happy halloween Houses offer danger real and imagined THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN By Joann Birk Kansan staff writer If you think age has made you immune to the terror that Freddy, Jason and the Not all ghouls are created equal, and there are some houses that provide more scares for your buck. rest of the Halloween gang once inspired — dare to enter one of the old, abandoned warehouses where these characters are just waiting to prove you wrong. It takes a little suspension of disbelief, but a few of this year's haunted houses will have you running from the demons that once lived under your bed. Unfortunately, not all ghouls are created equal, and there are new ones. that provide more scares for your buck than others. Phantoms of the Night at the Dollhouse A thin, pale woman, looking like she has just risen from her grave, greets willing victims at the Beast, 1401 W. 13th St., Kansas City's scariest and most complex haunted house. The entrance, in its old, spooky-mansion decor, is only the beginning of elaborate attempts to get visitors in the Halloween mood. The scares begin in the first few steps up the creaky wooden stairs and do not end until you walk—dazed and confused—out the back door. Complete with intricate costumes, mazes and two slides, The Beast provides enough scares for the entire year. County Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St3 is the only haunted house in Lawrence. Created by Lawrence Community Theater, Phantomus is a G-rated haunted house that does not provide $6 dollars worth of scares for adults. But if you just cannot get enough of spooky thrills and chills, cheaper combo tickets are available for The Beast and the Edge of Hell, 1300 W. 12th St. The Edge of Hell relies on darkness and mazes than The Beast and has slightly less elaborate decor, but it is still one of Kansas City's best values. A trip through Devil's Dark Side, 1200 W. 12th St., was reminiscent of walking through a friend's dark basement, grasping for a wall or railing for guidance. The duck tape and amateur costumes that could be seen when glimmers of light flashed into the dark maze were a reminder that visitors were spending money to walk around a musty warehouse. Total darkness, a favorite tool for in equate haunted houses, was a constan in the rest of the houses in the area. In Catacombs, 1100 Santa Fe, visitors witness a mock execution, stagger through a moving room, are blinded by strobe lights and get lost in a maze of mirrors. I screeched at the characters jumping out of the darkness but more out of habit than fear. PAGE 8A The Gallery of Terror, 1211 Grand Ave., had all those typical Halloween characters from scary movies. If you have seen so much of these guys in the movies that they bring on more laughs than scares, then you should avoid this less-than-creative house. The highlight of the Main Street Morgue, 1325 Main St., was a round room with five trick doors. Just as I was wondering about the insurance policies on these haunted houses, a young woman walked straight into a wall, confused by the strobe lights and the eight other people searching frantically for a way out. HUNTING THE HAUNTED HOUSES Jodie Chester / KANSAN Two fearless reporters rate the Kansas City haunted house scene this fall. Iodie Chester / KANSAN Where to get a good scare for your money By Craig Lang Kansan staff writer Some haunted houses are worth every penny, others are frightening because the staff is so eager to take your money. Nevertheless, millions of people still flock to see a slasher movies where one People hate getting scared. homicid maniac ruins the lives of high school students or camp counselors. Practically every Stephen King novel debuts at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. the ones who look straight ahead so they do not see all the creatures who jump out and try to scare them. Either way, people want their money's worth when they visit the most frighten- Of course, not all of these people go on their own free will. They are persuaded by their friends and loved ones to accompany them on the trip. They are And people actually pay $8 to $10 to walk through a haunted house. Kansas City's oldest haunted house, The Edge of Hell, 1300 W. 12th, has been in the fright business long enough to know what gives people the creeps. With snakes, ghosts and demons, the world inside the doors of this mysterious mansion is reminiscent of Dante's journey through the Inferno. A tip for visitors: The only haunted house to fully exploit a theme makes a trip out to Dr. Deadly's Haunted Hospital, 1826 Forest Ave., worth the money. Even without background music, the silent trip through the creepy medical center can put visitors on edge. One tip: Hold your hands out in front of you. The walls can come out of nowhere (just ask Joann). The Beast, 1401 W. 13th, is one that nobody should miss. Don't let the simple name fool you; The Beast is by far the most complicated and psychologically terrifying haunted house in the bunch. It is a warehouse full of elaborate rooms and settings, including a foggy forest infested with werewolves and a replica of the London streets that were home to Jack the Ripper. Identical rooms make visitors wonder if they are traveling in circles, and the way perfectly ordinary status come alive is enough to keep anybody from going to another museum. Finally, there's Lawrence Community Theater's Phantoms of the Night at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St. Although the frights are geared toward children, the kids' screams can take adults back to the days when it didn't take much to scare them. The proceeds from the haunted house go to Lawrence Community Theater, so the $6 cost to be scared goes to a good cause. The Devil's Dark Side, 1200 W. 12th St., is full of mazes and frightening scenes, but the quality of work does not compare to The Beast or the Edge of Hell. If you're frightened by long, dark hallways with hard-to-find exits, this one will mildly scare you. If you are frightened by poor construction and unbelievable monsters, this one will scare the hell out of you! Although the Gallery of Terror, 1211 Grand Ave., is not one of the high-quality haunted houses in Kansas City, it does a decent job in bringing back to life everyone's favorite slasher-film icons, such as Jason and Freddy Krueger. It's a small trip through a mediocre house, but visitors may find it worth their time. establishments in Kansas City, Mo. And believe me, some haunted houses are worth every penny, others are just frightening because the staff is so eager to take your money. While most haunted houses blare frightening music through their corridors, the Main Street Morgue, 1325 Main St., was filled with music from 98.9 FM, the Rock. I play this music in my car all the time, and other than the time I was almost in a wreck, I've never been scared by it. While the theme of a morge can send chills down a person's side, the apathy of the employees just didn't give me a big enough scare. Watch out for the monsters in the sky! watch out on the house! Is it okay? Catacombs, 1100 Santa Fe, is your run-of-the-mill haunted house. It has people jumping out at you, dark mazes and plenty of strobe lights. The only thing that is worth the trip is the hall of mirrors where visitors can get easily lost. NEWS OF THE WEIRD In February, according to Whoa Paso, Texas, police, James Patrick Bradley, 47, murdered his artist wife, Susy, dismembered her body, spray-painted several of the parts, and left them at various locations around town and in southern New Mexico. At first, police did not know the identity of the murdered woman, but after releasing a photo of her severed head to local TV stations for telecast, some of the woman's friends called to identify her. LEAD STORY In July in New York City, John Bryant, 73, conversing with his son while waiting for attention at the Harlem Hospital Center after having been shot in the forehead by his girlfriend, began gently massaging the wound and finally pulled the bullet out with his fingers. At the annual Battle of the Oranges festival in Ivrea, Italy, in February, first-aid officials reported that they treated more than 250 people for bruising after they were pelted too hard with fruit. About 50 people filed a lawsuit in June against Paradise Memorial Park in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., alleging that bodies of their loved ones had been moved or crowded out without their permission. One man claimed that the double plot he purchased for his mother and brother was also occupied by nine other bodies. And authorities in Vermont revoked the funeral home license of Larry H. Titemore of St. Johnsbury in April, accusing him of mishandling almost every burial he supervised in six years of business, ranging from failure to store bodies properly to failure to embalm to switching bodies to lower-cost coffins. In May, a toxic spill team from the Washington State Department of Ecology determined that a mysterious mound of greenish goo near the town of Toutle — which had baffled, alarmed and sickened investigators for three months — was merely a rotting pile of disposable diapers. - Theron Dunaway of Richland, Wash., won the wood-class boat competition at the seventh annual Spittoon Regatta at The Brick tavern in Roslyn, Wash., in March. Entrants drop their miniature vessels (wood, soap, paper, matchbook, "experimental classes") into the trickling water in the bar's spitting trough and race them. The Regatta is mostly fun, according to the race administrator, but, he said, "a couple of years ago, some guys from Boeing brought in a flashy, self-propelled boat they designed. It sank." EEEH-UUUH.GROSS! ---