A horror documentary about Madworld — a 10-year-old haunted-attraction operation in South Carolina — and the people who build, operate, and inhabit it across a single season. In production now: a featurette as the front edge of a feature-length documentary already in the works.
Captured on RED V-Raptor with Atlas Orion anamorphic glass across six October nights and pickup days in early 2026. The film traces the season-long arc of the attraction: the build-out in late summer, the talent rehearsals, opening weekend, the costume/makeup transformation routine, the late-night closing rituals. A look at horror as a craft, performance as labor, and what people do when the lights go out.
Most documentary about haunted attractions sensationalizes the spectacle. We wanted to make the slower film — the one that watches the same actor put their face on every night for two months and asks what that does to a person.
It's also a film about labor. Every scream you hear in October was choreographed in August by people you'll never see on camera. We thought that was worth pointing at.
Direction
- Director Maxwell Ridgeway
Camera
Production
- Production Assistant Colin Sanders
Post
- Editor Andrew Hendrix
- Editor Maxwell Ridgeway
- Editor Marcus Blair