Louisville Halloween gets an EXCLUSIVE preview of the new “Walking Dead” and “Texas Chainsaw” scenes built to lock down your nerves at Fear Fair this Halloween!
According to the results I’m seeing from our recent 2014 Haunted Attraction Poll (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVBP7GN) , nearly 75% of you say that you would drive at least an hour to experience a haunt that you heard was really, really good. Well, Fear Fair, in the quaint little town of Seymour, IN is just under an hour’s drive from the city lights of downtown Louisville, and it’s really, really great.
I’ve been the town crier for Fear Fair here in the Ville for the last five years. By far one of the most elaborate haunted attractions I have ever experienced, Fear Fair is the labor of Halloween love of Seymour lawyer, Brett Hays, who spends thousands of hours all year long working to make his haunted attraction worthy of recognition far from the city streets of Seymour.
Last Sunday I was driving back to Louisville from the HorrorHound Weekend in Indianapolis, and I decided to stop by Seymour on the way home just to see what changes I could see from the outside of Fear Fair at 800 A Avenue East. Of course, Brett Hays was there, receiving a brand new shipment of animatronic monsters from a major FX studio and working to put the finishing touches on the new “Walking Dead” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” scenes.
Hays operates Fear Fair as a volunteer, non-profit organization that uses its income to benefit the city of Seymour and over the years has built public playgrounds and done other charitable work for the city. It also puts a great deal of its profit right back into the haunt. This year, Hays built a completely new dressing room for his actors and make-up effects wizards and I was able to snap a few pictures to give you a little behind-the-scenes tour. Just check out the incredible sound cabinet behind etched glass with the Fear Fair logo on it. For a non-profit haunt, this is one high tech haunted attraction!
Last year, Fear Fair introduced the town of Silent Hill to the haunt. It includes the church and all the twisted, demonic freaks that come out after dark, including armless things that spit venom at customers and creatures that climb along the walls after them. Many of these props were built exclusively for Fear Fair by major Halloween FX companies.
A couple of years prior to that, Fear Fair introduced “The Walking Dead” by building the entire city of Atlanta in its backyard. There are hospitals, drugstores, clothing stores, streets and alleyways. All of those scenes are a tribute to the zombie drama’s first season, but this year Hays has updated the city to include the prison depicted in Season Four.
You’ll have to pass the guard towers and make your way through the cell block where Rick Grimes and his group of survivors called home before the Governor drove a tank through their gates and let an army of walkers into their midst. Expect surprises from above and below as you attempt to survive the battle of the prison.
Fear Fair has also completely torn down and rebuilt a new, multi-level “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” finale for its haunt this season. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old scene, but it was one of the longest existing scenes at Fear Fair that hadn’t been significantly altered over the years, and Hays insists, “Every once in a while, you’ve got to freshen up even your favorite scenes just to keep it new” for returning customers.
Along with the new scenes, you will also experience the giant monster attack on Hangar 17 and the Fear Fair grindhouse movie theater that transports customers into the movie screen where they are forced to live out their worst cinematic nightmares. These screen accurate scenes include Frankenstein’s laboratory with the biggest, sparking (real!) tesla coil you’ve ever seen in a haunt, Rob Zombie’s “Halloween,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Saw,” an outdoor Camp Crystal Lake for “Friday the 13th” and many, many more.
Fear Fair opens next weekend, Friday through Sunday, September 19 – 21, and will be open Friday, Saturday and Sundays through Halloween. If you’ve never experienced Fear Fair before, take the advice of The Phantom of the Ville and make Halloween 2014 the first of what will likely become an annual Halloween tradition.
