I am a big fan of horror movies and I always love to be surprised by a decent jumpscare. And, as a result, I love going to different haunted houses for Halloween, because, let’s face it, it feels amazing to feel like you are a part of a horror movie and your choices will actually ‘kill’ you or let you survive.
But I am not talking about these haunted houses that you can find at carnivals here, I am talking about haunted houses with real actors inside. And, last Halloween, I saw an ad for Lewisburg haunted cave in a local newspaper. I did not pay much attention to it, but I memorized the name of the place, and I am glad I did. Because, let me tell you this: Lewisburg haunted cave is by far the best haunted house (well, cave) I have ever been to. But what made it so special? Feel free to go there and find out for yourself. Or, if you wish not to have a heart attack, just read this entry to get an idea about how this place looks like.
Why did I finally decide to go to Lewisburg haunted cave in the first place? There is a very famous haunted house close to where I currently live, called Land of Illusion, and it is supposedly one of the best haunted houses in the whole nation. But the problem that comes with its good reputation, is a high price. And by ‘high price’ I mean ‘the price of a daily admission to an amusement park’ high - the admission to the Land of Illusion will cost you whooping forty dollars.They do offer fast pass, but it costs extra (of course), so the total price for everything would be over sixty dollars!
I have heard multiple people say that Land of Illusion is totally worth the price, but I decided to try to find a cheaper alternative, and if I do not find it, I will just go to the Land of Illusion. And the only other haunted place fairly close to me was the Lewisburg haunted cave. It had amazing reviews online, but I was a little worried that the reviews were staged, since the experience only costs seventeen dollars.
On their webpage, they are rated by Guinness book of world records as the haunted cave with the best opening scare and the longest underground haunted house. And when I saw that, I decided I want to give it a try. All I needed to do now was to find someone to go with. Like I told you, I love horror movies, but I did not dare to do it all by myself. Which turned out to be a good idea.
Where is the Lewisburg haunted cave situated?
The Lewisburg haunted cave is situated just outside of the city of Lewisburg in Ohio. It takes about thirty minute drive from Dayton to get there. Once you pass Lewisburg, you will drive through a horror - movie like setting. You know those abandoned farmhouses? That is how it looks like. One of my friends said: ‘You know, when you watch a horror movie and the main character makes a stupid decision and you are like: Turn back, you stupid idiot! This is us right now, this place looks super shady!’ She was right, and I actually thought of going back.
But since we were almost there, we, of course, went. The way to the Lewisburg haunted cave is very well marked, so once you get to Lewisburg, you will not need GPS anymore. There is a big parking lot right next to the ticket booth, so you will not have to walk far to get to the cave.
When is it open?
Like all haunted houses, the Lewisburg haunted cave is only open in fall, around Halloween. It is only open on weekends, from middle of September to the end of October, from seven at night to midnight. So if you are coming from far away, it would make sense to plan your visit around the visit of the Lewisburg haunted cave.
How much does it cost?
To experience the wonders (and jumpscares) of the Lewisburg haunted cave, you will only have to pay seventeen dollars. And this is why I was so skeptical to go - low price sometimes means bad quality. But I am really glad that I went.
On the Lewisburg haunted cave webpage (and in some local stores), you can find a coupon for a dollar off the admission price. I printed that coupon, but then I forgot to show it to the person at the register, so I paid the full price, but if you want to save a dollar, definitely get that coupon.
And be advised, they do not accept credit cards, so make sure you bring enough cash, or else you will have to drive back to the town of Lewisburg to get to an ATM. There is a sign at the ticket booth window, saying: No refunds for scaredy cats. Do not say that I did not warn you!
And when buying the tickets, the employee pointed to a sign ‘You will be touched’ and asked me if I am okay with being touched. I was actually a little bit shocked, because in most haunted houses, the actors are not allowed to touch you. Just saying.
The experience
I went to the Lewisburg haunted cave just a few days after I saw the new It movie. And that only added to a better (and scarier) experience. And guess what, I really do not like clowns. I have no idea where my fear came from, all I know is that clowns are extremely unsettling. So you can imagine my face when we arrived to the entrance of the cave and there was a person, dressed like a Pennywise clownfrom the movie, telling people about the cave and the rules you have to follow.
This is how the entrance to the Lewisburg haunted cave looks like. Pretty scary even during the day, isn't it? (Image source: www.placelookup.net)
By the way, one of the rules is no photography and you are not allowed to use the flashlight from your phone. Well, obviously, that would ruin the whole experience, but I guess a lot of people actually tried that, so they had to put that rule in place.
The clown was also there to divide people into smaller groups. There will never be more than five people in each group, and when I saw that, it made me feel extremely vulnerable. I was there with two of my good friends, and when it was our turn, the clown said that it takes approximately one hour to walk through the cave. For some time, I thought he was not being serious, because, let’s be honest, the haunted house experiences usually last twenty minutes at most. But he was absolutely serious, and it will take even longer if you walk slower.
The last thing you will hear from the clown is: ‘Do NOT stop on the bridge, keep walking!’ Me and my friends were like: ‘Whatever, why would you stop anyway?’ Well, we soon found out that he had a reason for saying that. The place is pitch black dark, and the only guidance is the moss - covered hand railing on the side of the bridge.
When reaching that bridge, we obviously stopped and we were literally arguing who should go first and two of us even suggested going back. We were arguing long enough that the group behind us reached us. We even offered them to go first, but they did not want to. So we proceeded really slowly. And we decided that we will take turns in terms on who goes first. And, just saying, we were all from twenty five to thirty years old, but we were holding hands all the time.
And there came the first surprise. The Lewisburg haunted cave’s webpage stated that the cave was ranked as the haunted house with the best opening scare in all the American Midwest region. And I have to say that the opening scare was definitely the best one I have ever experienced.
To be honest, when the employee at the ticket booth told me that the actors will touch us, I thought that will happen once or twice, and I also thought that means an actor touching your shoulder, nothing more. But again, I was wrong.
After you cross the first bridge, you will be entering a new section of the cave, and you will be walking across another bridge. And this is when I almost had my first heart attack. There were actors, hidden under the bridge, that grabbed our feet once we passed above them. I was extremely shocked, and it made me not want to continue. And to make everything even worse, it was my turn to go first.
This is the infamous bridge at the beginning of the Lewisburg haunted cave. As you can see, the place is (intentionally, of course) very poorly lit. (Image source: www.cityscenecolumbus.com)
One of the most uncomfortable parts of the cave was a part with inflated plastic sheets on each side of you, so you basically had to walk through it and it was pretty claustrophobic. Well, but I guess that was the creators’ intention.
Some chambers in the cave are not that scary because there will be no people, but mechanical ‘jumpscares’, such as a big, fire - breathing dragon or inflatable dolls that pop up in front of you. But, like I have already mentioned, getting scared by real actorsis way scarier. One of the examples was when we were walking through a dark chamber, expecting a jumpscare somewhere in front of us, and I was at the very back of the group. Then, suddenly, I heard a whisper in my ear: ‘You smell different when you are awake!’ and of course I screamed and freaked the rest of the group out.
This is one of the many chambers of the Lewisburg haunted cave. The creepiest part is not knowing whether the person standing in front of you, is just a dummy or an actual actor. (Image source: www.hauntedcaveatlewisburg.com)
For the most part, you will just be walking through the Lewisburg haunted cave without having to think where to go. But there are a few parts where you have to go through a little maze, and if you pick the wrong turn, you will have to start from the beginning. And my favourite part of those mazes was definitely the part with serial killers.
The actor will pick one person in each group, who has to pick the doors he or she thinks will lead out of the chamber. Each room behind the doors displays the methods of different serial killers and I thought that was really creepy. Again, if that person picks the wrong doors, you will end up in that same chamber and you have to keep trying until you get out. And guess what, our group literally had to try all doors before we found the right ones. But I guess that is a good thing, because we would not be able to see all other serial killer rooms otherwise.
You will encounter serial killers with chainsaws quite a few times throughout the Lewisburg haunted cave. The funny part about those ‘chainsaws’ is that they make a very authentic sound, and when an actor will touch your legs with it, it will vibrate really strongly, and it feels really funny.
I think most people who like horror movies, have seen The nightmare on Elm street. And if you remember that scene with the yellow school bus, you will for sure love this part of the Lewisburg haunted cave. You have to walk through the bus, which is really dark, and at the very end, a shadow will stand up, and once you get really close, you will see that the person is wearing that typical Freddy sweater. Needless to say that I wanted to get out of that bus as soon as possible. Well, I am still curious how did they transport the big yellow school bus underground, but this was definitely one of the most interesting scenes in the cave.
What I always wonder when I visit a haunted house (or cave in this case) is how do the actors survive with screaming at other people all the time. Imagine that you work there three hours a day, and you have to scream at every person that passes you. My voice would be gone in the first hour of doing that. And also, how do the actors not laugh while seeing all these scared faces? I mean, working in a haunted house sounds like a dream job, and I am planning to give it a try someday. But I will have to train my voice to be able to scream at people for hours.
At this point, I would also like to mention that the actors in Lewisburg haunted cave have an extremely good scaring strategy. They do not always scare the front of the group. Sometimes, they will wait until the middle of the group passes by, so the people in the front of the group think they are ‘safe’ and there will be no jumpscare. But there always is, and it is even scarier than when the front of the group gets scared.
This is an example of a seemingly empty chamber, which is very suspicious. Be prepared - someone will jump at you from somewhere! (Image source: www.hauntworld.com)
I was so happy when I saw the exit. I clapped and shouted ‘I am alive’, which obviously terrified the people in line, but at that point, I really did not care. But the jumpscares were not over yet. On the way back up to the ticket booth and the parking lot, a person dressed as Jason Vorhees, jumped in front of us. And that was the source of my loudest scream on that day. Luckily, no actors were scaring people at the parking lot.
A few tips for surviving the Lewisburg haunted cave
First of all, try to arrive early. Me and my friends arrived approximately half an hour before the scheduled opening time, and we were among the first fifty people to enter the cave. When we were exiting the cave, the line was all the way up to the ticket booth. It makes sense, because, like I have already mentioned, people are separated into smaller groups before entering, which adds to a much scarier experience, and if you do not feel like waiting in line for almost two hours, try to arrive reasonably early. And they do not sell fast passes to skip the line, if that was what you are hoping for.
Remember, this is an underground cave, so it can be pretty chilly down there. I had two layers on and I also brought a light jacket with me, and it was just warm enough. You will definitely warm up by walking through the cave, because the path is not straight - in some parts, it will go up quite steeply, and in some parts, you will have to be very careful walking down because the path can get pretty slippery. It is true that they put some rugs that prevent slipping in the steepest parts, but I would still advise you to walk through the cave with caution. In my experience, you will either walk really fast to escape the person chasing you or crab - walk and cover your eyes to avoid a jumpscare. I really wish they would hire a person who would take photos of people in the cave when they are the most scared. But, on the other hand, I would rather not see my scared - to - death face on a photograph.
Since this is a cave, it is very humid inside and water will be dripping everywhere. Which means that you (and everything you have with you) will most likely get wet, or at least damp, at some point. That also includes your phone and/or car keys. And before you enter the cave, there will be warning signs, telling you that the staff is not responsible for damaged items that you bring with you. I was okay with leaving my phone in the car, but I had to bring my car keys with me, so this is what I did. I always carry one or two zip lock bags in my car, just in case. And this was one of the cases where a zip lock bag is a life saver (Well, not literally). I simply put the car keys in the zip lock bag and stashed them in my pocket. And guess what, they did not get wet.
And not only is the cave wet and humid, it is also very muddy. So try not to wear fancy new shoes that you just bought, because they will definitely be covered in mud once (or should I say ‘if) you get out of the cave alive.
The cave is apparently a home to thousands of bats, which is also evident from signs at the entrance, and I admit it, I was actually a little bit scared that they will attack me and/or get tangled in my hair, like you see in movies and cartoons, but we did not see a single bat during our journey through the cave.
There are two possible explanations for that - I did not see any bats because I was either keeping my eyes closed or looking at the ground in an attempt to avoid to be scared to death by a jumpscare. The other explanation would be that the bats simply live in a different part of the cave, which would be totally understandable. After all, the people’s screams and all the sound effects are incredibly loud, and if I were a bat, I would definitely want to rest in a quieter place. And, if I think it through, seeing live bats would scare me even more.
Some of the sound effects are really loud. Too loud, in my opinion. There are some parts where actors will scream in your face, but in some parts, they also shoot riffles (with fake bullets, of course) and I had to cover my ears in that part. So you might consider bringing earplugs, but, on the other hand, that might not be as much fun.
A few words for the end...
Lewisburg haunted cave is definitely a must - visit attraction for all horror movie fans. What makes the whole experience even scarier is the fact that the actors are allowed to touch you. Just imagine the fear when you enter a seemingly empty part of the cave, not knowing whether someone will grab your feet or breathe down your neck. And remember, you will scream, and these will not be the screams of joy!
