Phobia Haunted Houses

Haunt Tour 2012 - Day 2

Phobia Haunted Houses

5 attractions + 3 more zombie themed haunts daisy chained. - $80 per person









The attractions are available ala carte but to do everything will cost you 80 bucks.  I went through almost all of the attractions in about an hour.  (Exile caught fire and I had to leave).  There were virtually no lines so consider my experience speed haunting.

Mind Control Haunt- Asylum themed-walk through.   Very good use of strobe lights in novel applications.   My favorite was a hallway with cleats along the walls allowing an actor to approach you while literally climbing the walls while back lit by a strobe.  Very cool.   Detail was good and the actors were enthusiastic and athletic.  Really good crew here.   Down side is that it was a short experience.

Darke Institute - Another Asylum themed walk-through.  Felt very much like Mind Control.  The crew was good.   Not a lot of animatronics in use.  Both Mind Control and Darke Institute did a really good job of designing the haunt so the actors could cover multiple scares through out the haunt.

3D Clown Phobia - I'm not a big fan of 3D haunts - there I said it.   As 3D haunts go this was a rough one. The paint work was pretty basic.  The high point was the use of some pre-printed textiles to cover walls and to act as curtains.  The actors were spirited but the masks and make-up were pretty rough.

Claustrophobia - A pretty standard walk-through with a deafening sound track.  It started with a vortex tunnel which I found a bit jarring.  Again, the actors worked really hard at putting on a scare.  One of the actors did an impressive The Grudge style floor walk.

Dawn of the Machine - I've saved my favorite for last.   The concept for the haunt was clear from the beginning.   Sort of zombie meets Terminator.  The sets were well dressed and conveyed the story that the machines were taking over the human hosts.  Think evil Borg.   There were numerous animatronics that supported the theme.  These anamatronics were built locally and had a consistent style and feel.   The actors were solid but worn down by the Houston heat and humidity by this time.   I was really impressed with one young actress that did some amazing contortion moves in an elevated cage.  Kinda like yoga on crack.

These five attractons would take 2-3 hours if there were any significant lines at all.