By Eva King 
Arts & Culture Editor

Oregon City just got its very own haunted house. Shock 13 is a pop up Halloween event located downtown. As a Halloween and horror enthusiast, this was exciting news for me. I’ve worked at a haunted house as a scare actor, but I’ve never gone to one, so I decided it was finally my time.

A screenshot of Shock 13’s trailer.

On their website, the story of the haunted house is that, “Dr. Shock has brought his showcase of monsters and creations for you to observe. However, this sinister Doc is looking for one more soul to join these 12 terrifying icons”.

The only two reviews on Google described Shock 13 as a waste of time and money, saying that it took them under 10 minutes to go through the entire thing. Despite my worries about these comments, I was determined to prove them wrong. I bought two general admission tickets and two tickets for the dark maze, which added up to $62.98. Dragging my bravest friend along with me, I headed downtown.

Parking was surprisingly easy despite it being the Saturday before Halloween. There were a few signs signaling us toward the entrance, which was in an alley. A crowd started gathering in front of the gate, but everyone seemed confused about if this was the right place to be. By 8 p.m. there was a line of about 20 people, and at 8:02 the gates opened.

The main haunt itself was alright. You’re taken into the first room to get two pictures taken with “Dr. Shock.” Seeing this guy left me a little starstruck, considering the place is named after him and he’s all over their website. You get a QR code on a piece of paper so you can buy the pictures online for $20, and then you’re sent into the haunt.

The actors did a good job, and had my adrenaline pumping. After I lost a game of rock paper scissors, I had a scary clown tell me they were going to rip my skin off and make a balloon animal out of it. Great! They asked me what type of balloon animal I wanted to be, and I said I wanted to be a dog. Overall, an amazing job on their part.

It took around 8 minutes to walk through the main haunt, and I walked out thoroughly scared. My one criticism for this part is that it was dark. Not that I expect a haunted house to be well lit, but I wish I could’ve seen more of the details and actually seen the scare actors. Instead of being scared that a masked maniac was there, I was just startled by an unknown screaming to my left.

A screenshot of a scare actor from Scare 13’s promotional video.

After a short breather, it was time to enter the dark maze, which was properly titled “The Darkness.” It was only $3 to add it onto my online order of the tickets, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. This was a situation where you really get what you pay for.

It was less like a maze and more like walking through a dark place. The exit was so easy to find that the friend I brought refused to believe it was the exit and made me loop around the maze multiple times. Our going around in circles even worried the scare actor in there enough to break character and tell us the general area of the exit. Despite being underwhelming, the dark maze did give me a scare when I almost tripped over a plank of wood on the ground, which I assumed was a way I could go because I didn’t feel a wall in front of me. This also scared the scare actor, making them gasp in some direction in front of me.

After escaping the maze, my experience at Shock 13 was over. My biggest disappointment was the lack of theming. Who the 12 souls are or what the monsters and creations mentioned on the website are a mystery to me. There was no setup for the story at all, and the lack of attention to detail there was a missed opportunity.

Despite my disappointment, I didn’t have a bad time. I got reasonably scared, and including the dark maze it was about 20 minutes of scary. I’m not sure if that scary was worth $62.98 for the two of us, but if you’re looking for a little adrenaline rush and nothing more then this is the place. Shock 13 is open Oct. 30, 31, and Nov. 1. You can visit their website HERE for more information.