The House of Torment has been a favorite attraction for people, mainly teenagers, since it opened 10 years ago. This is the last year the haunted house is rumored to be open in Austin.

This year, the House of Torment has three haunted houses to go through plus an additional separate attraction. Equipped with fog machines, strobe lighting, scent machines, pop-out props and plenty of actors with detailed costumes and makeup, it is definitely worth the money you spend on your ticket.

The prices range from $25-40 per ticket depending on if you buy online or if you buy regular or VIP entry. VIP allows you to cut to the front of the lines but is more expensive. If you buy online, you actually pay $5.00 more for the convenience but it might be a better idea because the line to the ticket booth is an hour to and hour-and-a-half wait.

Parking is also plentiful and most of it is free rather than valet. Valet parking is very cheap though.

It takes between 10 and 30 minutes to get through the line for each house, depending on which one you go through. The second house has the longest line. However, they have actors all decked-out in their costumes walking around, being scary, for anyone to get pictures with as well as a taped-off square with alluring zombie dancers.

The monsters walking around include a zombie-fied mechanic, a werewolf in drag from the 1800’s, and an over-sized robot with an elaborate gas-mask around his face and chest. They sprint and growl at everyone, dragging their fake weapons with them such as a wrench or huge axe.

The zombie dancers themselves made the wait in line worth it with their genuine talent and fun music; it almost feels like being in a movie. Some dancers even run up to the crowd and let out high-pitched shrieks. The only letdown is that you can’t take pictures with them.

My only complaint other than the long line for the ticket-booth was the people smoking in the lines. You aren’t allowed to smoke in the house for safety precautions so people had their final cigarette outside which made the wait uncomfortable.

As for my personal experience, I had never been to a haunted house before so I decided to face my fears and check it out. For me, it was a huge mistake mainly because of my anxiety disorder.

I clung to my friends and kept my eyes shut throughout which was followed by my shoelaces coming untied. I ended up blindly tripping through the first house and even banged my head on the walls a couple of times.

Needless to say, my experience is not going to be the best representative of the scarehouse. My friends, on the other hand, got exactly what they were looking for.

Each room has a different scenario such as a doctors office or a bathroom and has plenty of places for actors to jump out at you, one of which is a trapdoor in the ceiling above you.

The scent machine is truly nauseating and does it’s job of giving some authenticity to the creepiness of gore, flesh, and whatever else comes to the imagination.

You also go up and down very steep stairs and ramps. One of the scenes is built entirely slanted and even changes directions three times which makes the navigation of it fun and adds to the suspense.

It only takes about 10-15 minutes to actually make it all the way through one house but for me it felt like at least thirty.

The second house is the longest with an Aztec-like entrance and is scarier than the first but has the longest line.

The third house, also called “The Slaughter House,” has the shortest line but is the scariest of all. It has scent machines throughout the entire house which imitate the grotesque stench of rotting meat and flesh. There are detailed gorish victims and dead animals (fake, of course), extra flashing strobe-lights and more actors popping out of what seems like nowhere.

The event opened September 21 and officially closes on November 10.

Overall, I would give this event five stars. If you haven’t gone yet, you are definitely missing out.