Mount Pleasant has its very own mastermind of scare. He’s the brainchild behind the thrills and shrills at Boone Hall Fright Nights. He’s the king of horrors, the genius of gore … his name is Ryan Neal and his gruesome creations live rent free in your wildest nightmares.
A Charleston native, Neal has been bringing adolescent fears to life since he joined the staff at Boone Hall in 2009 as a DJ after touring the country performing at weddings, resorts and on several major cruise lines. Now he’s in the business of scaring the socks off youngsters and making grown men cry like big babies, to which my wife can personally attest.
A few years later, Neal was named a Forty Under 40 recipient by the Charleston Regional Business Journal after founding Live Productions, a professional sound, lighting and staging equipment company that manages the production of more than 200 individual special events annually.
In 2017, Neal was promoted to event director and now manages a cast of 300 psychopaths (co-workers) who terrorize the youth on weekend nights throughout the fall at Boone Hall. “It’s never a boring day at the office,” he laughed.
Neal’s affinity for horror began when he was just a kid. His mother would let him host a haunted house in his front yard for all the trick-or-treaters in his neighborhood. Halloween is his holiday season and instead of bringing tidings of joy he’s delivering a true nightmare before Christmas.
Speaking of horror, Neal shared his top-five movies that are a must watch this spooky season:
- “Trick ‘r Treat” (anthology horror)
- “Nightmare on Elm Street” series (classic slasher)
- “Scream” series (comedy horror)
- “The Hills Have Eyes” (gore)
- “Maximum Overdrive” (trash but good entertainment)
Without giving away too much of the scare, Neal promised that this year’s theatrics will be even more terrifying than the last. He divulged that his latest house of horrors will include The Academy, a school full of demented students creeping behind the corner of every hallway; Phobia, a 25,000-square-foot attraction that takes 18 minutes to escape larger-than-life animatronics that include clowns, spiders, snakes and other classic creepy crawlers; and The Hay Ride, a 30-minute ride that twists and turns through the hallowed grounds of Boone Hall’s 200 acres of centuries-old plantation land. Pro tip: sit next to someone more scared than you are.
“The quality and professionalism is every bit as good if not better than any haunted attractions featured at major theme parks. Disney and Universal have nothing on Boone Hall,” the late 95.9 FM radio personality Mike Edwards once said of Fright Night.
This fall marks Boone Hall Fright Nights 20th year in operation and is nationally recognized by the Haunted Attraction Association and certified as one of the top haunted attractions nationwide. “We are humbled by the fact that it’s become an annual tradition for families and a rite of passage for teenagers,” Neal added.
Tickets and details are available online at boonehallfrightnights.com.
By Zach Giroux
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