Darkwood Manor is a haunted house attraction in Luray, Va. located only three hours from Farmville. Darkwood Manor has been in operation for over ten years and has won awards for their terrifyingly real masks and makeup. Besides the horrifying masks, the manor is also uniquely memorable for their year-to-year original theatrical tales that will leave you shaking in your boots.
This year, Darkwood Manor celebrated their opening night on Sept. 30 and will run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until Oct.30from 7-10 p.m., and will also be open on Monday Halloween night.
Unlike many haunted house attractions, Darkwood likes to thrill you from the time you step in line until you walk out the door. Almost every night of every weekend, Darkwood books some form of entrainment; from live remotes from the local radio station to paranormal investigators, there will never be a dull moment while standing in line. This past weekend, Eddie Munster, from the hit 1960s television show "The Munsters," was at the manor to meet, greet and take pictures with fans. All of the old Munstermobiles were also brought along for the fans to check out.
If all of this doesn't seem exciting enough, no worries, because a few of the creatures inside the manor always manage to escape and sneak up on you in line, forcing you to be checking over your shoulder at all times.
Once it looks like you're finally done twisting and turning through line and you're about to head inside the manor, two men dressed in suits and Comedy and Tragedy masks come out to introduce themselves. These men are the Witherspoon brothers and they are the owners of the traveling undead show; they are Necromancers in control of the vampires inside the manor. The Witherspoon brothers talk about the show, vampires inside and warn you not to upset any of the creatures because you may not find your way back out. The vampires inside of the manor are horrific in their own individual ways; each character took on a different era of history. There were vampires who resembled Beethoven, a vampire playing Jack the Ripper and even a vampire who could have stepped out of the future, or possibly a different planet. The makeup, sets and costumes were incredible, in a macabre sense, and if I didn't know better, I could have sworn it was all real.
When traveling from room to room, screaming your head off, some of the characters would stop you and tell you a story about themselves or what may lie ahead, before letting you move on. This feature was something I had never experienced at a haunted house before, and it's something that made the entire trip even more enjoyable.
I have never been caught off guard so many times in my life. I feel it is normally pretty easy to predict when or where something is going to pop out, but the terror was never predictable and got me every time. I have never actually been scared at a haunted house attraction, but I screamed from beginning to end, and had a much better time than I ever expected. The quality of this haunted house is greater than any I have ever been to, and is well worth the drive. There are only two weekends left in the Halloween season, so if you have the means, I would definitely recommend you taking the trip to Luray, Va. and visiting Darkwood Manor.
