St. Louis, MO — The Haunted Attraction Association honored the winners of the 2026 OSCARES Awards at an awards ceremony on Saturday, March 28, during TransWorld’s Halloween & Attractions Show. The ceremony took place in America’s Center, Room 241, and was emceed by Scott Swenson with Froggy’s Fog as the premier sponsor.
The OSCARES are the highest honors in the Halloween and haunted attraction industry. All winners are nominated by industry members, making the awards a peer-recognized honor.
This year’s ceremony included 11 awards across vendor excellence, haunted attraction, home haunt, special recognition, and lifetime achievement categories. A posthumous Spirit of Leadership Award was also presented in honor of Ed Terebus, co-founder of Erebus Haunted Attraction.
Nominations for the 2027 OSCARES are now open with expanded categories.
Vendor Excellence Awards
Illumibot
Founded by Ross Arroyo, Illumibot is an AI-powered projection mapping system that transforms any surface into a dynamic visual display using a smartphone app and a standard projector. Since partnering with AtmosFX, Illumibot has gained traction with both home haunters and professional attractions looking to add projection effects without complex technical setups.
Rib FX
Founded in 2021 by Michael “Rib” Ribagin, Rib FX is based in Seattle, Washington, and brings together decades of collective experience across the haunt, theme park, film, and television industries. All of their props and effects are handcrafted in-house by a dedicated team of artists and specialists who continually innovate, breathing fresh life into traditional favorites while pushing the boundaries of creativity.
Beastcraft (Legacy)
Founded in 2014 and based in Columbus, Ohio, Beastcraft is a prop manufacturer specializing in animated Halloween characters. Their animatronics have developed a reputation for originality and reliability, and their combination of artwork style, steel-frame animations, and customer service quickly established a foothold in the haunted house industry.
Home Haunt Award
Nightmare Haunted House
Based in Minooka, Illinois, Nightmare Haunted House has earned a reputation as Chicagoland’s top-rated home haunt, recognized by WGN Chicago News and The Scare Factor. While delivering scares, the haunt also raises donations nightly for local charities.
Board of Directors Awards
Imminent Doom Haunted House (First Year Haunt)
Conner Beets has been collecting haunted house props since he was five years old. By seventh grade, he was building multi-room haunts in his grandparents’ boathouse on Lake Cherokee in Henderson, Texas. In 10th grade, his family helped him purchase a building in nearby Kilgore to house a permanent professional attraction, where he spent three years designing and building the attraction, installing a full sprinkler system, and working through the haunt section by section. Imminent Doom opened in 2025 as a fully indoor, climate-controlled haunted attraction with 35 actors, around 50 animatronics, and a 30-minute walkthrough.
Milltown Haunt
Situated on nearly 13 acres of working farmland in Lovettsville, Virginia, Milltown Haunt was founded by Sarah and GG Gregg, who are dedicated to preserving agricultural land through innovative seasonal entertainment. Built from the ground up beginning in 2023, Milltown Haunt integrates agritourism with cinematic-quality sets, immersive storytelling, and a dynamic farm-midway experience. Through industry leadership, strong community partnerships, and a commitment to empowering local scare talent, Milltown Haunt has raised the bar for haunted attractions in Northern Virginia.
Markoff’s Haunted Forest (Legacy)
What started in 1992 as a haunted school bus driven around parking lots in the DC area by the Markoff brothers has grown into one of the most immersive outdoor haunted experiences on the East Coast. Located in Dickerson, Maryland, the attraction now features a three-quarter-mile candlelit trail through 26 scenes, a fully built western town, and a massive midway with bonfires, live entertainment, and food. Markoff’s Haunted Forest is a benefit performance for Calleva, a 501(c)(3) outdoor education nonprofit that runs summer camps, a kayaking school, and sustainable farming programs. For over 30 years, every ticket sold has supported getting kids and families outdoors.
Spirit of Leadership Award
Ed Terebus (Posthumous)
Ed Terebus, co-founder of Erebus Haunted Attraction in Pontiac, Michigan, passed away in June 2025 at the age of 62. Together with his brother Jim, Ed transformed a four-story abandoned building into one of the most renowned haunted attractions in the world. For nearly a decade, Erebus held the Guinness World Record for the longest walk-through haunted attraction. Ed founded Fear Finder, a seasonal guide to Michigan’s haunted attractions that at its peak had a circulation of over 600,000 copies. He and Jim helped elevate the haunt industry through America Haunts, of which Erebus is a founding member. Ed’s creativity started young with sculpting monster heads in art class, and he carried that same spirit into everything Erebus became. The award was accepted by a member of the Terebus family.
Special Recognition Award
Ricky Dick, Castle Blood
Known to many as Gravely MacCabre, Ricky Dick has been merging his childhood passions into a career spanning five decades. Since 1983, he has been a force in the industry. He was a member of the very first Haunt Association Board of Directors and, for many years, was both a vendor and an instructor at TransWorld back in the Chicago days. Since 1993, Ricky has used his theater arts training to tell stories and entertain people in a haunted house setting at his own haunt, Castle Blood, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Castle Blood is now housed in a century-old funeral parlor in Monessen, combining immersive theater, escape room elements, and classic haunting into an experience that has kept audiences coming back for over 30 years.
Lifetime Achievement Awards
This year’s awards expanded the Lifetime Achievement category to two recipients.
Bobbie Weiner
Bobbie Weiner, AKA Bloody Mary, started her product development company 30 years ago in a garage in San Diego after finishing the special effects makeup for the dead, frozen, floating actors in James Cameron’s Titanic. She came to her first Halloween show in Chicago when TransWorld found her a booth at the last minute. She showed up with camouflage face paint and sports fan face paint, did a standing-room-only makeup demo for haunt owners, and when they came to her booth asking what she made for the haunt industry, she said, “I make blood and fangs,” and figured she’d figure out the rest later. Bobbie developed a sugar-free blood formula and a line of Halloween special effects makeup, and her Bloody Mary brand grew into a licensing empire that has reached Universal Studios Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, Six Flags Over Texas, and haunted attractions nationwide. She has conducted hundreds of makeup seminars at TransWorld and for haunt groups across the country and consistently donated to industry auctions and fundraisers. Young haunters have received Bobbie Weiner Scholarships to pursue careers in makeup and special effects. The U.S. Department of Defense also recognizes Bobbie as its top supplier of camouflage face paint for the military.
Ernie Romegialli
Ernie Romegialli started the Haunted Graveyard in his backyard in 1991 to keep his daughter Johanna’s mind off candy after she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. What began as a decorated yard in Middletown, Connecticut, grew into New England’s largest Halloween attraction: a mile-long, 45-minute journey through six haunted houses at Lake Compounce that became one of the most attended independent haunts in the country, drawing nearly 10,000 guests on its busiest nights and raising more than $650,000 for diabetes research. Beyond his own haunt, Ernie helped shape the industry as a co-chair of what would become the Haunted Attraction Association during its earliest days and has inspired and mentored countless people across the haunt community. He spent 35 years as a history teacher and missed only two nights of his haunt: his daughter’s rehearsal dinner and her wedding. Sean Morris accepted the award on Ernie’s behalf.
2026 In Memorial
Arbizo, Abram “Abe” (54) – Arizona’s Original Scream Park
Avery, John (52) – Red Vein Haunted House
Barnett, John (54) – Nightmare on Main St
Bickel, Mark (74) – Haunted Hotel-13th Floor
Bishop, Joseph (49) – Brimstone Haunt
Blackwell, Gary (56) – Granville Haunt Farm
Burns III, Bob (90) – Actor, Home Haunter, “Bob’s Basement” Collection
Capman, John (61) – Haunt Park
Crow, Brandon (36) – Hustonville Haunted House
Dombek, Brian “Bubbs” (46) – Fear on the Farm at McCray’s Farm
Dotson, Tony (65) – Blood Prison
Edgeman, Brian (57) – The Haunted Barn
Eller, Courtney (50) – Slaughterhouse Nashville
Faust, Clifton (55) – The Mortuary Haunted House
Fields, Austin (26) – Kings Island Haunt
Hamilton, Bennie (60) – Mad Mary’s Haunted House
Hanson, Rylee (20) – Haunted Hills Haunted Attraction
Hatcher, Matthew (53) – Nightmare’s End
Heffner, Michael (65) – Reapers Revenge
Herlich, Harold (73) – Spook Hollow
Johnson, Daniel (55) – Haunted Forest @ Panic Point
Keiling, Jeffrey Richard (51) – Madhaunter’s Madhouse
Kitchen, Frenchy (40) – Woods of Terror
Kneip, Nick (47) – Blood Moon Manor, Spook Hollow, Aura Haunt
Knuth, Jan Skaggs (60) – Gray House Haunts
Kopelman, Steve (67) – Haunted House Innovator
Kramm, Kris (54) – The Nightmare (Haunted Hike)
Kuhajda, Mark (66) – Count Kuhajda’s Haunted Haus
Lizard, Sal (70) – “The Vampire Santa”
Lynch, Jordan (57) – Las Vegas Haunts
Madigan, Evan (37) – Barrett’s Haunted Mansion
McCorison, Dan (52) – Helwig Hollow
Miller, Chris AKA Magnus (44) – Haunted Hotel – Kentucky
Mitchell, Ralph (74) – Slaughter on 2nd St / Ironstock
Neiswenter, Charles (65) – Folklore Haunted House
Osborne, Robby (46) – Malice Haunted Attraction
Oswald, Michael (70) – Legends of the Fog
Parker, Dale (30) – Picklenose Haunted House
Parker, Daniel (26) – A Petrified Forest
Peace, Shannon (43) – Spookywoods
Phelps, Sandra (71) – Nightmare Hollow Haunted Trail
Pogue, Ann (71) – Froggy’s Fog
Roberts, Ed (64) – Nightmare Factory / WCHC
Santopoalo, Rochelle (70) – Happy Halloween Magazine
Shelnutt, Kyle Morgan (37) – Nightmare at 3008
Shireman, Gary (74) – Coffin Creek / Haunt X / Cal Haunts
Taggart, Bret (35) – Froggy’s Fog
Tann, Michelle (54) – The Hotel
Taylor, David (56) – Terror at Potomac Manor
Terebus, Edward (62) – Erebus Haunted Attraction
Valdez, Vern “Squash” (44) – Terror Street Fair
Webster, Jeff (60) – Haunted Hayrides of Greater Rochester
Wilcoxen, Patricia (52) – Fear on the Farm
Wood, Randy (59) – Witch’s Woods
2027 Nominations Now Open
The Haunted Attraction Association announced that nominations for the 2027 OSCARES are now open; the 2027 awards will be self-nomination only.
The 2027 awards will feature an expanded set of categories:
- Haunted Attraction of the Year
- Vendor of the Year
- Special Recognition Award
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- Home Haunt of the Year
- Actor of the Year
- Creative Production Award
- The WOW Factor Award
- Best Off-Season Event Award
- Best F&B and/or Merch Experience Award
Apply here.
