House of Shock

by: Tim Harkleroad

New Orleans, the Big Easy, the domain of the likes of Marie LeVeaux; the Voodoo Queen, host to hundreds of hauntings in the French Quarter, and home of one of the most intense Haunted Attractions in the country; the House of Shock!

Last October I visited my friend, the original.

The Origin
Located in a giant warehouse under the Huey P. Long bridge, the House of Shock, is the brainchild of Ross Karpelman, Steven Joseph, Jay Gracianette, and Phillip Anselmo. Host to hundreds of thousands of eager victims in the last seven years, House of Shock, possibly one of the largest, indoor, single element Haunted Attractions in the industry, which had it's meager beginnings as a Home Haunt.

Year one they invested about $800.00 in the attraction. "We started out in Jay's backyard. We basically had no idea how to go about it," recalls Karpelman, the house's "Frightmeister" and part owner. "I mean, we had walls built outta' visquine, y'know, it was ridiculous." The Fire Marshal took one look at it and said, "this is for a private party, RIGHT?" and Ross and Jay replied, "yeah, I guess."

The next year, they decided to make their money back. Although they were still in Jay's backyard, plywood walls were erected and they charged for people to go through. When people lined up around the block to get in the second year, they knew they were onto something. They decided to expand for year three, and moved to the warehouse that still houses the attraction to this day.

The partners are friends from different parts of the music business, the most notable is Anselmo of the Rock Band "Pantera." Ross Karpelman has a southern rock band called "Clearlight." Although the attraction is very businesslike, House of Shock is not for the squeamish.

Karpelman describes the show as "Over-the-top Satanism, over-the-top gore, just pure evil. We are very serious, if I see someone joking around or even smiling... I yell at 'em." Although it's hard to imagine the easygoing Karpelman yelling at anyone, the House of Shock takes their haunting very seriously. "We see some of the other Haunted Houses in our area goofing around, having actors dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller, y'know, I guess that's their thing, but it's not scary."

House of Shock has had a tough road to success though. Because of their extreme content, they have made a few enemies, or at least, detractors along the way. "We, unintentionally, had people convinced that we were Anton Szandor LaVey's Church of Satan, that we were here to steal their children's souls," laughs Ross.

"We had people break into the house and spread holy water around, salt was sprinkled all over the props, and y'know it's a show. I mean, I'm a lovable guy, there's no evil in me. After all, we are not Satanists. We're just having Halloween fun."

"We wanted to get away from the clichés like Freddy and Jason, we were sick of those guys. We wanted to do more scenes like from Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Deranged, Evil Dead, y'know that type of movie." "I mean Horror is just that... horror, it's not funny. You can't see a horror movie anymore without it having jokes and one-liners throughout the whole thing, when did that become the standard?"

The Tour
As you enter the property you will probably have to stand in line. I would estimate about four hundred were there the night we went. We arrived around break time, but after the line started moving, it was only a short time until we entered the castle-like gates to meet "The Evangelist."

The Evangelist, played by Steve Konos, stands over the entrance of the House of Shock warning the guests that they are not attending an ordinary haunted house but entering the "gates of Hell." As he attempts to madly plead with the crowd, it is apparent he is insane. You are then funneled into the entrance, surrounded by the disturbing looking denizens of the House of Shock.

The path winds around inside the house past seemingly hundreds of actors, first coming to an area full of houses. The houses are built full scale inside the House of Shock. Actors on suspended wires soar over the victims passing between the houses. You enter the largest house, passing through many rooms of more horrifying scenes. All around you get the feeling you are actually walking through Hell, all of its residents are filled with despair.

You proceed through the different sections of the attraction including the New Orleans Cemetery, the Catacombs, and the Barn among others. All of this culminates at the entrance of the church. Most likely the focus of most of their protesters, the church features a Satanic sermon delivered by "Lord Belial" (played by Ross Karpelman). "Lord Belial" looms over the area on a huge (hydraulic) altar that rises 20 feet over the heads of the condemned souls that are passing through on to Hell. The impressive (and very intense) scene is over two stories high, built in forced prospective. The inside looks like a stone cathedral, complete with stained glass windows, and filled with the minions of Hell.

Forced or false perspective is a technique used by stage designers and diorama makers to fool the eye into thinking a scene is deeper than it really is. The elements in the background of the scene are shrunk down to appear farther away than they really are and the walls, floor and ceiling slope prematurely to a vanishing point. False perspective can be used to make a building look taller than it is by sloping the walls away from the viewer, and by scaling down the details on the second and third floors.

You wind your way through the rest of the tour, through mazes filled with more horrible looking souls, on the way to the exit. The entire trip through the House of Shock tour lasts about 25 to 30 minutes. I did have actors touch me and sometimes claw at my clothes, but nothing in an offensive manner, well at least to me.

I was genuinely scared inside the show, which I do not always experience inside haunted attractions. Of course, not many haunted attractions have 200 plus actors swarming around you, flying overhead on wires, or swinging in on ropes. With so much detail to see in the house you get distracted by the sets and the actors pounce at the exact moment when you are most vulnerable. The actors seem to be watching where you are watching and go after you when you are distracted.

The Operation
While visiting the house I saw several law enforcement officers in the queue line, over two dozen House of Shock security, dressed in black, holding walkie-talkies, scattered throughout the house, as well as management personnel both inside and out. House of Shock has a mailing list of over two-hundred volunteers that come and work for free. Several of the owner/partners still work nightly inside the house reprising parts they have done for years.

They have a concession stand as well as some vendors outside in the queue line area. There are several hundred yards of chain and stanchions running through the area. Actors often come out to the crowd and goose the line with chainsaws and or macabre theatrics. Ross says he often takes a break and comes out to publicly beat someone (one of the actors) for the delight of the crowd.

They have had people from nearly every state in the country and several European countries visit their attraction. They regularly enter floats in the Mardi Gras parade, causing visible changes in the startled faces of the parade revelers as the House of Shock's deliciously dark float slithers past.

"Because of the Satanic thing, we fought city hall, the city council, churches, you name it, to keep open. Everybody tried to shut us down." says Karpelman. "The only person that has treated us with respect and has been willing to work with us has been the fire marshal. He has been great. Because we didn't have sprinklers in the building, he allowed us to work out what we feel is a much better plan."

The House of Shock seems to have made an uneasy peace with their neighbors in New Orleans, becoming a Halloween standard with thousands of fans that come back every year. No longer billing themselves as just a haunted house, "because of our theatrics and the nature of our extremity, we are now calling ourselves a Horror Show & Interactive Haunted House.

This year the outdoor portion of the show will feature a Drive-In style movie, which will highlight some of the most horrific and graphic scenes in horror movie history. Some clips might be difficult for even the most hard-core horror fan to identify. We have also commissioned a pyrotechnic company to do theatrical flame gags for the event.

Ross is mum about some of the new toys he has built and purchased for this year's show, but in addition to the outside enhancements, the House of Shock will be upgrading the inside of the attraction as well. The additions include a Vortex Tunnel, and the redressing of the Ballroom Scene with several Flying Crank Ghosts built by consultant and "Phantasmechanic," Doug Ferguson. These custom built FCG's are creepier than Doug's standard design. The big news for 1999 is a surprise ending now in the planning stage, promising to totally "freak-out" this year's guests.

Ross and the House of Shock are proud founding members of the I.A.H.A. He may be reached at 504-283-2685 or you can e-mail him at Clerlite@acadiacom.net. Be sure to visit their website at www.houseofshock.com. Try to make your way to New Orleans this season for the fright of your life.

Tim Harkleroad is a founding board member of IAHA and author of "The Complete Haunted House Book." He can be contacted at moonpub@aol.com.