Zombies and Ghosts and Serial Killers, Oh My!

Last night I drove out to Meridianville, Alabama in the dark to find another haunted attraction.   This haunted attraction was made unnerving by its emptiness.  I'm assuming because it was Thursday night,  the parking lot was eerily empty.   We were the only ones going through this attraction and the loneliness certainly added to a feeling of fear and dread as I walked in the attraction.

The Haunted Gin is a mile long corn maze in rural Alabama.  It is filled with costumed actors and affects that jump out of the corn at you in the darkness.  My favorite affects in this maze included a hideous, giant monster thing that hung from the wall, a zombie actor reminiscent of the oil zombie from Return of the Living Dead, and an unnerving fat, bulbous serial killer that looked dead himself with a chainsaw.  The fat guy really put me off.  His costume was very, creepy.

I think this corn maze should have been scary.  All the ingredients for terror were there.  It wasn't as extravagant as Disturbia.  The props were cheaper and fewer, but the factors that contribute to fear were there in the darkness, waiting for you.  However,  last night was a beautiful night.  It was the kind of night us city dwellers see only when we are camping or backpacking.  There were so many stars in the sky I could navigate with them and the moon was full and brilliant.  The air was just cool enough to send a chill down your spine and make you long for winter.  It was perfect.  It was so perfect I found my eyes drifting up to the stars and away from the zombies.   Also, by the light of the full moon, nothing could really take you by surprise.  I might as well have been walking through the corn maze in the daylight.

So, The Haunted Gin had potential, but lighting is everything and with an outdoor attraction a beautiful night can spell destruction.

A Night of Haunted Houses!

Last night I went a little crazy.  I went to two haunted attractions.  My evening began with taking my two sons to the school haunted house.  The haunted house was put on by the Venture scouts and was actually pretty good.  For something that was made by eighth graders on a limited budget in a school cafeteria, it was very well done.   Sadly,   I went to a haunted house at the Space and Rocket Center a few years ago that was  about as well put together as this one.  It was mostly based on many costumed scouts jumping out of the darkness, but it gave my youngest son nightmares so it was probably even a little scarier than it needed to be for the age group it was targeting.  There was a kid in a clown costume that really scared the crap out of both my kids.

The second haunted house I went to was much more grown up.  There was a haunted house way out in rural Alabama that I always admired, but was never willing to drive over an hour to get to called The Haunted Manor.  Apparently,  the owners of the Haunted Manor closed down and one of the partners reopened in Huntsville, Alabama.  This haunted attraction is now called Distubia and features some of the most impressive props I've ever seen in a haunted house and this includes such professional haunted houses as the Ripley's Haunted House.  This haunted house featured a 40ft Satan holding screaming people by bloody stumps,  a native village with dinosaurs that jump out front he darkness,  an evil laboratory, many spinny hall things with dismembered, decaying corpses reaching out at you in your disorientation, a very impressive cemetery with a beautiful mausoleum and an enormous gargoyle that leaps at you when you approach, and the usual array of costumed weirdos screaming and raving at you from the shadows in attempts to make you jump. 

I can't say how scary this haunted house is because I really am numb to these things.  I realized this at the very beginning of this haunted adventure because about one minute into the haunted attraction some grown man screamed in terror and grabbed onto my jacket  in the darkness.  I was in the front and he was too afraid to walk through the damn attraction without clinging to me.  He was so afraid he practically tore my jacket off gripping onto me, I would have thought he was some kind of pervert if I hadn't have looked back and saw everyone else was clinging to whoever they could in terror.  They were all strangers to me and many strangers to each other, but all laws of social decorum were lost in the face of a decomposing hands reaching out at them from the walls.  I finally shook my tag along and pushed my husband behind me and took the lead, where I could better study the props and actors.  So, although I wasn't afraid, judging from the screaming and clutching behind me I have to assume that this was a terrifying haunted house.  I was also impressed by the full costumed band that entertained us with bad 80s hard rock while we waited in line.  Overall,  I think this is the best haunted house I've been to so far.  More to come next weekend,  I hope I go in with a slightly braver lot next week.  I really wanted to punch the man behind me.