Photos by Jen Ruff. See below for more!
A native St. Louisan wouldn’t be shocked that THE best haunted house(s) are run by Scarefest and atop that list is The Darkness Haunted House (1525 S. 8th St). It is one of the best in the country, if not THE best. The animatronics in this building are unparalleled and every year things are added to keep upping the value for the admission. The building is packed with scares in every room and around every corner. Even in the smaller setting of the media night, there were still screams and scares. There were a few actors present and they were more spaced out than normal and even regulars (like myself and the wife) got unusually jump scared. Less actors wound up being bigger scares.
Haunted house season begins this Friday September 19 with rare slasher prices at $19.99 for the first 1,000 tickets sold while they last. (Tickets can be purchased here.) Every year this is a must-do to start the season. Creepyworld will open later this month on the 27th and that for me is my very favorite haunted experience.
One of The Darkness’ hidden gems is the year-round St. Louis Escape, located right next door at 1517 S. 8th St. There are six-plus intricate rooms with frightening scenarios and puzzles to challenge even seasoned horror nerds. Each is a mini horror- or action-based setup involving multiple spaces to solve and advance to. The rooms are: Alien Escape room, Cellar Escape (think Saw), Haunted Hotel Escape (think Haunted Mansion), Blackbeard’s Revenge, Dracula Escape, Frankenstein Escape, and, my favorite – Jurassic Island Escape. The detail in these rooms are cinematic, dramatic, and intense. If that were it, we’d be all the better for having an evening full of haunting fun at any time of year. BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!!!
The Monster arcade is full of tons of pinball machines and games that are wall to wall opportunities to really have a fun evening.
The best feature of the Escape Room facility is the mini golf. The bright colored course goes through almost all of entertainment over the past four or five decades: Nintendo characters, game show characters, movie characters, there’s SO much to see and a full 18 holes of blacklight greens for $13.
Lastly the gift shop is HUGE with something for everyone from casual spooky collectors to serious fanatics searching for something more rare and niche, including a lot of masks and cool clothing.
I’ve lived in this town all my life and we have a true gem with the haunted houses from the Scarefest team but if you haven’t – make it a MUST to visit the escape rooms and OMG the mini golf!!! This is now a fall staple and beyond. | Diane Ruff
For further info or to purchase tickets, visit thedarkness.com. Check out our photo gallery below; click photos to enlarge.
