| Just call him crazy about Halloween |
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By: By ERIN EDGEMON Business Editor
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TMP by Kelly Hite. Nate Dingman owner, operator, and resident of the House of Hell.
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Nate Dingman has been called many names in his life.
But one he doesn’t mind being called is the Halloween guy.
What else would you call a man who has decorated not only the front yard of his home for the ghoulish holiday for the past seven years but has fashioned a gory maze/haunted house that transverses through his and his neighbor’s backyard and through his home.
“He is a madman,” girlfriend Lori Hines admitted.
This is the first year Hines has participated in the festivities. She has lent a helping hand painting walls and using her feminine touch to place the severed heads in just the right spot along the maze. Not to mention she has allowed Dingman to turn the house they share into the House of Hell.
“It is all about having fun,” Dingman said of his creative hobby.
A computer systems analyst by day, Dingman spends his nights and weekends coming up with ideas for his haunted house, developing his storyline (important for any haunted house), building props and finally setting up the maze.
Every year his House of Hell grows larger and more complex.
“I will almost be willing to bet that I am the only home haunt in Murfreesboro that has an over 3,000-square-foot maze,” Dingman said.
Dingman takes on the role of the fictional Charles Camborne, a bitter old man who used to own the property where his subdivision off Florence Road was built on. A former professional street performer who can juggle fire and ride a 6-foot unicycle, Dingman embodies the character of a long-dead farmer wearing grey and red makeup, a silvery wig and hat and ripped dirty clothing.
The haunted maze takes the unknowing traveler through a graveyard and Camborne’s dilapidated house and torture cells.
Dingman said Camborne hated for people to come onto his property.
“He would torture them, put them in jail cells and then kill them,” he said.
Developers of the subdivision unearthed hundreds of skeletal remains as they began to construct the homes, Dingman said as he unravels the storyline he created for the haunted house. He is expecting about 10 of his friends to providing the moans and wailings of the unsettled tortured souls throughout the maze.
Dingman doesn’t know where his love for Halloween came from, but said he built his first haunted house about 15 years ago on a $50 budget for his church youth group.
One year, while serving in the Army from 1993-99, Dingman took leave and traveled from Texas to Florida just to attend his sister’s Halloween party.
“You could call that nuts,” he said.
But Dingman has no intention of stopping with his home haunt, which he opens up to the public a few days before Halloween. He has every intention of opening up a for-profit haunted house at an offsite location.
Dingman is hoping his luck comes through and can obtain the start up capital he needs for his business by being a contestant on the game show Deal or No Deal.
He has interviewed and sent in a video for a Halloween special of the show. Now he is just waiting for the call.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
House of Hell
Open to the public Oct. 26-28 and 31 from 7-10 p.m.
Donations will be taken for Rutherford County Pet Adoption and Welfare Services (PAWS)
Directions: From Manson Pike, take Florence Road to Joe Bond Trail (just past two S-shaped curves), turn left on Mullins Court and turn left on Camborne Court. You can’t miss the house at the end of the cul-de-sac.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/house_of_hell
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