There are only two days left to be truly terrified.

The House, a “different kind of haunted house,” will be open both today and tomorrow.

Located at 1855 S. Reynolds Road, next to the Olive Garden, The House aims to be more frightening and more movie-like than your standard haunted house.

Unlike the houses with painful overacting, hydraulic monsters and masked actors jumping out from behind a curtain, The House set out to avoid these stereotypical haunted house features.

Built over the course of six weeks by a talented and highly skilled crew, The House includes several current and former employees of LifeFormations, a Bowling Green-based company specializing in creating sets and animatronic robots for clients worldwide.

Conceived and produced by longtime friends and now business partners David Sperling, 23 and Doug Kampfer, 23, The House has four principle aims to set it apart from other haunted houses: visual, audio, actors and story.

The visuals were accomplished by producing a series of realistic, life-like sets including outdoor scenes. Designed largely by Kampfer, The House has a constant developing theme rather than a bunch of random ideas thrown together.

The audio objective was achieved by recording a library of sounds to be used. Sperling, the resident audio engineer, felt it would be best to fit the audio to the environment, rather than generic CD sound effects.

Next, instead of placing one or two actors in the whole house, Kampfer and Sperling filled the house with more than 25 actors each night to overwhelm guests.

“It’s basically a bunch of our friends and others who have worked in haunted houses before and know about timing and what movements to make when,” Sperling said. “They are each assigned a character and know what role they are to play.” Finally, in an attempt to be more movie-like, the two created a story for visitors to read and to give them some background on The House.

“We want people to read the story and expect something new and different,” Sperling said.

As a “victim” who has entered The House and lived to tell the tale, I must say that this is by far the best haunted house I’ve ever been through. Unlike those cheesy houses where you bang into walls in the pitch black and see one too many “Scream” masks, The House is dimly lit so you can see what is going on around you, although at times, you don’t want to see.

As you are taken through the house, hanging on to a rope held by your “guide,” it’s hard to not be completely freaked out. Props to the actors of The House, because they are what make the experience. Staying completely in character, these zombie-like creatures follow you and seem to appear out of nowhere. Without giving away too many details, I can say that guests of The House literally feel like they’ve stepped into a horror movie.

The trick is getting out.

The House is opened tonight 7 p.m. – 2 a.m. Tomorrow 7 p.m. – 12 a.m. Cost: $10, printable $2 off coupon available online at www.enterthehouse.com.

Before you head out to The House, there is a story behind the madness that every patron should know …

THE STORY

Off a long and winding stretch of road,

Stood a quaint and humble home,

Of one young man and his new wife,

Who happily agreed to share their lives,

The sun was bright the day they wed,

They dreamt of children and times ahead,

The man he yearned to raise a son,

But as time passed she bared none,

So still they tried and still they waited,

But with the days his patience faded,

Fertility arrived as if God had smiled,

But the sickness came and took the child,

Then came a stranger, a passerby,

Through the window she caught his eye,

He committed the horrific deed,

And planted the unwanted seed,

In secret and shame she would carry,

The grief brought by the stranger’s baby,

The seasons changed and the house grew cold,

They lived their days, the truth still untold,

She buried the past deep underground,

But while secrets are hidden, they are always found,

Upon discovery the man pointed the blame,

The house erupted swallowing both in flames,

Time moves on as it erases,

Away their story and their faces,

But there beneath the burning embers,

She still is there, the house remembers.

Source: www.enterthehouse.com