Erica McElroy and Carroll Moore shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Erica and Carroll , thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
Carroll- A lot of people don’t understand that it takes us all year to build and create this production. We work hard year-round to bring Halloween fun for everyone, year after year, and a lot of that goes unnoticed. I was at Lowe’s just the other day and the store clerk said, “Starting Halloween already?!” And I’m like yep! I’m already behind, lol.
Erica- A frustrating misconception of what we do and often misunderstood is that we are devil worshippers. We 100 percent are not! lol Halloween, horror, and the macabre often get a bad reputation but what we do is offer Fall family entertainment that revolves around Halloween themes and scaring people. We know we aren’t for everyone and that’s ok but to accuse us of worshipping Satan because you don’t agree with the celebration of Halloween seems a bit intense.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Erica- I co-own Halloween Hollow Haunted House with Carroll. Halloween Hollow is an outdoor attraction located less than one hour east of Nashville, we offer 4 haunted attractions, corn maze, live entertainment, and so much more. We are currently going into our 4th year of business and this will be our biggest year yet. We like to tell people that we are Tennessee’s own Halloween Town.
Carroll- 100 percent. I like to look at us as a Halloween destination. You can spend hours here doing all the fun, spooky things that we offer. Being so close to Nashville, Cookeville, Crossville and even Knoxville, we sure keep the masses screaming all over Tennessee. Erica and I have worked for numerous haunted attraction events all over the country and decided it was time to open our own after Covid, so with a great group of talented people we call our friends, we opened Halloween Hollow in 2022.
Erica- What makes us unique is we try to go by the mindset of “built, not bought”. We put everything we have into the Hollow. Blood, sweat, tears, passion…everything we put into our show here, you can sense. It comes to life.
Carroll-Anyone can buy a set piece or prop, install it into a room and call it a day, but when you create an idea in your brain, sketch it on a napkin at dinner, take it to work the next day, start building it, creating it, bring it to life, and have customers walk through something that was just inside your brain months prior and LOVE what YOU built. That’s a great feeling. Our outdoor setting makes us very unique as well. You can’t duplicate our environment in a strip mall or warehouse.
Erica- Our Video Store makes us unique too. We built a full scale, vintage video store that you can actually walk into and even browse our vhs tape collection. It’s pretty cool. We’ve become known for that and our 25 ft tall Pumpkin Portal entryway.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Carroll- Honestly, I’ve always been who I have wanted to be and only me. I feel I’ve stayed true to who I am as a person and growing and bettering the parts of me that needed it. Before haunted attractions, my passion was horror movies and film. I was going to be the next John Carpenter or Wes Craven. But one day I decided instead of filming my movie, how about I make people walk through it instead. They can see it, touch it, even smell it if I so desired, lol. That really put me on the path I’m on today. Creating my perfect “movie”. It’s hard work being yourself in a world where everyone wants you to be who they want you to be. My path has been a rough one but I’d rather hit a few bumps along the way being me than riding smooth on a path that I just don’t agree with being someone else.
Erica-I’ve always been who I am but maybe with slight variations. I have a BA in photography, so that used to play a huge part. My photography was horror photography, so I’ve never not been in the spooky world. I grew up working and helping with small haunted houses and I always knew I’d work for them in some capacity.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Erica-Gave up? No way. More like, reevaluate where I was and who I was working for.
It felt like an intense breakup when I had to walk away from the large Halloween company I was working for, but it was completely necessary. I never saw myself opening my own attraction, but once Covid hit, I knew we needed to provide comfort and an escape from reality for families in an area that didn’t have that.
Carroll-You kidding me?! Hell no, lol. I mean, there’s been times I ask myself, “Why am I putting myself through this?” There was a time I was content on not owning another haunt and just being contracted out by folks but once Covid was over and everything was out of whack, I decided to give it another shot. I know there’s nothing I’d rather be doing than what I’m doing right now. They say if you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. That’s the truth. I have old classmates and coworkers that I run into around town always telling me they envy me. I followed my dreams. I didn’t settle for a 9-5 corporate job or work for the city. They see me as a dreamer who made it. Am I rich? Absolutely not. Am I happy? Absolutely. Hard work doesn’t always pay off but if you’re gonna work, why not work hard? Especially if it’s what you love to do.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
Carroll- Yes, lol. I’m an open book. You get what you get with me. I sometimes exaggerate myself for story telling sake or being on camera but I’m always the same person in public or private.
Erica- For the most part, yes. I had to and still have to fight to get some people to understand that I am a female owner in a very male dominated industry/world. I’ve come across men who will only speak to Carroll because he’s the man. We’ve had reviewers who refer to me as “the wife in the ticket booth.” I’ve had women walk up and ask to speak to the owner, and when I tell them I am one of the owners, they are confused. So it’s an ongoing battle to prove myself. But I am here, and I’m not going anywhere.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Erica-Absolutely doing what I was born to do! I was a theatre kid and that will never change. That has carried into what I do today.
Carroll- I’m definitely doing what I was born to do. Besides me owning my own restaurant one day, this is exactly what I was born to do. Entertaining people with things our team and myself created out of our own minds. It’s the ultimate high when thousands of people leave and they are all smiles, laughing and talking about how much they loved the experience you created for them, yeah. I was born to do this. Helping people create memories that will last forever. Makes me feel good about my life choices.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.Halloweenhollowhaunt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/halloweenhollowhaunt?igsh=cHlqbWNmcjl4YXJs&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ALjrMiMtW/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@halloweenhollowhaunt
- Other: Tik Tok
https://www.tiktok.com/@halloweenhollowhaunt?_t=ZT-8xW2Pqcf0kx&_r=1
