The House of Shock resurrects the dead as it revamps a historic New Orleans haunted house planned to be closed forever last year.
After shutting the doors in 2014, the New Orleans community banded together to show its support for House of Shock’s reopening this October.
“We’re beyond excited about The Resurrection, as there was strong chance that the House of Shock was dead for good,” Co-founder Ross Karpelman said. “The love and support we received from the community is both humbling and inspiring.”
With new life comes new opportunities for heart-stopping scares. House of Shock introduced two new exhibits for the 2015 season, one of which, Bordello of Freaks, is an old school carnival freak show paying homage to the fourth season of “American Horror Story: Freak Show.”
“We got a lot of inspiration from American Horror Story,” co-founder Steve Joseph said. “They came out last year and were guests of the place. They thought it was phenomenal.”
The second exhibit, Laff in the Dark, a 3-D clown experience with “more scares per square foot than any other event of its kind,” according to House of Shock’s Oct. 19 news release.
“We decided to do a 3-D maze with clowns [because] people hate clowns,” Joseph said. “It’s something we’ve never done before. It’s bright, vivid, bold color.”
The House of Shock this year pays tribute to a classic Louisiana haunt, the infamous Arabi, Louisiana, LeBeau Mansion that burned down in 2013.
The vacant home the community once aspired of turn into a museum, he said. Instead, the house was burnt to the ground when area-residents broke in and attempted a séance.
“So the way our minds work was like, ‘We’ll let the LeBeau Mansion live. We rebuilt the interior to sort of mock what our version of the LeBeau Mansion is,” Joseph said.
The idea behind the LeBeau Mansion attraction is the House of Shock closed last season, the children conjured up the characters who died with the 2014 season. Now with the reopening, guests will see the children conjure the devil.
The House of Shock’s trademark room, the church, however is still instilling fear into attendees.
“When we started, again as adult males, we thought the devil and Satanism … was more entertaining and more [scary] to us than old school Dracula, mummies, [and] werewolves,” Joseph said.
Joseph said during Halloween and other “evil” times, the devil is “pulling the strings,” so they want him to be a big
component of the exhibit. Though they are sometimes criticized for the involvement of the devil, “Everybody knows [that] good will always overpower evil.”
Compared to the 13th Gate, the House of Shock offers a rock ’n’ roll vibe, packed with a full concession stand, a bar and live bands outside for the guests, Joseph said.
“For LSU kids in particular, you’ve got to go to the French Quarter Halloween week,” Joseph said. “You’ve got to check it out. You’ve got to stop by here and the Mortuary, if you can afford both.”
The House of Shock has four more nights left this season.
“We can’t wait for New Orleans to experience The Resurrection,” Karpelman said. “We’re going big. Fans should prep themselves for major coronary failures!”
The House of Shock returns with new and old exhibits in its 2015 'The Resurrection' season on October 25, 2015.
