There’s nothing quite like the haunted house Chris Hoover and a group of his friends are building in a vacant storefront at Mid-Pike Plaza.
When it’s finished, “The Warehouse: Project 4.1” will be the only “urban haunted house” of its kind in Montgomery County.
Hoover, a Kensington native, got the idea for a haunted house production company after taking a bus trip to Busch Gardens’ Howl-O-Scream. His group, Hallow Inc., is building its first such project in the upstairs space that was formerly Filene’s Basement, about a block away from the White Flint Metro Station.
“We wanted something that differentiated ourselves from the other haunted houses,” Hoover said. “You don’t have to get in your car and drive an hour and wait an hour in line. You don’t have to put on boots and trudge through the mud.”
Hoover said he hopes to add a new haunted house in a new city each year, possibly with different stories. This year’s narrative is based on a lab company that attempted to create the perfect human, before things went wrong.
The scenario will include about 70 zombies in 37,000 square feet of mock offices, laboratories, contamination pods and a morgue.
“We put a premium on realism,” Hoover said. “The zombies look real, the rooms look real.”
The group’s promotional team has been busy handing out fliers and trying to attract a following in lower Montgomery County and Washington.
Hoover said the privately funded enterprise will look for a more permanent space next year. The Mid-Pike Plaza is slated to be transformed into the mixed-use Pike & Rose development in the next few years. Construction on part one of the project started in the summer.
For more information, including dates and prices, visit Hallow Inc.’s website.
