It had been a cloudy blustery day in the grand Steel city. A day intended for hot toddy's, horror movies, and "grown up" cider. That can only mean as the sun sunk low beyond the horizon it was time to choose a haunted house. Pittsburgh is not lacking for choices when it comes to ways to scare yourself at night. (I'm not even talking about the parade of horrors on the Southside or the underage drunk college kids screaming in Oakland.) In all the options my group of four decided to try a haunted house that was brand new. I realize that this can mean a subpar haunt, but I'm willing to chance it.
Parking in the Strip District on the weekend is still dicey, (I don't know why I thought that dropped off in the 90's, maybe because I haven't hung out down there since the 90's.) but even with a larger vehicle we found a spot. There is absolutely no line outside, like with other haunted houses. Just a sandwich board type sign, an attendant, and a police officer (which was a surprise).
The attendant instructed us in a very non-spooky way to just head down the steps. Once downstairs, the lights are low and a greenish blue color, the air somewhat fog-smokey. Tickets were 17$ a person which seems to be standard fare for a haunted house general admission. Inside the building we found the queue.
Pallets nailed together to look like the sorts of passageways cattle are lead through in a slaughter house. They had a small flat screen television playing the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A few actors came out to interact with the crowd, one was great and doing just the sorts of things that key up an audience the other just sort of stood behind you and most of the time he moved on before you even knew he had been there. The woman who ran down the rules didn't stay in character very well, and this was a theme throughout the attraction.
They do have a nice large space, some of the rooms are huge and sprawling with some really interesting pieces like old grocery store equipment, cases for meat, etc. There is even a school bus inside this basement haunted house.
It has potential. That's the only real compliment I have for them. It's not there yet. If they can maintain this space all year, work on the look of each room, fine tune it from kitschy to horrific, hire more actors, and talk to them about focus and the theme of their character it could become another one of Pittsburgh's great haunted houses.
For now though, it's just some stumbling, some incredibly awkward talk about every girl being a "nice piece of meat that (I) can't wait to eat," a few startling scares, and at least one if not two juggalos. read more
