This was
Castle of Horror's opening night.
This was also my first time visiting, both as photographer and guest.
Castle of Horror is
Haunted Forest's sister attraction and
each does an excellent job complementing the other--especially one being
a mostly in-door attraction and the other a haunted trail. That
meant, for me, a completely new photographic approach was in order
because of the confined space and limited angle when people are in the
room. It was a much enjoyed challenge. (My suggestion: visit
both because they are definitely different.) As this is my first
time shooting the attraction, I will include more detailed information
here than normal:
Attraction Features: As for the attraction
itself, it is in fact a castle. Here's a quick run-through of
what's inside: moving furniture, corpse and player organ, inside
graveyard, two torture chambers, an executioner and stock, room of
doors, pets (centaur, "fluffy", and an anaconda), crate room, coffin
step-down doorway, Chuckles the Clown--on ice, a type of Diablo, secret
passageway, a punished guest, car coming at guests, clown in jail, dark
passageway, and a fun "gift" for guests at the end--though most seem to
go from zero to sixty in the other way...
My positive opinion:
I rather enjoyed it. The attraction takes up a small amount of
land, but uses every bit of it effectively enough to offer a good twenty
to twenty-five minutes of quality scare time. Size truly does not
a good attraction make! There are many byways I can use to go from
one place to another quickly--something haunted trails have difficulty
providing. Costumes are complete, detailed, and thought out, which
is more difficult to do than one thinks. Each act in the
attraction is diverse and many scare tactics are used. Many acts
are very creative and unique to this one attraction--something that will
certainly appeal to groups who go from one attraction to another.
I favored the anaconda act because it was something I never thought of
to be included in a haunted attraction.
My negative opinion:
Being a photographer, I work a lot with light. Because of this, I
favor the thought of using light effectively in an attraction so as to
have people appear out of nowhere even when they were in plain sight.
In my opinion, the attraction a bit too dark; I found myself using my
flashlight a bit too much to get around. It is sad the darkness
prevents one from fully enjoying the detail seen in every costume.
Second, there was dust everywhere. Though guests are fine,
inhaling it for more than four hours can make one feel more than
uncomfortable. If that's all for my negative opinion, that's
pretty good!