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Askia sits down with Allen Hopps, co-owner of Dark Hour Haunted House and the North American Cryptid Museum, to dig into cryptid lore, the evolutionary science of fear, and the wild reality of running a professional haunted house. Highlights include Allen scaring Shaq into a full crab-crawl and breaking down the histories of dogmen and Bigfoot.
Allen Hopps has been scaring people since he was 10 years old, literally stuffed inside a ceiling tile with a fishing pole and a fake spider. Now he co-owns one of Texas's most respected haunted houses and a cryptid museum, and he's still obsessed with monsters for the same reason he was as a kid: they make the world more interesting.
In this episode, Allen breaks down the actual mythological difference between werewolves and wolfmen, traces Bigfoot sightings back to Neanderthal encounters, and explains why the Orang Pendek of Sumatra might be the cryptid closest to official scientific recognition. He also gets into the Wendigo, the Ojibwe winter spirit born from cannibalism, and why the theme of his cryptid museum leans hard into the viral National Parks missing persons rabbit hole.
On the haunted house side: Allen explains how his team dismantles "tough guys" every single night, and why he genuinely recommends couples visit a haunted house within their first three dates. Plus, the full story of scaring Shaquille O'Neal into a crab-crawl.
He also shares how he met his wife while on 7.5-foot stilts in a gargoyle costume, the dark fantasy creative philosophy behind Dark Hour, and how his YouTube channel Stilt Beast Studios grew into Monster Camp, a hands-on school for mask-making and creature design.
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Learn more about Allen and the North American Cryptid Museum:
https://www.northamericancryptidmuseum.com
https://www.darkhourhauntedhouse.com
https://stiltbeaststudios.com
SUBMIT YOUR SCARY STORIES:
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Go check out Warming Trends, the company that built the amazing fire centerpiece on our set! https://www.warming-trends.com
Produced by
Q6 Media
https://q6.media
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Introducing Allen Hopps
02:24 - Childhood fears
04:23 - Werewolves vs wolf men
11:09 - Why there are so many dog men
18:53 - What really is Bigfoot?
25:25 - How Bigfoot hides from us
31:24 - Cannibalistic origins of Wendigos
37:57 - Ancient animals that HUNTED humans
39:57 - Deconstructing cryptids
45:38 - Bringing prehistoric animals back to life
47:36 - Why haunted houses are so important
49:59 - When Allen SCARED Shaq
55:15 - Dark Hour haunted house
56:39 - A**holes and walk outs at haunted houses
1:02:43 - Intense reactions to haunted houses
