Tuesday, October 31, 2006

My haunted house tours 2006

Went to a record 4 haunted house shows this month (oct.)...and 2 were on Staten Island!
I'll start with the smallest one, at the GREEN SIDE UP NURSERY on 5050 Hylan Blvd. It was a little better than the one there last year, at least they had the chainsaw-weilding maniac this time, plus lotsa Rob Zombie music blasting. Some of the animatronic figures were cool.

Next was the "Face your Fear" show at Seaview's Colony Hall. The cast's enthusiasm made up for the few shortcomings at this attraction. Cool things such as a room getting smaller, some "saw/hostel" like effects with guts splattering, girl getting stalked, evil clown, etc. It was a bit short, but well-done overall.

Down south there's these christian "hell houses" wheras they show the "horrors" of aids, abortion, gays, etc. They use these shows to recruit new blood into the fold.
BUT in Brooklyn they staged a "HELL HOUSE NYC" show, which was pretty much faithful to the southern formula. Some highlights: A girl gets high and raped at a rave; gay sex ends with aids; a fetus in the womb gets removed by a giant "monty pythonesque" pair of tongs; a columbine-like school shooting, a live abortion in a hospital room setting; walking through various souls suffering in hell; and getting to meet satan and christ all in one show!
It was put on by an art group, playing to a hip crowd in the Dumbo section...Very telling was when the audience was asked to recite the prayer at the end, only 2 out of the group of 25 complied.

Best of all was the trip to the Headless Horseman attraction in New Paltz, NY. About 90 miles from home but worth the trip! There was lots to see at this show, (the giant animatronic figure when entering is mega-cool!) and it drew big crowds. First there's a haunted hayride with many stops and "mini-plays" with actors, props, sets, etc. along the route. Somewhere there's the chainsaw dude again,and a real Headless horseman chased us (on a real horse!) Plus many gigantic way-cool sculptures adorn the site and grounds.
Then there's a walk-through haunted house, then a haunted corn-field maze, then another bigger haunted house....whew! It probably took about 45 minutes to go through everything. Lots of enthusiastic performers and wonderful figures/sculptures made this one great.

I know I have not updated this in a while, but like Jack in the shining:
"I'm baaaaaack!"