Never have been. Maybe it’s because I didn’t see the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s “It,” the source of many contemporary clown fears, until my 20s. Maybe it’s because I was exposed to the actual artform of theatrical clowning as a teenager, shaping my opinion of the clown as performer. Maybe my fears just run a little more towards traditional terrors.
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This past Sunday, I was in the computer cluster with Megan Jones, and we were discussing how we really want to go to a haunted house or a corn maze. We looked into various nearby haunted houses, when Jordon Bolden overheard our conversation and suggested ScareHouse. He talked about how you need to sign a consent form to do the Basement portion, and I remember thinking that was kind of weird. After reading this article, however, it makes perfect sense. I can not wait to go see this! I am scared of literally everything, so after this I probably will not be able to sleep for a few months, but at least I'll get a lot of work done. It is so exciting that we have one of the best haunted houses in the country right here in Pittsburgh! I can not believe I did not hear about this place last year, since it has been so well known for so long. I love that all of the actors are really committed to their roles, making the haunted experience more genuinely terrifying than just goofy and spooky.
I love scary things, but I do get very upset with sexually terrifying material. I would rather be touched and tousled and tied up than watch anything sexually violent happen in front of me, so that kind of puts me off the ScareHouse. I am okay with clowns mostly, while I do find them creepy (especially with the clowns in the woods!) I would almost be excited to see that part. I hope that if we get tickets, the sexual violence doesn't ruin the experience for me!
One time, I went to a pretty alright haunted house. It did not have us sign a waiver to touch us. At one point, we were all moving through the place, holding hands, the likes, and I was on the end. The actor behind me touched my back and my arm whipped around and I smacked him pretty hard. I apologized as I ran away. Don't touch me! If we end up going to the ScareHouse, they better know I am not gonna take the touches lightly! I am a fighter!! Come and get me, Happy!!!!
I'm so excited to go to the ScareHouse!! Like Claire said, we spent a lot of time researching different haunted corn mazes and houses before Jordan told us to look into it. The Basement portion might be a little too intense for me with the blindfolding, but it does sound like a really cool idea. Not being able to see what's happening and where your going makes the experience both immersive and terrifying. From the videos and pictures I've seen the production value and effort put into ScareHouse is really impressive. On their website they mention "lights on" tours where you can go in and see how they run the house. Unfortunately none of these dates work with my schedule, but next year I'm definitely going to check it out. At home we don't have any haunted houses that even come close to this, but I have to say I'm disappointed about the lack of corn mazes in Pittsburgh. If anyone knows of a good one please let me know.
When it comes to terror, I am a big fat cry-baby chicken. Even commercials of bad horror films scare me and leave me with nightmares. So why did I decide to read this article about a horror attraction with probably one of the most creepiest things in the world, a manic clown? I have no idea. But I’m both glad and dreading that I did, because I really liked the article. I am all for interactive performance, and the idea of being put into a situation where I am manipulated into feeling things really interests me. I mean that is one of the reasons why people do theatre, right? We try to convey different situations on stage and reach out to the audience, to make them feel angry, sad, happy, confused. In a way, it is sort of sadistic. So something like this Basement horror attraction is its own performance, but where you are physically interacting with the horror instead of it being a good distance from you. And who doesn’t like to poke and prod at the idea of insanity??? Will I go to this… I don’t think so… maybe if I felt stupidly brave, but it sure seems really interesting to experience.
I don't know if I could do this. I went to Cutting Edge haunted house in Dallas, which is like the longest in the world, and I almost peed myself every room, and they weren't allowed to touch you or personally insult you, only taunt you. If someone were to personally target me in a haunted house, while I simultaneously am being shocked and prodded... hell no, that's like you asking for torture. I like to get scared in a controlled environment, but with the combination of pain and fear I really don't think I could handle that.
Personally, I am not really afraid of clowns, either. I wasn't traumatized by It as a kid, either. They're just people in makeup. I'm a person in makeup everyday and I don't scare myself. But it's good that they're capitalizing on everyone else's fear of clowns this year. With teens dressing up like clowns, and making threatening twitter accounts saying they'll come to schools, its a perfect fear to cash in on. And the clowns haven't truly harmed anyone in this bizarre stream of sightings, except a few attempted assaults by college kids on other college kids dressed as clowns. So, yes it may be a real threat, but not horrific enough to truly scare or trigger people. Like for me, my huge fear in life are terrorists? I'm not sure that they would have a terrorist room. But clowns are real without being a real enough threat that they're a perfect scare tactic.
As someone who was too scared to go into the Haunted House at Disneyland, I could never go to the Basement attraction described in this article. However, I always find articles like this interesting because I can know what happens in haunted houses without having to actually visit it. I do think that haunted houses are intriguing in that they are interactive theater. Although it is more frequently found with theme parks and roller coaster rides rather than next to a show, there are performers, there is a set that you walk around in, and there is a storyline. The fact that you get blindfolded, experience mild electric shocks and is placed in confined spaces isn't something that we frequently experience in traditional theater and I'm curious to know what the purpose or reason behind these choices are, but I'll probably never know because I'll never be brave enough to go to that haunted house.
I’ve never really been one for the horror scene at least by myself that is. The last haunted house I went to was with my brother, and it was alright. I guess part of what diluted that experience was the fact that there was a group in front of us that was going slower than everyone else, and so we saw what was about to happen to us, as it was currently happening to them. That said, much like theatre, it is all in the timing. I’ve never experienced a storyline quite like what this one is leading me to believe, but I guess there’s no good horror movie without a good backstory behind it. It doesn’t take much at this point, because there has already been so much frightening scenes in what looks like the first thirty minutes of the haunted house. It’s just a matter if you are willing to face your fears.
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