Hair-raising fear house to help Olympic Theatre Arts

SEQUIM — Rosie Von Engel admits with a giggle that she has a bit of a twisted sense of humor.

That’s OK. She’s leading the ghoulish gathering of freaks, geeks, body parts and snakes at the first House of FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real), billed as a hair-raising fundraiser to benefit Olympic Theatre Arts Center.

“It’s a show for people who like to face their fears. This is for them,” said Von Engel, a costume and set designer for OTA who is quick to add this is not a show for the faint of heart or the littlest of trick-or-treaters.

“This is fun. That’s the whole point.”

Warning, she said, don’t bring children younger than 7.

The dark haunted house affair will be too intense and is intended to give you the willies, Von Engel said.

Conveniently located

You can find the House of FEAR, she said, in the place that “is across from the funeral home in front of the old church,” meaning Olympic Theatre Arts Center, 414 N. Sequim Ave.

It will scare up trouble from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, and Thursday, Oct. 28; from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29; from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30; and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 31, which is Halloween.

Admission is adults 18 and older, $4; and ages 13-17, $3.

Children ages 7-12 will be admitted for $2 and must be accompanied by an adult.

Helping Von Engel put the House of FEAR together are Elena Karr, Jaye Butler, Sheila Taylor and Teri Stone.

Butler plays the Grim Reaper at the “Feast of Fiends.”

Other phantasmagoric scenes to be set up around the haunted house are “Gone-Away Graveyard,” “Corpse Cafe” and the “Monster Mausoleum.”

“Then we will make them go into the basement to experience Dr. Danger’s Research Room,” Von Engel said with a sly grin.

Slither, slither

“Then we will stroll them through Alchemist’s Alley and upstairs to the Ghoul’s Gallery to experience Snakes on a Chain.”

Snakes on a Chain, of course, is a word play on the bizarre and ultra-frightening movie “Snakes on a Plane.”

Pulling out a package containing a small rubber snake, Von Engel explained she loves to collect such items at dollar and thrift stores.

They are the kind of snakes that if you put them in a bathtub of water, they grow by 600 percent.

She joked that she and her help are donating the use of their bathtubs to grow enough snakes.

Von Engel said the House of FEAR tour ends up in the “Transylvania Train Station.”

“It’s the mini-experience of being a brave adventurer,” Von Engel said. “It’s Stanley Livingston going into the jungle.

“If it goes off, we’ll be doing it every year,” Von Engel said.

________

Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.

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