Owner of Castle Blood receives national award

Ricky Dick was recognized by the Haunted Attraction Association last weekend.

By STACEY FEDEROFF
For the MVI

Ricky Dick, who started what became Castle Blood in 1993, was among 10 awardees at the 2026 Oscares Awards, hosted by the Haunted Attraction Association, the official trade association of the haunted attraction industry.

The awards serve as the highest honors in the Halloween and haunted attraction industry, chosen by nominations and focusing on innovation, creativity and impactful contributions, among other qualities.

Ricky Dick of Castle Blood in Monessen holds his Special Recognition Award at the Haunted Attraction Association event. Submitted

Dick accepted the Special Recognition Award at the Oscares ceremony during the annual Transworld’s Halloween & Attractions Show Saturday in St. Louis.

During his acceptance speech, Dick shared reflections on his decades in the industry, acknowledging with a sense of humor the challenges it has presented.

“I love Halloween. None of us would be haunters if it wasn’t for Halloween first. I love Halloween so much that so far it’s cost me two marriages, three houses, a bankruptcy and yes, a pacemaker,” he said before pausing for a laugh from the audience. “I wouldn’t have it any other way to keep going on this crazy journey that I’ve had.”

On a windy night, as Celtic music filled the air for Castle Blood’s annual St. Batrick’s Day show in mid-March, Patty Henderson took photos in the haunt’s queue line with her group.

She’s known the Castle Blood owner since 2016 when she started

Ricky Dick is shown at Castle Blood

visiting for paranormal investigations at the haunt, which operates inside a 100-year-old former funeral home in Monessen.

“I love Ricky, I love Castle Blood, I love everybody here, so we always try to support any event he has,” she said, estimating she has visited about 50 times over the years, including the haunt’s Summerween show in July and Christmas show in December.

Henderson’s team, Whispering Souls Paranormal Investigations, is among the sponsor names featured on mausoleum vault nameplates greeting visitors in the queue line.

“He’s been wonderful to us being a small business, that’s the least I can do for him,” she said.

Suzie Flesik, co-owner of Crawford School of Terror in Connellsville, said she first met Dick when he host ed Halfway-To-Halloween hands-on workshops in 2015, just before she and her

husband Troy opened their own haunt about a 40-min ute drive from Castle Blood.

Ever since, they’ve enjoyed being colleagues.

“We’re each other’s people,” Flesik said. “I get him, he gets me. We go through the same struggles. We bounce ideas off of each other.”

She appreciates how much respect Dick has earned during his decades in the haunt industry with and for other creative minds, especially with Dick’s own back ground in the performing arts.

“It’s very apparent these actors respect him because they don’t sway from the script, very often they tell the story the way it’s meant to be told, and I’ve seen it for years, every time I go,” she said.

Flesik said the time and effort Dick takes to create a new story plot for each show is apparent.

“The innovation of Castle Blood and the fact that Ricky writes every single story line that they do — and they do four a year — if you actually stop and listen to what the actors are saying whenever you’re in there, every single time I go, it’s a different story,” she said.

Henderson agreed, adding that the storytelling and inter- action at Castle Blood make it unique from other walk- through haunts that rely on jump scares.

“He’s different from the other haunted houses with the chainsaw and all the jumping out,” she said. “It gives you that happy medium between an escape room and a haunted house. And it’s just so fun to interact with all the people in the Castle, and Ricky puts his heart and soul into it. And you can tell 100%.”

Sporting a green Castle

Blood St. Batrick’s Day shirt under his jacket, guest Chris Bocsy said he plans his calendar around every event at the haunt. He has been visiting for 30 years, since he and a middle-school classmate became some of the mortals who encountered the MacCabre Family denizens inside.

“They always put the ef- fort in to make it unique, and there’s always something that I see new in the haunt every time I go through,” Bocsy said. “More than anything, I think it’s really the people: who he brings in, who he is.

It’s a very welcoming experience. They make it fun.”

Bocsy said the detail in each show’s theming brings him back for every show.

“It definitely has more ambiance to it than a lot of other haunted houses that are just jump scare to jump scare,” he said. “You get pulled into the story and because they’re not scare actors, they’re den- izens, you get to know the characters themselves and it’s a more overall experience.”

Flesik said the recognition from the Haunted Attraction Association is well deserved, especially because it’s clear Dick has led Castle Blood with passion all these years.

“You have to just stick to your vision and just completely believe in what you’re doing, and he 1,000% be lieves in what he’s doing at the castle,” she said. “He puts so much work in it year round that he just owns it. He owns it.”

Castle Blood will present a Halfway-to-Halloween behind- the-scenes tour at 7 p.m.

May 1 hosted by Dick, and a Summerween event June 12 and 13. Tickets for both are available at thecastleblood. com.

His Oscares award will be on display in the gift shop of Castle Blood for future visitors to see, Dick said in a thank-you video on Facebook.

During his acceptance speech, he thanked industry friends and his family, including his sister Wendy, his wife Dawn and his daughter Caitlin, as well as the more than 300 cast members over the years who have brought Castle Blood to life.

Even with decades of haunted attraction experience, Dick said he continues to grow and be inspired by the creativity of others in the industry, summed up in advice he once received from a performance teacher of his.

“When you’re green, you grow; when you’re ripe, you rot,” Dick said. “So you should always stay green, and I try to find new inspiration all the time.”