Ashley Attanucci
Web Manager
As part of the spooky holiday that originated in Europe centuries ago and has been widely celebrated in the United States since the early 20th century, haunted houses are wiggling their way into pop culture and tradition and providing the perfect alternative to the high school trick-or-treating.
The Metroplex area alone hosts over twenty five haunted houses, the most popular of these named Cutting Edge, the world’s largest walk-through haunted house (with numerous stories and themes) and voted top 10 in the nation for scariest thriller that is located at a 100-year old meat packing plant in Fort Worth that had been historically known as “the devil’s half acre”.
“I went because I heard it was the scariest,” senior Priyanka Krisnamurthy said. “It was entertaining and a lot of the parts were just plain cool just because of the sheer unexpectedness. It definitely epitomizes the scariest haunted house imaginable.”
Cutting Edge’s features such as live actors, bubble machines, spinning walls, bridges and animatrons name only a few of the elements that haunted houses nation-wide have to keep up with. Expensive technology such as animatronics and special effects keep this seasonal industry competitive and ticket prices high, ranging anywhere from $20 to $50 per ticket.
“We do a lot of programming and computer animation that allows us to be more Disney-esque,” Todd James of Cutting Edge. “You want to engulf the person’s senses to take them out of reality, to transport them to a different place, so it’s real important to detail the set out. Each year we get bigger and the animatronics get cooler, but the live actors are the best of any haunted house.”
But no matter the steepness of the price for tickets or the hours-long waits, thrill seekers of all ages are willing to travel miles away from home to experience controlled fright.
“I underestimated how scared I would eventually get, but for the most part I enjoyed myself,” senior Chris Williford said. “My favorite was the start of the haunted house, because it starts off in a normal suburban living room.”
The beauty of these haunted houses as a Halloween tradition, compared to dressing up as frightening characters or watching horror films, is the realistic nature of the terror. Throughout the U.S., these haunted attractions have been set up at abandoned meat packing plants, asylums and prisons that add to the authentic and eerie mood patrons pay for.
“[Our clientele] come from all over the map, anywhere from 10 year olds to 40 year olds,” James said. “[These] people like fear. They like to get scared. It’s just like a roller coaster ride -they like the adrenaline but they want to be safe, [and] that’s what a haunted house provides.”
“I liked the Parker House a lot because it was something different,” junior Emily Hazlehurst said. “I usually don’t get scared with horror movies, but when it’s happening to you and things are jumping out at you left and right, its way scarier. Besides, if you get too scared at a movie, you can turn it off or close your eyes, but with a haunted house you’re in it until you get out.”
Most haunted attractions in the area are open past Oct. 31 with varying hours, and some open until midnight.
