Local haunted houses given Cardinal Grades

By Sarah Weller

By Sarah Weller

Assistant Focus Editor

** The Haunted Hotel

South 4th Street, Louisville

With its complete inside reconstruction and the interjection of scary movie serial killers, the Haunted Hotel is among the best that I have seen this year. Plenty of psychos jumping out to scare you and creepy music to make you afraid to keep walking ahead. Beginning with a tribute to Pinhead, the infamous demon from the Hellraiser movies, you immediately know you are in for a thrilling ride. It’s a little on the short side, but still worth it.

Cardinal Grade: A-

** Nightmare Forest

16600 Dixie Highway, Louisville

Don’t let the name fool you. This is not the same Nightmare Forest that devoted Louisvillians go to for probably the best scare of their lives. No longer at Otter Creek, yet still costing $15, the Nightmare Forest name moved to a dump of what was Gates of Madness last year. No more Jason Voorhees coming up out of the water or walking onto the Freddy Krueger bus. This forest is too overloaded with strobe lighting, narrow passageways, and not enough scary actors. Not frightening, not fun, not anything special.

Cardinal Grade: F

** Industrial Nightmare

Spring Street, Jeffersonville, IN

Strikingly similar to the Haunted Hotel, but longer, Industrial Nightmare, located in Indiana, has always been a fan favorite. Last year, however, haunted house-goers were disappointed with the overall operation of Industrial Nightmare and the deletion of the maze located at the end of the haunted factory. This year, they’ve earned back their reputation, and have even added a basement feature for an extra $5, The Asylum, where vicious mental patients try and claim your sanity! This was the must-see Haunted House of the year.

Cardinal Grade: A+

** The Forest; Otter Creek Park

Better than Nightmare Forest, but still a disappointment from the original, this forest was at least worth seeing once. The parts with scenes from horror movies were pretty good, but since when was Lord of the Rings scary? And we’re still missing Jason coming up out of Otter Creek; that was classic. Basically, they took the old Nightmare Forest, cut it in half and moved it to the other side of the park. What was even more disappointing was the missing large movie screen where you could watch your favorite Halloween movies like Scream or A Nightmare on Elm Street. But the Movie Maniacs Monster Maze at the end with Freddy, Jason, Michael, and Leatherface was pretty good.

Cardinal Grade: C

** Field of Screams

Darnell Avenue

A haunted corn field sounded like a good idea. An annoying idea. After spending a considerable amount of time in the maze, you begin to wonder why you paid $10 to make yourself and your friends feel stupid. The freaks in the maze were somewhat frightening, but only made things harder. There were some people who got pretty startled, but unless you’re supersensitive, this attraction won’t do anything for you. One can only hope they will either come up with a better idea next year or go back to the way things were last year.

Cardinal Grade: D

Though most haunted houses have closed for the year, more information about these and other events, like Waverly Hills Sanatorium and Baxter Avenue Morgue, can be found by checking out www.nightmarenetwork.com, www.hauntedkentucky.com, and www.hauntedlouisville.com.