New Conway haunted house has animatronics, demented rabbits. A look inside
“Blood” covers the walls inside the Fear Factory.
Donald Safrit is using a mixture of ingredients designed to look real to splash and splatter the liquid on not only the walls, but also props throughout the Conway haunted attraction.
The mixture comes in 5-gallon buckets that is sold by Murder Beach Productions, a family-owned Myrtle Beach company that makes terrifying props, masks, costumes and animatronics that are sold to Halloween attractions and haunted houses across the country.
“We go through a lot,” Safrit said of the buckets.
Fear Factory, located at 7 Elm St., is the first haunted attraction for the company and will operate alongside the City of Conway’s annual Halloween celebration which runs through October.
It’s set to open its doors on Oct. 3.
“It’s something we wanted to do for a long time,” Shanna Coley, owner of Murder Beach Productions and Imaginations Creative Costumers at 3268 Waccamaw Blvd., said of the haunted house. While the costume part of the company has been in operation for 28 years, Murder Beach Productions has only been open for three years.
But since it has been in operation, demand for Murder Beach’s animatronics and props in the haunted industry has grown. The company has supplied items to such attractions as Woods of Terror in Greensboro, North Carolina; Boone Hall Fright Nights in Mt. Pleasant; and as far away as California and Texas.
“I always love Halloween,” said Coley, who was born on Oct. 28. “Halloween is such a big deal.”
It’s his job to make it scary
Safrit is one of the employees working to bring Fear Factory to life.
There will be 10 different rooms that will have 15 animatronics, 25 live actors and hundreds of sinister and terrifying props.
The theme is a Mad Hatter factory, where the workers went crazy due to the glue. It has a hint of the fantasy of “Alice in Wonderland,” as visitors will “follow the actors down the rabbit hole,” Coley said.
A week before it’s opening, Burke Daniel is working on fantastical hats that will be hung in one room, while Coley is stapling large playing cards to the walls as part of the Mad Hatter theme.
Once the idea for the attraction was set, it was Safrit’s job “to make it scary,” said Safrit, who came to Myrtle Beach to help remake Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. He is the one who creates the animatronics.
It will take about 20 to 35 minutes to complete, depending on how quickly participants move or do not move, Safrit said.
Those who enter can expect mazes, dark zones, the smell of a slaughterhouse, clowns, a room with demented rabbits, and sounds and movement from the creatures that the Murder Beach team has created.
While their intent is to scare, the team is also hoping people will have a good time.
“We want those having a bad day, have a great day,” Safrit said, “and just be a kid.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 6:47 AM.
