It's alive! Sharon manor brings monster emphasis

Ghoul Mansion offers dozens of monsters in three buildings.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
SHARON, Pa. -- It's easy to find Ghoul Mansion. Spotlights mark its location with brilliant rays of white light that stream across the night sky.
But once you arrive, you might have second thoughts about going inside.
The long black hearse parked outside and eerie moaning that echoes through the street, which feels strangely isolated despite the crowd gathered outside the mansion, is a mild indication of what you'll encounter inside.
Even the lobby, with its blood-red lights, is a really creepy place. Chained inside -- behind a Plexiglas panel, much like dangerous animals at the zoo -- is one of the scariest monsters alive.
Yes.
It is alive.
Don't ask me how anyone who's had his lower body chewed away can survive, but the thing is alive -- and angry. While I was there it was snapping the chains that bind its outstretched arms to the wall in a violent convulsion of rage, lifting its upper body -- all that remained of the thing -- and thrusting it from side to side in an endless effort to break free.
It didn't speak to me, but someone told me that sometimes the thing eavesdrops on conversations taking place and joins in, calling out names of those in the room.
Monsters galore
After slipping through a dark drape that separates the lobby from the haunted mansion, visitors brave enough to venture on make their way through three buildings and four floors inhabited by 65 to 80 monsters.
To make it to the exit, small groups -- no more than four at a time -- must make it across a bridge through a spinning tunnel. Good thing there's a railing. Just a glance at the spinning room was enough to knock me off kilter. Keeping my balance would have been impossible without something to hold on to.
Then, through room after room of strobing lights, free-roaming monsters appear from dark corners when you least expect them, and victims trapped behind bars, in coffins or in chains plead for help. One not-yet-dead victim was hooded, bound and dangling from a rope around his neck, legs and body jerking violently.
Some rooms were pitch black, leaving visitors to grope their way along the walls looking for a curtain, doorway or the next bend in a maze that seemed to take us in a never-ending circle.
A long hallway with floor, walls and ceiling painted like a black-and-white checkerboard and strobing lights appeared to shrink as we neared the end and I was afraid I was going to have to crouch down and squeeze through. Luckily, the opening was larger than it appeared. I didn't need to crouch at all.
A dank, musty smell permeated the air throughout the entire haunted house, and I had to keep batting spider webs away from my face.
If you enjoy a good scare, Ghoul Mansion is definitely worth the trip. Take some friends, and make them go first.
Ghoul Mansion, 66 N. Main Street, is open 7 to 10 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays, and 7 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2.
Admission is $7.50. Discount coupons are available at Sav-A-Lot food stores.
kubik@vindy.com