It’s a good time of year for getting scared. And while creepy costume parties and late-night slasher marathons on TV might do the trick, nothing says Halloween quite like a good haunted house.
Fortunately, central Arkansas is well stocked. We at Sync discovered this much when we did a survey to find the area’s most terrifying haunted house two years ago. We crawled, we jumped and we might have even screamed a little (don’t tell anyone) as we wound our way through darkened maze after darkened maze, never quite sure what we’d find around the next turn.
Not that the ingredients change much. Take a deserted warehouse or some other such creepy building, add in some props and animatronics, hire some enthusiastic actors, give them tools to make some loud noises, turn off the lights and people will freak the heck out.
But times change and operations move and adapt and improve. So this year our intrepid team of scare seekers once again set out to search for the finest fright. We graded each establishment on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a romp through Candyland and 10 being a bone-chilling experience, and tried to keep in mind which places catered to the kiddos and which would leave them (or possibly their parents) curled up in the fetal position begging to be taken home, potentially scarred for life. Read on at your own risk.
THE SLAUGHTER HOUSE
6016 Crystal Hill Road, North Little Rock
7:30-10:30 p.m. through Oct. 31
Admission: $12
Not kid-friendly
Scare factor: 6
If there is one thing The Slaughter House does well (besides scare), it’s build tension. After purchasing tickets, you are led to a rickety-looking door to wait for the victims who came before you to finish the tour. A spooky movie is projected onto the side of a large, white delivery truck in the parking lot behind you, and the screams, bangs, pops and chainsaw noises are all ahead of you. If you’re an anxious person, you may be tempted to visit the liquor store conveniently located in the adjacent lot. But be strong. You’ll make it out alive.
Thankfully, this haunted house tour comes with a guide. Many of the hallways and rooms are pitch black, and those with night blindness would start to panic without a leader. At the opposite end of the spectrum, those with light sensitivities also take heed. The Slaughter House has just as many strobe lit rooms as it does dark ones. The flashing lights are frequent and disorienting, but they are all part of the experience.
As the title suggests, be prepared to see many harrowing, bloody scenes of meat hooks, dangling body parts and cannibalism. The guide may ask you if you are prepared to witness a suicide scene. It is almost too brief to realize what is happening, but you can still opt out if the thought disturbs you. While inside the house, be prepared for your typical gross-outs and jumpy scare tactics. Beware the school bus for its mob of ghouls ready to pop out at you from every nook and cranny. Take note of the upturned car leaking zombies. Not many haunted houses come with this many vehicular obstacles. Which leads us to the final scene — a backwoods, The Hills Have Eyes type trailer where a hillbilly captures a screaming woman. Instead of the expected chainsaw dénouement, you’re left a little confused and uncomfortable. (sb)
ARKANSAS URBAN LEGENDS HAUNTED HOUSE
7901 Warden Road, Sherwood
Open from 7-10 p.m. on weeknights and until midnight on weekends in October.
Admission: $10.
Kid-friendly
Scare factor: 4
Like any decent haunted house, Arkansas Urban Legends Haunted House is located in a dark, empty warehouse-type structure on the side of the freeway. As you wait in the entryway for the next available tour guide, the loud noise of what sounds like one of those $5 haunted house CDs fills your ears.
As expected, you’re instantly enveloped in darkness. A dull flashlight held by the guide is your only light for much of the tour. Pretty quickly the tunnels begin to taper, forcing you to walk single file through a labyrinth of walls that feel like propped-up gym mats. You keep expecting ghouls and goblins lurking around each corner, but the live actors in this house are few. Expect a few mechanical pop-ups to balance out the equation. You’re pretty sure it’s smooth sailing to the other side if you can just feel your way through the dark. And then it hits you. Two tightly inflated plastic walls you have to fight your way through kicking and screaming. It’s like you’re the Wicked Witch of the West and someone dropped a bounce house on you. Claustrophobes may want to sit this house out.
Once past the hug machine, you’ll be surprised by the celebrity cameo from Donnie Darko.
One more trip through the hug machine (at this point you’ll have learned to just hold your breath and run for it), and you’re out the back door. Into the middle of nowhere. You’ll wonder where your car is and wander around aimlessly for about 5 minutes until you find the front parking lot. That is actually one of the scariest moments. While praying you’re not lost forever on foot in the farthest reaches of Sherwood, perhaps the scary man with the chainsaw will get his motor started this time. (sb)
HAUNTED HOUSE OF CONWAY
150 Arkansas 286 East, Conway
7 p.m. to midnight, until Halloween
Admission: $6 on weekdays and $7 on weekends.
Not kid-friendly
Scare factor: 10
Walking into the Haunted House of Conway is comparable to entering one of Rob Zombie’s movies — try House of a 1,000 Corpses.
Hanging limbs, severed heads and psychotic killers combine to give this house some freaky, carnage-fueled aesthetics.
Be warned: Though it is one of the few haunted houses in Conway, this gore-fest is not for children, nor the weak of heart. Scary rating: Mark it 10, dude.
A near-total lack of visibility in the hallways heightens the attendee’s paranoia from the get-go. In other words, expect to feel around in the darkness for the path; clinging to the jacket of the stranger in front of you is probably a good idea.
The noises — everything from demonic laughter, to chainsaws and murder-screams — are loud and disconcerting, and give a truly panicky vibe to the experience. The use of strobe lights in some rooms only exaggerates this effect.
Victims (attendees) should expect almost constant creep-ups by masked ghouls and demons.
Despite the all-out scare tactics used by the house’s actors, the house itself has a lot of substance. The various rooms that are connected by dark passageways are truly creepy and hauntingly beautiful — it’s obvious that the designers put a lot of care and consideration into creating their horrid environments.
One room, dimly lit in green and purple, is covered in spiderwebs. In the upper right corner, a gigantic spider clings to the wall, soon to approach its victims — bodies encased in a web that hangs from the ceiling.
One delightful passageway resembles an excavated crypt — the realistic skeletons that line the walls distract guests from some live monsters that seek to scare the hell out of them.
The final passageway and its farm-like qualities gear-up guests for a horrific final confrontation with a Leatherface-like character.
Don’t bring kids to the Haunted House of Conway unless they have a penchant for things truly macabre. On the other hand, this house might be good for dates — partners will be forced to cling to one another in sheer, loving horror. (wh)
THE TORTURE CHAMBER
3805 Benton Parkway, Benton
Open evenings through Halloween
Admission: $12
Not kid-friendly
Scare factor: 9
The sights and sounds of the Torture Chamber are truly well crafted, and the actors have a keen sense of timing. Just when you think the next blind corner is safe, there’s someone there to make you jump. Likewise, just when you expect a fright, nothing happens — which only heightens the sense of anticipation.
The grisly setup includes a wide range of the macabre: a crazy doctor cutting up screaming patients, animatronics rising from coffins, body parts hanging from the ceiling. And all of it is done with a careful eye for detail, whether it’s a corpse popping out of an oven or an actor decked out in mask, costume or intricate makeup.
But probably the most innovative thing about this excellent haunted house is the creative way it moves its visitors around. Expect to be squeezed from either side by a pair of inflatable ... somethings. Visitors also must crawl through a cylindrical tunnel, which rotates as you’re making your way through. Start down one hall and end up crawling by the end. Shifting walls and hanging distractions make the whole maze far more interesting than just a stumble through the dark. But the fact that it is a stumble, that there is no guide to lead you through, makes it all the more fun — and terrifying. And it begins quickly with a room that’s set up to lead you to a false exit where you’re cornered right away.
My only complaint is that one of the better features from a previous trip is gone this year. It was one of the more memorable scares of two years ago and involved having to crawl and being forced to look down, only to meet a very unexpected surprise. Truly epic. Still, Torture Chamber is in top form, and worth its admission price for a good fright. (sw)
ZOMBIEVILLE
1216 River St., Benton
Open 6-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 6-10 p.m., Sunday; and 6-11 p.m. Halloween.
Admission: $10
Kid-friendly
Scare factor: 4
Enter Zombieville, a fun haunted house in Benton with a cinematic premise: On a peaceful fall day, the local chemical plant had a major spill that seeped through the entire town. The area was quarantined because of the chemical’s effects on the populous, i.e. rotting flesh, moans and growls and outstretched zombie arms.
Now, dare to enter the quarantined town and venture through its undead scenery. Just expect to encounter a ton of zombies along the way.
The Benton Area Chamber of Commerce aimed to provide a family-friendly haunted house with an emphasis on safety. Small groups of attendees are led through the various rooms by trained “guards.” If any children get too scared, guards can usher them to a large hallway that is easily accessible from any part of the haunted tour.
Despite the low scare rating, Zombieville is elaborately spooky. Southwest Designs created a variety of intricate landscapes, which includes the chemical spill area, a zombie-staffed hospital and a cemetery with zombies rising from their graves. The town’s slaughterhouse is the creepiest room, as it features a crazed zombie cutting up severed limbs with a meat saw. Yummy.
Attendees should expect some creep-ups from the zombie actors, but for the most part the zombies are slow and groaning, just like in the movies.
The actors wear professional-grade makeup for a realistic and impressive zombie costume. It is apparent that the zombies take their role seriously, which makes this experience more like a scary movie than just another haunted house. (wh)
SCIMITAR SHRINERS TEMPLE OF TERROR
1 Scimitar Circle, Interstate 30 Frontage Road, Little Rock
7 p.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 7 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.
Admission: $10
Teen-friendly
Scare factor: 6
For this haunted house, you might want to show up early. This reviewer arrived at opening time on a Saturday and waited an hour to enter the haunted house. But the Shriners make waiting easy with rows of chairs, which means no standing, except to move up in the line of chairs and then sit down again.
The waiting area had two TVs showing people as they went through the haunted house. This was likely supposed to build anticipation, but 85 percent of the time, there was nothing to see. Occasionally an actor would address the waiting crowd and say something like, “You want a piece of this? I’m coming for you!”
Once inside, the Temple of Terror featured mostly jump-scares and individual scenes designed to prey on broad fears like clowns, spiders, snakes, mad surgeons, insane asylums, being eaten by a monster, etc.
Actors were stationed throughout to make things more animated. Honestly the scariest part of all was a white room dimly lit and filled with white, fake smoke. The exit from this room was impossible to find. I’ll admit, I got kind of panicked. The guide kept telling us not to breathe in the smoke, but I believe asking someone to avoid inhaling is not the most practical solution.
Finally, we made it out alive.
When we weren’t walking through horrific rooms, we were dealing with random shots of compressed air on our legs, unexpected blow horn noises and very (very!) tight tunnels. This house is good for a fun scare, and plenty of folks in the waiting room brought their preteen kids. It took about 20 minutes to navigate. (mt)
EMOBA'S HAUNTED CATHEDRAL
1224 Louisiana St., Little Rock
Open through Halloween starting at 7:30 p.m. each night. Closes at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, midnight Friday through Sunday, and 10:30 p.m. Halloween night.
Admission: $15 per person weekday nights, and $20 per person weekend nights.
Teen-friendly
Scare Factor: 7
It’s the 18th edition of what has become perhaps central Arkansas’ longest running haunted ... err, cathedral. And though it’s been around for a long time, the cathedral is anything but staid. Sure, Egor, Emoba’s “sleeping giant,” is still lurking inside, and seems more of a gentle giant rather than a blood-thirsty ogre, but the real fear inside the historic First Baptist Church in downtown Little Rock is the fear of the unknown. Animatronics might propel a giant spider or chained mental patient at visitors, sudden screams might ring out and a live actor dressed as Jason Voorhees might slowly follow you inside the smoke-filled rooms, but the truly scary part of Emoba’s Haunted Cathedral is the pitch blackness of some of the rooms. More than once, visitors will find themselves blanketed in darkness, bumping into walls. Is there a boogeyman in the dark? Perhaps. All visitors can do is go forward and hope for the best. Plus, some rooms are nothing more than passages through tight inflatable walls, and who knows what or who might suddenly reach out from the darkness.
Some scare seekers might balk at the admission prices, but it’s worth it because the money goes toward the Museum of Black Arkansans and Performing Arts Center, and the whole tour is around 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how quickly you run through the cathedral. And the scares are worth the price of admission.
A few tips: Wear shoes with good treads (no heels) because some of the ramps are slick, there are stairs throughout and one room has “bouncy” boards as a floor. Also, the flashing lights inside and two walkways through spinning cylinders might give some people vertigo. Older children should be okay going through with parents. (ss)
FEAR FACTORY HAUNTED HOUSE
25120 Arkansas 107, Jacksonville
Open through Halloween from 7 p.m. to midnight
Admission: $10
Teen-friendly
Scare Factor: 8
One of the scarier aspects of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was its middle-of-nowhere setting. The same goes for the Fear Factory Haunted House, which is located in a metal warehouse-type building north of the crossroads community of Macon at the intersection of Arkansas 107 and West Republican Road just outside of Jacksonville. So it’s in the country, much like that rundown house in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and that adds a little to the creepiness factor. (Rural location aside, it’s run by professionals who are nice, and it’s right down the road from barbecue restaurant Smokin’ Buns so if you visit, make a date of it.)
But how scary is it? Well, that motionless man in black in the corner? He’s real, and he’s coming after you as are about two dozen or so other live actors in this terrifying haunted house filled with pitch-dark passages, twisting mazes, tight halls and enough frights to earn its $10 admission price.
Fear Factory does a nice job of letting thrill seekers bump into the live actors, who remain motionless until the last moment, casting doubt in the mind of visitors if they are real or just props. But once the actors are illuminated by a sudden strobe of light and “come alive,” they are out to get you, not chasing or lunging at visitors, but silently and scarily walking behind visitors much like slow-moving slasher stars such as Michael Myers. So consider the man with the blade behind you your tour guide, shepherding you into the next darkened room. But not all the rooms feature live actors. Some rooms are completely empty, creating the ultimate fear: the fear of the unknown. Fear Factory also has a nice collection of animatronics.
It’s advisable only teens and older visit Fear Factory, and the claustrophobic and people affected by strobe lights might want to take a pass. P.S. Bring your running shoes as the whole tour takes about 15 minutes to 20 minutes, but you’ll be running out the door. (ss)
TAVERN OF TERROR
Fourth and Poplar streets (the old Checkmate Club), North Little Rock
7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 7 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 7 p.m. to close on Halloween.
Admission: $10
Kid-friendly, but pretty jumpy
Scare factor: 7.5
While Tavern of Terror is a clever name for the North Little Rock Police Athletic League’s haunted house located in the old Checkmate club in Argenta, don’t expect to get carded at the door. In fact, the house is staffed by several children and is relatively kid-friendly. No gory guts and blood. No murder or suicide scenes. Just good old-fashioned and highly effective assault by surprise. It’s the startle factor that gives it a high score of 7.5 on our scare scale.
Tavern of Terror’s structure can be compared to a really complex video game. As you stroll from room to room, the guide will call out the name of each chamber you enter beginning with the cornfield. The cornfield is a great introduction to the absolute intricacy of this house. Every room is dressed to the nines in décor matching its theme, and the cornfield, decked out in real cornstalks, is possibly the most beautiful. It also provides the perfect hiding place for lurking enemies. Nature is your enemy again in another room when a pile of leaves provides cover for attackers. The whole whopping three levels (including a basement) of Tavern of Terror are staffed by dozens of scare-hungry actors hiding behind every corner. So, high-strung visitors get ready for ambush after ambush. The especially anxious should prepare for light touching, harmless but startling projectiles and the occasional creepy crawler.
While many haunted houses rely on strobe lights to disorient victims, Tavern of Terror depends on utter darkness and shreds of black plastic dangling from the ceilings of twisting mazes. You never know what could be hiding around the next turn. The darkness can be tricky when mastering the numerous stairs, so step carefully and use the railings or latch on to the nearest buddy if you’re not already desperately holding onto her for dear life. (sb)