Eastern State Penitentiary - Halloween Nights

As a ghoul who haunted the streets of Philly for years, I can recommend many places that satisfy your taste for the creepy. Some places evoke fear while providing a rich history that honors the dead. EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY is that place. It is a former penitentiary, now a haunted attraction, museum, and Philadelphia Landmark. It is one of the few historical landmarks celebrated not just in October, but year-round.

Eastern State housed infamous figures like Al Capone and Willie “Slick Willie” Sutton. It earned its spotlight due to the horrors endured by the prisoners. Consider torture methods, such as confinement and ice baths, disguised as reform programs, while prisoners endured terrible and overcrowded conditions. Condemned houses seemed like a luxury in comparison. Once the place shut down, it became known as haunted, but it had a couple of makeovers. In 1991, Eastern State held its first Halloween-related fundraiser (all proceeds ensure its preservation). In its infancy, it offered live performances based on real-life prison tales. By 1997, the event was renamed “Terror Behind the Walls” and transformed into a walkthrough Halloween haunt.

I have walked Eastern State’s long, imposing corridors and peered into the creepy jail cells so often that the ghosts probably thought I was another apparition inhabiting the place. My introduction to Eastern State came on Halloween (shocker), many moons ago, before the pandemic. Throughout this season, each section of this vast place becomes something different. Imagine a mix of Resident Evil, V Wars, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and other horror titles.

After we endured the worst of the pandemic, Eastern State finally returned for its scary season, now called “Halloween Nights”. Fast-forward to the present: I had the pleasure of answering their call from beyond the grave and visited Eastern State in November, the weekend right after Halloween. This undead boy was grateful for the opportunity, as I witnessed how much more this entity had changed for the better.

Philadelphia is known for its queer and arts culture. One of the many things I appreciate is how Eastern State hires art students and local creatives to be part of the thrills. If you always wanted to be a monster or horror protagonist, this is your place. Since I had permission to film within the walls, I decided to live out my final boy-found-footage fantasy with friends. We chose to be part of the show (scare actors had free rein over us) rather than be secondary characters.

As previously mentioned, Eastern State found ways to reanimate its corpse, and it’s electrifying every time. The programming was in 4 acts. There are several haunts and interactive events: Nightmares, Dark Tides, Big Top Terror, and The Crypt, to name a few. Each act presents its own unique horror story. One moment, you find yourself fleeing from a circus filled with killer clowns; the next, you’re submerged in an underwater abyss inhabited by creatures that have never seen sunlight. Shortly after, you find yourself trapped in a hospital with a deranged doctor, assisting with corpses as their nurse.

What really stuck out this year was the Eastern State crew. Everyone was so professional. The cast and staff included a diverse range of queer and people of color (POC). They even had drag queens! More on the drag queens later. The haunt actors skillfully built tension, waiting until you were unsuspecting before suddenly screaming, jumping, or grabbing you. It resembled a well-paced horror film. I was living for it, or rather, I was dying for it.

The attention to detail really let me immerse myself in this world. One of my favorite areas was the surgery room. The lights were a sickly yellow, absorbed by rusty surgical tools and dilapidated tile walls. The sudden, loud clash of metal and screams was disorienting enough. It felt as if I were in a scene from “Saw”. In other words, it was awesome. What truly enhanced the experience was a frantic doctor in a long white coat who welcomed us and then locked the door behind us. He was tall and shouted at us to search for a key hidden in the corpse’s organs on the operating table. We found the key and lived.

Since friends and I decided to be part of the show, the scare levels increased to 110%. While my friends screamed and tried to escape the demon scarecrows with twisted, grinning faces that loomed in the haunted corn maze, scythes in hand, a hooded figure suddenly took me away. This figure resembled a combination of an executioner and a medieval warrior, holding a glowing purple scepter. He forced me to walk through a long, dark corridor full of fog and then locked me in a cell. The air felt damp and chilly. I could hardly see anything. Small flashes of green light peered through the cell bars. I was released after I pleaded for my life. It turned out that demons had also taken my friends to hidden places. One was trapped in a hallway that became narrower the deeper you walked, while another was incarcerated in a cell devoid of any light.

While we weren’t busy pushing our hearts back into our chests, we rewarded our survival with horror-themed food and drinks. We listened to live music and other performances in both the outdoor and indoor areas, too. You could tell that most of the performers on the dance team, “The Boogie Monsters,” were theatre kids. The dance numbers were so coordinated.

If I had any doubts about whether Eastern State was one of the best haunted attractions I had attended, they were eliminated once we reached our final stop at the “Bloodline Lounge” party. Upon entering the vampire-themed lounge, I was excited to see many POC vampire drag artists and performers of various sizes and shapes. Hooray for inclusivity! The intricate wooden carvings against the red velvet of the furniture and drapes, and the warm lighting, made the room feel like Dracula’s castle, with lavishly dressed vampires, clearly indicating high production values. Oh, and one of the femme vampires placed me in a literal coffin. I was in heaven.

If you can, attend Eastern State during scary season. Especially if you enjoy the arts, POC queer representation, and, of course, horror! Also, visit during the off-season and sign up for the intimate ghost tour. Wear your walking shoes and buy yourself something nice at their gift shop. Let’s keep the arts alive.

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