There’s a lesbian, feminist haunted house and we’re totally going
You may have heard of hell houses before. They’re the radical, evangelical Christian equivalent to haunted houses, wherein you’ll find a number of scenes depicting people suffering, being driven insane, and going to hell simply because they were gay, got an abortion, had premarital sex, or maybe even smoked a little pot. Basically, it’s their way of trying to scare the crap out of impressionable, young Christian youth into a sin-free life.
Fortunately, these ridiculous productions have also inspired a new kind of haunted house, and we are totally digging it. Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House is just as amazing as it sounds. Created by Canadian artists Deirdre Logue and Allyson Mitchell, the haunted house (which is more like an installation and performance art piece) is trans-inclusive, sex-positive, anti-racist, and spectacularly queer.
A visit to Killjoy’s starts with a stroll through the undead courtyard followed by a meeting with your tour guide, who just so happens to be a Women’s Studies professor (because of course). She’ll then bring you through various rooms where you’ll encounter riot ghouls (Kathleen Hanna would be proud), a three-headed Internet troll, granny vampires, and a “graveyard of queer ideas,” among other things.
At the end of your tour, you can stop in to the Otherwild gift shop and pick up the perfect memento for your favorite queer friends, or hang out outside and get serenaded by zombie musicians.
If you’re in West Hollywood through the end of the month, make sure to check it out (and take all your Sleater-Kinney listening, Audre Lorde reading, Laverne Cox loving pals with you)!
The Kastle is located at Plummer Park’s Long Hall at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard and is open Thursday-Sunday, October 22-25, and Wednesday-Friday 28-30 from 6:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Admission is free.
[Images via Facebook and Shutterstock]