Welcome back, Creeps, Fiends, and
Ghouls! It’s been a while since we posted anything new on this Little Blog Of Horrors. We’ve been busy
celebrating the holidays, changing jobs, getting engaged, making ends meet, and
other mundane things that real life forces us all to deal with. As a result,
we’ve had very little time to focus on the blog and bring you, our Faithful
Freaks, any new updates. For that we apologize and pledge to double our
efforts! We’ve even added some new blood to our talent pool to help bring you
the best in local horror and haunt news. So, without further mildew, here’s a
quick look at the highlights from this past year’s haunt season! We here at Little Blog Of Horrors hope everyone had
a safe, fun, and scary Halloween, and a great Holiday Season!
The 2012 Haunt Season went very
well, with Southern Oregon having more haunted attractions happening than we
had time (or funds) to visit. Darkwing
Manor and Circus Of Screams, both
located in the Medford area, again proved that they are the undisputed kings of
local haunts, but a fair amount of smaller attractions caught our attention as
well. Just Scream!, of Medford, was a
small production in comparison but we were all impressed by the passion put
into the haunt and the amount of fun we had. It was a short haunt, but great
use of space and a wide assortment of maniacal monsters made the attraction
seem much longer. Their enthusiasm
showed through, from their props and actors to the Fiends working outside, it
seemed like everyone was enjoying the scariest of seasons to the fullest. ShriektoberFest’s Lair Of The Zombies
was also a highlight of the season. Organized and performed by the Randall Theater Company, Lair Of The Zombies started with a short
film explaining to guests how the undead infection began and spread before
sending them into a maze full of ghouls, hungry and eager to rip, tear, and eat
the flesh of the audience. Although promoted as an all-dark experience (guests
were permitted to use their cell phones as makeshift flashlights if needed),
our band of Night Stalkers had no problems seeing in the low-light situation.
It was a very fun attraction, and we hope that the Company puts on a show of
equal caliber next year.
Gold Hill, Oregon transformed its
local museum into a haunted attraction for the Halloween season, bringing a
small-town sensibility to its scares. Aimed mostly at younger children, it was
still a lot of fun and reminded us of Halloween in simpler, homier times.
Guests tour the small museum, with props, actors, and tamer scares along the
way. Once out of the museum, they’re treated to an old-fashioned baked goods
and crafts sale, along with a neat yard haunt display. Very Americana and lots
of fun! As a side note, while all the bigger attractions we visited this last
season were great, this author didn’t jump once at a scare from them. Yet at
the Gold Hill Museum, a teenaged girl
behind a false wall gave me a start with a simple jump scare. This grizzled
horror veteran was startled by a kid in a costume at an event for children! I
haven’t lived it down since.
The next haunt on our list is an
unnamed attraction in Grants Pass, Oregon. It’s an upstart haunt, this year
being its first, with a lot of (evil) spirit.
Another small haunt, it was held in an old DMV building, but they made
great use of the limited space. With a mini-mirror maze, creepy-good actors,
and creative use of everyday props, it was an impressive new haunt, and we’re
eager to see what the coming years will bring for these guys.
Mr.
Brown’s Haunted Field was old-school Halloween fun as well. Held on a
massive farm in Central Point, Oregon, it was a quiet, creepy haunted field
tour. The natural ambiance of the surroundings on a cold, October night really
adds to heighten the senses and provides a sense of cool dread to the
attraction. It was an all-ages event, with do-it-yourself scarecrow building
kits for the kids preceding each tour. I hope that it continues each year, as
it kicked off our haunt season with an old-timey Halloween celebration. My only
gripe about the haunted field was that it could’ve used one last scare at the
end. It ends by bringing the story of Mr. Brown, told by the actors in rhyme
and riddle, to a “fooled-ya!” conclusion, taking away the sense of walking away
from the attraction excited by that one, final fright. Again, only a small
disappointment about an otherwise excellent haunt.
Now onto the Big Boys of our local
haunt circuit…
Circus
Of Screams, located in Eagle Point, Oregon, is a themed haunt with a
new-school horror aesthetic centered around, you guessed it, a circus full of
insane clowns and psychotic killers. This last years’ attraction was a 3-D
experience where the guests wore glasses and the walls and costuming of the
haunt were decorated in very disorientating 3-D and blacklight paints, which
only added to the insanity. Clowns, murderers, insane asylum patients, and
maniacal monsters filled the dayglow-colored maze awaiting new victims to add
to the body count. Being a horror and Halloween prop collector, a particular
highlight for me was a sort of “hall of infamy”, where standing life-size
figures of some of my favorite horror villains (Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Jason
Vorhees, and Chucky) and posters from some classic films (Hellraiser, The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre) were on display. You hardly had time to look at them,
though, because you were being chased through the room by some of the Circus’
psycho denizens! By the time guests exited the maze-like haunt they felt like
they had gone through and survived a mini-horror film, and the experience was
an absolute blast! If time had permitted, I would have jumped back in line to
go through it all again because Circus Of
Screams delivered on the, well, screams.
Darkwing
Manor & Morguetorium Museum, of Medford, Oregon, is an annual haunt
that never ceases to amaze the unsuspecting guests and ghouls who pass through
its doors to enter a realm of old-school spooky fun. While waiting in line to
get in, visitors are treated to various displays and sideshows to set the mood
and pace for the thrills and chills to follow. Fire dancers, ghostly figures
appearing in the distance, and a video introduction to the Manor and its
history all help to keep guests entertained before entering the actual
building. As its name suggests, part of Darkwing Manor is dedicated to
showcasing morbid artifacts surrounding death rituals and burials. As guests
enter the Manor, they are greeted and given a brief tour of the Morguetorium
part of the haunt, where some of the items on display are explained and a brief
history lesson on funeral rituals is given. Guests are then led into the actual
haunt. Darkwing is very vampire-centric,
from the ambiance of the Manor to the costuming of the actors all the way to
the creepy fog hanging low to the ground, guests feel like they’ve been
transported to the Old World and have been immersed in a realm of vampires,
dark sorcery, demons, and undead ghostlies! The haunt doesn’t end in the actual
Manor, however. The grounds surrounding the old Manor is host to a legion of
undead pirates, classic monsters, demonic souls, and zombies- all in themed,
atmospheric displays that suit the characters themselves. A much longer haunt
than most, guests certainly get their money’s worth of scares and jumps as they
brave the maze leading out of the attraction. By the time you leave, you will
be amazed and inspired. Darkwing Manor & Morguetorium has
received national attention for the quality of their haunt, and have been
featured in magazines and podcasts in recent years, proving that they’re the
champions of Halloween fright in the Rogue Valley! As an amateur make-up FX
artist, I was impressed by the quality of the mostly home-made props and
scenery, the level of detail in the costumes and character make-up, and the
authenticity of the whole attraction. I can say without a shadow of a doubt
that I will be back next year, and hopefully for many years to come!
Most of the haunts that I discussed
in this article use their proceeds to raise money for various charities, and I
urge people who are interested to visit all of them this next Halloween Season!
If you’re looking to have some unforgettable experiences for Halloween 2014,
make sure you at least visit Darkwing
Manor and Circus Of Screams. Both
will win you over with their production values and passion for haunting, and
the memories of what lurks within their walls will linger in your nightmares
for months, perhaps years, to come…
We at Little Blog Of Horrors are already busy preparing our haunt
schedule for this next year, and can’t wait to see what all of these
attractions have brewing for us this Fall. We’ll be posting schedules for local
haunts as they become available, so please check back often or, even better,
subscribe to Little Blog Of Horrors and
never miss out on our ravenous ramblings!
A big “thank
you” to all who organized, hosted, sponsored, and participated in the above
mentioned haunts last year- your efforts and enthusiasm keep us inspired,
entertained, and always dreaming of the time of year where the veil between the
world of the living and the land of the dead is lifted… “Bonfires burning bright, pumpkin faces in the night, I remember
Halloween.”
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