On Saturday, October 20th we had a mini meetup at Hallowinc’s Urban Haunted House in Rockville, MD and were given media passes to the haunt. The story behind this haunt is that there was an accident that led to an outbreak of zombies. You are being evacuated.
Hallowinc is a first year haunt, but you wouldn’t know it from the skillful way it’s executed.
First, you wait in a line that moves pretty quickly. There’s an intimidating but hilarious guy up front who might mess with you a bit as he tells you the rules and that if you chicken out in the haunt you will be instagrammed and posted on the Wall of Shame.
Then you are let inside where you must fill out a waiver. You may get a free sample of a drink or other product plus a coupon for a discount at the local Halloween store.
You will notice the creepy red lighting and post apocalyptic graffiti all over the walls.. This location used to be a Filene’s Basement, so they used some of what was already there with a great result.
Then you get spoken to by a SWAT team guy who tells you about the outbreak and ascend the escalators into the dark. You’ll hear some eerie music, too. Before the house even starts you’ll have to walk through a hallway of caged zombies. Then you can buy your tickets.
The line is up here and there is a video playing in this area that explains the backstory. Before you even get into the attraction you’ll also see some craziness which I will not give away. You then line up and are briefed by a SWAT team member who is directing you toward your evacuation point.
The maze itself is very well done. We were in the maze for at least 15 minutes, possibly more. There was a lot of misdirection, and cool props set up to distract you, harass you, or creep you out.
The best part? They did all of this without a single chainsaw or cheap gimmick. The finale especially was INSANE and I feel far more effective than a chainsaw that every haunt in the country has. You can tell they they really thought about what works, what doesn’t, and worked hard to bring haunt fans a premium experience unlike anywhere else. Everyone in my party loved it and a few have gone back a second time. See this one.
7 responses to “Haunt Review: Hallowinc’s Urban Haunted House”
This hallow inc production is shameful and insensitive. This is base on real life event, it’s disgusting. How can they turn real life event into entertainment? People are still effected by the experiments from the project 4.1. Why could they use nazi concentration camps? Because its wrong. You should do research on Marshall Islands and this project.
If you’re actually protesting this as “insensitive” you must have far too much time on your hands… Go feed the homeless or something
https://www.facebook.com/groups/371560886262521/?ref=ts&fref=ts
United Against Hallow Inc.’s Haunted House
This is horrible and they did not even think of the people who will feel horrible because of this. The people who really became victims of this Project 4.1, are in the Marshall Islands still grieving for their loss, loss of family members – culture – island – aquamarine resources. They could’ve used something else as a theme. This is so low.
The Hallow Inc guys have released a statement on the situation on their site, you might want to look at their take on things before making any judgements:
http://www.hallowinc.com/disclaimer.cfm
Unfortunately the Hallow Inc disclaimer does not take away from the nature of this project. The fact is that this will continue offending people who have visited the Marshall Islands and have some knowledge of the issues, as well as Marshall Islanders. The horror house has already received critical comment from Marshallese Minister Tony de Brum, as well as members of the Marshallese community. Hallow Inc claim to have contacted the RMI ambassador but I wonder if he will actually want to acknowledge this attraction in any way.
If the horror house does not intend to represent Marshallese people or any elements of the tragic nuclear history, then there really wasn’t any need to mention the RMI in the first place or to include it in the back story.
Hallow Inc should rebrand to cut the connection to the RMI and apologise for the offense that has been caused.
And, just to note, that this disclaimer has only been added after several emails highlighting the issues with their project. It uses exact quotes from emails by myself and others and the idea of donating money to RMI organisation is clearly an after thought to the project.
[…] in Rockville MD has released some images for their second year of haunting. The did a great job last year. I wonder what they have planned for this […]