Its that time of year again. Time for all the ghouls and demons to come out of the woodwork. Time for children to dress up in imaginative costumes and go around their neighbourhoods asking for treats. Yes, its that enjoyable annual holiday: Halloween. During this holiday, one popular tradition, for many, is to go to the local haunted houses. In these creepy commorancies, people delight in the chance to entertain their primal fears. Many of us get a kick out of a good scare.
Of course, these are just false haunted houses. Annual occurrences of smoke and mirror type frights. They are fun because everyone plays along. The demons are actors, the ghosts, props. These haunted houses are fun because both spook and spooked, know that no one is actually going to be hurt in the process. So then, what of real haunted houses?
Here the rules change. This time the scares are real, and the safety of the victim is placed into question. Now one comes face to face with the supernatural. That is, assuming that there is such a thing as the supernatural.
Most neighbourhoods in many parts of the industrial and post-industrial world, seem to harbour one, or two allegedly...