All-Purpose Halloween Party and Chambers of Horror pics and reviews

A DJ and live musicians kept the dance floor packed all night.

 The 4th Annual All-Purpose Halloween Party was held on Friday, October 30 in Hell of The Masquerade.

Within a few hours of opening, Hell quickly began to fill up.  The dance floor was packed.  The bars were full, but the service was quick.  In fact, they even opened up extra bars to make up for the large number of expected attendants.  But despite the crowd, things went smoothly all night, and the event was an undeniable success.

Though this wasn't the normal "underground" crowd we were used to, my friends and I had a great time.  The costumes people wore were diverse, with more humorous and celebrity costumes worn than in our scene.  The music was not our usual industrial, but rather a nice blend of house and electronic, and certainly not the annoying techno you might think of that is often played at other clubs.

One of the coolest aspects of the night was the live musicians jamming along with the DJs.  It created a live performance atmosphere and really added to the sound.  It's amazing what live instrumentalists can do to a track!

Circus style performers added cool visuals to the evening.  At center focus was an aerialist who struck beautiful poses from 20 feet in the air.  A juggler with UV reactive juggling balls and a hula hooper were on platforms on either side of the daring beauty, while another performer, Tim Mack, performed on the dance floor.

Included as part of the cover cost for the event, guests were permitted to enter the Chambers of Horror haunted house behind the Masquerade after midnight.  After a few drinks, we bravely headed to the entrance.

Chambers of Horror is rated R, and for good reason.  This is not your typical haunted house!  The images portrayed and language used by the actors is very graphic.  In fact, before we entered, we were given a disclaimer by the door guy saying that we shouldn't enter if we were easily offended!  So I supposed it isn't for everyone.

However, we certainly enjoyed ourselves.  The theme of the haunt is gore and mutilation, a la Hostel and the Saw movies.  Damsels in severe distress begged us to "Save me!"  "Please help me!"  Torturers tried to encourage us to participate or watch them work.

My favorite part was when we were guided into a large, pitch black room, and the door was shut behind us.  We were left standing in the vast dark and silence for what felt like a minute, not knowing if something was going to jump out at us or not.  Finally a door opened on the other side of the room, and a voice told us to follow them.  Forget the gore and the language; I thought this part was sheer brilliance.

The haunt let out on a humorous note.  I don't want to spoil it in case they decide to do something similar for next year, but let's just say that it involved my removing a prop arm from an actor's body and liquids being squirted into my face!  It was hilarious!

After the haunt, we returned to the party, safe and sound.  It was a great production all around, and I am definitely looking forward to the 5th Annual All-Purpose Halloween Party!

For more info: Go to the Masquerade's Official Site.  Or for more Halloween stories, go here.