Etchings on the Attic Wall

Here’s another good Halloween attraction, located in the San Francisco Bay area.  This is a haunted house covering about 5 acres with a pirate ship theme set in the 15th century.  They make use of robotics, animation, special effects, and interaction to create a very scary experience.  They actually recommend that no one under 13 years old participate.  They try to provide a unique experience by changing the scenes every year and setting up the facility to make people feel like they are part of the action, instead of just watching it.  All of the scenery is very realistic which includes vortex tunnels, strobe lights, and trap doors.  The pirates and creatures of the night exists in 3 different attractions throughout the haunted house:

• The Pirate ship and village – you are led into a dark elevator with a small group of other guests and scream your way downward into the lowest level.  From there, you are guided through a maze of rooms with dead and undead pirates.  Everything is amazingly detailed and there is organ music playing throughout.  You also often are presented with multiple ways to go – making you feel like part of the adventure.
• Pirates of the Deep in 3-D (tour through the underwater world of Davy Jones’ locker) – the scenery is very nicely detailed to make you feel like you are underwater.
• Bilge Rat Maze – an open-air maze with strobe lighting, making it difficult to determine where you are going.  There is also loud music playing so you can’t hear the actors before they get a chance to scare you.  It is common for people to get lost in the maze

So, if you happen to be in the San Francisco Bay area already and want to go to a really fun and scary haunted house, give The Pirates of Emerson a try!