Look behind you! Teen just enjoys scaring people

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON

Visitors to Cale Madwell’s haunted house were treated to a gruesume evening at his horror movie themed presentation Saturday night. This is the teen’s third year of scaring local residents out of their wits.

Cale Madewell enjoys scaring people. That’s why the 17-year-old WCHS senior put together his third annual haunted house last night, the first at his new home at 102 Mauzy Street. The previous shows have been a hair-raising success, and Madewell said prior to the show yesterday he was looking forward to giving a fright to another group of innocent citizens.

“I’ve always enjoyed doing them,” Madwell said, noting he has done haunted houses for family members since childhood, but they were usually limited to his bedroom. Madewell comes by his penchant for scaring people naturally, since it’s kind of a family thing.

“My cousin Chris did them and was always doing things to scare me,” Madwell said. “My mom took me to the Jaycee’s haunted house.”

This got him started, Madwell said.

“And I’ve just been scaring people ever since.”

Madwell is a big fan of horror movies and has some favorites, as shown in his show.

“I like ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ the remake,” he said. “That’s probably my favorite one. And ‘Halloween,’ any of the ‘Halloween’ movies.”

Sister Hannah and mom Angie, along with cousin Dillon and other relatives, help him out with his show, playing parts and helping with the planning. Luckily, Cale’s mom is behind him all the way, sometimes with a big plastic knife and a Michael Myers outfit. She says she is proud of her son’s creativity.

“I think it’s great,” she said. “I’m excited about it way before Halloween.”

But she prefers being a participant, rather than a guest.

“I can scare, but I don’t like to be scared,” she said. “So I can do better scaring.”