Let the Haunt Begin: Decatur man designs and acts in haunted attractions

Jay Clark helped build Nightmare on Moulton Street, which raised funds for the American Cancer Society.

By Catherine Godbey | Living 50 Plus

A slight mischievous smile crossed Jay Clark’s face as he recalled chasing people through Haunted House of Horrors.

“When I’m the teacher, I run after them down the hallway of lockers. They typically scream. I guess I kind of live for that,” the Decatur man said. “When they leave, sometimes they come back and give me a high five. That’s pretty cool.”

While you may not know Clark’s face — he typically hides behind a scary or gruesome mask — thousands know his work. For five years, he designed and acted in the haunted attraction Nightmare on Moulton above the Brick Deli.

Over six years, the haunted attraction attracted more than 5,000 thrill-seekers and raised more than $50,000 for the American Cancer Society.

After the attraction closed in 2022, Clark began working with Haunted House of Horrors in Courtland. He has played the role of priest, teacher, electrician and butcher.

“When I am the butcher, I come off the stage, get in their face and say, ‘Mmmm, you’d make some good chicken nuggets.’ If someone has their head buried in the person in front of them, I am all over that,” Clark said.

At 63, Clark is one of the oldest actors at Haunted House of Horrors. Despite two total knee replacements and a bad back, he returns year after year to scare and be scared.

“My wife asks if this is a hobby I can give up. She can’t decide which is worse, people paying money to be scared or people enjoying scaring other people. And I do both,” Clark said with a laugh. “I will do it as long as I am able.”

Clark’s lifelong fascination with haunted attractions began as a child growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, he lived within a mile of an oil baron’s abandoned old stone mansion.

“From 1971 to 1974, the Jaycees there did a haunted house at that mansion. I forced my dad to take me twice. The third time he was like, ‘No, you’re not going again,’” Clark said.

When visiting his grandmother in Ocean City, Missouri, he repeatedly visited a haunted house that stood on the boardwalk.

“That was back in the day when you let kids run around by themselves. I went to that haunted house so many times, I learned where the triggers were that would activate the props. I was fascinated by it,” Clark said.

Clark’s close connection with haunts faded as he began his adult life — attending Oklahoma State to study architecture, beginning his career with the Corps of Engineers, marrying his wife, moving to Alabama and having kids.

But in 2000, while coaching his son’s club soccer team at the Governor’s Cup in Birmingham, Clark ended up staying across the street from the haunted attraction Atrox Factory.

“I asked if anyone wanted to go with me. No parents went, but six to eight players went. It was so much fun,” Clark said. “Atrox is so well-designed and fine-tuned. Some things, even to this day, I can’t figure out. Like what they do with their emergency exits. I know they have to have them, but I can’t see them.”

He started attending more haunted attractions. Eventually, he set up a mini haunt in his carport in Decatur’s Albany neighborhood for Halloween night. He built modular panels, which are still used by Haunted House of Horrors, covered them with used billboard tarps and recruited his children and their friends as actors.

“I would build it on Oct. 29 and 30, have it open for trick-or-treating, and have it packed away by the end of Nov. 1,” Clark said.

In 2016, Clark joined the Nightmare on Moulton Street team.

Karen Woldhahl, who founded the haunt to raise money for Nucor’s Relay for Life team, described Clark as the “resident haunted house guru.”

Clark used his training as an architect and interior designer to increase the haunt’s fear factor.

“I know when you get in tight spaces, you’re already feeling uncomfortable. I just made those spaces even tighter,” Clark said.

With Clark overseeing the haunt, Nightmare on Moulton Street grew from a 10-space attraction to a 23- space attraction with clowns, skeletons, dolls, butcher, spiders, a prison yard, morgue, classroom, jail yard and more.

“I went to Atrox last year and the people in front of me were from Decatur. I asked if they had ever been to Nightmare on Moulton Street. They said, ‘Yes, that was so scary.’ That made me proud,” Clark said.

A self-described wallflower — at least prior to participating in haunts — Clark credited Carnegie Carnival, Decatur’s Mardi Gras celebration, for his showmanship.

“I normally would not be the person who would get up and be in front of a crowd. But, somehow, for the Southwest by the Border crewe, I became the wild, loud one on top of the float,” Clark said. “That made it easier for me at Nightmare on Moulton Street. Before the haunt started, when the line would stretch down the street, I would sneak out and scare people. I terrorized quite a few. I look at it like a show. I’m in that role and I’m going to make sure people get their money’s worth.”

With each passing year, Clark embedded himself more in the haunted attraction industry — an industry that generates up to $500 million in ticket sales each year.

He attended haunted conventions and learned techniques for scaring —scare primarily from the left because most people are right-handed and naturally turn to the right, and do something up high to make people look up so they expose their neck and become more vulnerable.

“One of the things I love about haunted attractions is that there is so much design and thought and psychology that goes into making a good scare. It’s not just jumping out and saying ‘Boo,’” Clark said.

He also started going through more haunted attractions, averaging 20 to 30 each year.

“As much as I love haunted houses, I’m extremely jumpy. The actors love me because I will jump, scream and yell,” Clark said. “Sometimes, when I’m an actor, the people going through the haunt have scared me. There’s a meme going around: ‘Don’t scare the monsters.’ That’s me.”

Surprisingly, Clark is not a horror movie fan.

“I watch them on occasion. One time I was flying back from Idaho and found a horror movie to watch. I was really engrossed in the movie when all of a sudden the actress moves and the monster is standing behind her. It was a full plane 30,000 feet above sea level and I screamed. I no longer watch horror movies on airplanes,” Clark said.

Along with acting in Haunted House of Horrors this year, Clark plans on attending Nashville Nightmare and Fear of Columbus in Ohio. His favorite haunt is Factor of Terror in Canton, Ohio, a 160,000-square-foot attraction with five full-sized haunts.

“I enjoy being scared. It’s bizarre. I feel I could make a psychiatrist crazy trying to figure out what’s wrong with me. I love the tension, the anticipation and not knowing what is going to happen. I love it all,” Clark said.