents. With a laugh, he recalls his mother’s tales of her first job.

“When she was really little,” he says, “they would hire her to walk around the fairgrounds holding a giant prize as if she had just won it. Even though it was unwinnable. That was her job as a little kid, to pretend it was possible to win.”

Zombie’s initial involvement with haunted attractions predates his move into directing horror. He says he started working with Universal Studios in 1999. You may have seen him there.

“When I did them at Universal,” Zombie says, “I would actually get in costume and get in the mazes and be part of it because it’s so fun. It really is. Some get startled. Other people act like it’s not really scary. But there are people that get so terrified, they’re just in tears. And it sounds horrible, but it’s so funny to be part of that.”