The Nest is the best
Photo Credit: Bree Purdy
Bree Purdy
October 23, 2009
Filed under News
Arizona legend tells the tale of notorious 15-year old serial killer, Jacob Kell. It is rumored that Kell slaughtered 35 people who had previously mistreated him during the week after his sister, one of the few people kind to him, was murdered. On Oct. 31, 1945, his rampage ended when he was violently killed by a group of locals. Now 64 years later, the Nest takes you throughout the violent week leading up to Kell’s death and the haunts of his victims.
The Nest is an extravaganza of its own. It takes more than four months to set up the 20 acre walk-through haunt filled with gruesome sets, such as what appears to be a campground where a young girl was raped, injured and left to die. The Nest features more than $520,000 in special effects made by companies whose clients also include Disneyland and Universal Studios.
But it is not only these sets that paint such a vivid and lasting picture; the most memorable thing is the actors themselves who haunt the Nest. More than sixty actors and ten professional stunt men work there. All actors are in full macabre costume; blood seems to be the fashionable choice for the year.
They are not ordinary actors though; it seems as if many believe they are really are the part the play, such as the memorable “Bug.” Bug is an otherwise nameless 27 year-old who has been working at events such as the Nest since she was 8 years old. The scary part is that even when she is interviewed, the character she plays is who she really seems to be.
“This is my Christmas and I’ve been a very good girl,” Bug said. “I want my presents, my play things. People are my play things. Sometimes my play things break, but that doesn’t mean my fun with them has to end. The play things’ fear is like a drug to us; we feed on it, and it’s what brings us the feeling of life.”
Being an avid horror movie lover, but always utterly scared of them, I adored the Nest. It was the right balance between gore, horror and fear. While, like many other haunted houses, the Nest did heavily rely on the surprise effect where actors suddenly appear, follow patrons, and objects jump out and in to your path- but the Nest plays off of fear itself. A never-ending maze taunts many with strobe lights. To continue on the walk through Kell’s path of terror, one must walk through a claustrophobic’s enemy– two inflatables touching, requiring one to squish through it single file line that seems to never end, and playing on all hints of claustrophobia.
But the Nest is not only composed of the walk through Kell’s terror, but also has the ‘Monster Midway’ which features live bands, concessions and, my personal favorite, zombie paintball.
As a long-time vegetarian, my favorite part had to be a gruesome blood bath of a scene in which a pig slaughters humans in what appears to be a reversed butcher shop, selling fresh human leggs, as opposed to fresh eggs.
The Nest is the only Arizona haunted house to receive the accolade of being one of America’s Best Haunts (as decided by www.AmericasBestHaunts.com in 2006) for a reason. It plays beautifully off of gore, horror, and the primal instinct of fear itself.
The Nest is open on specific weekend dates from Sept. 25 to Oct. 31; see www.Frightened.com for specific dates, times and ticket prices.
