The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
House of Blues passing out 3-D glasses for scare fest
House of Blues’ Halloween fright fest Carnival of Horrors, comes with 3-D glasses
Over the past quarter of a century, Ryan Pluta has reinvented the Northeast Ohio Halloween experience numerous times. He started The Haunted Crypt in the early ’90s. A decade later he created the Carnival of Horrors at Blossom Music Center, which Monster Junkie magazine named one of the top five scariest haunted houses in the world.
Over the last few years, the Akron resident has turned his attention to creating a one-of-a-kind Halloween party that melds topnotch special effects with live performance and DJs at the House of Blues. The third annual affair takes place Oct. 28 at the Rock Hall City venue.
“They had done a Halloween party before and just really wanted to step it up a notch,” Pluta said. “So it seemed like a nice fit to kind of bring something unique to Cleveland as opposed to the same old thing.
“To do that, everybody who enters the House of Blues gets 3-D glasses. It seemed to be a way to bring it just outside of your traditional haunted house into a different environment.
The upcoming House of Blues’ Carnival of Horrors affair acts in some ways as a one-off event from Pluta’s popular haunted house attraction, which includes Freakshow in 3-D Terrorvision. In fact, it’s the latter’s ambiance that will be used to decorate the rock club’s interior.
“Just the depth of field, with its neon colors — it’s really tough to describe,” Pluta said. “At the House of Blues with the 3-D glasses, the black lighting and the special paint, the images and decorations are no longer on the canvas.
“They literally jump out, 5 feet in many cases. It’s just something cool and different while you’re doing all of the other things we have going on.”
Something that won’t be jumping out at this year’s Carnival of Horrors will be scary costumed characters. Pluta said considering everyone comes dressed in costume, the concept of actors walking around frightening people is confusing. Is that killer clown part of the Carnival of Horrors staff or just some crazy dude dressed as a killer clown?
Instead, Pluta said this year’s focus was on its main-stage shows, with The Squidling Brothers Circus Sideshow acting as headliners.
“They travel the world and are kind of a freak show and circus performers,” Pluta said. “What’s interesting about them is they have all kinds of things you find in a freak show. They were there last year, and everyone liked them. We made sure we brought them back.
“We also have The Monster Dolls, which is a horror cabaret show. They’re on stage doing dance routines. Two Muffin Rabbit is a trippy musician dude that plays weird music. We were lucky to get him.
“Finally, we have burlesque dancers keeping with the carnival-freak show theme.”
In addition to performers, the Carnival of Horror ups the people-watching ante, with visitors dressing up in their Halloween costumes.
In fact, there’s a contest in which the winner will take home $1,000. However, Pluta said the judges aren’t just picking the scariest costumes. They’re also looking for the most creative.
When it comes to scary and funny costumes, odds are this year’s affair will include plenty of Donald Trumps and Sean Spicers in the crowd.
“That’s funny — I’m not sure because there are so many new ones out there,” Pluta said. “We do like to see what’s going on. We’ll be surprised like everyone else.”