Climb the Dark Stairway into Louisville’s Most Haunted Attic
to Discover the Horrors in Store for Foolish Mortals in the Devil’s Attic this
Year!
(Photos by Jason Besemann)
Happy Fourth of July weekend, Haunt Fans, it’s The Phantom of the Ville back with another preview of what’s lurking in the shadows and ready to pounce on you this Halloween. This week I spoke with Jason Besemann, owner and operator of The Devil’s Attic located on West Hill Street. This year will mark the fourth season of scaring poor souls in Louisville for the Devil’s Attic, and the third season in its current location in the old Jobson Paint Company building.
“Owning the building really helps,” says Besemann, “because what I really love is adding detail.” In the first season of his haunt in a little strip mall in J-town, Besemann had to contend with a rental location that meant he had a very short time to build his haunt and then had to tear it down and store the sets in November. Now he has had three seasons in the same building to construct, expand and add detail to his haunt, and guests this year will really be able to tell the difference.
“We’ve added one completely new scene, but I don’t want to spoil it. I want people to be surprised by it,” says Besemann. “But we’ve also added a lot of new props and details to every scene.”
One of the new props Jason was willing to disclose to us is a gigantic animated vampire made by Distortions Unlimited, the Halloween and special effects company featured on the Travel Channel’s “Making Monsters.” Besemann says the animated vampire prop was one of the coolest things he saw at the Transworld Halloween & Attractions show this year, and he just had to have one for the Devil’s Attic. “Ultimately, it’s just eye candy. It’s a distraction that will get people’s attention while a real actor will deliver the scare from another direction!”
“We’ve also added an LED Jacob’s Ladder to our Frankenstein’s Lab scene,” says the giddy Besemann.
When pressed about the horror movies he has seen this year that have inspired his haunt, Besemann points to the new “Evil Dead” re-make and, especially, “Mama.” There’s an area in the Devil’s Attic he calls “the ghost hallway,” in which some of the imagery from “Mama” will be worked into the theme.
“I see this attraction as a form of art,” expresses Besemann. The detailed set design, the costumes, the make-up and the performances of his actors are a kind of interactive art to Besemann and his customers complete the puzzle to become part of a living artwork that constantly changes with each group that enters the front door.
“This year we will also have live entertainment every weekend to keep people involved in the haunt while they’re in line. We’ve always had line actors out there interacting with the crowd, but this year it will be more elaborate. There will be five skits performed per hour.”
Besemann has also come up with an idea that he hopes will connect the haunt community more often during the entire year. He is currently programing a series of Devil’s Double Feature nights that take place on the last Saturday night of each month at Solidarity at 1609 Bardstown Rd. “Anybody can come,” he says. “But it started as a way to get folks who work in haunted houses all across the city to come together and discuss the industry and watch some great horror films together.” The next Devil’s Double Feature will take place on Saturday, July 27th (doors open at 7:30 PM and the movies will start around 8 PM) and will focus on independent animated horror. The features are “Heart String Marionette” and “Where the Dead Go to Die.” A $5 donation gets you both movies on a 101 inch HD screen and THX sound and FREE popcorn! If you want a chance to talk to Jason Besemann yourself, and find out more about what’s in store for the Devil’s Attic in 2013, this is the time and place to do it!
Have a bloody good Fourth of July weekend, my fiends, and I will be back soon with many more previews of the best haunts in the Kentuckiana area.
