The Best of Cleveland Haunted Houses 2008, Pandora’s Box
Pandora’s Box is a two house haunted attraction located at 6091 Heisley Ave in Mentor, OH.
Alouette’s Review:
House 1: House of the Dead
Rating for House of the Dead:
The following paragraph contains descriptions which may be seen as spoilers!
House of the Dead was pretty good. This house was too short, though. This house use a lot of image projecting equipment to enhance long lonely hallways (in which they have few or no actors, possibly to cut costs or something?). The effect is cool but not scary, though it does add a nice touch to the atmosphere of the place. The definite highlight of this house is what I referred to as “the birthing canal” for lack of a better term. Basically it’s a black tunnel that is made in a similar manner to the Halloween inflatables in peoples yards. It’s all black and completely engulfs you, it makes you feel like you are stuck in it and you have no idea how long the tunnel is. Also, it feels like there are people pushing on both sides of it (not sure if there are people or if it’s just from your party going through which seems more likely), pushing you around from side to side. It is very intense, I really didn’t expect something like that at all. My second most memorable moment was the Voodoo room where vines above you actually rain down on you as you walk through. It also has a giant animatronic monkey skeleton which is pretty cool.
House 2: Reapers Castle
Rating for Reaper’s Castle:
The following paragraph contains descriptions which may be seen as spoilers!
I really wish this one’s name wasn’t so cheesy because it’s the better of the two houses. This house is twice as long as the first house. There was a lot of use of the projection in this house as well, sometime in this house there were really long sections of hall with no actors at all. My problem with this (because normally this would be building up anticipation) is that they were trying to make these hallways completely dark, at least I think they were, but instead since the ceiling wasn’t covered up (it’s in a large factory) it was just kind of dim hallways. I would suggest that they cover the ceiling up with a dark cloth and the long hallways with nothing or just projected ghouls and ghosts would be much more creepy.
Anyway, the highlights since I told you this one was better. First of all, we start out with a small show of a giant flying animatronic Grim Reaper. It was pretty cool. He flies around the room and talks to the guests. In this house we also have another birthing canal, just an FYI. The ambiance in this one is much more intense, there is a whole section where you feel like you are going through the hospital from Silent Hill with crazy Silent Hill Nurses and scuttling things on the floor in wide hospital corridors. The wide hospital corridors force you into a creepy huge bathroom with the stall style sinks and crazy dead people telling us to stay and play.
Overall Score from Alouette:
Just a quick mention that these houses were really great, they were fun and had nice atmosphere. I was a little disappointed with the price of the houses, $15 for each. It’s $25 if you want to go to both which isn’t bad but if you just went to one it would be a bit of a rip off. If you do only go to one, Reaper’s Castle is the one with more bang for your buck.
Overall Atsmophere:
Overall Scary Factor:
Overall score for Pandora’s Box:
Second Opinion, The Vic’s Scores:
Defining moment: The birthing canal, the effects in general. Especially the amazing cover band in the parking lot.
House of the Dead:
Reapers Castle:
Pandora’s Box overall:
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