| BAXTER AVENUE MORGUE:
The Baxter Avenue adventure gets underway with a nerve
wrecking seclusion of your group in a quiet funeral parlor, alongside an
open, skeleton containing casket. Articles and photographs of
The
Morgue’s “history” adorn the walls, and prepare you to set foot inside
an intimidating iron door into the presence of mortician
Warren Vanderdark.
Following a few words of encouragement, he releases you into the facility.
Masterful lighting effects bring scenes to life as you approach, then find
them disappearing back into darkness again as you walk away. Subtle
scares come from the grasp of hands tugging at your leg, or on the back
of your shirt as you progress through darkened corridors, and from scene
to scene. Unsettling music and wicked laughter accompany the journey
through the macabre world of hospital gurneys and realistic body bags,
and into an atrocious kitchen scene, where a deranged character slams a
freezer door shut, trapping his unfortunate victim inside, as she desperately
screams for help! Blood soaked walls, and mutilated dolls decorate
a little girl’s room, as the progression through various scenes of death
continues. Clowns impede your progress, as does an irate, bloody
mouthed, human arm eating, hunchbacked creature,
who stubbornly blocks the path, and adamantly refuses to let you pass.
A spooky cemetery scene where some ungodly ceremony restores life to a
blood thirsty corpse leads to a ghost apparition of a surgeon operating
on a distraught patient, a short trap door maze, and a surprise encounter
with a blonde girl “innocently” admiring herself in the mirror. Body
vaults open and close of their own volition, as you pass through an upright
coffin, to a confrontation with a spark emitting fiend en route to a double
chainsaw, false finish including, chase-out of The Baxter Avenue Morgue.
Analysis:
LENGTH - 8½, Approaching 15 minutes
ACTORS - 9, Outstanding make-up creates some uniquely
grotesque characters. A variety of characters, some really intense (arm
eating hunchback, and cemetery ghoul restored to life), while a few others
passed right on by nearly unnoticed. Actually being touched or gently
grabbed at by the cast is a great aspect, and adds a degree of legitimacy.
Loss of Grave Digger and Spider Boy are unfortunate.
Good riddance to Crazy Ernie selling casketd, but joking clowns
are just as out of place in The Morgue as he was. Warren's
introduction is classic.
SCARINESS - 9½, Darkness gives way to chilling
scenes that wreck havoc on your emotions. Having the actors occasionally
come in contact with you in order to instill additional fear is outstanding,
and done in a tasteful way not to offend. The Morgue setting
is tremendous, and makes your skin crawl practically from the beginning.
Playful clowns are a detriment to the unnerving experience.
DESIGN - 9½, The Morgue theme, along with
the ever present feeling of death holds practically throughout, except
for Diedra, mirror surprise, and clowns. Not much has changed,
and the course is practically the same as last year, with only a few minor
alterations. False finish is an unexptcted twist.
PROPS - 9½, Amazingly realistic décor,
along with some nicely located animatronics. Blood spewing forth
from a “corpse” was eliminated and Spider Boy’s rails are still
un place, but occupied by a skeleton. Not much in the way of additions,
and none of the year's latest technology.
VALUE - 9, $15 makes it one of the most expensive attractions
around, but certainly a very intimidating scare.
RATING: 9+, This former "HAUNT OF THE YEAR is still
one of the most fear instilling experiences around! Just entertaining
the notion of entering into a Morgue is too much for some to handle.
What an ideal place for a scary Halloween attraction! Folks are dying
to get into The Baxter Avenue Morgue! |
