House of Horrors

New York’s Psycho Clan Brings Its Terrifically Terrifying Nightmare: Ghost Stories to Wynwood’s Soho Studios

By Ben Torter

The stuff of nightmares: a scene from the house of the Psycho Clan

’Tis the season for ghosts and goblins and other scary creatures to come out to play, and never before has that been truer here in Miami than this year, as the Psycho Clan brings its famed Nightmare: Ghost Stories to Wynwood.

A haunted house with a twist that was created by polling people’s paranormal experiences, each of the 17 rooms in the house represent a different horrific spirit.

“You’ll walk through and be in the middle of these ghost stories,” Director John Harlacher said. “You’ll experience them yourself.”

Nightmare: Ghost Stories has been terrifying audiences for four years in New York City’s Lower East Side, and the Miami run represents the first time the show has traveled. It remains true to its roots, with slight variations for the road.

“We’re taking last year’s New York show and we’re tweaking it a bit,” Harlacher said. “We use some of the cultural expressions of Miami in the House.”

The Sept. 25 Miami opening corresponded with the New York premiere of the group’s latest fright, Nightmare: Bad Dreams Come True.

A classic walk-through haunted house, Nightmare: Ghost Stories features 20 live performers acting out gruesome and terrifying scenarios as patrons pass through at 10-minute intervals in groups of no more than ten.

Theater people from New York, the Psycho Clan created a haunted house experience like no other. The sets are all custom and handmade, as opposed to the usual prefab décor found in most haunted houses.

“It’s the opposite of a Disney haunted house,” Harlacher said. “All the stuff is just theater tricks. It’s very, very effective.”

Each year the Psycho Clan keeps a record of people who are so scared they have to be evacuated from the house.

“Our record last year was 21, and we hope to break that this year,” Haskell said. “They start freaking out, having panic attacks, screaming [that] they have to leave.” The haunted house has exits in each room and performers will escort those out who can’t take the fright.

Harlacher, who wrote and directed the feature film, Urchin, told The SunPost he believes the Nightmare house may truly be haunted, as in summoned spirits from the other side.

“Last year a lot of our performers reported hearing actual entities and ghosts as the run went on,” Harlacher said. “It gets very hot in the house and they would feel a cold spot, it wouldn’t stay in the same spot, it would move around. And they actually reported seeing orbs.”

The crew will have a ghost expert on hand to measure the type of haunted energy that might be flowing through the house. Harlacher will also post the experience on his blog, which can be found at nighmaremiami.com.

Though it has been reviewed by the likes of The New York Times as a theater piece, and is sometimes referred to as an Off-Broadway version of a traditional haunted house. Also part of the experience is a tribute to the conventional zombie and vampire themes called Nightmare: Old School.

“The point of this is to scare the hell out of you,” Haskell said. “People should be walking out trembling and shaking.”

Nightmare: Ghost Stories runs through Sunday, Nov. 1 at Soho Studios, 2136 N.W. First Ave., Wynwood. All Tickets, including Halloween, are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and $45 for VIP-express entry. Tickets can be purchased at nightmaremiami.com or by calling 888-695-0888.

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