Baxter Avenue Morgue (Louisville, KY)
“They’re Dying to Meet You”
By Noah Wullkotte: jollypumpkin@aol.com
Baxter Avenue Morgue is a Louisville icon. People from all over come to get the living daylights scared out of them. The old brick building is illuminated by lights that flash to music from the 50’s and 60’s. You’ll eventually hear the rules over the speakers. We waited about 30 minutes in line and it was eventually our turn to enter the basement of the morgue. You’ll first meet Dr. Vanderdark who welcomes you to the morgue.
Much of Baxter Avenue Morgue is dark and mysterious. Many of the rooms are tight and will strike fear into those who are claustrophobic. This is an actor drive haunt that relies on its creepy atmosphere and characters. You’ll be placed in a large group which is good and bad. The good is seeing how others react to the scares. The bad is that you might miss some of the scares depending on where you are in the group. We were fortunately in the back. The girl in front of us was screaming so much that we thought it was part of the haunt at first.
Baxter Avenue Morgue isn’t a big budget haunt, but there are some interesting props that go great with their scenes. This includes a pig head that lunges at you, a grandfather’s clock with a hand that pops out, a man roasting on an open fire, an old truck with a blaring horn, and more. Baxter Avenue Morgue is supposed to take place in the basement of the morgue and boy does it feel haunted. You’ll be watching your every move as you navigate through spooky scenes. The actors wearing animal skull masks were very frightful as they pretended to bite us. I was measured for a coffin in the cemetery and had to survive my confrontation with eight legged freaks in the spider’s lair.
There are plenty of scenes that have nothing to do with the morgue theme. A corpse inside of a hospital has been torn in half and it tries to revive itself. The carnival/circus is where you’ll go one on one with some chainsaw maniacs. The industrial area features realistic piping and the cold storage area has moving cold storage doors.
You might be lightly touched at Baxter Avenue Morgue, but it’s not too extreme. The actors are good, but could be better if they used meaningful dialogue instead of relying on just being creepy. We missed some of the jump scares because we were in the very back. This is one of the most well known haunts in Louisville, but there aren’t enough changes from year to year. Total tour time was around 15 minutes. General admission is $20 and a Speed Pass is $40. There’s Baxter Avenue Morgue merchandise available at the exit.
Baxter Avenue Morgue has become a tradition for many haunt goers, but they need to step up their game since there are so many other options in the Louisville area whether it’s another haunt, Halloween event or just a scary movie.
Length-8 Design-8 Props-7 Acting-7 Scare Effect-8
Final Stab: 7.6
www.baxtermorgue.com