Albuquerque scream spots leave grown men in tears

Having retired from one job, Dale Ervin now spends his life doing what he loves: terrifying people. “Scaring people is an awful lot of fun,” said the owner and head operator of Albuquerque’s two largest haunted houses — Primitive Fear
and 13th Street Manor. Both houses are drawing frights from attendees said event goer Teresa Lundy.

“You can’t see anything, and the people follow you,” she said. “That’s scary. That creeps me out.” Participants can pay $14 for each event or $25 to see both. While the prices are steep, Lundy said it is well worth it.

“It’s Halloween, you’re supposed to be scared,” she said. Ervin said both houses have a distinct feel and atmosphere for those with different tastes in frights. Primitive Fear’s back-story has the participant searching for a Nobel Peace Prize laureate through an Amazonian jungle. The haunted house is decorated with a realistic environment complete with recreations of tall trees, boggy swamps and inhuman creatures roaming around the jungle. The house-goer
gropes his way through the dark passages.

“This one is really dark,” Ervin said. “It’s just in your face scared and then it’s gone. Mainly, you’re moving on before the scare is done. It’s human nature, you get scared you take off.”

The 13th Street Manor favors a more thematic approach to horror rather than the “jump and out, and grab you fear” of Primitive Fear, Ervin said. In the manor, the participants are exploring a haunted house that people often enter but seldom leave. The set constructions are better than those at Primitive Fear, with an elaborate plaza that feels like the outside of a manor. The inside of the house is lit with smoky red lighting which serves to better illuminate the abandoned house and the deformed people wandering about.

“We actually hired a special effects company to redo the sets this year,” Ervin said. “We hired professional actors this year. Over there they are naturally going to scare you, but then they are going to have a dialogue with you. ”

The story for either house takes a backseat once the guests enter the house, and the primary focus becomes terrifying the visitors. Primitive Fear shocks the house-goers every minute or two with hard and fast scares, while 13th Street Manor, relies less on hard and instead fills the guest with a sense of utter dread and confusion by the end of the trip Ervin said.

It should be noted, people have to want to be scared to enjoy either house. After a while, the event-goer learns when to expect scares, but this knowledge does not have to ruin the experience, Ervin said. “Some people come saying, ‘You’re not going to scare me,’” he said. “And if you come in with that attitude you’re probably right. We’re probably not going to scare you. Some people, I don’t know why, they just enjoy getting scared.” Each trip through either of the houses lasts about 12 minutes, but can take longer depending on how frightened the guest might be, Ervin said. Some visitors complain about the shortness of the trip, but Ervin said the experience inside the house is worth it.

“You’re live in the experience,” he said. “In that respect it’s better than a movie, but it’s not as long as a movie, so that’s the downside of it. That exhilaration that you feel when you come out stays with you a long time.” All the actors in both houses give what little time is allotted to thoroughly scare each visitor. Ervin said it’s through the collective love of scaring people that the houses do so well.

“It’s just unbelievable what some people can do,” he said. “You’ll take guys bigger than me, 6’4’’ 6’5’’ 250, 280 pounds and you just put ‘em down on the ground — just terrified. Or they take their kids or their wives and shove them out in front of (the creatures), or just take off running, and run through a wall.”

And the customers love them too. Guests burst from the exits screaming one second and the next they are laughing. Isaiah Montano, visitor at Primitive Fear, said it’s fun to be scared. “It’s the rush of being scared and knowing you’ll still be fine, he said. “It’s just a little excitementin your night.”