Revisiting Old Haunts

This past Friday me and my old spook hunting buddy, Roberto, took to the old country roads in search of ghosts and ghouls and things that wander throughout the night.  We decided that we were going to visit two local Haunted Attractions that were not too far from Roberto's home.  We've visited these haunts before and were wondering how they had changed this year.

One haunt we visited for the first time just last year.  The other haunt we hadn't visited in a few years.

We didn't have a Mystery Machine, but we did have a Nissan SUV and a Tom Tom unit that helped us guide our way.  The first haunt that we visited was pretty easy to find since it was just down the highway from Roberto's.  It was an old, abandoned High School known as.....

HAUNTED HIGH - Touted as being America's only haunted high school and largest Midwestern haunt that would be closing after this year's haunt season, how could we say no?  The building itself is large, dimly lit from the outside and a bit foreboding.  The wait to get in wasn't too bad as we got there just before the haunt started its walkthroughs.  The only annoyance was the group of tweeners yapping and yelling and acting like a bunch of buffoons in front of us.  This is why most of us who are grown up detest the Justin Beiber and Twighard crowds.  Bleh.

Things looked a lot better once we saw that they were relegated to go through in their own group leaving us with a few other adults.  Heaven be praised!  The show got on the road once we went through a small door and went down a staircase that led us down into the dark bowels of the old school.

Having visited this haunt last year we were expecting a few changes and upgrades since then.  Unfortunately, there were very few if any at all.  I suppose when you're running a haunt that will be in its last year, I guess you figure, "Why spend more money on anything that will not be used again."  The facility will be torn down in the year to come to make way for affordable apartments.

This haunt did not change that much from the last time I reviewed it last year.  So read my old review here for a slightly more in depth description of the haunt.  One improvement they did make was that they had no Glee tie-in this year that kind of dumbed down the climax of last year's show.

It's sad to see a haunt close down when it still had a lot of room to grow and get better.  Oh, well.  On to our next dark adventure.

The next haunt was about 10 miles away, out in the countryside.  Being out in the middle of nowhere on a deathly cold night with only the full moon as your only light certainly added to the ambiance of our next haunted attraction.......

THE DARK SIDE - The first couple of times we visited this haunt, we always left feeling that it was a good solid spookfest that, in time, could grow and change to be a big haunt.  And it looks like they've tweaked some things and have added to the experience.  It was definitely an improvement since we were last there.  The waiting area has changed from being an outdoor wait to being inside of a huge and very dark hay barn.  You can barely make out the giant grim reaper that towers over the crowd as we wait to go through.  I guess if I had any issues with this haunt, it would be the wait.  It is a very long wait in a unheated barn.  Dress warm since they let 25 people people through at a time (at first) and then wait a good 15 minutes for the next 25.  We arrive at the haunt at around 8 PM and didn't start to go through the haunt until 9 PM.

But, once we got going and were led outside of the barn, the creep show started!  We were told the spooky history of the farmland and then led up a hill to a creepy old mine shaft.  The groups of 25 were then broken down into groups of 2 or 3.

The mine shaft was the first of the sections that this big haunt was broken down into.  "Decent" was the first chapter in the Dark Side's haunted farm.  The old mine that we had to traverse was one of the highlights of the haunt.  Great setting and effects!  It plopped us out to the next chapter, a moonlight tractor ride through the dark woods called Twilight Nightmare (not at all to be confused with the horrible, glimmery vampires!).  This part of the haunt included some fire breathing dragons and totems. It also had some ghouls come along for the ride.

The tractor plopped us out at the next section of the haunt, "Backwoods Revenge".  The walk in the woods featured a plethora of inbred hillbillies stalking us as we made our way through a graveyard and a messy butcher shop.

Once we found our way out of the woods, we came to a small corn maze filled with more hillbillies ("Schizophrenia").  These rednecks went out of their way to keep us going in circles for a while before we found the last attraction, "Foxglove Nursery".  Imagine a plant nursery where some sort of toxic chemical gets mixed with the plant life within.  There are a few plant people we had to contend with to find our way back out to the parking lot and to safety.

I have to tell you that the price hike from the years past was well invested.  They've added a lot more here and have gotten their barring on how to run an outdoor haunt.  The haunt lasts around the 40 minute mark which is pretty fantastic!  The wait can be a bit of a grind and they could put a few more effects during the tractor ride to pace it out better.  But, in the end it was fantastic!

So I visited three haunts this season, two more than last year.  I don't think I'll be lucky enough to go to to the six or more that I did in the good old days.  But, I enjoy the ones I can visit.


Speaking of visiting haunts, here's another virtual visit to a wonderful haunt through the magic that is YouTube.

Alice Cooper has been a favorite performer of Roberto's and mine for a very long time.  He's always incorporated some hefty doses of horror, gore and gallows humor into his songs and concerts.  It makes perfect sense that he would lend his imagination to a haunted maze at this year's Halloween Horror Nights.

So sit back, turn off the lights and enjoy Alice Cooper Goes to Hell through the eyes of the people at Sharpe Productions' YouTube channel.

That will be all for this post.  I hope to post something else very soon before the Halloween season is completely over, so keep an eye out for it.

Until next time, stay vertical!

My Town is Haunted Up the Wazoo!.

We are now deep into the Halloween season and the ghosts and ghouls are wandering freely about these dark, cold, chilly nights.  Our first impression may be to lock our doors and hide under our covers.  But, if we truly want to experience the Halloween season we must go forth, out into the night and experience the world of the unknown.

Over time I have learned that my little, midwestern town is not immune to unearthly visitors.  In fact, I have reason to believe that this town is one of the most haunted in the United States.  Don't believe me?  Take a gander at THIS....

This documentary on local haunts was produced by students of my alma mater and is a fine documentation of the spooky visitors that inhabit our town.

If you're still not a believer, you can come here and see for yourself.  During the summer and fall many Ghost Tours are available.  The one I took recently was Gothic Milwaukee Ghost Tours.  This will take you from Downtown Milwaukee's Cathedral Square, through the city streets, down to our River Walk and then back up to our town hall.  The ghosts stories revealed here include the ghost of the Pfister Hotel (Mr. Pfister himself), The Altar Boy Ghost of St. John's Cathedral, creepy Lake Michigan maritime tragedies as well as the ghost story involving our town hall.  There's also a photo opportunity with our famous Bronze Fonz.  The night I went was plagued with a rather nasty rain storm, but our tour guide found a safe haven where she told us a even more ghost stories. So rain or shine, you'll get your money's worth.

Another Ghost Tour you can take is the one featured in the above video.  Milwaukee Ghost Tours offers a tour down in our Third Ward area, which is just south of downtown and features wonderful bars, restaurants and boutiques.  I haven't had a chance to take this tour yet.  But, I'd love to if I could find souls brave enough to go with me.

Since you'd already be down in the Third Ward, you might as well venture right on over to Shaker's Cigar Bar.  Cigars, adult drinks AND ghosts?  Sign me up!!!  This old Milwaukee bar was once a brothel and speakeasy back in the day.  Many a spirit lurk about here and you can take a wonderfully guided tour.  It's a little on the pricey side compared to other ghost tours, but may be well worth it since you can finish it off with a nice cigar and great atmosphere.  I need to get down there more often!

Other local haunts that were touched upon in the documentary were The Rave (which I've blogged about HERE) and the Pabst Mansion.   I have a very close relative that was a one time tour guide at the Pabst  Mansion.  During his volunteer work there I would ask him if the creepy Victorian mansion was haunted.  He would tell me,  "No".  But, when his volunteer work ended he told me that he was told not to speak of the ghostly activity there.  They really want to focus on the historical side of the house.  But, yes, the house has some spooky things that go on in it.  Odd noises and voices can be heard up on the third floor office area.  They really need to be not so uptight about the ghosts and perhaps employ them into the tours.  They would probably have a far better draw that way.

So it's pretty frackin' cool to live in one of the most haunted cities in the US.  Even though nobody really reads this frellin' blog, if you happen to come across it and are not from Milwaukee, you need to come here!  If not for the beer, perhaps for the other numerous spirits that wisp about out city.


On that note, lets go to a fabricated haunt or Haunted Attraction as I like to call them.  Every year the Universal Theme Park puts on a Haunted Attraction extravaganza called Halloween Horror Nights.  One of the mazes they are featuring this year is based on the grosstasticly awesome AMC TV show The Walking Dead which just started its third season.  So lets head on through The Walking Dead maze......

Wonderful!  Enough zombies to wet your undead appetite for a good, long time!  And of course the new season that has just started is  incredible!!  In fact, I have my recorder set to tape it tonight since I'm going to be enjoying a family pumpkin carving party tonight.

I need to get going on some serious pumpkin carving.  So until next time, embrace the dead and try and stay vertical!

Zangz.