I just got off the phone with Juniorette Hall who went to a haunted house here in the ATL.
Now, when I say “haunted house” I do not mean a fun, kind of creepy place where high school kids dress up in masks and jump around with fake blood and fake screams. I mean Netherworld, which is billed as the #1 haunted house in America. We’re talking scary as crap. Maybe even scarier than that.
So when I asked her if she was scared, she said (and I’m quoting here), “I was please-let-me-pass-out-in-a-corner-so-an-ambulance-will-have-to-come-and-take-me-away scared.”
Then I asked about the group of 20-somethings who went with her, and whether they were scared. They were, she said, but more like “screaming their heads off, but this is so fun to be scared” scared. Which apparently is not nearly as scared as wanting an ambulance to come.
Fright, I suppose, is subjective. When it comes to ghosts and haunted happenings, I’m much more scared of the things I can’t see rather than the things I can. Sometimes, when I’m writing a story with a paranormal bent, I can scare myself just thinking up the stuff. Imagination can be pretty scary all by itself.
So, how about you? What’s your scare factor? Would you be more scared of a haunted house like Netherworld or getitng trapped inside the local, sinister house rumored to be inhabited by ghosts?
Or maybe just spending over twenty bucks for twenty minutes in the #1 Haunted House in America makes you want to scream. I know that price scared the crap out of me.
Cathy C. Hall Writes 
The ghost house would be too creepy. I would never go there. I hear enough stuff in my own house that can't be explained, and it's newish, and we built it ourselves. It might be the headless man that appeared one night next to the turned-off TV that makes me leery of traipsing about an unknown house with unknown ghosts.My husband is just the opposite. The startle factor of a commercial haunted house would scare him out of his skin.
I'm with you on the 20 bucks. I don't go looking for the scary moment but I'm also worse with the unexplained noise.
I'm afraid to look at our video baby monitor, certain a scary face will be looking back at me. Thankfully, so far, the most frightening thing i've seen is my kids' incredibly messy room. 🙂
Val, I hope you're joking about the headless man. I gotta sleep tonight, you know.Aren't unexplained noises the worst? And yet, I'll get up to investigate, just like the girl does in the movies (right before that horror music starts. 🙂
No joke. He materialized and then faded away. He wasn't bloody or anything. Just lacking a head. Like it was too much trouble for the head to appear. I jumped aside to avoid bumping shoulders with him as I was walking by. He had on a black suit and a white shirt with old-timey round black buttons and a stand-up collar. Right there under where his head should have been.I'm hoping that you've already retired for the evening, so you won't have to chase those elusive ZZZZZZs after reading this.
Spending the twenty bucks would do it for me. Actually I have a spook in my house. I think he lives in the bathroom. Hanging towels are flung to the floor in my presence, things on shelves fall. It's weird. And the noises in the kitchen; we can't explain the loud thump which sounds as if something has dropped, so we now ignore it.One more spooky thing. If this takes my comment, I've figured it out…you have to sign in on the blog before posting.
I like to be scared while I'm sitting on my couch, reading a book or watching a movie. Real world scared? No thanks. I'm a big chicken. (And one of the scariest movie I ever saw was THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT – I still freak out just thinking about it. But, since I'm sitting at my desk and it's daylight and my husband is in the other room, I'm okay. Really. I think…)
I've always wondered what that place is like. The billboard is scary enough for me. (And I agree with you, crap can be pretty scary!) But for me, nothing is scarier than real life. Truth is stranger – and freakier – than fiction!
Holy headless ghost, Val! I had to zip out of town and when I got back last NIGHT and read about your encounter…well, let's just say sweet dreams are NOT made of these spooky comments! :-)Linda, maybe your spook is anti-clean and neat! (Or maybe that's just Bill, messing with you! :-)Madeline, I refused to watch The Blair Witch Project. I still have nightmares about The Exorcist (the book AND the movie).And of COURSE, real life is scarier, Deb. There are kids involved. :-0
The price would scare me! Ha. And is that your pumpkin? I just love how the seeds are coming out of the mouth like puke!
Oh, yeah, Lynn, that's my pumpkin from last year. But I see a trend on the horizon. 😉
I despise haunted houses — just hearing about them gives me the heebie jeebies. Had to take a cub scout troup to one once and the guy in charge thought it would be funny to scare the den leader. I had nightmares for a long time.