SAUGUS — When the heavy, steel doors open into the MEG Building’s cold, dark basement, guests don’t know if they’ll face a knife-wielding nurse, the dead bride of Charles Bond, or a ghost.
And that’s the way haunted house creators Mark Andrews and Bob Catinazzo like it.
Each year around Halloween, the pair set out to craft a spooky attraction for $5 that will elicit screams from people of all ages. All proceeds are given to charity. This year, the money will go to the MEG Foundation and Saugus High School’s drama program.
Andrews is the mastermind who plays with light, angles, mirrors, technology, and special effects to create complex illusions. He spent many years creating escape room attractions, features for the Blue Man Group, and exhibits for the Museum of Science.
For fun, he has successfully freed himself from 24 different escape rooms. When creating a haunted house, Andrews crafts a complex back story. In the past, he has drawn on the ghost tales that surround the building’s history. One year he and Catinazzo created a Cliftondale Insane Asylum, and another year the Graves Laboratory to treat an EEE outbreak through trial and error.
“I want to hear crying and screaming,” he said.
The annual haunted house started in 2006 when Andrews was renovating his basement. He decided to paint the walls black and create a haunted house. The next year, the maze was moved to his backyard and children from the Lynnhurst Elementary School were invited to walk through.
More people showed up for a fright each fall and, eventually, Andrews sought a larger space, landing at the MEG in 2011.
Catinazzo typically plays the main role in the haunted scenes and helps keep teens who volunteer as actors on track. Saugus High School students can log community service hours while working. About 20 drama students typically volunteer for the attraction each year.
This year, Catinazzo and Andrews will bring back fan favorites from the past decade and add a twist. They expect upwards of 1,000 people to walk through the haunted house over the four days.
The show will run Oct. 18, Oct. 19, Oct. 25, and Oct. 26 from 6 to 9 p.m.
