The Nightmare

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  Email Verified Trampled by teens

  I attended The Nightmare on the evening on October 5th with my fiance-- choosing not to heed all of my friends’ warnings to not go. This haunt, while not officially listed as such, is classified as a “hell house” and is hosted by a mega church here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For those unfamiliar, hell houses are religious-based Halloween attractions that depict traumatic events and sins of the world in conjunction with the grace of God and Jesus’ selfless sacrifice. I must admit that while myself and many of the folks who encouraged me not to go are atheist or agnostic, I feel equipped to give a mostly unbiased review; while The Nightmare has been the sole hell house Tulsans have seen for 27 years, I grew up in small-town southern Ohio where I was blessed to be taken to several growing up. I will not interject my religious opinions in this review, but rather the logistics, content, and effects themselves. There will be spoilers. It was clear to me before ever attending that this church was absolutely loaded. Driving past the church campus each day, they own several warehouse buildings and a year-round building with a professional “NM” on the front. After doing some research, I found that the haunt actually came before the church, Guts, was founded. It’s always interesting to me when churches develop out of separate business endeavors but a haunt is definitely a new one for me. There is a ton of buzz surrounding The Nightmare (especially since I work with youth, their target audience) so I had heard a lot before attending. For the opening weekend, they were running a BOGO sale for either the $15 standard tickets OR the $30 express tickets. They certainly aren’t hurting for cash--averaging about 35,000 attendees per year--so they tend to run a lot of online deals. They are incredibly professional and welcoming, like the Chick-fil-A of haunts, and are very convincing at getting folks to attend. We ordered the standard BOGO tickets online, paid through PayPal (where you can also donate to the church) and were directed to pick up our tickets at the Will Call upon arrival. Gates opened at 7pm and we arrived at 7:05. I like to get a feel of the typical wait time, so we never arrive early. By the time we got there, we were directed for 10 minutes through several parking lots and past numerous church vans to get to an empty parking lot. Parking logistics were on point with at least 20 staff directing traffic. It was certainly intimidating navigating the church campus since I had assumed that the “NM” building was where the event was held, but it actually started with wand security in front of the children’s building a couple parking lots away. The security line was staffed with two men and two women, including a city police guard, to wand each and every attendee. The lines were sorted into boys/girls and the boys’ line took about 15 minutes-- twice the wait of the girls’. As an extremely populated event, the very next tent was filled with about 6 staff and 30 clipboards to fill out waivers. I have never signed a waiver for an event that didn’t allow any touching from actors, but I didn’t read too much into it. I assumed it was because they have a strict 12+ rule and also force you to list your phone number on the waiver (likely to contact attendees after the event to invite them to a church service). Both security and the waiver tent were outside which I did not at all expect considering they advertise that the wait line is indoors in a climate-controlled building, but apparently all of this is considered “pre-haunt”. After signing the one-page waiver, they take about 20 people into another tent to watch a light and informative video about the haunt and advertising their church. It is important to know that absolutely nothing about the experience so far has been spooky or anything less than familial and lovely. While very similar to other hell houses I have been to, I can certainly see why someone expecting a typical haunt experience would be more than confused at this point. After the video, they directed us to the portable restrooms and food services, which were all very clean and attractive. The food stand was very affordable with many options similar to a sports event-- hamburgers, fries, candy, soda, etc. Impressive. After getting our online tickets at the Will Call, we walked inside the teen building where the line was well-established. We walked through a couple rows, but there were still about two-hundred folks in front of us. The space was very strange-- lights were bright to accomodate a large eating space, but it was not conducive to the dance vibes they were trying to have. A large stage with a skeleton DJ was the pre-show entertainment (that ended up including the Michigan v OSU game in the background later on in the night) but the music was way too loud. Don’t get me wrong, I love good house electro, but blaring in a sweaty mess of folks for over 2 hours was a real struggle. The wait was atrocious with teens repeatedly cutting the line and throwing trash everywhere. Either dimming the lights, turning down the music, or adding some better ventilation in the warehouse would’ve been a step in the right direction. When we first got into the line at 7:30, the door staff had a cell phone with a one-minute timer in a caddy beside the door. Loved the structured timer to regulate the flow inside, but once we had been in line for over an hour and a half with the line getting longer and longer, they had to change things up. They started sending in 10 folks in at a time, 30 seconds apart which really affected the way things went by the time we were ready to go in. From start to finish, we were continually being rushed by non-dresssed staff. The first half of the haunt was weak, consisting of many child actors (likely members of the church) and depicting some really vague sins of rape, child trafficking, and suicide. Because we were being rushed along by one of the security guards in every room, I unfortunately didn’t get much time to appreciate the scenes. I typically criticize that haunts are understaffed with many more opportunities for jump scares, but this one was really the opposite. There were way too many staff persons in the haunt and not enough of them were actually in costume. It felt so heavily patrolled with security cameras and guards everywhere, I felt like I was in prison. Halfway through the haunt, we entered another line that showed a reel of school shootings. It was clear what we were about to enter, but my soul was honestly just tired at this point. It was hot, I had been stepped on by teens several times, and we had been on the grounds for almost 3 hours with not one person scaring me. I wanted it to be over. *However* when we got into the next room, I realized we were finally in the actual “NM” building. The first half had been kind of a pop-up set, but this was the area where they had tweaked the same scenes for over 20 years. It was absolutely going to get better. We entered a room where we were in high school and experienced a school shooting. We got sprayed with water as teens were being shot and honestly, it was a pretty cool effect. Of course, this could be very traumatizing for teens (especially in the current climate) but trauma is kind of the entire point of a hell house. And, of course, salvation. We then walked into a couple other rooms with vague stories but amazing setups-- graphic car crashes, a falling room, live torture, spinning rides, hell, Jesus getting nailed to the cross, and finally seeing him hanging there spitting blood. I will say that all of these permanent rooms in the second half were extremely high-quality, graphic, and scary. I would easily give all of these a perfect 5 stars in terms of setup, appearance, and acting but my overall experience was lessened due to shoving nearly 30 people in each room to move folks as quickly as possible. It was very uncomfortable with the security pushing us through with flashlights and I really feel that some of the terror was compromised by their choice of setup in herding attendees. Upon exiting the haunt, you are greeted by about 50 folks cheering and clapping to greet you and pray with you. It is mandatory to be spoken to by a volunteer so they can try to save your soul. I must say that I am very impressed with the level of professionalism of these volunteer, because after a quick conversation, the staff asked for permission to pray over us and upon declination, simply thanked us and let us leave. I have never been to hell house that didn’t really pressure you upon your exit, so in this way, the sheer mass of attendees was really helpful. Merchandise after prayer, and onto the parking lots. No extra scares. Overall, I would give this haunt 2 out of 5 stars due to the wait and overall customer experience once inside the haunt. I couldn’t enjoy myself due to how I was being herded around and stepped on, and realized that the waiver was absolutely not regarding being injured by the actors or structures themselves. If I ever go back, I’ll be sure to purchase the express pass which is something I rarely do but it feels necessary here in order to be in a proper headspace when I finally go in. The Nightmare isn’t going anywhere any time soon with a huge Oklahoma and surrounding state following, but if you’re looking for an enjoyable experience-- either waiting or with the folks around you once inside, you won’t find it here.

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  Length of Event:	21-30 minutes
  Time Visited:	5PM - 9PM
  Would Recommend:	Unsure
  Suitable For Kids:	No

  Posted October 2019

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  0 out of 1 found this review helpful

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  A Nightmare Indeed!

  I must say that this was the scariest haunted houses I and my wife have ever been to. Most of the rooms inside were so dark that even though I acted brave, I was sweating fear from in. There were stuffs hanging from the ceilings and some things were touching our legs. Actors, props, makeup and even the staff were awesome. The Ripley’s was very scary than I expected it to be and my wife kept screaming out most of the time. I loved the haunt and will be back again with my wife to give her a few more scares.

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  Posted November 2017

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  1 out of 1 found this review helpful

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  Email Verified Scare you straight fear tactics

  School shootings, pedophiles, abortion with a coat hanger, meth lab, and suicide. This traumatized my teen, not because she's "bad" or "unsaved", it scared her because who wants to be in the middle of a school shooting, car wreck, etc. Extreme tactics.

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  Posted October 2016

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  3 out of 5 found this review helpful

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  Religious propaganda

  Boooooring.

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  Posted October 2016

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  3 out of 5 found this review helpful

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  Amaaazing!!!

  Amazing, a must see!!! Went twice last year, going back this year!

  Posted October 2014

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  1 out of 4 found this review helpful