The Hannibal Jaycees are already hard at work on this year's haunted house, which will open the first Friday in October. Volunteers have started cleaning up the haunted house building, testing equipment, and have even started designing some new rooms and attractions to make the experience even more scary (and more fun) for visitors. Chris Powell with the Hannibal Jaycees took us through the haunted house site, and gave us an exclusive look at things to come in 2014.

"We start working in August and continue throughout, until opening day," said Powell. "Builders come in, they tear out the old rooms, build up the new rooms. Then we have our artists come in. They do all the paint... set the scene basically. Then our 'nerd crew' comes in. The nerds do wiring for lighting, effects, sound, any fog, set up security cameras, stuff like that." Powell says that 15 - 25 volunteers basically live at the haunted house from August through October. A couple of weeks before opening night, that number jumps up to 65 - 75.

Powell says that many of the popular attractions, such as Cry Baby Bridge, The Vortex and the Freddy Room will return in 2014, but the Jaycees are also putting together some new rooms, including one based on one of the most successful modern horror movie franchises.

Perhaps the most exciting new addition to the Hannibal Jaycees Haunted House will be outdoor activities. "We're bringing the haunted house outside into our parking lot," said Powell. "You're going to see a lot of new things happen out here."

A couple of those "new things" include an outdoor maze, and a designated area where visitors can play zombie paintball. Unlike some zombie paintball fields, which allow visitors to shoot animatronic zombies, Powell says the Jaycees are planning on using live actors. "You will be able to shoot actors with paintballs... you'll also get to shoot cars, we have targets out here for you to shoot. It's going to be a lot of fun."

The Hannibal Jaycees Haunted House opens on Friday, October 3 and will be open every Friday and Saturday night in October. That includes Halloween night, which falls on Friday, October 31.

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