Behind the Scenes of the Dent Schoolhouse and a {GIVEAWAY}

It’s no secret that I love everything about Fall. I love the crisp air, the colorful leaves, apple picking, carving pumpkins, bonfires, all kind of pie, pumpkin spice everything, chili and soup, football parties and food. I mean seriously. Everything! But I especially love Halloween. I’ve always liked dressing up and becoming a character and seeing all the clever costumes that people come up with. And I adore making my kids costumes. DIY baby. I’m a huge sucker for family costumes. It’s always been so fun!

But, I’m a very “tame” Halloween girl. Horror and gore seriously intimidate me. And people jumping out at me with chainsaws and stuff…….nopity nope! So, I was super nervous to accept an invitation from The Dent Schoolhouse and Dunkin’ Donuts to check out the haunted house last week. It was a LIGHTS ON tour, which did help me say yes. Here’s what I saw and learned.

I chose my 2 most Halloween loving friends to join me! When we arrived we got to be made up by one of the amazing make-up artists. My friend, Lucy, got the full face! It was an amazing transformation. And watching it happen was fascinating. They are serious artists and great at what they do. Seriously. Look at that wound! Thank you, Alisha.

My friend Jenny and I got a little bit, too. So real!!!

I think we looked AWESOME! And it was so much fun! I love dressing up.

OK. Onto the scary bits. First of all. Please know. Lights on DOES NOT mean ‘not scary’. In fact, it might mean ‘slightly MORE disturbing’. Because, you can see all the frightening detail in every single room and prop. (And these guys make almost everything themselves and have a serious, passionate attention to detail.) So, the lights on tour didn’t have people jumping out at me (bonus), but I could see the skinned bodies that were hanging from the ceiling in intricate detail. So, there is that. 🙂 If you love this sort of thing, you should take the lights on tour. They have one on October 30th.

My buddies made it seem less scary with their selfies and silliness. (P.S. I was still scared.)

So, the haunted house. AHHH. I took some ‘tame’ pictures to share here. And actually there weren’t that many tame scenes to choose from. This place is FREAKING scary. Which is why it’s the number one haunted house in Cincy and one of the top haunts in the entire country.

The story of the place is also freaky deaky. It was a real K-12 school with real kids that opened in the late 1800’s. And it had a real janitor that really murdered and buried kids in the basement! WHAT!? It shut down after the murders.

What a creep.

Some info that I found fascinating.

They change 1/3 of the haunt each year, so there is always something new to scare the pants off ya.
There are at least 70 actors in the house each night and they have secret passageways to move around in so you might see them more than once. And it seems like there are more of them.
It takes 2 hours for the 11 artists to get these actors into makeup each night.
They have a ‘lights on’ night. They have ‘lights off’ nights. They have ‘touch me’ nights. Lots of things to check out!
There is a haunted Queen City Slaughterhouse in the back, which you now enter right as you leave the house. Two scares for the price of one. Bargain.
They spare no expense on the things they choose to purchase for the house. In fact, according to haunts in other parts of the country, they could charge a lot more but they don’t so that more people can come!
A lot of the props and masks are made in house by the artists who take their jobs VERY seriously.
They also take the story seriously and it really plays out like a movie as you walk through.
Cash only with an ATM on site. You can buy the tickets online.
They have a gift shop with Dent goodies and a concession stand with snacks and Dunkin’ Iced coffee.
You can get discount tickets at Dunkin’ Donuts and Costco and some other places around town.

While you are at Dunkin Donuts getting some discount tickets….remember that after after a Bengals win, you get a free coffee on the Dunkin App. And they have amazing Pumpkin donuts & coffees like the new Pumpkin Iced Macchiato. Check out the specials here.