My Haunted House Experience
A couple of weeks ago (on Oct 14th), I visited my first haunted house! I really didn’t know what to expect, but after going through, I honestly think that the anticipation of what would happen was scarier than the actual attraction.
The actors and decorations were excellent, and the place I visited is supposed to be one of the best, but the only thing that really scared me a few times were certain really loud noises out of nowhere. I think my brain just couldn’t let go of the fact that everything was fake, making it all okay.
A couple of days ago (on Oct 31st), I visited a different haunted house with a different group of friends! This one was also supposed to be one of the best. I still had a lot of fun, but was surprisingly less scared the second time compared to the first time. I’m guessing this is for a few reasons:
-
I already knew what to expect. Now that I knew what a haunted house looked like on the inside, there was less anticipation, and I was prepared for when the scares might happen.
-
I was at the back of a bigger group. The first time, I went with three other people, and this time I went with seven others. I think being at the back made it so all the actors and electronics were already exposed by the time I saw them.
-
A more straightforward environment. One of my favorite parts about the first house was that they had some rooms that were completely dark. We had to literally just feel around whatever weird environment they had set up, trying to get out quickly before something we couldn’t see showed up. The first house also had a couple maze-like rooms, which created a similar situation. In the second house, it was always very easy to tell which way to go.
-
Less hands-on actors. I didn’t get tickets where the actors could touch me in either house (though I wish I had), but seeing what the actors were allowed to do to people with such a pass really added to the realism. In the first house, the actors would straight up put bags over people’s heads and tie them down (suddenly but gently), whereas in the second house the actors mostly just messed up people’s hair.
All this said, I would love to go to a haunted house again next year. Personally, I love seeing all the wonderful decorations and immersive environments that people construct, making it just like going to a theme park ride! Most of all, however, I’m really just glad that I could go spend some time with some friends and have a fun experience together.
Unless…going alone would make things scarier…
I’ll have to see next year!
Word Count: 467
Running Total: 768