I went to one called HellsGate last night. It was heavily hyped because the team behind it put together a very popular attraction in the past called Statesville Haunted Prison. It's in the middle of the woods and you need to take a bus to get to it.
It was beautiful, full of great little details and you can tell the people behind it really love what they do. The actors were a bit disappointing. Too few and far between and the ones working the line outside the house were a bit too casual and silly for my taste. Jokes and selfies don't really get me hyped when I'm waiting to go into a haunted house. Some creeper standing in the shadows staring at random customers for ten minutes at a time is better.
But I'm willing to chalk some of that up to it being the opening night. They'll have some time to find their groove.
Some friends and I are also driving across the state to the Raven's Grin Inn. A few of us went four years back and it's a very special experience. It doesn't subscribe to the typical "maniac with a chainsaw" vibe. The house is huge, very old, and has a long, storied history (it was a school, speakeasy, hospital, private residence, etc.). It's $15 for a 90-minute experience and you get this crazy, quirky tour through the house, down 100-foot slides from the attic into the cellars, through tunnels cut into the rocks beneath the house, etc. It's a great piece of storytelling, less contrived spooks and more of an odd atmosphere, performance, and real-life ghost lore.
