Local Haunted Houses In the National Spotlight

Waiting outside in the 50 degree chill, East students shiver in the two hour queue, but not because of the temperature. Looming seven-foot-tall werewolves stalk along in the shadows of the Kansas City’s historic West Bottoms district, where guests have streamed to take on two of the most anticipated attractions of the year: The Beast and The Edge of Hell, notoriously frightening haunted houses.

Full Moon Productions – owners of the Beast, Edge of Hell, Macabre Cinema and Chambers of Edgar Allen Poe haunted attractions – haven’t missed a detail when planning these  sinister houses. The premise of each house is different. The Beast focuses on individual fears of its patrons, and conquering the beast inside all of us. The Edge of Hell is a thrilling trip through purgatory, ascension into heaven, and finally a five story plunge via slide into hell and “into the arms of the devil himself,” as the slogan goes.

“Even when we were at the ticket office, this grim reaper kept leaping out and running around the people in line, and everyone was screaming even though we weren’t even inside the house yet!” sophomore Sami Walter said. “I could tell from the start that this was going to be something really different.”

Walter has right to believe so. The Beast and Edge of Hell are both nationally ranked haunts that have been featured on the Travel Channel’s America Haunts and are currently ranked sixth scariest attraction-combo in the nation by HauntWorld Magazine, the premiere publication for the haunted attraction business scene.

What makes the Beast stand out from other haunted attractions is the fact that it’s the first attraction to implement an “open-format” floor plan, where the guests have to find their way through an old southern manor, werewolf forest, and creepy swamp without a clear path to follow. Without the cookie-cutter layout, guests are forced even further out of their comfort zones.

“It was pitch black, and we had to find our way through these three huge rooms,” Walter said. “There were like 10 different doors that we had to try to go through and exit, but some of them weren’t even real.”

The Beast’s use of identical rooms, vast spaces, and flashing strobe lights heightens the audience’s feeling of being lost. Due to its massive size, the werewolf forest masterfully hides walls and successfully continues to keep up the “lost” illusion, one that many haunted attractions can only manage for a few minutes.

The werewolf forest is a quarter-acre of pitch black forest complete with real trees, fog, and more than a few werewolves hungrily eying lost guests.

“Trying to find the exit when it’s pitch dark and people are jumping out at you from everywhere was really hard,” Walter said. “It took about 25 minutes before we got out.”

“I went to the Edge of Hell first, and I had had time to let my heart rate drop,” sophomore Max Kurlbaum said. “So getting lost in the werewolf forest at the Beast was more irritating than scary. The scariest part was knowing that there was someone behind you, but you had to keep walking anyway.”

“The darkness was sort of annoying because I couldn’t see anything and I kept running into walls,” sophomore James Simmons said.

The Edge of Hell also has a misleading floor plan that intrigues many East students.

“It was kind of like a maze, in that you had to go through the most obscure places possible,” sophomore Scott Slapper said. “Like in one room you would crawl through a fireplace, but in the next you would climb up and go through a portrait. It’s really confusing, but it made it that much different and fun than anything I’ve ever done before!”

The Beast and Edge of Hell not only test your mazeophobia (fear of being lost), but also ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes. Sassy, the Burmese python measuring a whopping 24 feet long and weighing 300 pounds, is one of the several creatures that calls the Edge of Hell its home. The haunted duo also features two anacondas, Big Bertha, the reticulated python, and an eight foot alligator. While inside the haunts, guests can be sure to get more up close and personal with these real monsters than they’d like.

Outside the houses, monsters of all sorts lurk around the 12th Street Bridge. The most popular character is the Rat Man, who carries around several of his friendly rats and gleefully puts them in his mouth for gawking fans.

“I had the pleasure of meeting the Rat Man,” Kurlbaum said. “I feel that you have to a little bit freaky to work at a place like the Edge of Hell, but he was a real sweetheart!”

The Edge of Hell has been a major part of Kansas City’s entertainment sect since 1975, with it’s partner the Beast opening in 1991. Neither appear to be losing business soon.

“Definitely be sure to go with people you know,”  Kurlbaum said, “because they’ll be clinging onto you the entire time.”