House of Shock

This article is about an amusement, for the TV series, see House of Shock (TV).

The Origin Located in a giant warehouse under the Huey P. Long bridge, the House of Shock, is the brainchild of Ross Karpelman, Steven Joseph, Jay Gracianette, and Phillip Anselmo. Host to hundreds of thousands of eager victims in the last seven years, House of Shock, possibly one of the largest, indoor, single element Haunted Attractions in the industry, which had it's meager beginnings as a Home Haunt.

Year one they invested about $800.00 in the attraction. "We started out in Jay's backyard. We basically had no idea how to go about it," recalls Karpelman, the house's "Frightmeister" and part owner. "I mean, we had walls built outta' visquine, y'know, it was ridiculous." The Fire Marshal took one look at it and said, "this is for a private party, RIGHT?" and Ross and Jay replied, "yeah, I guess."

The next year, they decided to make their money back. Although they were still in Jay's backyard, plywood walls were erected and they charged for people to go through. When people lined up around the block to get in the second year, they knew they were onto something. They decided to expand for year three, and moved to the warehouse that still houses the attraction to this day.

The partners are friends from different parts of the music business, the most notable is Anselmo of the Rock Band "Pantera." Ross Karpelman has a southern rock band called "Clearlight." Although the attraction is very businesslike, House of Shock is not for the squeamish.

Karpelman describes the show as "Over-the-top Satanism, over-the-top gore, just pure evil. We are very serious, if I see someone joking around or even smiling... I yell at 'em." Although it's hard to imagine the easygoing Karpelman yelling at anyone, the House of Shock takes their haunting very seriously. "We see some of the other Haunted Houses in our area goofing around, having actors dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller, y'know, I guess that's their thing, but it's not scary."

House of Shock has had a tough road to success though. Because of their extreme content, they have made a few enemies, or at least, detractors along the way. "We, unintentionally, had people convinced that we were Anton Szandor LaVey's Church of Satan, that we were here to steal their children's souls," laughs Ross.

"We had people break into the house and spread holy water around, salt was sprinkled all over the props, and y'know it's a show. I mean, I'm a lovable guy, there's no evil in me. After all, we are not Satanists. We're just having Halloween fun."

"We wanted to get away from the clichés like Freddy and Jason, we were sick of those guys. We wanted to do more scenes like from Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Deranged, Evil Dead, y'know that type of movie." "I mean Horror is just that... horror, it's not funny. You can't see a horror movie anymore without it having jokes and one-liners throughout the whole thing, when did that become the standard?"

The Tour As you enter the property you will probably have to stand in line. I would estimate about four hundred were there the night we went. We arrived around break time, but after the line started moving, it was only a short time until we entered the graveyard.

The path winds around inside the house past seemingly hundreds of actors, first coming to an area full of houses. The houses are built full scale inside the House of Shock. Actors on suspended wires soar over the victims passing between the houses. You enter the largest house, passing through many rooms of more horrifying scenes. All around you get the feeling you are actually walking through Hell, all of its residents are filled with despair.

You proceed through the different sections of the attraction including the New Orleans Cemetery, the Catacombs, and the Barn among others. All of this culminates at the entrance of the church. Most likely the focus of most of their protesters, the church features a Satanic sermon delivered by "Lord Belial" (played by Ross Karpelman). "Lord Belial" looms over the area on a huge (hydraulic) altar that rises 20 feet over the heads of the condemned souls that are passing through on to Hell. The impressive (and very intense) scene is over two stories high, built in forced prospective. The inside looks like a stone cathedral, complete with stained glass windows, and filled with the minions of Hell.

You wind your way through the rest of the tour, through mazes filled with more horrible looking souls, on the way to the exit. The entire trip through the House of Shock tour lasts about 25 to 30 minutes. I did have actors touch me and sometimes claw at my clothes, but nothing in an offensive manner, well at least to me.

I was genuinely scared inside the show, which I do not always experience inside haunted attractions. Of course, not many haunted attractions have 200 plus actors swarming around you, flying overhead on wires, or swinging in on ropes. With so much detail to see in the house you get distracted by the sets and the actors pounce at the exact moment when you are most vulnerable. The actors seem to be watching where you are watching and go after you when you are distracted.

The Operation While visiting the house I saw several law enforcement officers in the queue line, over two dozen House of Shock security, dressed in black, holding walkie-talkies, scattered throughout the house, as well as management personnel both inside and out. House of Shock has a mailing list of over two-hundred volunteers that come and work for free. Several of the owner/partners still work nightly inside the house reprising parts they have done for years.

They have a concession stand as well as some vendors outside in the queue line area. There are several hundred yards of chain and stanchions running through the area. Actors often come out to the crowd and goose the line with chainsaws and or macabre theatrics. Ross says he often takes a break and comes out to publicly beat someone (one of the actors) for the delight of the crowd.

They have had people from nearly every state in the country and several European countries visit their attraction. They regularly enter floats in the Mardi Gras parade, causing visible changes in the startled faces of the parade revelers as the House of Shock's deliciously dark float slithers past.

"Because of the Satanic thing, we fought city hall, the city council, churches, you name it, to keep open. Everybody tried to shut us down." says Karpelman. "The only person that has treated us with respect and has been willing to work with us has been the fire marshal. He has been great. Because we didn't have sprinklers in the building, he allowed us to work out what we feel is a much better plan."

The House of Shock seems to have made an uneasy peace with their neighbors in New Orleans, becoming a Halloween standard with thousands of fans that come back every year. No longer billing themselves as just a haunted house, "because of our theatrics and the nature of our extremity, we are now calling ourselves a Horror Show & Interactive Haunted House.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

References

[1] http://www.hauntedattraction.com/19/spotlight.html [2] http://www.nola.com/haunted/index.ssf?heventslist.html [3] http://www.hauntedhousemagazine.com/articles-house-of-shock.php [4] http://www.allenjaeger.com/hos96.html [5] http://hauntworld.com/haunted_house_in_Louisiana_new_orleans.htm [6] http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=67701 [7] http://www.whereyat.net/page.php?id=414 [8] http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/01-09/october-2001-new-orleans-louisiana.html [9] http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=64772

External links

• HouseOfShock.com