The Start of Spooky Season: Dead City

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Leta Armstrong

Smack dab in the middle of Murray, Utah, is a new haunted house, that sits beside a graveyard. This place is known as Dead City Haunted House. I decided to go with my friend on a Friday night, hoping to get me ready for October. This was my first time in an actual haunted house, and it was, to the say the least, underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong, it was really fun, and I did get scared a few times. But Dead City is more of a Disneyland ride than a horror attraction.

Before I jump in, let me detail a backstory. Dead City was created by Timothy Riggs in June 13, 2016, but it wasn’t actually open to customers until this summer. Although Timothy is deeply into animatronics, but I only saw a few at the entrance, which, by the way, is a little difficult to find. We had to drive all the way around the building to find it. Timothy was kind enough to give me two free passes, so I didn’t have to pay anything. If you do decide to go, however, General Admission is $25, while a Fast Pass is $35. Fast Pass is basically VIP, which means you get to go to actual bathrooms instead of Porta Potties they have outside. Luckily, I didn’t have to go to the bathroom.

As the title indicates, Dead City, is a dead city. There were doctors, clowns, vampires, and zombies. My friend and I stood in line for about 45 minutes and then the security guard told us we could go. We opened the door, and we stepped into what seemed like a house. We walked through the kitchen, and into the backyard, where zombies called out to us and there were popping noises and they puffed out air to us to scare us. We walked through the different rooms, some scarier and longer than others, and you could easily tell how it was supposed to be a city – but then we got to the best part – the clown maze.

Clowns in neon colored makeup handed us 3D glasses, and when we put them on, the whole room transformed. Even their makeup popped out at us. Clowns were talking to us, telling us where to go, and even following us around. It was kind of just like walking around a museum. There was another room with baby dolls hanging from the ceiling, and a child that looked like the girl from The Ring started chasing us. I wish that room had lasted longer. Some of the rooms, or themes, such as the Egyptian and vampire ones were really short, and I think it definitely would have been more fun if they had elongated them. Another suggestion is to make the path more clear, because my friend and I had to ask people where to go multiple times. There were times when there was no clear indication of where to go, so we just wandered around. The clown maze ended quite abruptly, and after that, the haunted house was over, which was kind of anticlimactic.

Overall, I would the experience was fun. However, you do not get your worth for the $25. It wasn’t as long as I thought it would be, and it was pretty stereotypical for a haunted house. Apparently, if you hold a glow stick, it tells the actors not to scare you, which is pretty convenient for kids who don’t want to be scared that much. The actors were very enthusiastic, but there were so many of them that scared me so many times that I almost got used to it. If it was more interactive, and it was more themed around a city, I think it would have been much more fun. If you want to go to a haunted house for the first time, I would say that this would be the place to go. It scares you, but not to the point of messing you up. Definitely would recommend for parents who don’t want their kids to be too scared. I would definitely go again.