Two glorious weekends remain in the splendid month of October, and it seems the open road beckons to me once more. Realistically, what dates remain on the calendar will afford me 2-3 nights out. Where, oh where, shall we venture with our precious and limited time? With all of that in mind, never-before-seen haunts will be a priority.
We may spend an evening at Bates Haunted Sawmill in Millington and then head north to Bay City to tour Edson Incident aboard a former Navy Destroyer. On the west side of this great state is The Haunt, a storied attraction near Grand Rapids that has eluded me for many years. Less than one hour south from there, in the curiously named village of Paw Paw, is Nightmare Realm.
However, the haunt beckoning to us most powerfully hails from the Buckeye State. I did tour this location in 2010, but Shirley has yet to experience the wild, unbridled, bedlam that is the Haunted Hoochie! The real question here is what to pair with the Pataskala Pulverizer. Fortunately, the Columbus area has no shortage of options. In fact, Pataskala itself features a second attraction, Pataskala Haunted Forest. Of course, there’s also The Haunted Farm, in the deceptively named Pleasantville. We actually toured this location along with the Hoochie back in 2010 in what proved to be a highly enjoyable overnight trip.
The frontrunners, however, are a couple of Columbus-based haunts that seem to offer attractions high in both production value and fear factor. First, Fear Columbus which touts double trouble in the form of Aftermath: The Final Stand and The Summoning: Animal Instinct. The former places guests in Rapture, a city embroiled in all the chaos that comes with the apocalypse. The latter has a distinct cult theme and there are few things in the realm of horror that Shirley and I enjoy more than some nutty zealots!
The other Columbus contender is a gritty locale with Splatterhouse vibes known as Carnage Haunted House! Promotional materials online feature elaborate costumes and excellent makeup fx. In pictures alone, I witnessed hefty harlequins, some kind of demon chupacabra, and a humanoid rat!
