Laurel’s House of Horrors 2022 Review
We visited Laurel’s House of Horrors located in the rear of the Laurel Centre Mall in Laurel, MD. Laurel’s has an incredible back story, including documented real paranormal activity. This was their 9th year in this 52 year old abandoned movie theater. There’s over 28,000 square feet of space that they have split between the haunted attraction and their escape rooms.
Laurel makes great use of the theatre theme and space. From the moment you enter the building you know you’re in a theater. The entrance brings the movie theater back to life, or should we say, death. They’ve set up the lobby/snack bar area as your video introduction and waiting area. While waiting, you may entertained by a creepy card trick fellow. Upon entering the attraction you are met by a deathly hotel concierge and escorted to the lobby of the Carlisle Hotel. This scene perfectly plays on an old haunted hotel lobby.
The theater is set up to confuse you and gives the actors many tunnels and short cuts to move about. The attraction is multidirectional, so you may be going downhill one minute, then uphill the next. This gives the attraction a sense of never ending. The attraction uses the perfect amount of lighting, or lack thereof, to confuse your senses. Each scene was so well done, it was often impossible to determine where the real characters were vs the props. They also used great distraction techniques. When necessary, actors would keep the groups well spaced. This definitely helped make the scares and gotchas more effective for each group of patrons.
Laurel’s actors are top notch. They don’t break character and interact very well with the patrons. While they don’t actually touch you, you may find random hands reaching out from nowhere or characters invading your personal space. There were characters outside trolling the line, keeping the waiting patrons on their toes. One character even had a beautiful live ball python. There was also a DJ, in costume, outside keeping the crowd entertained with some techno music.
Laurel is one of the few fully indoor attractions in the DC/MD area, so they are open rain or moon shine. Go check them out, and see why they stand out. You might even encounter some real paranormal activity. Laurel is still young, but very mature in content and characters. We love watching this attraction change and grow.
If you didn’t make it this year, please don’t skip Laurel’s House of Horror next season.
