Creepy, Scary, Spooky Post--Final Week: Haunted Houses

If you're like me, you absolutely love haunted houses. As soon as the signs go up around town, I start planning my Halloween calendar. I'll admit, I don't go as much now that I'm older. Instead, I drive by and gaze wistfully out the window at the signs promising to scare the bejesus out of you.

I'm also usually disappointed. You wait in line, expecting ghastly ghouls and working up a good scream only to walk through completely bored and unsurprised. They jump out, grab and swing at you but you totally see it coming. The costumers and make-up are bad, the music or sound are all wrong. Who are these amateurs!?

Not the actual haunted house but closely resembles it!

The Best Haunted House Ever!
That got me to thinking about what I consider the best haunted house ever. I was a senior in high school, and the haunted house was right up the street from my house at the local science center. Yeah, sounds weird but this is actually where it gets good. The science center was actually a former mental asylum! I'm talking seriously old school, where they apparently put people in what looked like cages and never let them out, way before the entire mental health system was reformed. I think the building was originally constructed in the 1920s. The science center only took up a few buildings, so they used one of the empty ones for the haunted house.


Whoever orchestrated this thing had it right. They knew the perfect timing--not too slow to where you remember this is all fake but fast enough to keep you unprepared for what's next. Costumes were great, sound, special effects and lights spot on. It didn't hurt that they had a whole insane-zombies-are-out-to-kill-you backstory. They even took you through part of the old asylum where there were real, true metal cages, and there were plenty of "crazies" waiting to break out and chase you down. Hell, even the tram ride was scary! It took you from the parking lot through the darkened woods way to the back of the property. Again, perfect timing and placement for whatever happened to jump out from the darkness. Coolest of all, this wasn't some big-time operation but just the local science center having some fun.

Or maybe it was just being 17. But I've always compared every other haunted house to this one. Some have been pretty good but not one has ever been better.

Got a favorite you'd like to share?