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"Scream break" in Salt Lake City begins Friday, when the legendary Rocky Point Haunted House stages its own funeral before closing for good on April 14.

But the award-winning attraction will live on - at least in bits and pieces - because owner Cydney Neil plans to auction off the sets, costumes and Hollywood memorabilia she has painstakingly collected since opening Rocky Point in 1979. While she's excited by the prospect of more free time, Neil is feeling like the proverbial empty nester - she'll no longer be dealing with the 250 kids in the Youth Theater Training Program she created to build a staff for Rocky Point.

"I'm still crying over it and yet I'm so excited I can't even tell you," Neil said Thursday. "For the first time in 15 years, I have allowed myself to open up to the possibility of a personal life. . . . Then the kids walk through the door and I think, these are my babies."

Neil isn't as sentimental about the attraction's hardware, which ranges from an elaborate maze with mirrors to props from such movies as "House on Haunted Hill," "The Mummy Returns" and "Flatliners." All of it goes on the block April 27-28; Neil says she expects hundreds of buyers to attend, from people looking for equipment for theater companies and other haunted attractions to fans who want to own a piece of Salt Lake City history.

Boston-area resident Mike Krausert is making plans to fly to Utah, hoping to score something for his haunted attraction in Green Bay, Wis., Terror on the Fox.

"I've been doing this for about 16 years and obviously known about Cydney's show for a while because it's one of the most legendary haunts out there," Krausert said. "She's got so many elaborate costumes. I think that's really what I'm looking at."

Krausert, who sits on the board of the International Association for Haunted Attractions, was thrilled when he got to meet Neil last year and tour Rocky Point. To own a piece of it, he says, "would be an even bigger deal, to me."

Neil, who says wrapping up the closing and sale will take up to a year, isn't sure what she'll do post-Rocky Point, although fundraising (her attraction has raised money for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Salt Lake) will probably be in her future.

"The whole thing has been much, much bigger than the public ever saw," she says. "The ending is far more than anyone can begin to appreciate."

Final frights

* Rocky Point Haunted House will open for eight final nights: Friday and Saturday, March 30-31 and April 6-7 and 13-14. Hours are 8 p.m. to midnight; tickets are $15, $10 for children under 12. Daytime tours will be given by owner Cydney Neil on Saturday and April 7 from 1 to 3 p.m.; those tickets are $20.

* An official funeral for Rocky Point is on April 15; times and details are TBA.

* For more information on Rocky Point, visit http://www.rockypointhauntedhouse.com.