The king of Halloween

HILL — There are people who like Halloween, and then there are people like Bruce Perkins, who start getting ready for the spooky holiday in June.

Perkins owns and operates the “House in Haunted Hill,” a backyard haunt that scares hundreds of people each year. He charges for admission, but it’s not about profit for Perkins, as he ends up giving away a lot of the proceeds. No, Perkins’ operation is about love.

In 1995, Perkins married the love of his wife, Barbara. They got married on Halloween – he dressed as a dead groom, she as a deceased bride, and everyone else was also in costume, except for the officiant.

“When he said, ‘You may kiss the bride,’ she bit a blood capsule and blood came pouring out of her mouth, it was so cool,” Perkins said.

The next year, they threw a Halloween party as a way to celebrate their anniversary, and each year the parties became more elaborate. They moved to Hill in 2001 and started developing a backyard Halloween experience, at first just for the neighborhood families. Every year, the experience would grow, and so would the number of people that would come to their house to be scared.

How scary is it? “Some things are a one or two out of ten, some are ten out of ten,” Perkins said. When he says “10 out of 10,” he means something so frightening that it can result in a wardrobe change.

“It’s easy to scare a kid, but if you make an adult pee their pants, you did good. And we make that happen every year.”

Six years ago, Barbara passed away. Since then, the House in Haunted Hill has been a twin tribute for Perkins. It’s both to share his love of Halloween, and also a chance to honor the memory of his late wife.

Even for people who have visited Perkins in prior years, there’s a reason to return this year. He made his haunt twice as big this year. It fills 13 tents, a garage and a garden, and there are two trails through the woods. There are hundreds of props – and about 20 real people, “haunters” who come back each year to torment visitors.

“I still have totes full of body parts,” Perkins said. “I made it bigger so I could put more stuff out, and I still don’t have enough room.”

In the past few years, Perkins has had about 800 people walk through his haunt. This year, either despite or because of the pandemic, he’s on pace to set a new record. That’s especially impressive because he had to open a week later than usual this year, as it took longer to set up all of his nightmares.

Perkins is 63, and said it gets harder each year to set up his haunt. Three years ago, he broke his hand setting up one of his tents, yet he still willed his scary world into existence.

“I will do it as long as I can, until I’m dead,” he said.

Part of what keeps him intrigued is the challenge. Not everyone gets scared by the same thing, he said.

“Different people take different things.” Some people like creepy, others like gross, and some look for humor or surprise. “But the best is shock value, that gets everybody… Everyone deserves to have a good scare.”

The House in Haunted Hill, located at 248 NH Route 3A, will be open for one last weekend. The haunt will welcome visitors from 7 to 11 on Friday and Saturday night, and from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sunday. Then it will close, and Perkins will begin plotting new terrors for next year.