Statesville Prison

Ok, first of all, I was taken there by reps in a party shuttle with boooooze, food and music. And, would really like all future haunt excursions to start and end that way. Alas, I do not think that will happen.

Statesville is very good. I saw the guy who runs it give a presentation on basically wrangling his actors at HauntCon and he was extremely engaging. That's part of the reason I was really looking forward to it. And, for the record, his talk gave excellent suggestions on how to encourage your actors into being good haunt actors.

The haunt started out with a huge disadvantage in that it was rainy and cold. Luckily, the rep upgraded our tickets to VIP and we got in straight away.

I know I've become kind of numbed by going to so many haunts, so it's always great to go with non-haunters. And, let me tell you, these folks from work were definately non-haunters. The girl right behind me went through the whole thing screaming and near about pulled my shirt down and right off. I had to ask her to please let go because I didn't want to be walking around topless.

There were some really good scenes and scares in the haunt. The clown room particularly stands out. It was red and white checked with tons of misdirecting mirrors. The floors were slanted and the ceiling got lower and lower until you were completely hunched over. Then, it just stops at a dead end. While I was able to lead my group through the rest of the haunt with no problems, it took someone yelling at me from behind that it was a door to make me realize what a bloody idiot I am.

This is the first time that I've actually thought there may have been too many actors. You didn't get a chance to be startled because you could always see another actor right up the way.

The only other troublesome thing was that they had not one, not two, not three, but four of those squoosh you wall things. One would have sufficed. And, the last one was losing inflation so we were all tripping over the back half of it.

So, those two things said, I must say, the rest was very enjoyable.

Now, having been to three local haunts so far I can tell you my favorite has been Dream Reapers.

Next week, I hope to hit Fear at Navy Pier. I'll also be going to Franken Plaza to see Midnight Circus. I'll let you all (and by that I'm sure I mean 1 or 2 of you) know how it is.