Frivolous yet fanciful
Tucked into the dark recesses of the Silver Club Hotel and Casino in Sparks, magician and illusionist Eli Kerr presents Fright Fest, a series of haunted attractions for the Halloween season.
Fright Fest, which features both a haunted house and maze as well as assorted other attractions, is open between 7 p.m. and midnight Thursday to Sunday.
By far, the most interesting aspect of the event is the back-story of the haunted house.
As participants wait in a long, winding line through the front yard of the House of the Dead, numerous television monitors offer a breaking news report that explains the terrifying situation. An outbreak of “Solanum” has hit Washoe County.
This contagious infection causes cessation of brain activity and death within hours, followed, of course, by reanimation. By the time we reached the front door of the house, the repeated viewings of this news report had officially begun to frighten me.
An eerie doorman finally led our group into the house, forcefully instructing us to keep the door shut behind us. We found ourselves first standing in a disheveled room wondering what our next move would be when a door burst open and a man carrying a shotgun leapt out, demanding to know whether or not we were infected. After shouting “No!” at him repeatedly, he told us to get out of there and we politely obliged.
The rest of the house consisted of many routine haunted house residents: a zombie child coloring on the floor of a playroom, a zombie in the kitchen who had to chase us in the direction of the next hallway when we got lost in the dark and other Washoe County residents toting weapons and explosives to protect themselves from the infection.
Overall, the House of the Dead was satisfactorily frightening with a unique approach on plenty of the scares typical of haunted houses.
However, the Darkness Maze was far less impressive, despite thoroughly living up to its name. It was completely pitch black inside and the scariest moments occurred when accidentally touching another guest while trying to feel my way along the walls. My only encounter with a monster in the maze was a faint growling sound minutes before I reached the exit.
Other attractions included psychic readings for $7, caricatures, roving magicians, a monster photo booth and $5 trick-or-treat bags.
Admission price is $12, or $10 with a canned food donation for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.
While the attraction may not have been the best, the Halloween season would be lacking without a haunted house experience, and Fright Fest is still a very fun way to spend an October evening.
Casey O’Lear can be reached at colear@nevadasagebrush.com.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Arts & Entertainment, InsideReno.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
