My Favorite Haunted Attraction of the Last Three Years, Fear Fair, Gets Even Bigger in 2012!
Good Evening, Haunt Fans, it’s The Phantom of the Ville here with a preview of one the best haunted houses I’ve ever experienced. Several years ago I had the opportunity to spend a weekend at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights where professional theme park designers build big budget haunts inside actual film stages, and it’s my opinion that among all the local haunted attractions, Fear Fair comes the closest to delivering both the scale and the creativity of those mega-budget haunts. Somehow they do it with an all volunteer cast and crew, even using part of the profits to build school playgrounds and help the local community.
I first visited Fear Fair three years ago on a whim. I think I saw their booth at a local horror film convention. Located in The Freeman Municipal Airport at 800 A Avenue in Seymour, IN., Fear Fair is a little bit of a drive from Louisville. It takes about an hour to make the journey from the lights of downtown Louisville to the sleepy little town of Seymour, so not everyone in the Ville is aware of the this haunt fan mecca, but it’s more than worth the drive. Ever since I came running out the exit into the parking lot three years ago, I’ve been trying to get the word out about this haunt, and this year a massive new addition puts Fear Fair over the top.
Back in August, I sat down with Fear Fair’s own Dr. Frankenstein, Brett Hays, to talk about the history and inspiration he had for the haunt which is located inside an old WWII Army Barracks. You can read about it here:http://www.louisvillehalloween.com/learn-what-it-takes-to-actually-haunt-a-house-at-fear-camp/ .
Fear Fair has always incorporated local history into their haunt and this year they’ve decided to use the WWII barracks as Hangar 19 to kick-start your amazing journey into terror. You’ll be immediately dropped into a war zone as soldiers are battling a giant, roaring monster right out of a scene from “Cloverfield” just as you pass the sliding entryway door. The adrenaline starts pumping as automatic gunfire and mortars explode around you. You’ll be rushed onto an awaiting train (an actual historic train car) and then put through decontamination before you’ll even be able to wrap your mind around the experience. This is just the first act in Fear Fear’s interactive scream-play. Be prepared for a physically active experience because the twisted maze you’ll traverse is like a living M.C. Escher lithograph. You’ll go up and up stairs, down into tunnels, outside, inside, through tight spaces and low ceilings and back up again before it’s over.
The second act has you coming across the theater marquee for “The Fear Fair Film Festival.” You’ll pass the ticket booth and the concession stand to enter a movie theater full of creeps and ghouls watching a horror movie projected on the silver screen. In one of Fear Fair’s signature creative scenes, you’ll pass right through the movie screen into a bright white light and when you come out on the other side, you’ll be inside the movies themselves. A lot of haunts pay homage to the horror movies we love, but no other haunt I’ve ever seen puts as much work into re-creating the actual film sets from each movie. Before each scene, you’ll find a clapboard slate telling you which movie set you’re about to enter as well as information about the film’s director and year of release.
The first scene you’ll be transported to is a cornfield where you’ll encounter the Creeper from “Jeepers Creepers” before being chased through the school bus seen in the sequel. Then you’ll hear the strains of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” score as you enter the childhood home of Michael Myers. This is Rob Zombie’s version of “Halloween,” and you’ll pass through the early scenes of the movie right through the climatic old house set. You’ll pass through the Insane Asylum scene from “The Wolfman,” including the sadistic chair used to plunge patients into ice water for “treatment” before encountering the beast itself. You’ll find some of the horror movie classics here too, including the most elaborate Frankenstein’s Castle and lab set I’ve ever seen. All kinds of gizmos flash and buzz, and when Dr. Frankenstein flips the switch you’ll see the largest Tesla Coil ever built for a haunted attraction. This contraption is around twelve feet tall and shoots huge lightning bolts that light up the room.
You’ll then pass through a series of scenes from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series from bedrooms to classrooms with “endless hallways” to one infamous bathroom scene all the way to Freddy’s boiler room. You’ll be threatened by Jigsaw as you pass a number of unfortunate souls in deadly traps from the “Saw” series before you must face Jigsaw’s judgment in one of Fear Fair’s signature scenes. In this scene, groups will be split up into boys and girls for an experiment involving a one-way mirror that I can’t spoil here!
Next you’ll go outside into a Summer Camp scene past the Camp Crystal Lake sign where you’ll find trees, cabins, canoes and tents as the refrains of Henry Manfredini’s “Ki, Ki, Ma, Ma” theme echoes in the distance. I must give Fear Fair props for re-creating an infamous sleeping bag gag from the 2009 “Friday the 13th” remake. You’ll have to pass through the incredibly realistic mine shaft from “My Bloody Valentine” and face the killer miner before entering a fun-house type of maze full of dummy Ghostface killers (Are they all dummies?) from the “Scream” franchise to the refrain of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand.”
It’s not over yet. This year’s new addition to the movie & TV scenes includes a tribute to AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” Most other haunts across the country also include a Walking Dead scene, usually involving a gaggle of actors in zombie makeup. Not all other haunts BUILD THE ENTIRE CITY OF ATLANTA in their backyard! This massive set-piece will take you through the zombie infested city streets of Atlanta as seen in the first season of “The Walking Dead,” from abandoned pawn shops and clothing stores through a hospital where you’ll find Rick Grimes battling Walkers, and then into the graffiti covered back alleys. Brett Hays went as far as buying in an actual fire escape from a building planned for demolition and bringing it back across country to make his mock buildings look more realistic. It worked!
Even after fleeing the city and escaping the Walkers, you’re not out the woods yet. You’ll find you’re only escape is through Pinhead’s puzzle box which leads straight through the boondocks of Travis County, Texas and an encounter with the infamous Sawyer clan.
I’ve enjoyed all the local haunted attractions that Kentuckiana has had to offer this year, and any haunted house you choose to visit will offer its own unique charms and scares, but the overwhelming experience created by Brett Hays and his amazing crew goes above and beyond the call to scare and entertain and takes the homage of horror cinema to another level. I can fully endorse Fear Fair in Seymour, IN as my favorite haunt of 2012.
Fear Fair will be open this weekend from Friday through Sunday, October 12th through the 14th. Friday and Saturday the hours are from 8PM until 1AM. Sunday the hours are from 8PM until 10PM. The following two weeks they will be open from Thursday through Sunday, October 18th through the 21st and October 25th through the 28th. Thursday night shows will be known as “Myctophobia,” which means a lights out journey carrying only a glow stick! The hours for Myctophobia are from 8PM until Midnight. The Friday and Saturday hours are from 8PM until 1AM and the Sunday hours are from 8PM until 10PM. They will also be open on Halloween night, a Wednesday this year, from 8PM until 10PM. The cost of entry is $15, $20 for a front of the line Fast Pass or $25 for admission and a Fear Fair t-shirt.
