The Stuff of Nightmares
Nightmare on 13th delivers some genuine scares.
by Kelly Ashkettle
kashkettle@inthisweek.com
Psycho behind a shower curtain: Classic, yet effective.
Sally from ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ is one of many movie characters featured at Nightmare on 13th.
Generally, I don’t find haunted houses very scary. I’m the type of girl who walks around trying to decide if the décor would look good in my house and whether the actors are friends of mine.
And, OK, there were some moments of that for me at Nightmare on 13th, like when I got into a conversation with a mad scientist about his rats. But there were times when I was genuinely scared, and that doesn’t happen often.
I went there on Friday, Sept. 19 with my younger sister. The regular admission price was $15. We paid an extra $5 so that our experience could include the “Xtreme” section of the Nightmare, but we opted not to pay $10 more to skip the line. I’m glad, because the line turned out to be part of the fun.
While we waited, we were treated to a night vision video of other guests entering a darkened room in which someone was waiting to jump out at them. Watching their reactions was highly entertaining and made our wait much more enjoyable.
Eventually, we were admitted to an inner room, where an introduction was conducted by a series of electronically animated characters from different horror movies. Most were very realistic, but there was one mannequin that looked rather stiff.
I was also wondering whether there was going to be any originality in this haunted house or if it was all going to be derived from movies. However, after an effect taken from “The Ring” had me nearly jumping out of my skin, I decided it didn’t really matter.
Before we entered the main part of the spook alley, a staff member seemed determined to put a lot of space between us and the groups before and after us. The result was that we spent a lot of time wandering through long corridors without seeing another soul, always wondering where the next scare would come from.
Since Nightmare on 13th is known as the largest haunted house in the state at more than 40,000 square feet, the sheer length of the experience definitely contributed to the scare factor. Anticipation is a key ingredient to a good fright, because our imaginations have a way of torturing us with images more frightening than any reality.
I needn’t have worried: Nightmare on 13th had plenty of originality. New this year is an insane asylum featuring an “endless hallway.” It involves a trick that had me grinning with delight once I figured it out.
And for all my love of originality, the scariest parts of the main Nightmare experience involved more scenes from “The Ring.” There’s something about that creepy dead girl that just really gets to me, I guess.
There were a couple of times when we ended up wandering around the same room for what seemed like ages because my sister refused to believe any of the actors, insisting that they were trying to trick us when they showed us the way out. Part of me felt annoyance at being in the same rooms for a long time, but that also added to my fear, because something primal in me was wondering whether I’d be trapped there forever.
After we emerged from the Nightmare, we were able to enter the shorter Xtreme Nightmare section. I definitely think it was worth the extra $5; the fear factor in that area was noticeably intensified. The strongest sense of panic for me was the part that played on fears of claustrophobia. I’m not normally susceptible to that, but after I’d already been wandering through dark, close corridors for nearly an hour, the feeling of enclosure was intensified.
Thanks to Nightmare on 13th, I think I finally understand what all the fuss is about haunted houses.
