 "Photo: Sarah Vasquez")
 "Photo: Adrienne Annas")
AUSTIN GHOST TOURS
For those who love a little local history with their ghost stories, Austin Ghost Tours (AGT) has just the ticket. Each tour lasts an hour and a half and takes you on an invigorating jaunt around downtown Austin.
The Tours meet at the Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill, take you down 2nd Street, to the Driskill Hotel and back again, stopping along the way to impart details about Austin’s more gruesome past. This includes a ruptured dam that killed hundreds of people, a scalping, and a serial killer as prolific as Jack the Ripper.
AGT boasts several different routes and runs year-round. The tour guides are incredibly knowledgeable and can spin a ghost yarn with flair. It has been said that many of these tours experience paranormal activity so bring your camera!
For those who are looking for an adrenaline-induced gore fest, this may not be for you. However, for anyone who loves to learn a little more about their city while hearing a creepy story, you will not be disappointed. The varied Tours run through Oct. 30 and are $20 a piece.
MANSION OF TERROR
If you tend to cover your eyes, jump out of your seat when you watch a horror film or have to watch a happy film afterwards so you can sleep at night, then the Mansion of Terror is not for you.
Located at I-35 exit 251 (behind Walgreens) in Round Rock, it was named one of the Top 8 Haunted Houses by The Travel Channel last year.
Through the three separate themed houses, Mansion of Terror and the zombie carnage of Blood Frenzy 2 and Death Asylum visitors get to experience a real life horror film scenario as actual characters, such as Blood Frenzy’s serial killer, Jon Eric Springwood or the zombies in Death Asylum.
Blood Frenzy might include you leaving with blood splatters on your clothes, but do not fret, it washes out. However, rain ponchos are for sale at the door if you would prefer your clothes to be undamaged.
Each attraction showcases an obvious labor of love for owner, Norm Glenn, as new themes are introduced each year.with planning and structuring starting as early as January. The costumes worn by the actors are very elaborate, and the makeup artists have an acute sense for detail. With Mansion of Terror, rated #1 in the country by Lionsgate Films also (Saw sextuplet, Crash and Gamer), this is obviously not a job they take lightly. Tickets are $15 for one house or $20 for both houses and it runs through Oct. 31.
HOUSE OF TORMENT
The House of Torment begins with a hearse parked out front of the building, quite a daunting image. Then you notice the large skeleton statue up above. While waiting in line you are entertained by performers dressed as killer clowns, soldiers and a chainsaw wielding maniac. Just be careful, because one of the clowns does like to try and lick people, and the chainsaw is real….
The House of Torment is the main attraction to the dual haunted house. Enter: a post-apocalyptic city, filled with the infected. Great sounds, movie quality sets and animatronics. Wonderful use of misdirection, you hear something up above, so you look up, and then something comes at your legs. You see something below, and then something flies at you from above. A very involved cast makes the experience all the more harrowing. At one point, I literally felt someone breathing on my neck.
Illusion Manor is the second attraction currently offered. Insanity at its finest. The anti-gravity room will knock you off your feet if you are not careful, and the illusory experience of a trip down the birth canal is eerily familiar. (A fair warning, if you are claustrophobic, avoid the Illusion Manor.)
The Manor has cool effects and it will definitely mess with your head. It begins with a living house, including eyes and a mouth. You then encounter a moving, winking, smiling bust that seems to come alive for a few moments. Next, is a fun house-like room of mirrors, but more confusing, which is rather disorienting, but adds to the over all experience.
There have been multiple reports of weird things happening in the house by employees; footsteps, chainsaws going off themselves and floating orbs of light. Earlier this year Aether Paranormal Investigations did an investigation there. The conclusion they reached was haunted or not, it is a scary place, where weird things do happen and that are not part of the show.
The lines are LONG, but you can order your tickets online in advance, and print them out to take with you, or just go early. There is a discount coupon for going to both houses available at any Austin area Sonic.
The haunted house is located at 523 Highland Mall Blvd, Austin, TX 78752, across from Macy’s in the parking lot. House of Torment runs through Halloween, from 7 p.m. until midnight. Tickets are $14.99 for one attraction, and $19.99 for both.
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