Haunted House NYC: Fairy Tales

In the spirit of the Halloween season, my friends and I went to a haunted house on Friday night. Of the many there are this month, we attended one of the slightly cheaper houses - Nightmare: Fairy Tales in the Lower East Side on Suffolk Street.


Having experienced different incarnations of this haunted house (I also did the vampire one; see my review here), I wondered what the creator, Timothy Haskell, had in store for us this year.
Some of you may or may not know, but it takes a whole to scare me. I don't know if it's because I enjoy the thrill so much, I'm looking to be petrified where I am truly scared. Or perhaps because I know these are actors trying to scare me or the fact that I also worked on horror movies in which nothing to me is real.

Every time I enter one of these haunted houses, I know it's for fun but there's a part of me really seeking an adrenaline rush, like when you ride a rollercoaster.

When I arrived at the theater, there was eighties metal music playing. As I recall, "Danger Zone" was playing by Kenny Loggins. I noticed the pun ("danger") and I couldn't recall the other songs but mostly rock. Not to mention that Jeepers Creepers 2 was playing in the bar area (so tiny) prior to entering the haunted house. I expected creepier decorations but it was low key. When my friends and I stood on line, Rapunzel provided us with blindfolds but not before we were given cards to write down our biggest fears. What worked about this house was how small our group was - we were a total of seven vs. fourteen or bigger.

Again, because I don't scare easily, the grabbing, touching, and growling taking place while walking in the dark didn't phase me. Maybe because I was also a little buzzed from that one glass of wine (or not) prior to entering the house, could have done the trick.

Some of the costumes were great and the makeup - really impressive. What was different this time as well was going through the house where you run into Rumpelstilskin and then you have to go back the way you came (which is scarier) to a second part of the experience. This was interesting. It was an experiment in which a group of folks talk about fear. Many interesting things ensue (don't want to give everything away) and I was left feeling entertained for the night.

For those who scare easy, you'll be petrified. For those like me that aren't prone to being frightened, it'll be fun for the ride.