TACOMA, Wash. — You never know what kind of darkness prowls within reach on the other side of a thick fog bank. At Frighthouse Station, billed as Tacoma's ultimate haunt, cast members pride themselves on delivering more than scares.
"You're not here just to be scared," said owner Erik Tavares, who teaches 4th graders by day. "You're actually here to walk through an unusual horror film. So it's not just your typical Boo Scare, but it's as if you're living in the moment."
Inspired by the imagination of horror novelist H. P. Lovecraft, the journey takes you deeper and deeper into the depths where an ancient terror has cast a spell on the inhabitants of the musty village of Ammet Bay. It's a place that resembles Tacoma a hundred years ago.
"It's very much what's called cosmic horror," Tavares said. "A lot of ocean tropes. Things from beyond the stars. And the uneasy feeling that there's always something lurking in the shadows."
Isabella Songer screamed herself hoarse in the haunt.
"I was scared," Songer said afterwards. "Terrified. I thought I was going to die in there."
Her friends laughed.
"It was bad," Songer said.
"Which is good, right?" we asked.
The whole point," she said. "Yeah."
Tavares measures the success of his haunt not by the number of scares, but on how well the journey brings people closer together.
"We've had a number of people tell us after the COVID experience they want to get out and not just see life but they want to live it," Tavares said. "I will tell you in our own strange way we are definitely living life a little differently here."
Frighthouse Station is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights starting at 7 p.m.
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