Imminent Doom, located in Kilgore, Texas, opened for eight nights in 2025 inside a 12,000-square-foot building. With 35 actors and a 30-minute linear pathway, the haunt delighted guests during its debut. Behind it is Conner Beets, a young man who waited three years after purchasing the building to ensure the show was excellent.
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. By 10th grade, his family had helped him purchase a building in nearby Kilgore to house a permanent professional haunted attraction. But Beets would not open the doors until he was confident the show was worth the wait.
That decision, to build Imminent Doom the right way before letting anyone through the door, is what earned the haunt the 2026 OSCARES Award for Best First Year Haunt from the Haunted Attraction Association.
“I wanted to make sure that the moment I opened those doors, people were going to get the best show that I could possibly give,” Beets said.
Kilgore’s Real History, Reimagined
Imminent Doom is located just off I-20 in Kilgore, a town known as the “World’s Richest Acre” for the extraordinary concentration of oil wells that once stood on a small plot in its downtown. At its peak during the East Texas oil boom of the 1930s, a single 1.2-acre tract hosted over 20 oil derricks. The derricks are still visible today, located just a block from Main Street.
Beets drew directly from that history for the haunt’s storyline. In Imminent Doom’s loose narrative, drilling operations accidentally unleash an entity from the underworld known as Skeleton Demon, who curses the town and sends his army of monsters after anyone who enters.
“You go downtown Kilgore, there’s oil derricks everywhere,” Beets said. The concept gave him a way to connect the different themed environments that make up the 30-minute walkthrough. “It all flows, and it all makes sense,” he said. “You don’t go from an Egyptian tomb to a freak show.” Guests move through environments that follow the corrupted-town narrative: a swamp, a hillbilly cabin, a chainsaw section, a mine shaft, and finally a cave. Each scene connects to the next through the storyline rather than standing alone.
The storyline also solved a practical problem: how to use his entire collection. Beets has been collecting props for most of his life, and the narrative framework was flexible enough to incorporate them all. The haunt features around 50 animatronics and a roster of 35 paid actors across themed scenes that each feel intentional rather than random.
The Boathouse Years
Although he was always interested in Halloween, Conner’s passion for haunted houses sparked in 7th grade during a visit to Chiseltooth Manor at Terror Nights Haunted House in Tyler, Texas (now World of Khaos). “That’s when the light bulb went off. It was super intense. And I thought, ‘I want to do that one day,” he said.
His grandparents lived out at Lake Cherokee in Henderson, Texas, and had a large boathouse. Beets and his family turned it into a haunted attraction every year, expanding each time with black plastic walls and Spirit Halloween props. “It was a labor of love,” he said. “And it just got bigger every year. Eventually, I wondered why we don’t look at a building to house this in.”
Building It Right
In 2021, when Beets was in 10th grade, the family purchased the building that would become Imminent Doom. “When you’re in 10th grade, you do not have the money to purchase an entire building,” he said. His grandmother, who had hosted the haunt on her boathouse for years, helped fund the purchase and the buildout that followed.
“I’m very grateful for my family for helping me get it started, and it’s truly awesome to see your family wanting to invest in something you love so much,” Beets said. “And honestly, I wish more parents would be willing to do that for their kids, within reason.”
Beets and his father spent the next three years designing and building the attraction and installing a full sprinkler system to meet local code requirements. They learned about design, codes, safety, and worked through the haunt section by section. Imminent Doom opened in 2025 as a fully indoor, climate-controlled haunted attraction.
From the Classroom to the Screen
While building out the haunt, Beets was also developing his skills in sculpture and fabrication. He earned an Associate of Applied Science degree from Kilgore College in spring 2025 and runs CTH Productions (Conner The Haunter Productions), which started as a sculpture company and has grown to include consultation services for other haunted attractions.
In 2024, Beets was approached through his Etsy store by the set decorator for Showtime’s Dexter: Resurrection. The production commissioned custom latex special effects props, including realistic skin pieces, scalps, and larger arm props. Some of the larger pieces were developed through life casting, a process that uses silicone molds made from live models to produce latex props. His work first appeared in Episode 4, “Call Me Red,” with additional pieces featured in subsequent episodes.
Beets said he prefers haunted attractions to film and TV work because of their immersive nature. A movie puts horror on a screen. A haunted attraction puts guests inside the situation while keeping them safe. “The haunt industry is where my passion is,” he said.
Continuing his education at the University of Texas at Tyler, Beets is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sculpture with a planned graduation date of May 2027. While he plans to make Imminent Doom and CTH Productions his full-time career, he feels having a degree is still a good move.
What It’s Really About
Through his experience with Imminent Doom, Beets realized two things: haunts provide essential escapism for guests and foster a community among haunters.
“Every day I get on Instagram, it’s always some terrible headline of something terrible that’s happened in the world,” he said. “The world’s a scary place. I think society needs haunted attractions to make those real events less traumatic. The world becomes a less scary place to you when you go into a haunted house.”
But a haunt’s impact goes beyond providing entertainment for the audience. Beets said he did not fully realize what Imminent Doom meant to his own team until the haunt reopened for its Valentine’s event this year. Before the doors opened, he gathered his team for a pre-show speech and asked how many of them felt the haunt had changed their lives. Most raised their hands. “To me, what this is all about is giving people who are often shunned by society a place where they can be themselves and not be judged,” Beets said. “That’s kind of what this is all about to me.”
What’s Ahead for 2026
Imminent Doom is expanding on all fronts for its second year. Beets is doubling the schedule to 16 nights for the 2026 season and expanding the haunt’s midway area. The focus this year is shifting from props and animatronics to actor-driven scares and the development of icon characters that will anchor the haunt’s identity going forward.
“Last year was mainly about the props,” Beets said. “This year, most of our advertising will be actor-driven.”
The haunt is also running special events throughout the year. After a successful Valentine’s event in February, Imminent Doom is hosting its Luck Runs Out event on March 14, a one-night St. Patrick’s Day-themed experience running from 7:00 to 11:00 PM. Guests navigate the haunt while being hunted by banshees, leprechauns, orcs, and trolls drawn from Irish folklore, with custom costumes being built for the event. A Krampus event is also planned for December.
OSCARES Ceremony at TransWorld
Beets will be recognized on stage at the 2026 OSCARES Awards Banquet on Saturday, March 28, 2026, in America’s Center, Room 241, during TransWorld’s Halloween & Attractions Show in St. Louis. Doors open at 5:00 PM, with the ceremony beginning at 5:30 PM. The event is free and open to all TransWorld attendees.
For more information on Imminent Doom, visit imminentdoomhaunt.com.
