0
0
If you’re looking for something that lands between the safety of a traditional theme park haunt, and the extreme haunts we hear horror stories about, Delusion is the answer you seek. Part narrative story and part role-playing adventure, there is no proper way to fully describe the Delusion experience. The closest I can come is it feels like you have stepped into a horror movie or are a character in a horror video game. The story is scripted in advance, but there are many opportunities for guests to interact with the characters and become even more embedded in the story. You aren’t playing a character, but you will be interacting with characters in the story throughout the experience, and there will be opportunities for side quests.
This year’s location is the Stimson House, a Richardsonian Romanesque mansion built in 1891. It also happens to be the location where House II: Second Story was shot, as well as Casper Meets Wendy and 1994’s Clifford (arguably a horror movie, depending on who you ask).
Having the opportunity to enter the house is reason enough to go. From the moment you step foot onto the property, you’re instantly transported into the familiar world of a horror movie. As you wait for your group to be called, you’ll have the opportunity to wait in a bar that has been transformed into a sort of living Delusion museum, featuring props from past seasons.
Here’s a breakdown of this year’s synopsis from the press release:
This season’s story, “The Red Castle“, takes place in the mid-20th Century, centering around the brilliant psychologist Dr. Frederick Lowell and you, his cohort of unusual patients. Otherworldly yet dormant abilities lie within your minds, and only Dr. Lowell has the key to unlock them. Having been banished from his community due to his unorthodox methods, Lowell and his family fled, along with his most prized patients, to find refuge inside a strange and abandoned castle.
However, soon after, tragedy struck, and Lowell’s wife Attie fell from the castle and plummeted to an early death. Plagued with torment from the demise of his wife, Lowell spirals down the dark path of resurrection, swallowing his former patients into his tragic pursuit. Now, Lowell believes it’s up to his prized patients and their unlocked abilities to help bring his greatest love back to life. Yet, resurrection rarely ends well.
You and your group will play the role of Dr. Frederick Lowell’s most prized patients, found sleepwalking on the grounds of the Red Castle. Yet this time, when you awake, your memory has faded and Dr. Lowell is nowhere to be found.
There are stunts, creepy games, and opportunities for unsuspecting guests to be whisked away from the rest of their group as they make their way through the massive mansion. I don’t want to spoil anything, but for the uninitiated, I will say — in a previous season of Delusion, I was spirited away to an attic, while the rest of my group was shut out behind me. My ankles were bound, and then I was slowly dragged toward a ghostly apparition before my companions rescued me in the nick of time. Logically, my brain knew it was fake. But I was horrified and delighted, it was like anything I’d ever done before.
Now, there was nothing quite that extreme this season (the level of stunts and rigs depends upon the property), but there were still plenty of heart-pounding moments. In a particularly unsettling tableau, my head was quite literally on the chopping block, but as I’m here writing this up to share with you, I lived to tell the tale.
Delusion creator Jon Braver shared with us that this season is an offshoot of the season 1 storyline, featuring returning character Dr. Lowell. Braver left an Easter egg last year as books were burned in the final moments of the storyline, with one page left sticking out and surviving the flames. A clue into this season’s The Red Castle story. Delusion first premiered in 2011 and Braver has created over a decade of original stories in various locations.
With six groups running through the mansion at a time, it’s a small miracle that we never encountered another group. Though if we did, it would be easy enough to dismiss the encounter in the storyline as another group of escaped patients. The meticulous planning that is in play to pull this thing off is impressive (which Braver attributes to Stage Manager Sati Thyme). The actors are top-notch, and aside from knowing their script inside and out, they have to be able to improvise. Braver shared that, at times, actors may be asked to shave a minute off their performance or stretch it out to add a minute or two here and there to keep the flow of guests moving through the space as needed to progress the story. Some of the actors are double (or quadruple) cast to accommodate the multiple groups moving through the house at once, but Braver tries to avoid that when possible, relying on that aforementioned meticulous planning and writing the script in such a way that works in service to the location.
If the extreme haunts shoving bugs in your face and electrocuting you aren’t really your style, but you’re looking to branch out of the amusement park haunt scene, Delusion is an excellent choice. For approximately one hour, you can live out your horror movie fantasy. And live to tell the tale.
Delusion is now open for the 2024 season, and runs select dates through November 3rd. Visit the official Delusion site to get your tickets and watch the Delusion 2024 trailer below for a glimpse of what awaits.
