Tuesday, Kenzie jumped on my bed, woke me up, and bugged me for a half hour about doing something for Halloween and she really wanted to go to a haunted house. I told her a little bit about the review I read for the new Freakling Bros house, Gates of Hell. Which is the first "R" rated haunted house in the country. I've always been a fan of Freakling Bros. The first haunted house I ever went in, was when I was 8 or 9 and my dad took me and my brother. It was called The Dungeon. I chickened out while the guy was telling us the rules, (no lighters, no cell phones, no flashlights, etc.) It wasn't until my dad recruited my nanny to come with that I went in. The whole time I was clutching onto my dad and I developed the mantra, "I swear to God," I have no idea what I was swearing to God, but it was my mantra. The owner knows what he's doing.
Anyway, I told Kenzie about it and how before you even go in you have to sign a waiver saying that they're allowed to touch you and to "verbally abuse" you. She got really excited about it. She's been wanting a haunted house to actually be able to scare her for years. She thought this one could actually be the one that got her. I was terrified to go. All three haunted houses that Freakling Bros has in operation right now are all at the same site for a "Trilogy of Terror." One of those haunted houses is Circus of Horrors which involves clowns. I can handle scary things. I can't handle clowns. They terrify me more than anything. So since all the houses are at the same site, I really didn't want to deal with any clowns.
Curiosity got the better of me within about five minutes of talking to her about it. Ever since I heard that Freakling Bros had a new "R" rated haunted house, I wanted to know more about it. I kept thinking "What could make a haunted house rated R?" I needed to know. I mean other than the touching people thing. Other haunted houses make you sign waivers saying the actors can touch you and they're not rated R.
So we went tonight.
It was me, Kenzie, my fiance, and our friend from middle school, Gus. I had butterflies in my tummy from the moment we left our apartment. When I got there, they intensified. Putting all three haunted houses at the same site created an experience. It was more than a three haunted houses. They had characters outside walking around. It was like they turned that part of the parking lot into it's own little world.
After we got our tickets I went over to the table to buy a t-shirt. I have no idea why I wanted one so bad, but I had to have one. I was talking to the lady who was selling the shirts, one of the characters came up behind Kenzie and scared her. It had already started.
While we were walking over to the line I kept thinking about the last time I was at the site for a haunted house. It was The Mortuary (which was closed down last year). Kenzie and I went along with our Homecoming dates and our friend Brandon. I remember a couple scenes from the haunted house but the most clear memory is when we were walking down a small hallway and suddenly a big, bloody butcher comes through some type of window and is swinging his arms telling you to "get moving" and to "move faster" and we were all talking, being smartasses, and we passed him, entering another hallway and then we suddenly hear the butcher yell, "I'm going to get that one first!" Kenzie yelled, "which one?!" "The one with the mouth!" Everybody, in unison, said "Ashleighhhhhh."
So, we got in line, which was pretty short but the longest out of all the lines, and my butterflies, if possible, got worse. They had some freaky music coming from speakers attached to the outside of the haunted house which made everything feel more real. There's a priest (rocking an upside down cross on his head) who takes your ticket and makes you sign the waiver and the Grim Reaper himself tells you the whole no lights or cell phones, don't touch the actors but they will touch you, and that it's time for you to cross over into the darkness.
You walk in and you're immediately ripped from reality. You're in a hallway and even though you can see the tarp flaps you just walked in through from the corner of your eye you feel like you were ripped up and thrown into this nightmare. A shirtless guy comes in and tells you that if you want to survive than listen to him and then puts you into lockers.
When he opened the door for the lockers, my lungs closed and I walked right back outside. (They warn asthmatics and people who are claustrophobic to not go in.) The stage hand who was outside was thrilled. They consider it a job well done when people can't make it past the first room.
I was kinda disappointed in myself though. I really wanted to go through it. I wanted to know why it was rated R. I chugged a bunch of caffeine and when Kenzie and Gus came out I asked them to go back inside with me. Surprisingly, they agreed, without hesitation.
While I was in line about to buy the tickets, again, I noticed the owner. When I asked him if he was the owner he told me, "I'll never admit to that," but after I told him that he looked like the owner, he talked to me. He was nice enough to tell me exactly why they warn asthmatics from going inside (unlike a manager I talked to outside of the haunted house), and urged me to try Gates of Hell again and to try and make it through.
I made it through the second time. I know why it's rated R and it's worth every single penny. (Even if I did pay for two tickets.) The actors being able to touch you brings a whole new level of fear. Usually, in haunted houses, when the actors get in your face you're calm because you know that they can't touch you. Here, they can touch your face, they can touch your arm, they can pinch at your leg, and they can grab you.
And they do.
It's dark for 80% of the maze. There's no music. The only sound you can hear is what is going on in that room you're in. Those sounds are your footsteps, your breathing and your heart pounding in your chest while you're trying to figure out who is going to pop out and from where. At one point you're in a small bathroom, and it's a cute little Victorian bathroom if you ignore the blood that's covering the walls and the bloody water that filled the bathtub. Then you hear a phone ringing. A classic, typical horror movie ring. And you can see the phone in a corner and after about ten seconds of it ringing you start to wonder if you should answer it or not. Even though I knew what was going to happen (I sorta had Gus and Kenzie fill me in on major parts so I wouldn't have an asthma attack) I still thought that maybe I should go answer the phone. Then a crazy blonde woman popped out from a mirror and ran us out of the room. For some reason, the bathroom was one of the scariest rooms for me. When I was younger I used to get really worried that something had happened to my dad or my mom when they didn't answer their cell phones. The whole maze plays with your mind. They get you good. You're screaming the whole way through.
I'm so glad I went back in and made it through. It is definitely the best haunted house I've ever been in. You even meet Lucifer. I didn't really stay to chat, I ran out of there like a bat outta Hell.
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