Haunt Tour 2012 - Day 8

House of Torment
Austin, Texas
www.houseoftorment.com

There are 3 attractions at House of Torment: The Awakening, Cursed, The Howling, and The Slaughter House.

Wow - The Awakening gets off to a fast start with highly detailed sets and high dollar animatronics.  The story line is that an evil space ship has crashed releasing alien demons and and poking holes in the space time continuum.   There is a great subways station that leads to a walk through a subway car, and the entire car moves with you in it.   You enter a chamber with a 30 foot animatronic and an actor on a zip line.   With highly detailed sets, solid lighting, and a great ambient sound track this haunt rocks.   I had a bit of a problem when I got to the pirate ship which seemed out of place.   Still, the tilting deck was a great effect.  The haunt is multilevel and is long enough to satisfy.

Cursed carried on at much the same level.   This haunt is themed as a Mayan temple.  Detail is good, integration of the animatronics was good.   The crew did a good job of spacing small groups to avoid the conga line.   My only complaint is that this haunt seemed a bit too short.

The Slaughter House was a real contrast.   It is an outdoor haunt made up of a few metal shipping containers and wooden fencing, this haunt was short on scares.   The premise is that you have entered a hillbilly slaughter house.   This haunt consisted of long stretches of waking though a featureless labyrinth, interspaced with a few hanging disemboweled props.   There were a few scenes with butcher shops and chainsaws.  Surprise...  The last scare is happens when the actor chases people with a chainsaw.

24.95 for General Admission and $34.95 for VIP tickets with lots of convenient free parking make this haunted attraction a deal.    Even with the Slaughter House being a throw-away attraction, this is on of the best haunted attractions around.