KAUKAUNA (NBC 26) — Two friends are turning a childhood dream into a reality. They own The Realm of Darkness Haunted House in Kaukauna. And it's not just for Halloween, they're making it year round.
- The Realm of Darkness Haunted House is a passion project created by two 20-year- olds from Little Chute.
- Ben Hurst and Dalton Polomis started creating haunted houses when they were 10 years ago.
- The Realm of Darkness is located in the old Starlite club in Kaukauna.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
It's not everyday you see a haunted house that stays up year round. But just outside of Appleton, located in the old Starlite Club building, is an attraction made from the stuff of nightmares: The Realm of Darkness Haunted House.
It wasn't always like this, though. Co-creator and operator Dalton Polomis hearkens back to humble beginnings.
"It kind of started 10 years ago when we, you know, it first started as a hobby. It was, kind of the, you know maybe we prepped a couple weeks ahead of time-kinda thing-type of garage haunt," said Polomis.
The Realm of Darkness' other creator, Ben Hurst, is responsible for much of the electrical engineering behind the scenes. He was a little camera shy, but he did help light the way when guiding me through the maze.
In getting to know Dalton, I learned that he worked in the software engineering field. So, I had to ask. Why leave to run a haunted house full-time?
"There's a lot of holidays that are very cookie cutter, where you have to follow a certain structure whereas October and Halloween really it's just anything goes," said Polomis.
Dalton and Ben say they have bigger plans for the realm of darkness, including a potential escape room among other things to make it a year-round venue. But at the end of the day, all of this came together because of the imagination of two kids.
So, what would kid Dalton think of where The Realm of Darkness is today?
"Would not believe it. Not one bit. I even think back to two years ago. I wouldn't have thought this was possible. Not at all. Really. It's just crazy how things progress so quickly. Just even in the fact that if I went to myself two years ago and even said, 'hey, you're going to be able to do this full-time,' I would just be like 'there is literally no way,'" said Polomis.
The Realm of Darkness Haunted House will be ready to open for its 11th season by late September. As they continue with their renovations, Dalton and Ben say it will be scarier than ever.
