Face it, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a haunted house in NYC around Halloween-time... Blood Manor, Nightmare, Blackout...I've been to them all. But this was my first year to hit the Steampunk Haunted House downtown. First off, no tortuous long line. (Take that Blood Manor! Waiting on that line is the true horror!) We were whisked quickly inside with the news that the performers would be touching us. Whaaaatttt? No worries, they're just guiding you through house.
The theme this year is "Through the Looking Glass" a la Alice in Wonderland. Ooooh, Alice in Wonderland, positively frightening!... You need to know that this fright fest is more creative and mysterious than blood-curdling screamy-scary. They do divide you from your friends though and you sometimes are left alone in a room with strange creatures, like a girl dressed up with a steampunk horse mask. We sat across from each other with a table in between us. On the table was a chess set, except that the pieces were all horses. Okay! She moved a piece. I moved a piece. And then she checkmated me and when I protested, stuck her long metal nose in my face. There were a lot of little girls dressed in white nightgowns with short hair like Alice Liddell (the ALICE). They were creepy though. As I was walking up a set of stairs one of them innocently pulled me back by my jacket and whispered in my ear.... "I didn't mean to do it."
What's kind of cool is that you and friends have different experiences. One ended up closed up in a box for a while. Glad I missed that one. The Mad Hatter was this tall, skinny girl standing on a table singing this kind of creepy tune into an old fashioned block mike. She then motioned for us to follow us into the next room and demanded to know why we weren't wearing hats. I might muss my hair!!
Then there was the Queen who let me look in her hand mirror while making sure I could still see her behind me. Like I said, not super scary but it was incredibly creative although a bit too short. I wanted MORE!!!
Abron Arts Center
466 Grand St. (at Pitt St.)
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