I hate haunted houses. When I was in elementary school, my neighborhood would host a Halloween party every year. Every year there was a haunted house included in the Halloween party. I went through the house once, with the lights on. I hate haunted houses.
This year for Halloween, my friends decided that a haunted house was the best way to celebrate the holiday. Initially, Abbie, Nadia, Alyza, and I weren’t invited, but a text from Turjo changed our plans for the night. At first I thought it was a joke, but after talking to some of the other people in the group, Nadia and I accidentally got our invitation solidified. Unlike Alyza, I was not fortunate enough to evade the peer pressure of Nadia and Abbie, and was forced to go with to the haunted house. So, tickets were bought, and the experience began.
My night began with an hour drive to pick up Nadia and Abbie and drive all the way to the haunted house. Despite Annie sending a text to our entire group of 17 to be at the haunted house by 6:45, which I was, Lara’s car of Samika, Sriya, and Annie herself was 30 minutes late, causing all of us to wait in the parking lot because we had bought group tickets. So, the group finally walked into the haunted house waiting area around 7:20. As every tourist trap begins, we walked in and were ushered into a group picture. I think the photographer was quite surprised when he watched as 17 people piled into the frame to get our group picture taken.
After our picture was taken we were then guided into a line to wait for our turn to enter the haunted house. We were waiting for barely 5 minutes when it became apparent who was going to be terrified during the haunted house. One of the scare actors walked through the line and Alyssa, Julie, and Sriya all screamed and quickly hid behind the group to get away from the actor. When the scare actor came up to Turjo, he began to have a conversation with her. He showed off his Men in Black costume, which included a homemade badge stating that his costume was Men in Black. The actor took a keen liking to Turjo, smelling and placing his badge on her forehead, giving him a pet plastic bug, and continually coming back to talk with him about our group and the haunted house. Honestly, it was kind of discomforting.
As we neared the front of the line to enter the haunted house, we found out that our group would have to split into 3 even groups. My group consisted of Nadia, Abbie, Josefine, Alex, and Kayla. Unanimously, all the girls in the group decided to throw feminism out the window and agreed that Alex would be in front of our group as we walked through the haunted house. Nadia, Abbie, and I were at the back of the group, with Nadia behind me and Abbie in front. To begin the haunted house, we were brought through a hallway by an alien-looking scare actor and ushered into a small metal room lined with “electric” chairs. The alien left the room and the doors closed, it was at this point that I knew I was absolutely terrified. The lights in the room went out and a speaker began to play a voice recording. I don’t remember much from the recording but I do remember it saying, “You want to play a game?” just as the recordings in the horror movie Saw had. Then, I felt something shoot up from the seat and jab my right thigh. I only screamed three times in the haunted house, this was one of the times.
Finally, the lights went back on in the room, and the metal door to the room opened, putting us into the rest of the haunted house. We walked through rooms with various themes like a clown fun house, dolls, a mental asylum, a graveyard, and a haunted lagoon. As we walked, we began to sing various Taylor Swift songs such as “Shake It Off” and “Love Story,” to calm our nerves, and we even got one of the scare actors to start singing “Shake It Off” with us as they had sensed the built up fear within the group.
The two other times I screamed in the haunted house was in a clown room and when it appeared a train was coming straight at us. In the clown room, we walked through a hallway with 6 little alcoves that life-size moving clown Halloween decorations. As I was walking through, one of the fake clowns moved just right so that its arms reached out into the hallway, and felt as though it grabbed me. I almost fought a fake clown decoration at that moment. With the train, we walked into a pitch-black hallway with a wall on one side and a guardrail on the other. Then, all of a sudden, two train lights turned on and we heard the loudest train horn blare right next to us. I don’t think I’ve ever let out a louder shriek than I did at that moment.
A few things did make my experience not completely terrifying. First, was when the scare actor started singing “Shake It Off” with us as we walked through. The second was when a scare actor began to follow our group, but in the middle of us. He split our group three and three, with Josefine, Alex, and Kayla in front of him and Abbie, Nadia, and me behind him. Josefine realized the scare actor was following her, turned around, and said, “I’m sorry, do you have to get through?”
All in all, I can’t say I recommend the haunted house, cause I was still scared the entire time and ran out of the haunted house as fast as possible when we finally reached the end. But, I can’t say that I totally regret going.
My heart rate literally sped up while reading this post and remembering the haunted house. I think the worst part of the experience was the beginning, waiting to be taken back to that shadowy maze of rooms. I remember being in that little hallway and just repeating, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh”. I was also scared that I would accidentally touch one of the scare actors, and then they would be allowed to touch me. That would have made the experience 1000x more terrifying. I definitely agree that one of the scariest parts was the train, it was just so loud that for a split second it felt real. One of my favorite parts of the haunted house was the part when we put on 3D glasses and walked into that weird tunnel wormhole thing that felt like it was spinning. That room was really fun, but I was also scared that someone was going to jump out at me while I was lost in the illusion. Honestly, like you, my thoughts on the haunted house are pretty much that it was fun but I’m never going back.
I hate haunted houses too. Those people actually scare me. The only haunted house that I’ve ever liked is the one that my friend put on in her garage when she hosted our whole swim team at her house. That one was too funny because everyone in it was someone I knew. I like the use of words like “fortunate enough to evade it” and “forced to go”. I can relate. Our group was actually so big, I’m kind of glad we got split into three groups for the actual experience. To be honest, the haunted house was not that bad. The actor that was walking through the line while we waited to go in was one of the most terrifying moments for me. It’s so much better in the haunted house because everything is dark, and I can’t see the terrifying makeup that they have on. The whole experience did and does not feel real.
Kayley, I’m glad you don’t totally regret the haunted house and had somewhat of a fun time. It seemed like the Taylor Swift songs proved to be a solid coping mechanism since even the actors joined in. For our group, when they weren’t trying to scare us, they were yelling at us to move faster. It also sounds like Alex’s experience was similar to mine since we were both forced to be in the front of our group. Although Liam and Matthew refused to join me there. Regardless, I think if we ever decide to do another haunted house, we should do one where they’re allowed to grab you. It seems you weren’t very scared since you only screamed 3 times, I think you could handle it.
Kayley, I loved reading this and remembering a lot of details that I myself don’t even remember. I was definitely very nervous entering the haunted house, as it was the first one I’ve been to. I actually cannot watch a horror movie, so I’m surprised that I agreed to go. I’m very glad Alex agreed to lead our group because I would not have been able to. My favorite part of the haunted house was singing Taylor Swift and having one of the scare actors join in. Plus it annoyed Alex which was a plus. One of the things I did to make the experience less scary was to just remember that the actors were real people, which is why I asked that one guy if he had to get through. And when one of the actors was asking for money, I made a deal that I would Zelle him later because I didn’t have cash on me. Overall, the scariest part for me was the train and the people “swimming” in the swamp because we couldn’t see them before they came out. I honestly thought there were going to be more scare actors, however. I’m still glad I went and would probably go again.
First of all, your blog post made me laugh so much! Every other sentence I found myself chuckling, often even laughing out loud. I have experienced in my writing that it can often be very difficult to relay your humor or the tone you want it to have, to the reader. However, I was easily able to pick up on your sarcasm and jokes throughout the whole piece, so I just wanted to commend you for being able to do that eloquently throughout your blog. I also enjoyed how you kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the blog, although I experienced the haunted house myself, you kept me wondering what would happen next. I also just realized the cleverness in your title. I think that your title is an amazing way of tying together the subject of the blog, the haunted house, but also your coping mechanism and main take away during the haunted house, taylor swift songs, and how it was your personal experience and point of view, (thus) Kayley’s version. Overall I just loved your blog, it brought many memories flooding back and your wit and humor made it extremely enjoyable and enticing!