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Read the press release here.

Times Square to Scare for Halloween

By Jill Colvin | September 28, 2011 12:45pm
Times Scare's haunted house is set to open next month.
Times Scare's haunted house is set to open next month.
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www.timesscarenyc.com

MIDTOWN — Times Square is about to get spookier.

A new horror-themed attraction, complete with a high-tech haunted house and nightly illusion show is set to open in Times Square next month, just in time for Halloween.

Times Scare,” which is taking over the old Laugh Factory space at West 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, is envisioned as a full-scale, year-round, 23,000 square-foot spook-fest, complete with a theater and two themed bars.

It will include a "Dexter"-inspired "Kill Room,” designed to resemble a gruesome crime scene with blood red splashes on white walls, and cocktails by celebrity mixologist Alex Ott.

The haunted house will be a tribute to the classic 1978 horror film, "Halloween." Scare-seekers will be led in groups of six to eight on a tour of the psychiatric ward of the famous, and fictional, Haddonfield Memorial, where the movie's character Michael Myers was held, and then take a tour of his childhood home.

The new fright house is set to open next month in Times Square.
The new fright house is set to open next month in Times Square.
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www.timesscarenyc.com

Creator Jason Egan, who is also behind Las Vegas’s Fright Dome, promised the experience would be a step above the kitschy tourist-traps that locals might dismiss.

“This is not going to be a Chuck E. Cheese environment. We’re going for the truly, the genuinely, scary,” he said. “There’s not going to be a bunch of fake bodies hanging around everywhere.”

Egan said the plan has been in the works since the beginning of the year and that crews have been working around the clock to complete the renovations ahead of opening day on Oct. 13.

He added that the building itself is reportedly haunted, thanks to a murder in the early '90s and an old crematory in the basement.

“We’re getting all kinds of calls from ghost hunters,” he said. “It’s an extremely, extremely haunted building.”

In addition to the main attraction, the space will have a 300-seat theater featuring nightly performances by “shock illusionist” Dan Sperry, who has been touted as “David Copperfield meets Marilyn Manson.”

Times Scare is set to open on Oct. 13 at 669 Eighth Ave., with scream-queen Danielle Harris expected to attend the grand opening bash. Admission to the haunted house will cost about $25 and tickets to the show will cost about $35. A reduced combo ticket will also be available, according to the creator Jason Egan.