Two excellent, and very popular Halloween season haunted houses that I frequented as a kid in the late 70's and early 80's were the House on Haunted Hill in Kimmswick MO, and The County Morgue which was literally just down the highway one exit in Barnhart MO. Both were really well done and totally terrifying to walk through for an easily spookable, pre-Karswell youngin'. Someday I'll do a more in-depth post about them both, but in the meantime, here's a great old ticket I found for House on Haunted Hill the other day, featuring a really cool illustration and a funny little warning about being a negligent idiot. The County Morgue "Death Certificate" tacked on at the end of this post is something I've had for over 40 years now, obtained upon entry into what I remember being the absolute scariest haunted house ever! And boy, did I ever earn that certificate! If anyone out there reading this post has any fond memories of either or both haunted houses that they would like to share, please do!
6 comments:
Nice advertising!
Back when I was in MI (which has one of the bigger haunts around, the Niles Scream Park), there was a Farmer's Friday in Coloma MI that had it's own super cheap year round haunt, "The Haunted Fun Barn."
Can't find any information on the web, it closed decades ago, but it was a regular farm store that had masks on the walls, a organ playing skeleton, and a pretty tame "things in windows" walk through. One of the neatest, weird, kind of 50s throwback holes in the wall attractions.
I am really looking forward to learning more about these places. I didn't really have a go-to haunted house when I was a kid. Seasonally, in the fall, there were naturally all kinds of hay rides and stuff, and sometimes that would include a tricked-out barn or something. And of course, every summer there was Castle Dracula at the beach, but that was rally more of a wax museum (not complaining, though... Frankenstein hung out nightly on the castle's torchlit drawbridge to hand out flyers). But I was a twentysomething before I remember seeing regular haunted attractions pop-up at Halloween, usually in the mall or out in the woods somewhere. And they were usually fun but lame, you know?
Neat find.
One of my favorite "haunted" attractions was at the now-defunct Rockhome gardens, an Amish amusement park in central Illinois. It had standard Funni-Frite type gags and jokes, as well as a cyclops calf. The park also had a horse-powered buzz saw and performing chickens. An odd place, but fun to visit.
Little Amerricka in Marshall, Wi also still operates an old-school haunted walk-through. That park is extremely cool because it is a complete throwback to 50's parks and is literally right next to a cemetery. It looks like a perfect setting a Scooby-doo episode.
One of my all time favorite childhood memories (I think I was in 6th grade or had maybe just started junior high at this point), was at The County Morgue. The whole vibe of the place was so fun and eerie, this dilapidated old abandoned motel on a steep, dark hillside, surrounded by gnarly fall trees, and loud rock music blaring from hidden speakers (because the haunted house itself was sponsored by our local rock 'n roll radio station, K-SHE 95.) Anyway, it was an unusually cool, very damp night, and I'm not sure how long we waited in line, but we were all seriously shiverin' to death when it was finally our turn to enter. And I'm not sure how far into the actual house we were when this brilliantly staged scare scenario took place: we rounded a dark corner to suddenly face a long white hallway with bright red blood dripping down the walls on both sides. When I say "dripping", it probably wasn't, but the flickering strobe affect made it look like the blood was actually pouring out of the cracks, --you definitely didn't want to touch it! We started down the hall slowly, with about 20-25 feet left to get to the very end where it actually appeared to just dead end. But the strobe had created yet another optical affect, and there actually was a turn at the end to the right, you just couldn't see it. But then a bloody hand slowly eek'd out, motioning with a curled finger for us to keep coming down the hall towards it. Of course we all stopped in our tracks and tried to go backwards away from it, but the people behind us who hadn't seen it yet were still pushing forward. From around the corner at the end of the hallway someone covered in a white morgue shroud, and completely covered with blood, suddenly came into view, limping towards us. We were at the front of the people pushing from behind us, so we were absolutely the first ones that were going to die, haha... closer... closer... then the strobe light went out, plunging us into pitch blackness, which made everything even more terrifying as the thing coming at us had only been just a few steps away. Screams! The light came back on and the shrouded thing was gone (I'm guessing it had slipped through a hidden panel in the middle of the hall) creating a really wonderful, super spooky disappearing affect. We ran down the rest of the hall around the corner screaming our heads off! I'm sure the rest of the haunted house was just as scary and creative, but that one great moment is still and forever etched in my lil monster kid brain. Kudos to the people who put The County Morgue together that year, and HUGE props to the actor in the bloody shroud! You gave me nightmares for many years to come! :)
"But then a bloody hand slowly eek'd out..."
Damn, that's a great story.
>Damn, that's a great story.
You should've been there so we could share in the traumatizin'! Haha
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