"I awoke this morning in a cold sweat, still clinging to my bed quilt. I cautiously pulled myself from the bed and peeked through the window blinds hoping that my memories from the last night would be redeemed by the morning sunlight. Instead my eyes were met with bleak, dark gray skies.
I tensed up as a sense of caution streaked through me as it did continuously last night during the chilling events that I bore witness to.
It is said that every Halloween season is the time when the worlds of the dead are closest to touching the living and that paranormal encounters are far more frequent. For the last several years, me and my cohorts have explored a few of these places that are wrought with odd happenings.
Currently staying at a nice home in the countryside that we are using as a safe haven, I take the time to reflect on last nights occurrences.
Last night our curiosity of the macabre got the best of us. With a week load of a bright moon haunting the nights' skies, we should have seen this as an omen of things to come.
Not far from our sanctuary there is an old abandoned high school with a strong paranormal reputation. We decided to investigate it last night. God save our souls........"
And this dark little narrative is just the segue I need for my review of.........
The Haunted High School - Located just a short hop, skip, jump and run for your life from the main freeway is a huge abandoned high school in Oconomowoc, WI that is now wonderfully utilized as a yearly Haunted Attraction. Boasting itself as the largest haunt in Wisconsin and the only haunt with a creepy High School theme within the midwest, myself, Roberto Del Amorte and his lovely wife Iris Von Beaverhousen decided to see if this haunt was worth its bragging rights.
We got to the haunt a little later in the evening and were met with a full parking lot and gymnasium full of people waiting to get in. We decided on the Fast Pass option that got us a better place in line since we didn't want to hassle with the 90 minute wait. Though they had old horror movies playing on the walls of the gym, we wanted to jump right in and get our scare on!
Upon entering the haunt itself we were ushered down a flight of stairs that led to the workout rooms. This first area set the stage for the high school nightmares that were to come. Part work out gym and part torture chamber we saw more than a few poor souls tied and strapped to the workout equipment. The one problem that I found in this area that didn't seem to effect the rest of the haunt was that it was way too darkly lit. You couldn't see the tableaus that were meticulously put together. Not sure if that was on purpose or if some electrical feed was not working. In any case, the rest of the haunt was lit good enough to be spooky dark, yet still visible enough to not be missed.
Through the rest of the haunt I noticed that the effects and scenery were utilizing the Old School method. Instead of investing in uber-expensive, detailed effects that can be purchased at haunt conventions or online for the price of your soul, organizers used what they had and home made effects to fill the scenery and effects. For example, before abandoning the high school, the school district left behind a bevy of desks and lockers that became part of the outline of the mazes. Who needs to create a school house effect when they had one built in already? Would have it been nice to see that "wow" factor of an effect that would blow our minds? Sure. Was it necessarily needed here? Nope.
Traversing through all aspects of high school that bring back bad memories were all present here. The rotting "food" of the cafeteria, the impossible math equations, detention hall, the horticultural classes and of course the finale of the school quad, where instead of being terrorized from the dumb jock bullies, here you had to watch out for the chain-saw wielding maniac.
I'm always leery when they use young scare-actors as the ghouls for a haunt. Past haunts we've witnessed them standing around in groups talking to each other rather than putting on the scare. This group did surprisingly well. Most of them were into full character having a great time making us wet our pants. We only came across the weaker ones in the cheap masks giving out a half hearted "Rawrrrr" only once or twice.
One of the big set pieces is the auditorium where a chorus of animatronic skeletons sing along to "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show as ghoulish dancers try and get patrons to dance along. This was pretty impressive, but I think I would have been more awestruck if they had been referencing the ORIGINAL Rocky Horror and not the one based off of the uberhyped and over praised Glee version. The huge banner that had the Glee logo over the stage didn't help. Give me a little Bostwick and Sarandon, rather than a Finn or Puck in my Rocky Horror. No, I'm not a huge fan of Glee if you could tell.
On the far better side of things, this haunt was pretty frackin' long! 35 minutes for an indoor haunt is pretty good. Most don't last more than 20 minutes, if that. Most people who pay what we paid for other haunts get through the place just as their getting into the mood. Every point I thought we were coming to the end, there was a huge new area to discover.
Was this the best haunt of all time?. Well, no. The organizers could learn a thing or two if they attended one of the big haunt conventions and invested in just a few professional scares. But, was this a darn good haunt? You bet!!! A few adjustments and this baby could go big time!
In the end, The Haunted High School is a darn hearty haunt that is a bit of a spooky adventure that is a darn good scare, but not quite up there with the pro haunts. Its main strengths are the length of the show and it's home grown charm while the dedication of its young scare-actors could easily rival other haunts that use teens. Overall, I was pretty impressed!
Hopefully there will be more spooky adventures to be had this season. My Good friend, Mr. Bones has shown an interest in attending a haunt with yours truly. Let's see if he's up to the challenge.
Zangz.
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