East Texas haunted houses join to cross-promote, draw tourists

Published 5:45 am Wednesday, August 6, 2025

The scariest business partnership this fall might also be the most fun.

Four East Texas Halloween attractions have joined forces this year as the “Frightful Four of East Texas” – Doc Wilkes’ House of Horrors and Graystone Scream Park in Longview; a new haunted house in Kilgore, Imminent Doom; and World of Khaos in Tyler.

They’re working together to market their haunted houses as a regional attraction that could draw visitors from the Dallas-Fort Worth area or elsewhere in Northeast Texas, perhaps, to visit the four haunted houses while they continue to entertain local audiences as well. 

They recently joined together on a booth at the annual Texas Haunters Convention, which was held in Irving this year. Their combined booth won “most creative” at the convention.

“To me, it’s not competition,” Jacob Wilkes said of the four attractions.

The Wilkes family, including his father and mother, Eugene and Laura Wilkes, and his sister, Jennifer, have operated Doc Wilkes’ House of Horrors for more than 20 years in Longview. “There’s multiple weekends in October, five this year…. There’s no reason why someone can’t visit all four attractions in October. That’s really what we’re trying to push with the Frightful Four of East Texas.”

“We’re in this together,” Wilkes said, adding that as far as he knows, this is the first time in this industry that “haunters” in the same area have come together to help cross-promote each other. 

“We really want to make it almost a weekend thing for the people who are driving in from out of town,” Wilkes said. They’ve worked with Tru by Hilton, on U.S. 259 in Longview, to provide special rates for people traveling here for the attractions.

Conner Beets of Imminent Doom, who is the newest of the haunted house owners, previously operated a Halloween-themed attraction at his grandparents’ house on Lake Cherokee – at least until he brought a 13-foot, moving monster called Skele Demon that was so tall it towered over their house.

He’s been working for a while to open the Kilgore attraction for the first time on Sept. 27. Imminent Doom will be at 990 Post Oak Road in Kilgore, off Interstate 20, between the Texas 31 and Texas 42 exits. 

He said he grew up visiting Wilkes’ haunted house in Longview, and he’s come to know Brad Bowen, owner of Graystone, on FM 968, as well.

“We all came together” for the convention, he said. 

Four East Texas haunts are joining forces to bring a thrilling experience to East Texas this fall. (Contributed Photo)

It makes sense, Beets said, because there aren’t a lot of haunted houses in Northeast Texas. They’re hoping to get people to drive here instead of to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Three of the haunted houses, the one in Kilgore and the two in Longview, are within 15 minutes of each other, he said, and the one in Tyler is about a 20-minute drive from his business in Kilgore.

All four attractions are “awesome,” Beets said. They’re all different from each other, and they all change their attractions each year.

“Our goal is to make East Texas a new Halloween destination for the Lone Star State,” he said.

For more information, visit the Frightful Four of East Texas on Facebook at tinyurl.com/5d8hkv8k .

— Contact reporter Jo Lee Ferguson at jolee.ferguson@news-journal.com .