The Devils Attic Review (2013)

Around 40 paid staff members, over 30 of whom are actors, work at The Devil’s Attic this year. For the length of the attraction and number of scenes inside, this number seemed to fill out most of the scenes pretty well, with some of them having single actors and others having more. However, there were a few minor ‘dead spots’ encountered by our review group which had some hiding spots that would have been very effective had they been used. The dialogue chosen by each of the actors matched their characters and relative themes flawlessly and most of them were able to interact with us while still being scary and intimidating. This made them very believable and is a testament to the training they received before the season began. Some of the ‘wicked’ characters you’ll find inside The Devil’s Attic include vampires, a werewolf, a mad scientist, and villains from movies that you won’t see at most other haunts like, The Ring, 13 Ghosts, and Sleepy Hollow.

Most of the costumes used are modified from regular clothes to fit each character as needed. 3 makeup artists aided the owner of The Devil’s Attic in focusing on making better costumes this year, which was evident by looking at the live characters while walking through the attraction. The masks that are used are necessary for the characters wearing them and are either completely custom or modified from pre-made versions from manufacturers like CFX. The main reason for the jump in score for this category is the attention to detail that was paid to the characters in the haunt. It was rather difficult for us to detect any of the imperfections in the costumes that we faced, making them very realistic. However, some of them could still use some tweaking and/or added details to continue raising the score in this category, which could be a difficult task given how impressive they are already. All of the costumes matched their respective scenes and themes, which also helped improve their realism.

We know of 2 billboards displaying advertisements for The Devil’s Attic; one being near Cardinal Stadium and the other in Indiana before crossing the 2nd Street Bridge. Other than that, we didn’t see any other signs directing us to the haunt, but our GPS got us there without trouble. A large ‘The Devil’s Attic’ poster adorns the parking lot side of the building nearest the road and the building is cascaded with red lights shining up from the ground. The parking lot is well-lit and free to use and there are portable restrooms located against the building, near the ticket booth. The area around the ticket booth is the hot spot for this haunt (besides the attraction itself, of course). In this area, you can hear the haunt’s own rock music as well as a mix of music from local radio station 98.9 ‘The Fox,’ who was on-site during our visit this year. ‘Orlock,’ one of the Devil’s minions, continues to keep the crowd entertained and occasionally, the Devil will have Orlock… well, we’ll keep that a surprise. ‘Dogs on the Run’ will be there serving up concessions for guests, souvenirs like t-shirts, coozies, stickers and more can be purchased at the ticket booth, and 502 Photos provides a free photo session (weather permitting) of you and your friends in your favorite scene and prints of those photos at 1 for $10 and 2 for $15. If you choose to purchase a print(s), you’ll also have access to a digital download on 502’s site, where you can save it directly as your profile picture or whatever else you’d like to do with it. The owner also informed us that there will be live bands on-location for crowd entertainment on Saturdays in October. Bad guys beware because Louisville Metro Police are running security outside the attraction and the haunt’s own staff with military and police background have the inside battened down! Friendly staff members are available for help at the ticket booth and at the entrance to the haunt. Lighting is adequate for the most part and dark where intended, but flooring is smooth and even throughout the attraction. We also noticed several emergency exit signs and the occasional fire extinguisher in case ‘all Hell breaks loose.’ Last, but not least, don’t forget to sign up for the ‘Devilish Ducati’ motorcycle giveaway! You can enter your name for $1 at the haunt or by contacting 98.9 radio and entering that way. Proceeds go to the local Humane Society. On October 27th, the ticket booth at the haunt and the radio station will each randomly draw 50 tickets which will then be combined at the haunt. At this time, entrants are welcomed there for food and live music during the also-live broadcast of the reverse drawing.

The Devil’s Attic is in the form of a creepy, old, red brick building with red accent lights shining up from the ground. The haunt’s rock music can be heard as you take in the roaming actor (Orlock), the haunt’s hearse, and the “Devilish Ducati” that will be raffled off towards the end of the year. Also, radio 98.9 “The Fox” was there when we visited, blaring their own mix of music. The music got our review group ready to have a good time and the building, roaming actor and the Devil’s surprise got us ready to be scared! Throughout the attraction, several ambient soundtracks could be heard which matched the scenes they were heard in, such as theme music from the movie “Saw” in the saw scene.

The special effects you’ll see in The Devil’s Attic are a mix of puchased and made-in-house custom pieces. Some of the walls are vacuum formed but the scenes are designed and created by the haunt’s staff with excellent detail. Actual props and decorations are typically purchased and then modified from vendors like Distortions Unltd. Animatronics and pneumatic props are few and far between, but effective when used. One of the things that The Devil’s Attic’s crew focused on this year was paying attention to details and adding props where needed to various scenes this season, and it shows! The scenes were laid out in such realistic fashion that we had no problems with figuring out where we were walking into. Some of the effects used inside The Devil’s Attic include fog, strobes, shock sticks, spider webs, faux flames, and the occasional twitching, cut-in-half carcass.

The idea behind The Devil’s Attic is that the Devil has put on display ‘…the most wicked…’ compilation of souls he could find on Earth, which just so happens to be primarily movie characters. But these aren’t your typical haunt characters, like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Freddy Kreuger. In fact, you won’t see them here at all! A few of the characters, like vampires and demons, are used a little more commonly in other attractions, but others like Frankenstein, Pumkinhead, Regan (The Exorcist), and Pigface (Saw), are rarely seen at other attractions. The haunt is debatably the best we’ve seen so far with movie characters, and they even throw in a few original characters like the Devil and Orlock.

$17 general admission will grant you access to The Devil’s Attic and $22 will get you to the front of the line quicker with a Speedpass admission ticket. We timed our tour of the Attic at just over 15 minutes. This means you get less than one minute of entertainment for every dollar spent, which is the reason why this category was scored the lowest. However, a score of 8.9 is an increase for this haunt because of the culmination of all of the preceding categories. If your looking for a haunt in the Louisville area with some of the finest movie characters around and a good bang-for-your-buck factor, then be sure to hit The Devil’s Attic, where you can definitely ‘Live the Nightmare!’