Freakling Brothers Celebrates 25th Anniversary with “Shock” Value

By Jacqueline Monahan
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Freakling Brothers Celebrates 25th Anniversary with “Shock” Value

If you like your horror “hands on”, then the Freakling Brothers attraction, Trilogy of Terror (ToT) will have you on the run, literally. For a quarter of a century, FB has been haunting Las Vegas with things that go bump in the night, things in the dark with no light, and things that pursue you and bite.

You will be stalked, you will be chased, you will feel something wet – and that’s BEFORE you enter the buildings. Just kidding. The biggest challenge you’ll face on the exterior of the buildings is standing too close to the exit ramps, where periodically small groups of visitors run screaming from the interior. It would be wise not to get in their way.

These haunted houses are not spectator sports. Full of illusions and interactions, they absorb the innocent victim, I mean guest, more than simply provide a show. YOU are the show, the sacrifice, and sometimes, the meal.

ToT is comprised of three separate, themed haunted houses. The most notorious is Gates of Hell, the R-rated, 17+ attraction that you must sign a waiver to experience. Your humble correspondent will not give spoilers, but warnings. Expect profanity, expect full contact, which means you may be shoved and grabbed. Expect electric shocks from a few different sources. For those visitors who may find Gates of Hell too intense, there is a safe word that will get you escorted out of the building quickly, but not before being scoffed at by the assembled ghouls.

Gates of Hell Wecoming Committee

The Coven of 13 house is witch-based and wet. There is fog and strobe lights, a pitch black, narrow maze, and an area through which you are forced to crawl. Isolation and claustrophobia await. Here, you won’t be touched, but you will be chased, so sandals, high heels, and short sleeves are not your friends, got it? If you don’t, you will (ominous grin).

Spotlights and Frights

Coven Entrance

Castle Vampyre is full of hungry bloodsuckers, and the cape-clad femme fatale at the entrance will scream “I-gor, send in my next meal NOW!” before unsuspecting visitors are thrust into a castle interior, complete with a bridge and moat, a mirror illusion, more maze-y darkness, a room that appears to shrink, clanking chains, growls, and a harrowing encounter with Nosferatu.

Vamp at Castle Vampyre

Exit ramps seem to launch those brave enough to have made it through all the chaos back to the world of the living, amid screams and nervous laughter. Survivors DO exist.

Admittance to each house is slow by design, which has both drawbacks and advantages. While the practice ensures that each party makes a deliberate and detailed trip through the attraction, it also makes the wait times expand. Deceptively short lines can have a 30-60 minute wait time.

Expect to wait even longer as Halloween approaches.

Tickets for Castle Vampyre and Coven of 13 are $15 each. Gates of Hell will set you back $17 (expensive expletives). A Freak Pass will admit you to all three houses for $39. A Fast Pass (for an additional $10) will take you to the front of each line and may be the only way you’ll get to see all three attractions in one night.

The whole location fits into a gravel-topped shopping mall parking lot just off of Flamingo and the 215. Spotlights dot the sky to guide visitors to the site.

Target audiences for ToT seem to be teens and twenty-somethings riding high on immortality, laughing at death until they scream. It’s a wild foot-and-knee-based ride, certainly not for everyone and the owners are the first ones to admit that.

Those who are sensitive, nervous, have heart conditions, back, arthritis, or mobility issues might want to reconsider, but hardcore fright junkies will get an adrenaline fix and a vocal workout.

Not easy to scare? Take the dare!

Freakling Brothers Trilogy of Terror
4245 S. Grand Canyon Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89147