Missouri Haunt - The Darkness Haunted House Review by: Hauntworld Magazine FIND THE BEST HAUNTED HOUSES IN MISSOURI CLICK HERE: http://www.hauntworld.com/missouri_haunted_houses

TO FIND MORE HAUNTS IN MISSOURI CLICK HERE http://www.hauntworld.com/missouri_haunted_houses  St. Louis is famous for many things.  For example, the Arch, St. Louis Cardinal Baseball, Ted Drew’s Frozen Custard, Toasted Ravioli, the world-class St. Louis Zoo and more are all very iconic to St. Louis, but another thing St. Louis is famous for is haunted houses.  The St. Louis area has been a hotbed for haunted houses over the years and boasts many industry firsts, such as the first ever FRANCHISED haunted house, Silo-X.  St. Louis also once featured a haunted house under the historically haunted Lemp Brewery.  One of the most famous haunts, Thayre Ashton’s Mansion, was the first haunt to ever bus their patrons from a parking lot to the haunt itself deep in the woods.  At one point, St. Louis boasted over 20 haunted houses including one called Terror Visions, the first ever haunt that featured a real Hollywood FX artist as owner and designer.  Among all of these great and historic haunts, there is only ONE that has stood the test of time to outlast them all, The Darkness Haunted House.  The Darkness raised the bar so high no other haunt in town could compete and even elevated itself to become one of, if not the best haunted house in America!                   The Darkness located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri began in 1994, one year after Silo-X opened its doors for the first time, and one year before Thayre Ashton’s Mansion would close forever!  When The Darkness opened for the first time, major haunts still populated the scene such as Terror Visions, Thayre Ashtons Mansion, Silo-X, Nightmares, House on Haunted Hill and several others.  However there is ONLY ONE of those haunt still standing today…The Darkness produced by Halloween Productions, Inc. (HPI).   At one point, Silo-X franchised over 10 haunts across America in cities like Chicago, Boston, Kansas City and more all by the same name.  But before long, Silo-X, along with many other haunts like Terror Visions, House on Haunted Hill and others, sold out of the business and/or closed their doors for good.   So why did The Darkness survive?  The owners of Halloween Productions Inc. started building haunted houses for major theme parks across America like Six Flags, Kennywood, Kings Island, Cedar Point and others.  The Darkness location was used as somewhat of a showcase for amusement park clients to see firsthand the high caliber of attraction that Halloween Productions can produce.  The Darkness had to be that showcase haunt for HPI’s clients, so no expense was spared in maintaining The Darkness as one of the best haunts with the best Hollywood-quality sets, scenes, and effects.  Once the owners started down the road to push the envelope of amazing set design, special FX, animations and more, they never looked back. The owners of The Darkness not only built haunted houses for clients all over the world, but they were also the first haunted house company to ever offer air driven animation, selling hundreds of air driven (pneumatic) scares to haunts WORLD WIDE!  When Halloween Productions, Inc. wanted to create a new scare, a new prop or a new idea, they built it, installed it, and tested it inside The Darkness first.  The Darkness was not only the company’s crown jewel but also their testing ground for the FX and props they would build for their clients. The Darkness name came from their original location inside the old Welsh Baby Carriage Factory (originally called ‘The Sunshine Factory’) because of the 400 plus boarded up windows built into its design.  In 1994 Larry Kirchner, owner of HPI, signed his first rental agreement for space inside the Welsh building to build his first owned haunted house.  During clean-up prior to initial build-out, Larry found documents from nearly 100 years prior calling the building ‘The Sunshine Factory’.  Larry found this ironic because the once known ‘Sunshine’ building now had very little to no light inside due to the boarded up windows… Sunshine 100 plus years ago = pure DARKNESS now.  So in 1994, The Darkness began scaring St. Louis, and the legend of this great haunt quickly spread throughout the region.  People now travel from other states AND other countries to visit this haunted attraction.  Since 1994, over 600,000 fright fans have screamed through The Darkness making it one of the top 10 most visited haunted attractions in America! The Darkness features amazing set design, incredible special effects, live actors, and sophisticated animations, all spread out over 27,000 square feet of terror.  The Darkness is located next door to one of America’s oldest farmers markets, The St. Louis Historic SOULARD MARKET, located on the same street as Busch Stadium (Cardinals baseball) and the AB Brewery in downtown St. Louis, MO.  The Darkness is now a St. Louis staple and a major tourist attraction for the St. Louis market.  In 2008, nearly 10,000 people visited The Darkness from outside the St. Louis Metropolitan area, coming from as far away as California, Texas, and even England, France and Australia.  The Darkness has been featured on national television like The History Channel’s Modern Marvels show, Travel Channel’s “America’s Scariest Attractions’, The National Geographic Channel, The Today Show, Fox News Coast to Coast, and it has been featured on the front cover of the USA Today.   Why has so much attention been given to this one haunted house?  It’s really simple actually; the owners have taken an amusement concept of a haunted house and turned it into more than what you would ever expect a haunted house to be.  The owners don’t view The Darkness as a haunted house but rather a REAL LIVE HOLLYWOOD MOVIE that plays out right before your eyes where YOU are the scream queen, you are the STAR of the movie, and where you live and breathe every scream!     The owners work on this attraction year round with no expense spared to push The Darkness to greater FRIGHTS year after year!  When we visited The Darkness and stepped foot inside the interactive queue room, we thought we had entered the set for the next Indiana Jones movie.  Simply stated, it’s that awesome.  The downstairs of the Darkness is like an ancient temple with giant monsters, savages, waterfalls, deadly traps, falling heads, and set design that will amaze you.  If you survive, you make your way to part two of this haunted adventure, an old haunted mansion, located upstairs on the second floor of the building.  When you think of a haunted mansion, all of your preconceived notions of what you’d expect and more are bottled up inside this second floor of terror inside The Darkness.  You start off entering a creepy swamp house that rotates on all four pivots, then into a very realistic graveyard with ghosts haunting from every direction, and finally through a very elaborate mansion façade.  Inside the mansion, you have a creepy mirror maze, kids’ room, kitchen, freezer, boiler room, wine cellar, and the most realistic haunted greenhouse filled with giant oversized plant monsters.   After running through two floors of FRIGHT, you might think that’s enough, but NO the tour isn’t over.  The owners of The Darkness built a new section of the building, spending almost a million dollars to add an additional 17,000 sq ft of additional SCREAMS.  Through this addition, you walk directly into the ALL NEW Terror Visions in 3D.  If you have NEVER seen a 3D haunted house, take our advice and tour this one.  You put on a pair of chromo depth 3D glasses and the world of Terror Visions comes to life.  Included are crazed clowns, an ice cream truck killer, and much more.  Terror Visions is GHOULY one of the most unique attractions we’ve ever toured, worth the price of admission all by itself.   Lastly, when you exit Terror Visions you end up in a Monster Museum filled with real Hollywood movie props from Saw, Disney’s Haunted Mansion, Creature from the Black Lagoon and much more.  The Darkness Monster Museum also features a gift store filled with Darkness merchandise much like Universal Studios has at the exit of a multimillion dollar ride.                   It’s really hard to say who has the best haunted house, haunted Screampark, haunted hayride, etc., because when an attraction is on the level of The ALL NEW Darkness, it’s a matter of personal taste.  Are you looking for a haunted house in the woods, in an old creepy hospital, inside an abandon prison?  Are you looking for a gory haunt, a realistic haunt, a family style haunt?  Whatever it is you are looking for, there are clearly different levels or styles of each event that owners decide to produce.  Some events are highly marketed, money making ventures where the focus isn’t on the event itself.  With these haunts, there’s usually tons of marketing hype, but by the next year the haunt is GONE without a trace.  The Darkness is definitely NOT one of those haunted houses.  As you walk through the attraction from one room to the next, you can tell a great deal of money, time, creativity and passion has been placed into producing The Darkness.  Is The Darkness the best haunted attraction in America?  HauntWorld has reviewed a lot of haunted houses, toured many haunts of all different shapes, sizes, styles, and themes, and most great haunts like The Darkness are unique and offer each scream seeker something different.  Are you afraid of spiders, snakes, heights, or merely your own shadow?   There’s different strokes for different folks, and we can say without hesitation that The Darkness will rank as one of the best haunted houses you’ll ever see.  It may not be your personal favorite but clearly it’s one of the coolest, top notch ATTRACTIONS ever!   The Darkness has survived where so many other haunts have failed and has continued for over 15 screaming years!  Once again, The Darkness ranks as one of our TOP 13 haunts in America!? For more information about The Darkness visit their website at www.Scarefest.com.                       LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DARKNESS go to www.Scarefest.com TO FIND MORE HAUNTED HOUSES IN MISSOURI and MISSOURI HAUNTED HOUSES CLICK HERE ... http://www.hauntworld.com/missouri_haunted_houses

The Story of the Lemp Mansion

The city of St. Louis, is home to what may consider to be one of the most haunted places in the country: the Lemp Mansion.  In fact, the Lemp Mansion was ranked by Life Magazine in the 1980s as one of the top nine most haunted places in America.  Built in 1868, William J. Lemp and his wife, Julia, moved into the mansion in 1876. 

William J. Lemp Sr.’s father, Adam Lemp, began the successful Western Brewery company which eventually grew to encompass 40 breweries throughout the St. Louis area.  In 1862, William became owner and operator of Western Brewery after the death of his father.  While the company experienced rapid growth and immense success, the tragic decline of the Lemp family began.

William Sr. and Julia had six children; the oldest, Frederick, was the favorite of William’s and the apparent heir of Western Brewery.  In 1901, when Frederick passed away due to significant health problems, William became despondent and overcome with grief.  Eventually, he committed suicide in 1904 by shooting himself in the head.  In the following years, three more of the Lemp children (including the youngest daughter) committed suicide: each one, just like their father, shot themselves. 

Today, the Lemp Mansion has been renovated into an inn and restaurant and is said to be haunted by the ghosts of several members of the Lemp family.  Alleged paranormal occurrences in the house include the opening and slamming of doors, unexplainable knocking and footsteps, candles lighting on their own, and glasses flying off a bar and crashing to the floor.  Visitors have reported an overwhelming sense of sadness in certain parts of the house and a feeling of being watched.  Some have even claimed to have seen apparitions of members of the Lemp family, most notably Charles Lemp, the third son of William Sr. and the last Lemp to live in the mansion before he shot himself.  One report states that while the house was being renovated, a painter became uneasy and felt like he was being watched.  He immediately ran out of the house, leaving all his supplies and never returned. 

Hauntworld Reviews Missouri Haunted Houses

Welcome to our Missouri Haunted House and Halloween Attraction page and here you can find all sorts of haunted houses in Missouri. Some of our favorite haunted houses in Missouri start with The Darkness in St. Louis Missouri.  The Darkness is simply one of the best haunted houses in the entire country.  The Darkness has been featured on National Geographic Channel, Travel Channel, Modern Marvels and even in USA Today.  The Darkness features over 100 animations, unreal sets and scenes, special effects on two floors of fright.  The Darkness also features a monster museum, gift store and a second haunted house called Terror Visions in 3D.  Visit the Darkness Haunted house in St Louis, Missouri at www.scarefest.com.

Another haunted house in St. Louis, Missouri is Creepyworld, which is one of the biggest haunted scream parks in America.  Creepyworld features four major haunted houses in one location for one price including a haunted hayride, haunted mansion, gothic style haunted forest and Silo-X.  More information about Creepyworld can be found at www.Scarefest.com

Other haunted houses in Missouri are Fear Fest in Columbia, Missouri... FEARFEST features 4 haunted attractions including 2 haunted houses a haunted hayride and our 13 acre corn maze. FEARFEST is the BEST and LARGEST haunted complex in Mid-Missouri!  Find more about this attraction at www.fearfesthauntedhouse.com.

Another haunted house in Columbia, Missouri is Necropolis the most intense haunted house in Missouri and has been completely re-designed for this coming year. Don't forget to check out our second attraction, Freakshow in 3D.  Necropolis and Freakshow in 3D are both convenietly located within walkind distance of downtown and all three College campuses.  Learn more at www.enterthenecropolis.com

Another haunted house in Missouri is Raycliff Manor, a catacomb of nightmares, a macabre maze of horror. Enter freely and of your own will. This may be your last contact with reality; you have now entered the world of spirits. Inside the manor a mad genius once discovered the secret of extracting fear from his victims as trophies for his collection of terror. Now those fears are trapped inside, waiting for those who are brave enough to enter. To learn more about Raycliff Manor visit their website at www.RaycliffManor.com

Lastly we suggest another Missouri Haunted House at the following URL www.ozarknightmares.com  located near the Ozark area.  

Keep checking back on these pages for more updates about Missouri Haunted Houses and Halloween Attractions.

Missouri loves to scream so please be our guest and click on the profiles for haunted attractions in Missouri listed above.

To read more about the haunted house industry subscribe to HauntWorld Magazine www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

To find Corn Mazes and Pumpkin patches in Missouri go to www.HalloweenAttractions.com

TO FIND MORE HAUNTS IN MISSOURI CLICK HERE http://www.hauntworld.com/missouri_haunted_houses  All across America, there are many types of haunted attractions and Halloween attractions like haunted houses, corn mazes, haunted hayrides, haunted trails, and more, but on the grandest scale, there are the SCREAMPARKS.  Screamparks are large, outdoor locations offering several haunted attractions under one venue.  One such Screampark is located in St. Louis, Missouri called Creepyworld. Creepyworld is one of America’s best and biggest Screamparks offering a haunted hayride, haunted mansion, vampire themed graveyard, and a military themed haunt called Silo-X.  HauntWorld Magazine ranks Creepyworld as one of the TOP 10 best haunted Screamparks in America for many reasons.  Typically, Screampark style attractions are not as elaborate and detailed as a permanent, indoor haunted house, but that’s not the case with Creepyworld. Creepyworld has wicked set design, amazing detail, established actors and terrifying scares.  Creepyworld is MASSIVE with FOUR major haunted attractions including (1) Tombstone Haunted Hayride, (2) Dominion of the Vampire, (3) Ravens Mansion, and (4) the main attraction, Silo-X.  Once you enter the eerie gates of Creepyworld, you are greeted by The Ghoul Band, a comical music group of the dead, banging out hit after hit and telling Halloween jokes too.  The Ghoul Band immediately puts you in the Halloween mood at Creepyworld. From there, the terror mounts as you stand before the massive entrance to Ravens Mansion.  The look alone could make you cower as you peer up at its terrifying façade standing 25 feet tall, dwarfing all below.  Once you enter Ravens Mansion, be prepare to scream inside one of the most elaborate haunted houses ever.  Ravens Mansion is an indoor/outdoor haunted attraction.  As you go through each detailed room of this haunted mansion, you’ll eventually exit into the back garden with an old run-down green house and tool shed stalked by a horrific, hillbilly grounds keeper.    If you survive Ravens Mansion, you’ll enter the second attraction: Dominion of the Vampire.  Dominion of the Vampire is a very elaborate indoor/outdoor attraction which features sophisticated animations and Hollywood quality props, sets, and scenes.  Start by traveling through a creepy graveyard where zombies are lurking at every turn.  Next, you come upon a wicked swamp where water cannons and flame machines shoot up into the air within feet of you.  Finally, you enter the Vampire castle filled with crazed demons and blood-sucking vampire brides.  Next, prepare yourself for Tombstone Haunted Hayride, a quarter mile long adventure through the old dead west.  Tombstone is filled with zombie gunslingers and long dead corpses looking for revenge inside this old town of Tombstone.  Tombstone Haunted Hayride features pyrotechnics, awesome sets, psychotic animations and dead cowboys at every turn.  At the Tombstone Haunted Hayride, there will be no cheesy sets or dumb skits, just heart-pounding terror from start to finish. After the first three attractions, you’ll probably be tired from running in fear but try to salvage your energy, because there is still one massive-sized attraction to go…Silo-X.  Silo-X is a historic haunt.  It was the first ever franchised haunted house and at one point opened in over 12 markets across the country including Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Kansas City and many more.  Silo-X originally started in St. Louis over 15 years ago, and now it’s bigger and better than ever as one of the four attractions located inside Creepyworld Haunted ScreamPark.  Silo-X is the longest and THE SCARIEST attraction at Creepyworld.  Silo-X consists of a series of haunted mazes themed around an X-Files type military base with genetic mutations and hideous monsters everywhere.  Some paranormal experiments have gone awry and now danger lurks around every turn.  Once inside Silo-X prepare to be stalked and chased by savage chainsaw beasts, bloody monsters and more. Creepyworld is in every sense of the word a SCREAMPARK with several different levels of fun and fear for any Halloween thrill seeker.  If you ever find yourself in or near St. Louis, be sure to visit Creepyworld, but trust me it takes well over an hour to tour all four attractions inside Creepyworld.  So where does Creepyworld rank among the elite haunted houses in America?  Creepyworld is owned and operated by Halloween Productions, Inc., the same company which also owns and operates The Darkness Haunted House.  While CreepyWorld is an outdoor event, The Darkness is a 27,000 sq ft indoor attraction.  Generally, indoor attractions have better set-design because they can be worked on and updated year around.  The Darkness is one of HauntWorld’s favorite haunted houses due to the unmatched detail, set design, animations and crazed actors.  It’s really hard to create an outdoor attraction with the same level of detail and design as a top-rated indoor attraction like The Darkness.  However, there is no doubt that Creepyworld is every bit as detailed, every bit as elaborate, and in some ways better than any indoor haunted house we’ve seen.  We feel that most people looking for a good scream this October will find Creepyworld to be just what the doctor ordered.  Creepyworld ranks as one of our favorite (if not THE favorite) Screampark we’ve ever reviewed.  To learn more about Creepyworld, visit their website at www.scarefest.com.    TO FIND MORE HAUNTED HOUSES IN MISSOURI and MISSOURI HAUNTED HOUSES CLICK HERE ... http://www.hauntworld.com/missouri_haunted_houses