Spring Break
'Terror Behind the Walls' sets season's fear-o-meter
Aditi Dubey
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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If you haven't been to Terror Behind the Walls yet, I would highly recommend you check it out. It'll be worth your while, whether you're easily scared or not. It's an annual event is hosted by the Eastern State Penitentiary as a Halloween special, and this year it goes on until Nov. 3.
About 130 actors have been hired and placed at different locations throughout the tour. From the entrance where you deposit your waivers, to the exit, there are surprises everywhere. A combination of good make-up, forbidding mannerisms, and threatening dialogue make these people almost as scary as zombies would be, if they were real. They jump out at you when you're least expecting it, from corners, from cells and from inside the walls, and scare the daylights out you.
The walking tour leads you to different sections of the penitentiary, and some sets are within the prison itself, while some others are outside. You can easily see that they've made all effort to keep things new, unexpected, different, and yet, scary. The different sections are called Lock Down, Intake, 13 Rooms, The Experiment, and Night Watch.
Lock Down is new this year and is set inside the prison. The event organizers are claiming it to be the largest and most sophisticated design yet at Terror Behind the Walls. You are taken down one of the diagonal blocks of the prison where there are cells with prisoners that jump out at you, chained mannequins being shocked with electricity, and three huge Tesla coils that create twisting, bright arcs of electricity. It gives the impression that the cell doors and gates are electrified, and you pretty much walk around in huddles, expecting electricity to shoot out at you any moment. Lighting, sound and digital effects have been used to a great advantage in Lock Down. The entire set and all the effects take on the character of the prison, adding to the spookiness of the place.
Night Watch and 13 Rooms also hold visitors' interest with a variety of eerie displays. For Night Watch, you're given a flashlight as you walk through pitch dark rooms with zombies popping out of nowhere, and steel roofings almost collapsing on your head. The actors terrify you enough to give you sweaty palms, especially when a zombie of them pops out of what you thought was a wall, and screams "not so fast!" at you. Some of them even crawl down from the roof of the set and catch you unawares.
About 130 actors have been hired and placed at different locations throughout the tour. From the entrance where you deposit your waivers, to the exit, there are surprises everywhere. A combination of good make-up, forbidding mannerisms, and threatening dialogue make these people almost as scary as zombies would be, if they were real. They jump out at you when you're least expecting it, from corners, from cells and from inside the walls, and scare the daylights out you.
The walking tour leads you to different sections of the penitentiary, and some sets are within the prison itself, while some others are outside. You can easily see that they've made all effort to keep things new, unexpected, different, and yet, scary. The different sections are called Lock Down, Intake, 13 Rooms, The Experiment, and Night Watch.
Lock Down is new this year and is set inside the prison. The event organizers are claiming it to be the largest and most sophisticated design yet at Terror Behind the Walls. You are taken down one of the diagonal blocks of the prison where there are cells with prisoners that jump out at you, chained mannequins being shocked with electricity, and three huge Tesla coils that create twisting, bright arcs of electricity. It gives the impression that the cell doors and gates are electrified, and you pretty much walk around in huddles, expecting electricity to shoot out at you any moment. Lighting, sound and digital effects have been used to a great advantage in Lock Down. The entire set and all the effects take on the character of the prison, adding to the spookiness of the place.
Night Watch and 13 Rooms also hold visitors' interest with a variety of eerie displays. For Night Watch, you're given a flashlight as you walk through pitch dark rooms with zombies popping out of nowhere, and steel roofings almost collapsing on your head. The actors terrify you enough to give you sweaty palms, especially when a zombie of them pops out of what you thought was a wall, and screams "not so fast!" at you. Some of them even crawl down from the roof of the set and catch you unawares.
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