Summary:

Kicking off the tour, the rules of the haunted house were conveyed to patrons by a decapitated animated head.  While it was very entertaining, the rules were a bit hard to understand, due to the fact that the volume was set fairly low and the soundtrack sounded a bit garbled.  After the rules intro, the tour continued down a flight of stairs, into an array of graphic scenes and several dark areas.  The Basement of the Dead has always been well-known for their gore and disgusting scenes, and this year is no exception.

Some of the scenes in the haunted house were a grimy bathroom, a snake hallway and an electrocution.  The bathroom had feces-smeared tile walls, a dirty sink and a bathtub that had been lined with old newspapers.  Above the sink was a nice visual effect of a ghoul appearing in the mirror.  This snake hallway featured cages full of snakes on either side of the path, that hissed as we walked by.  Three animatronic electric chairs were set up along the wall in the electrocution scene.  While an actor was there to provide a scare, unfortunately he gave himself away by moving, before a surprise attack could be made.  In the devil scene, a red pentagram projection rotated on the wall, as Satan sat in a chair, chanting in gibberish.

Other scenes featured body parts and other disgusting things, including a zombie girl on top of a dead body, eating its intestines.  In one area, there was an animated character vomiting into a 55 gallon drum.  It was a great affect with a nice soundtrack, but no attempt was made to hide the amplified speaker in the scene.  The speaker with a glowing LED indicator light was in plain view, next to the 55 gallon drum.  Throughout the attraction, strobe lights were used in a lot of areas to create a disorienting atmosphere.  The second half of the attraction had a lot of very dark hallways.  

There seem to be an adequate number of actors inside the attraction on the night that I attended; however, the overall feel was a bit less intense than I had experienced in previous years. I think this lower intensity level was the result of some missed scare opportunities and empty areas, like the bathroom and electrocution scenes.  A couple of extra actors in key positions, along with more well-timed scares, would have made a world of difference.  Overall though, most of the actors did a great job, especially those in darker areas of the house. They had some great hiding places.

Over the years, one of the great things about Basement of the Dead was that it was a great value, compared to other haunted attractions.  Unfortunately that has changed this year.  For whatever reason, they raised their admission price this season from $15 to $18, without adding any additional entertainment value to their show.  Although their attraction is still worth the $18 admission price, the "bang for your buck" is certainly not what it used to be.  With all that being said, Basement of the Dead is still a fun and entertaining haunted attraction to go through.  I had a good time.  Be sure do add them to your list of haunt visits this year.

To find out more about this event, visit:

http://www.42fear.com/