Spookers Haunted House & Freaky Forest

Tucked away in the Southern outskirts of Auckland is one of the most unique organizations offering the most craziest of activities that you are likely to come across. The company is Spookers, and the job of the staff is to thrill you and terrify you! Believe me when I say that Spookers is definitely not for the faint hearted, but if you are interested in trying something a bit different, you enjoy being scared s***less and you are an adrenalin junkie, then Spookers is clearly the place for you.

The building itself used to be a mental asylum, which makes it all the bit more creepy. When you enter the reception area, you are greated by a troll like lady whose customer service is all part of the theme. (She gave one person in our group a dirty look and told him to get a haircut). From there you make your way down a hall where you can stop at a bar if you need to get some dutch courage, but beware you do have to walk past some scary fellows who will come up to you and try to spook the life out of you.

"...looked me in the face and said "I'm going to make your life hell"."

Image by wonderferret via Flickr

I made the terrible mistake of trying to challenge one of the freakish staff members, who came up to me, looked me in the face and said "I'm going to make your life hell".

Our first activity was the Haunted House. Split up into groups of four, we made our way through a haunted house full of zombies, crazy dentists and pregnant ladies who give births to aliens. As we got into our second room, out of nowhere comes a crazy possessed man whose face was covered in blood. He got in all of our faces, shouting the words "I'm coming to get to you" until he decided to really freak-out our canadian receptionist, who ended up curled up in a ball on the floor.

The haunted house continued like this as we passed from room to room, with the crazy dentist grabbing the only girl in our group, sitting her on the dentists chair and grabbing at utensils to take out her teeth. There was also a crazy lady all chained up who finds the strength of her life to rip through her chains and barred cage to come right for you.

Ok, so you may be saying right now "No way, I wouldn't do this", I completely understand. BUT, the actors are amazing, they're all trained and passionate about providing a good time, if you can't take too much attention you can put your hand up and say stop, and they will back off. This also gives you the opportunity to laugh as your mates get picked on.

"...rednecks follow you around and try to kidnap you..."

From the Haunted House we travelled through to the Freaky Forest, where rednecks follow you around and try to kidnap you to take back to their incestuous father. In the part the actors really don't mess around, one member of our group was told he was "going to get sodomized by a chainsaw" which really put the jumps up him. As you follow the very dark path through the forest, you enter a tunnel part where you are met by a maniac with a chainsaw, which really makes you wet yourself. The haunted forest really shows the amount of effort the actors and management put into the show, and the feeling after it is one not just of relief but amazement. You actually feel like you are in the horror movie which scared you so much as young child.

So, you've survived the first two activities, you may as well go all the way and complete the 3-d vortex. This room makes avatar look average, with obstacles coming out of the floor giving you the sense that you have to go around them, until one of the actors jumps out of his hiding hole and grabs you. Some passages are very narrow and the whole way along you can feel the presence of the actors and even hear the whispers of "I'm coming to get you" and "Baby, wheres my baby!"

Ultimately, Spookers is a great night's fun which really does make you feel alive (and at times thankful to be alive). This provides the same sort of enjoyment that I would take from skydiving or bungy jumping, where the mental barrier is your biggest enemy (and most frightening part). The actors are amazing, their ability to stay in character, despite scaring people stupid, is second to none and also the self control to be able to notice when people have had enough terror. It was one of the most frightening moments of my life at times, but I laughed til I cried and I would jump to do it again!