Halloween at Sunset was a scary good time
By Michael Brooks
Staff Writer
For as much as I love Halloween and horror movies, I had grown to hate haunted houses. Some time, around when I was a teenager (back in the stone age), haunted houses lost all their bite.
I vividly remember one, inside a mall back home when I was about 10 that traumatized me. One of the first visuals after you entered was a woman strapped to a table. She was screaming because her stomach had been ripped open and her intestines trailed from her stomach to the floor. A chainsaw could be heard buzzing in the background, and eventually Leatherface jumped through the black plastic, chainsaw in hand, to deliver the payoff to the great set-up of a scare.
And that was just how the haunted house began. It got worse. Or at least stayed just as horrifying.
Several years later, as a teen, I went to a haunted house where a ghost jumped out from behind a corner and yelled “boo.” I thought “is this really what haunted houses have become?”
So, I quit going.
In 2019, with my job, I was assigned to take pictures a the BRC Halloween event. While I was there, I walked the Haunted Trail. Still a horror movie fanatic, I was pleasantly surprised the scares weren’t toned down. Sure, it was no screaming-in-pain-from-intestines-on-the-floor scary, but it was way better than a ghost saying boo.
I was told if I enjoyed that, I should have checked out the event the Ballin’s put on for Halloween.
So, I anxiously waited for this Halloween and was one of the first in line for Halloween at Sunset.
I was not disappointed. The scenes on display were spot-on accurate. Any fan of horror movies instantly recognized what each scene was referencing. The costumes were amazing.
And, as is the case with any great horror movie ending, when it was all over, and everything seemed safe again, there was one final scare that put the cherry on top of the experience.
I highly recommend it and will be at the front of the line again next year.