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Banking on KC - Amber Arnett-Bequeaith of Full Moon Productions: Scaring Up a Business

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Kelly Scanlon:

Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode, and just in time for Halloween, is Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, the Vice President at Full Moon Productions. She's otherwise known as the Queen of Haunts or, sometimes, as an hauntrepreneur. She and her family are owners and operators of The Beast, the Edge of Hell, and Macabre Cinema in the West Bottoms. In fact, the Travel Channel has named these three Kansas City haunted houses is among the top 10 scariest haunted attractions in the country. Welcome, Amber.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Oh, thank you. Yes, it is sure fun after 49 years to continue to get these kind of accolades, not only locally but nationally. We were also named this year for the Edge of Hell in parade.com as one of the top five attractions in the country, as well as the top attraction in Missouri.

Kelly Scanlon:

That's wonderful. You've been in business for an awfully long time. Your family started this. What inspired it? How did it get started?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Yeah, I think that's the really incredible story is to look back and the fact that my grandmother and mother started these, that it was women who actually brought forth this entire industry. They started with an outdoor theater at Lake of the Ozarks, and that was before Lake of the Ozarks was really a cool place to be, especially year-round. You were lucky if you could get milk in the winter. We're talking early 1970s. And so they were really looking at which area was going to boom and they put their money on the Ozarks. Now, as history has played out, we know that it was Branson that ended up attracting all the stars. But we had an outdoor theater on my grandmother's farm for several years, and it was three miles down a gravel road, difficult to get to, and of course their fan base was small. And it was outdoors, so you dealt with a lot of weather issues, and they got into debt and they had to creatively come up with a way to get out of debt.

And so utilizing the things that they had, which was props and lighting and sounds and costumes and their amazing creative selves, they created the first commercial haunted attraction. In the early seventies, you had the JCs and different charities.

Kelly Scanlon:

Right. Taking a little house and making it a little spooky. Yeah.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Playing out those fun aspects and dreams and aspirations, and my grandmother did for the high school. And then they came up and decided, "Hey, let's go to Kansas City." A bigger stage, so to speak. And that began in 1974 on the Independent Square with the chambers of Edgar Allen Poe, huge fans of Poe and his writings. And then the very next year they purchased their first building at Seventh and Wyandot, and for the first couple weeks they just called it Hell.

Kelly Scanlon:

Literally and figuratively, right?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Yes, absolutely, based on the fact that my great-grandfather was a pastor. And really, the theme has remained the same. This is our 49th season. And the theme is the same, that if you walk on the edge, you will encounter these sorts of demons. And are you going to make enough good choices or did you make too many bad? Of course, it seems everyone who enters makes too many bad and they end up down the five-story spiral slide.

Kelly Scanlon:

You better help them along that path.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

We do guide. That's interesting when you talk about the path because the Edge of Hell is definitely an old-school. Haunted Attraction is the first one of course that did guide. But one thing that makes us unique is that we really let the people live in the scenes and we try to touch all of your senses. So there was a little squabble in regards to filing out paperwork when you just named something Hell. At that time, your advertising choice was the TV guide was a big deal, Yellow Pages, so that's where that edge part came in.

Kelly Scanlon:

Okay, yeah. It makes perfect sense from a practical standpoint too. How did you get into the business then?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Well, darling, I was born into it.

Kelly Scanlon:

Sure. You're probably helping set the thing up.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Oh, absolutely. So I was usually more afraid if I didn't get the right tool to the right person. I was usually the little runner running the tools among the floors. These old buildings, that one in particular didn't have a very accessible elevator, but I spent my childhood performing in those theatrical productions at Lake of the Ozarks and then coming in performing at the haunted attractions. I've played every part throughout the time I was five years old when the Edge of Hell was created. Sleeping in coffins, that was one of the first ones.

Kelly Scanlon:

That wasn't scary as a kid?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Well, it wasn't. It was comfortable actually, because you'd work all day and you'd get tired. I was above the entrance door, and back then, you couldn't buy smells and infuse them the way you do today. So we would go and collect all the dead flowers, and that was the aroma that you would put, the decaying but kind of beautiful scent that would lead them through the path. And as they would walk in, I would rise in my little ghostly costume and sprinkle the petals on their heads as they came in. And then when I got tired, you'd just fall asleep till you were retrieved later.

And in those days, we did have some picketers. No one had ever seen this kind of attraction, and so it was new and it was exciting. And in the beginning we wouldn't even open it, of course, on Sundays because my grandfather would've just had a fit about that. But over time, we of course were open on Sundays and it's a very difficult business actually. So celebrating 49 years in this industry when you are working around the clock for a very short amount of time to support yourself for the full year is quite a feat.

Kelly Scanlon:

Exactly. You mentioned several times the production aspect of this, the theatrical aspect of this, and in fact, that's a differentiator for you because it's really more of a theatrical production than the blood and guts that most people conjure up when they think of haunted houses.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

It's so true. I think that that is something that has remained to set us apart. And as this industry has grown, definitely people use things that are easy, which is what I deem shock value, and that is not who we are. We come from that theatrical background and we really try to produce a set that puts your mind in that timeframe. And that's really what it's all about for designing a haunted attraction is really that mind, to make you believe that you're there, even if it's for just a split second. When you see a live snake and then the fake one drops on your head, it really works well.

Kelly Scanlon:

How do you keep the experience fresh? We live in an age where there are so many choices. We have such short attention spans and so much is out there to compete for our time. How do you still keep this a fresh experience for people that they want to come to?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Well, I think that's an interesting thing to talk about. I do find it a little bit interesting because no one asks if Santa's going to be fresh this year.

Kelly Scanlon:

That's a good point. Yeah, I hadn't thought of it that way.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

"Santa, are you wearing a new color suit?" No one asks that, but in Halloween, your classic characters continue to recycle. They're like fashion, because the costumes and what's happening at that time, it changes. A lot of it is led by Hollywood. But for us, it's really about that we designed and came up with this incredible concept. It's about touching all of your senses. And yes, our customers are even more finicky than ever because of the technological changes that have happened in our society. But what is still different, what still sets us apart, is that you're bringing your own adrenaline rush. You're bringing your friends and family, and it is a true 3D, 4D experience.

Now, we are providing all that now. When you walk into one of our scenes, you break a laser beam and that is timed in order to unfold for you within programming. Ours are more difficult than, say, if you go to Disney or you ride a rollercoaster and you get your picture taken, you're strapped in. But in a haunted attraction, everyone scares differently. Some people run, some people cry, some people crawl, some people pee their pants, so that timing is super important as that unfolds for you to experience. What's so funny sometimes is they'll say, "Well, I missed that. Well, I didn't see it." Well, they had their eyes closed as they were making their way through.

And the other thing is we went on to create... The Beast was open in 1991, and it truly pioneered what is now considered standard, but in '91, the open format. And it was really, if you look back at it, it was the beginning of the escape games because we were hardcore in that those first couple years and people would complain, "We missed our dinner reservations," because if any actor told anyone how to get out, they were fired. So you might be in there 45 minutes or an hour and 45 minutes, but The Beast really is massive expansive. It's considered one of the largest attractions in the United States.

Kelly Scanlon:

What is your most popular attraction?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Oh, now that'd be like picking which one of my kids is my favorite. That's what I was just speaking about. You have the Edge of Hell. That's very claustrophobic. It's very driven to a certain path, and some people are more affected by that. When you're creating these very high-tech scenes and the way you move people, we are physically moving you through and you kind of got to have your wherewithal to physically get through. So the Edge of Hell, very claustrophobic, tight spaces. We make you crawl on your hands and knees. People are more vulnerable that way. But The Beast is all about being lost and not being able to find the right way. And there are multiple choices in there that eventually you'll end out at the same place. And then the Edge of Hell has the five-story spiral. The Beast has a four-story straight shoot.

So when you say what is the favorite, that is really up to the customer and what touches them, their senses and what is the best experience for them? And then Macabre Cinema, which was built in 2007, that was really our nod to Hollywood because The Edge of Hell and The Beast are our own creation, our own art, our own designs and thoughts and ideas. But everyone would say, "Oh, where's Chucky? Where's Freddy?" And we're like, "Oh my goodness. They don't belong in these themes." And so we created the Macabre Cinema in order to give those specialty characters, because everyone has that first realization when they hear the music or the first time they ever saw that movie, and they really have become huge followers of those types of scary movies.

And so it was our fun little way to have a haunted 1930s movie theater and to put all of these different sets inside. And we were actually able to obtain like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, the actual movie set, from Hollywood. And it's got this amazing carousel, and you've got to pedal to get away from the clowns. You got to move on that. But it's super fun and physical. We also have the Scorpion King from The Mummy, the actual set, beautiful, beautiful sets. So that's a whole different experience to get to go to the Macabre Cinema.

Kelly Scanlon:

And I would imagine that you draw from not just the region, but probably nationally too. I would imagine that you're on a tour or something of these fans that you draw from around the country.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Yeah. And I helped create a board in the industry called America Haunts. I'm the national spokesperson for the haunt industry, and it's about these fans and being able to get out into the country and look at different, very high level events. The other thing, when you talk about theatrical, I think that is something for me to point out in regards to my family. I run this business with my uncle, Monte Summers, and the fact is, this is all a family entertainment. That's what we're about. We're about the fact that it's still cool for a 14-year-old to come in and hold mom's hand and get through. It's really a coming of age. And after 49 years, now we have grandparents bringing their grandchildren to get to experience it. And I think it's also just a way for you to have a little fright and fun, but in a very safe place.

Kelly Scanlon:

Let's shift here a little bit. From a business perspective, you are very invested in the West Bottoms. You've been a member of the West Bottoms Business District and other organizations like the Central Industrial District Association that are committed to developing and preserving the West Bottoms, so tell us about your involvement there and your vision for the area.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Yeah, I think that when you look at the historic West Bottoms, it has been a love and a passion and really my life as well as my uncle's investment in his life. Some people refer to him sometimes as the Mayor of the West Bottoms. But yes, our businesses in the beginning were only open a short amount of time and people would say, "Oh, you probably are just off vacationing the rest of the year," and that's really not what it's like. First of all, for anyone who's in a small business, you know that's not true. And secondly, a seasonal business is probably even more hard than when you get to do 365. If I have a bad weekend, I've lost a whole quarter. I haven't lost just a Saturday night in my year. And we really dove in and we believed and have loved and invested our whole lives in this area, and we looked at what needed to be done.

And really, at the time when we moved from at that time called the River Key, I'll date myself here now, the River Market, when that area was rezoned for revitalization, and we were looking at the West Bottoms as our next home, a lot of people even said, "Oh my goodness, the Edge of Hell won't even survive in the West Bottoms." It had a pretty scary reputation at the time when we moved in.

Kelly Scanlon:

It was mostly industrial, right?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

It was very industrial. But we also had had the fact that the city had moved up on top of the hill and there hadn't been a lot of new investment. I do find that interesting because we had an incredible history with the American Royal, and we had invested all that money in Kemper, which was phenomenal. But somewhere along the way, we got a little bit down a different path. First thing we had to do is to go in and to clean all that up ourselves.

Kelly Scanlon:

So what were some of the first steps you took?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

The first steps were to put out dumpsters for everyone to be able to use for free rather than locking them, because that costs money to have those hauled off, so a lot of people will lock those. We left them all open. It cost us less money for us to haul off their trash than to pay the labor to pick up the trash and then haul it off. We also put together a weed program to kill all the weeds on city property. We have painted all the graffiti in the West Bottoms, not our city, but we have. Even on the 12th Street Bridge, we continue to paint that, and we have cared for it as if it's our own. Now, there has been infrastructure dollars that have been able to come forth through the CIDA, KCIC, and that has helped us revitalize the 12th Street Bridge. Beautiful job.

They did a beautiful job, and it's an icon, and it's something that is very notable for itself. And I think that sometimes we forget that the historic West Bottoms is their original Kansas City. For us and who live here and that history, we love our history and we're not ashamed of who we are. And so those stockyards, those buildings, the original aspect of the Rumley, the John Deere tractor building that the trade was along the river, the Lewis and Clark Trail, it's no different than when we look at our history at Westport or at Loose Park and the amazing battles that were fought. And it's something that we need to continue to learn from and explore in order for us to continue growth. So those were some of the basic things. The weeds, the trash. We worked with homeless programs in order to be able to make it feel more stable in providing them services, food and things like that.

And this then allowed the perception of the West Bottoms to very slowly change. We look at today, we moved into the West Bottoms in 1987, and I find it interesting how people will say to me, "Well, wow, what an incredible place," like it just appeared, like they had no clue, and it's been a diamond in the rough for all of these years. And then we slowly began putting in one business at a time. So what we have to be a little bit careful of is we don't want to change who the West Bottoms is or to sterilize that environment. Do we have to provide services if we get to residential? Absolutely. But we also need to be able to keep the unique and incredible people that have been there and created this tax base with the festivals that we have now created and been doing for the last 12 years, which is Festival of the Full Moon, connected with the First Friday weekends.

We have now 35 shops that are open every first Friday. We are bringing down and utilizing the food trucks and bands and entertainment, but it's not just a foo-foo place. That incredible history gives it so much aspect, and we're sourcing these incredible things. We have amazing entrepreneurial women, who are mostly the owners of these stores, that have stepped in and created this, and this gives us our tax base, retail sales tax back to the city in order to continue to provide the infrastructure and the sewer that needs to be done. We're still working on levies, and that's moving forward. We're still putting in more parks, so there's still a lot of work to be done.

But I think what needs to be noted is that the Edge of Hell is truly the angel of the West Bottoms, because without our investment and then the city coming forth and matching in infrastructure, then these developers wouldn't choose to come there. So we are the ones who brought Samara Road to Kansas City, and they have now purchased six of our buildings. And the plans are going forward as far as revitalization, the opening up of residential, bringing in more retail office space. So the future is super bright for the historic West Bottoms. What we need to be aware of as a community is let's not forget who helped build it, and let's make sure that we have incredible synergy always for this amazing place.

Kelly Scanlon:

One of the things I don't think a lot of our listeners probably realize is that your community efforts extend even beyond the West Bottoms. For example, you are one of the co-creators, one of the original founders of Boulevardia. I know you're no longer involved in it, but you have been involved in some very high-profile events and developments throughout Kansas City, not just the West Bottoms.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Yeah. We really have began some of the major events for downtown, and it was definitely an amazing honor to partner in that scenario for Boulevardia. We really provided the location, the security, a lot of the operations behind the scenes and let people shine well going forward. And it brought a lot of excitement to the city. And I think that, of course, the sports teams have done that now, but we also need to be proud that Kansas City is considered the haunted house capital of the world, and it began all right here. So whether you like haunted attractions or not, it's definitely something that has spawned on to be an incredible award for this city and where this all began, in the humble Midwest with a creative family from Lake of the Ozarks that just had a dream.

I think it's something that we need to be proud of because, again, if you make things sterile and just all the same, what draws the outside visitor to our city? And we need that. And Kansas City, of course, celebrating the sports now is a draw, but all conventions. And even for ourselves, so with staycations, look at COVID and all of that, we need fun things to celebrate in our city, and Halloween is one of the best to celebrate.

Kelly Scanlon:

And currently, you're involved in a campaign called Don't Be a Monster. It's an anti-bullying campaign. Talk to us about that.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

A lot of people don't realize, but October is anti-bullying month, and it's a way for us to come forward. It's a national program that I'm involved in and helped put together within the Haunted Attraction Association and with America Haunts. And it's where we take Don't Be a Monster, which is an upscale frank. And we go into middle schools, high schools, and what we're teaching is how to be an upstander. And in our society, a lot of people will just turn their heads or we won't say anything because we're afraid to put ourselves out there. And I think that it really serves us well in the fact that we've always been one of the forerunners, whether it was in our industry or revitalizing the West Bottoms. This is a very important subject for schools as well as students. And of course, it plays well with the monster aspect of what people are afraid of.

And now with cyber bullying even being at a higher level, it really shows kids how they can step forward and who to turn to be able to help themselves. We did, with Larry Moore, The Dream Factory for the terminally ill kids, and we would bring them in. We would sanitize everything and let them actually go into a scene that a wheelchair was able to do, and just to light up their life with this amazing holiday. We did Variety, the children's charity, and really worked with AMC on mobility and what their causes and how to get kids. We built a lot of ramps for a lot of families in order to move forward with them having an easier life. So, we are a huge community. Again, it's our love, passion, and it's always followed with screams and laughter.

Kelly Scanlon:

This is a seasonal business, as you said. How long are your houses open? How much more time do our listeners have to get down there?

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

We are open through the second weekend in November, and we're open Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays. Right now, the last week. There's a few more days as we lead up to that fun holiday on the 31st. Check our calendar, kcbeast.com.

Kelly Scanlon:

Well, Amber, thank you so much for coming and sharing the story. Everybody seems to, even if they haven't visited them, they know about the haunted houses, but this history behind it is incredible, and what you're doing to shape the future is also really important. Thank you for all those efforts and for coming here today and being our guest.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith:

Oh, well, thank you.

Joe Close:

This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Amber Arnett-Bequeaith for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Who knew that Kansas City is considered the haunted house capital of the world? And it all started because two women, Amber's mother and grandmother, decided they needed a bigger stage for their haunted theatrical production based in the Ozarks. With the move to Kansas City, they created an entire new industry. Since then, Amber and her uncle have carried on their legacy. Haunt-repreneurs from across the United States visit Kansas City to learn how to elevate the scream scene in their own cities. Although the Beckwiths birthed a national industry and have received global acclaim, Amber continues to invest and reinvest in Kansas City, especially the West Bottoms. In doing so, she shares one of Country Club Bank's philosophies, to leave things better than they found them. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.