Lost Souls Attractions: Scaring people silly for 15 years

SHELLEY — For 15 years, Lost Souls Attractions has been bringing people to Shelley for the sole purpose of getting scared out of their wits.

Lost Souls Attractions started out 15 years ago as a temporary installment in the Virginia Theater and has evolved into two haunted houses that bring in upwards of 2,000 people on its busiest nights.

How the Spooky Scheme Started

“It started with Desi Richards and Jenny Park. They had a haunted house for three years before. They were just going to stop, so I called Desi up and said, ‘hey, do you want to come help me do a haunted house in the (Virginia) Theater?'” Haunted Souls Attractions owner Andrew Christensen said.

At the time, the Virginia Theater was still regularly used for community plays. 

“We used to have to tear the whole thing down and build it from scratch every year,” Camilla Christensen, Andrew’s wife and partner, said.

While it was a lot of work, Andrew said the advantage of having to rebuild it every year was that they could easily improve, change and add things.

After a couple of years, they changed the name from The Haunted Theater to Theater of the Lost Souls.

“In 2016, we bought the hospital, and that’s when we opened our second haunted house and changed it to Lost Souls Attractions to include both of them,” Camilla said.

In 2018 they were finally able to purchase the Virginia Theater and no longer had to tear down and rebuild the haunted house. But that didn’t stop them from trying to find better ways to scare people.

“I’ve learned what scares people most based on their reactions. So we’re trying to do things from what we’ve learned that way,” Camilla said. “Try to take out stuff that’s not as scare — put in stuff that’s more scary.”

That’s where Andrew gets to do what he loves most, building scary things. 

“I just love building. Trying to come up with new ideas and figuring out how to build it and make it safe,” Andrew said.

Creepy Contraptions

In the early years, the features in the haunted houses, like the doll room, semi-truck and the elevator — lovingly referred to as the Hellevator — were all run by hand.

Camilla said one man would have to put in a lot of effort to make the Hellevator work.

“You have a guy that would be in there, he’d release a strap, he’d close the door manually. He had to press play on the DVD player, flicker the lights, pull the rope to switch the walls and he’s bouncing on this lever to get everything to work exactly the right timing. And now it’s a button you push,” Andrew said.

While Andrew had the ability to design, build and wire the various features to be automated, he wasn’t able to do the programming. That’s where Scott Andersen came in.

With his help, many of the features are now all automated.

“Scott makes it move,” Andrew said.

With Andrew building the scary stuff, Scott making it move on its own and Camilla handling customers, all they needed was inspiration.

“A lot of the beginning stuff, like the dolls and the semi, that all came from my brother, Ethan,” Andrew said. “He would start explaining it and it was almost like my mind would just take over and knew exactly how to make it. He’d just start the idea and I’d complete it.”

Even with building everything from scratch, Andrew said it’s not staying original.

“I think one of the biggest challenges we’ve had is trying to figure out different ways to scare people that’s not copying everyone else,” he said.

He explained that they go to other haunted attractions to see what others are doing and to make sure Lost Souls Attractions isn’t doing the same things.

“I’ve had it where I’ve built something and it was built and it was a week from opening and we went to Dr. Slaughters. Saw the exact thing that I had built. I was like, ‘nope.’ And we ripped it out,” Andrew said.

But it’s not just creepy creations that keep Lost Souls Attractions unique. Andrew and Camilla also believe the rules they give their volunteers set them apart from other haunted houses.

“One of the rules, I think, makes our volunteers so creepy is staying in character. Don’t break character no matter what. Always be creepy,” Camilla said.

She said Lost Souls Attractions wouldn’t be possible without their friends, family and volunteers all doing their parts to make Lost Souls Attractions the scariest around.

“They’re all awesome to do that. They come out and have fun. I hope they’re having fun. They keep coming back, so…” she said.

The Lost Souls that Haunt Lost Souls Attractions

Whether or not ghosts, spirits or hauntings are real is a hot topic for debate. But one thing is true. Some things are not easily explained. For Camilla and especially Andrew, the unexplainable is commonplace in Lost Souls Attractions.

Andrew said he has seen apparitions in person, heard ghostly voices, seen orbs floating through the hallways and watched objects move on their own.

“One year, on the second story on the stage we built, we had the bride’s room. We had all this white cloth hanging,” Andrew said.

He said this was a Sunday afternoon when they weren’t open. No one was there, but suddenly their motion detection camera flipped on.

“You see the cloth start to move and then it goes up and holds, then it drops,” Andrew said.

He explained it was just one piece of fabric among dozens that seemingly moved on its own. Even then, he said his first thought was that there must have been a draft making it move.

“So I go to that exact spot and look up. It’s not where the vents are. There’s no way a draft can come through and touch just one piece,” Andrew said.

Andrew isn’t the only one to see unexplainable things. Many of their volunteers have also had their own experiences.

“A lot of our volunteers have seen things,” Camilla said. “I lot of them, I’m like, ‘oh it could have been this. It’s your imagination.’ But then there’s some that your like, ‘I know that something happened to you.’ Because you can tell when they’re truly terrified and when they’re just making it up.”

Even Shelley’s own group of amateur paranormal investigators have had haunting experiences inside Lost Souls Attractions.

“It’s the only place we’ve ever gotten growled at, so far,” Leon Arave said.

Arave heads up a local group of amateur paranormal investigators called FTL3TD. Find a sampling of what they found during their stay in both the theater and hospital by clicking this link.

“It’s definitely got a creepy vibe in there and not just because of the decorations. There’s a lot of creaks. A lot of moans going on. We had a few things move. So it definitely has that feel for it,” Arave said.

On the other hand, Camilla said that except for one unexplainable event, she hasn’t had any paranormal experiences.

“I’ve never seen anything. I’ve felt things though. You know, when you feel something or you feel like something’s watching you,” Camilla said. “But I don’t think I’ll ever see anything because I don’t want to.”

The Frightening Future of Lost Souls Attractions

“It’s really hard because every year we’re like, ‘should this be our last year?’ and then we see this line that wraps the building or wraps the block,” Andrew said. “If all these people come from all these areas, and they love it so much, how do we just stop?”

While they don’t have plans to end Lost Souls Attractions any time soon, Camilla said they would like to someday restore the Virginia theater.

“We had to cover all the outside walls because we want to protect them to eventually restore the theater,” she said.

But until the day arrives when Lost Souls Attractions is no more and work to restore the theater begins, Andrew and Camilla will continue doing what they love. Scaring people.

“That’s our goal. We really want to be the scariest around,” Camilla said.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: You made it to the end of this article so I’ll give you a hint for your next trip through the Theater of the Lost Souls. Keep an eye out for a little girl running through the halls. She and the other children that call the theater their home might just want you to join their ghostly game of tag.