Death and her younger brother Dream.

It didn't have a good name and it didn't have a full script, but it did lay some of the groundwork for the years to come.

Something else the first year didn't have that the following years would was many original characters. Now sometimes jokingly called "The Copyright Infringement Haunted House," our first event featured several characters from DC/Vertigo Comics' The Sandman (written by Neil Gaiman). There was the title character himself (also known as Dream) along with siblings Death, Delirium, and Destiny and supporting characters Mervyn Pumpkinhead, Lucien the Librarian, and Nuala.

Mervyn Pumpkinhead.

The surreal tour ended with Death taking the victims (what we like to call our paying guests) to Hell where they met the Sandman's sometime enemy and all-around badguy, Lucifer.

While many of the elements we've come to pride ourselves on weren't yet present in this first house, it was still different from most haunted houses in a few ways. There were a few scripted scenes, with characters setting a mood and breaking up the rythym instead of just a constant assualt of weird creatures jumping out of the dark every few steps.

The characters, while borrowed, were at least an interesting fit for a haunted house. Everyone had a good times, and it was successful enough, at least, to make us want to try it again.

Death and Dream as they appear in the comic. Drawing by Jill Thompson.