Show Notes
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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. ______________________________
Learn more about Allen and the North American Cryptid Museum: https://www.northamericancryptidmuseum.com https://www.darkhourhauntedhouse.com https://stiltbeaststudios.com
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Produced by Q6 Media https://q6.media ______________________________
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
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