Help Ghoul Brothers Save Their Haunted Legacy

We need your help!

Ghoul Brothers is a world-class haunted house in Akron, Ohio, that was designed and built by David Barton. Barton previously owned an FX shop in Hollywood and wanted to bring some Hollywood magic back to Ohio, his home state.

We built Ghoul Brothers into a formerly unusable, non-storefront space that had sat unused since about 2003.

After 9 years, we lost our lease with no reason given and for no cause. We've been good tenants serving the community, hiring 70+ people seasonally, including those with developmental disabilities. We support local small businesses and artists and bring commerce into our community. Meanwhile, our amazing cast members and staff, who are more like our extended family, have lost their haunted house home.

Ghoul Brothers is a massive near 16,000 square foot attraction with several hundreds of thousands of dollars invested over a 13-year period. We were only told of this decision two weeks before our opening for the season, and this after a 7-month wait for our landlord to make a decision. Adding insult to injury, at present, our landlord only gave us until December 30th to move out, this during Thanksgiving and Christmas and in the cold.

Despite being an amazing, top-rated, #7 in Ohio haunted house, and Ohio does have more haunts than any other state, we never were able to fully capitalize on the market, and this year was economically not great for us nor for many haunted houses nationally.

We are pinched for time and money to move and hoping to be able to salvage as much as possible with hopes of continuing down the road. The tear down is very costly, moving and storage is very costly, and we need the support of the concerned public, haunt lovers, and the haunted house industry in general, to do this.

We are seeking $20,000 to assist with moving and storage expenses. The actual cost to tear down and store for an undetermined amount of time is much more than this. Maybe you're a lover of haunted houses or somebody who supports small businesses and their constant struggles or are just tired of seeing good people damaged by uncaring wealthy elites, we appreciate any help you can give!