Last night, to celebrate Dias De Los Muertos proper I went to the Reindeer Manor haunted house. I definitely recommend, this is the first haunted house that’s offered take out…
This has to have been one of the coolest haunts I’ve been to. Given my true love for haunted houses was just sparked this year and I don’t have a lot to compare it to I was totally blown away. The property is out in the woods which are introduced by a hay ride to hell from the parking lot to the actual haunt grounds setting a truly frightening stage (drunk teens + driving tractors – lights = a good freakin time).
The property itself, as I found on the website later was the home to several beastly murders. The house itself, “Reindeer Manor” is run by the Boy Scouts and the profits probably are used to fund field trips to countries where they don’t have things like “legal age of consent”… anyway, although it was mostly child actors those little bastards really got me a few times! There were a couple girls in the group that kept getting harassed, loving every minute of it and driving me to yell when asked for volunteers “get that little girl!”.
The next area was the Dungeon of Doom and this one was really special in that “theater kids gone wild” sort of way. The actors were a lot more into it than a lot of other houses and areas like the room of shower curtains hit me on that subconscious “I might not be okay” level. The floors moved, people scared the shit out of you. It was just a nice little scare-you-real-quick haunt.
The final and most disturbing was the 13th Street Morgue. The website claims that the barn it is contained in was once used as the local morgue with the funeral parlor upstairs and the undertaker’s home downstairs (creepy, ya?). The story goes that the father of a victim someone he embalmed murdered snuck into their house dressed like Santa Clause and killed the family. The use of actual period-style embalming equipment throughout the house was really like being in a live horror movie, I have to say this one really scared the shit out of me. Literally I think I had some turtle head action going on.
So really there’s not much more to say about the Reindeer Manor, it was a great scare you shitless haunt in a woodsy midway type atmosphere that I’m totally marking on my calendar for next year but the truly frightening part didn’t start until I got home…
As usual when I enter my abode I’m greeted by a brood of dogs all wanted to be pet and loved. Duke is my special child, and by special I mean retarded. Like little DJ from Roseanne. This time instead of being met by a waggy tailed happy cocker spaniel Duke looked at me and yelped. When I touched him he yelped. He yelped like he does when he’s afraid or nervous, it really scared me.
The rest of the night he couldn’t get comfortable, he would stare at me like he didn’t know me or I was trying to hurt him but it was almost like he was looking past me or next to me, not directly at me. It was hard for me to go to sleep until he finally got in bed with me and settled down. This morning he’s been fine, doesn’t seem to be in any pain or distress but it really makes you wonder what can tag along when you subject yourself to horrors like that. Maybe there are extradimensional entities that prey on fear and places like that, and like to tag along when they find someone particularly… tasty…
MUAH HA HA!