Every year I look forward to one wonderfully glorious month: October. The arrival of October means apple cider, pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin picking and, of course, all things scary.
In October, I love to watch scary movies or listen to ghost stories, but above all things I love to go to haunted houses! It all started back when I was eight and my mother decided it would be a great opportunity to scar me for life by taking my friends and I to an apple orchard for a haunted hayride and house. After the most terrifying hours of my life, which involved a mega temper tantrum and many tears, I vowed to never set foot in a haunted house again. However, the next year I was dragged back, thanks to my mom & peer pressure, but I convinced myself that I was a lot braver because I was a mature nine year old. While I was there that night, a bug bit me. No, it was not a superhero-creating spider or a blood-sucking mosquito. It was the haunted house bug.
Ever since that fateful October night in 1999, I have been afflicted with the love of haunted houses. Every October, I research the best haunted houses in the area and gather my friends to help me test them out. This year, my friends and I tried out three haunted houses in the D.C. area.
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Bennett’s Curse, Jessup, MD – 1 hour drive from AU. Admission $30 on F & Sat., $25 on Thu. and Sun.
The suspense of this haunted house starts the minute you get off the highway. The long windy unlit road to the remote farm, where the haunted house is located, definitely gets your adrenaline pumping. Once inside the giant tent that is home to the haunted house, you find yourself waiting in a long line with dozens of other crazy fear seekers. The line moves relatively quickly and before you know it you are walking into the House of Vampires.
The theme of this haunted house is that Bennett put a curse on the house and now it is damned. The house is full of demons, vampires and other evil creatures. Bennett’s Curse, although the plot line is super cheesy, does an amazing job with the scare factor. They have great animatronics that pop out at groups at exactly the right time. These animatronics coupled with live actors really keep you on your toes. They also have a really unique 3-D section that I have never seen before. We were handed 3-D glasses and had to proceed through the last part of the haunted house with them on. The walls were painted with fluorescent paint and it was almost impossible to distinguish props from workers. Overall experience: 9 out of 10.
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Markoff’s Haunted Forest, Poolesville, MD-1 hour drive from AU. Admission $25
Markoff’s not only offers a great haunted forest, but a really great pre-forest area. Before you go into the haunted forest, there are food tents, bonfires, games, crafts, and other adventure activities to enjoy while waiting for your group to be called.
Once in the forest, you walk from scene to scene looking at the different rooms very similarly to a haunted house. At Markoff’s there are very few people hiding just in the woods and you can usually see when the scary workers are coming at you. The areas are strategically lit and set up to maximize scares. One of the best scenes is the chainsaw man at the end who refuses to let guests leave. When we went, my group was stuck there for several minutes as my roommate’s sister jumped into my arms to avoid the chainsaw. Chaos ensued. Overall experience: 8 out of 10.
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Field of Screams, Olney, MD- 35 minutes from AU. Admission varies per attraction
My friend and I drove up to Olney on a Sunday night to go to this three-part haunted attraction. Once we arrived, we discovered it was family night and the intensity of scares had been lessened. As we are broke collegiettes, we decided to save our money and head back to AU.
However, my roommate & best friend, Megan Dees went to Field of Screams the night before, so she gave me a brief recap.
“There are three attractions at Field of Screams: the haunted hayride, house and forest. The haunted hayride was overall pretty lame. Workers would jump onto the tractor to scare us, but other than that there were not many scenes set up.”
“The haunted house was filled with dark hallways and different scenes. One of the coolest parts was a mirror maze room. There were mirrors everywhere and it was extremely difficult to walk around. Once we thought we found the right way, we hit a dead end, and we turned around to find a freaky little girl clown behind us. This room was definitely the most nerve wracking.”
“The final attraction was the haunted forest. The haunted forest was an hour long, which is extremely long for haunted attractions. It was very similar to Markoff’s in that is was mostly scene based, but had a few more people in the words. The terrain was pretty rough and steep, but there was a slide. And who doesn’t love a slide in the middle of a haunted forest? Overall experience: 8 out of 10”
Haunted houses are a great way to do something different on a weekend night and get in the Halloween spirit. If you decide to be courageous and take on a haunted attraction, keep these rules in mind:
- Have a brave person go in the front to lead the group. But have a braver person go in the back because haunted house workers love to follow groups.
- Go through in a train holding on to each other’s shoulders to ensure no one is lost.
- Wear rain boots and breathable clothes. With all that adrenaline pumping you are sure to be sweating up a storm.
- Don’t look too scared because the workers will pick on you. Don’t look too brave or the workers will pick on you more.
- Have fun!
Photo credits:
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/attachments/023/press_release_distribution_0237976_44814.jpg
http://whwweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/haunted-forest.jpg
http://www.screams.org/press/FieldOfScreamsLogo.png