Rich Hanf.....Haunter, Entertainer, Educator, Speaker..... Haunt Personality

Rich Hanf was born to be a Haunter. He grew up in the sixties on a steady diet of

" The 4:30 Movie", "Chiller Theatre", "Creature Feature" and of course "DarkShadows".

Says Rich " the 4:30 movie was great because back in those days they would play the same movie Monday thru Friday. When it was "The Crawling Eye", any of the old "Hammer Films" or one of the Universal Monster films I would watch it every day. Of course when it was "Elvis week" it was pure torture. They called his movie "Blue Hawaii" because it BLEW!!!

Chiller Theatre and Creature Feature were Saturday night staples and of course everyone ran home from school to watch Dark Shadows and TV’s first daytime Vampire Barnabas Collins.

Time was spent putting together original "Aurora" model kits like the Guillotine or the "Forgotten Prisoner" and thumbing through the pages of Forrey Ackermans "Famous Monsters of Filmland". Rich remembers sending in $1 for a glow in the dark skull that was advertised in the back of that magazine....a skull he is still waiting for.

As the 60's gave way to the 70's Richs love of all things Horror and Halloween grew even stronger. A teenager now and able to drive, Rich’s second home was the drive in movies which according to Rich were a great source of horror movies. He remembers one movie in particular....

"The Last House on the Left". Rich recalls.. .not only was it a great gut wrenching movie, but for some reason it was the "warm up" movie for every film that was playing. Parents would load the family into the station wagon to see a Disney film at the drive in and "Last House" was the first film that played. There were always a lot of pissed off parents at the concession stand.

Sometime in the early 70's Rich became a Home Haunter. He says...nothing was ever more fun or exciting. I would take old cloths, stuff them with newspaper, attach a plastic pumpkin head to the bodies and hang them from the roof of my parents house. I’d play some early Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd, or Moody Blues along with old Disney sound effects records out the window.

It was a monument to what I was feeling inside...a creative something that had to come out coupled with the desire to give something back to the genre that I had grown to love so much.

Richs first pro Haunted House was in 1982...before the Great Adventure Haunted Castle fire that killed 8 kids. It was in a residential neighborhood in an old house that was going to be torn down. There were no emergency exits, no sprinkler system, no back up lighting...no safety precautions what so ever. Those were the glory days he says sort of tongue in cheek. I’m glad I got to do a show during that time because that Great Adventure fire changed things in a hurry.

Although Richs History and Stories can go on forever some of his accomplishments include:

Nightmare Hayride

The Haunted Castle (3 Times)

Frightland (Yes, he had the name before Aven Warren Borrowed it)

Zombieland

House on Horror Hill

The Haunted House Horror Show

Scream in the Dark

House of the Living Dead (6 times)

Rich has been featured in everything from the Weekly World News (Supermarket Tabloid)

to the Sunday New York Times, to the business section in New York Newsday and everything in between. He was featured in the Haunt Documentary called "Haunters"...has been seen on New York TV for years including CBS, WWOR, WABC, WPIX, CNN and a list too long to mention.

Along with John Denley Rich produced the first actual "How To" video series called "Doing Fright Right", came up with the idea of featuring other peoples haunts in a video series...sometimes better known as Hauntworld Videos, put out a solo video called

"Live on Horror Hill" which was followed by a 3 DVD "How To" series called "Living Dead...Live". He has put out the "Haunted Attraction Employee Handbook" which has helped haunters from coast to coast for a decade now. He has been a feature writer for Underground Entertainment Magazine, Fright Times Magazine, Hauntworld Magazine, and yes even Haunted Attraction. He has been the feature story and or cover story in Scared Stiff Magazine, Hauntworld Magazine, Underground Entertainment Magazine, and Fright Times Magazine. Rich is an annual speaker at the Transworld Educational Series and has the distinction of being the highest rated speaker in the history of the event. In addition to Haunting, Rich just wrapped up a successful 8 year stint at the New York Renaissance Faire where he owned and operated a Medieval Torture Dungeon and a Medieval Weapons of War Show. Rich of course is a consultant and has worked on many popular shows from Tourist areas in New York to Hong Kong China to Salem Ma.

Rich is a current IAHA board member.

We are proud to add this haunter, entertainer, teacher and personality to the Frozen Tundra Tour