Five tips for the 25th year of Terror Behind the Walls

As a former tour guide at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, going through Terror Behind the Walls (TBTW) has been one of my favorite fall traditions for years. Though Eastern State is boasting two new attractions this year, “Quarantine: 4D” and “Break Out,” the TBTW formula hasn’t changed much (with some snakes and evil clowns thrown in this year). And the haunt has resurrected a popular feature from last season: the option to go through with a neon necklace, so the actors can single you out for more scares.

But if you’re not familiar with the prison, by day or night, here are some tips to make the most of your Halloween visit.

1) Maximize your enjoyment by sticking with a couple of screamers. You can’t always tell at a glance who’s going to be scared out of their wits once they get inside, but if you’re waiting in line, you can spot likely prospects by paying attention to the folks the roaming actors target outside. Especially if you’re not easily scared but enjoy the atmosphere, the whole thing is so much better if you can watch a couple of people shaking in their boots — partly because a quaking victim brings out the best in the actors. (Just keep a close eye on your distance: Screamers who flail instead of grabbing their date can really pack an accidental punch if you don’t give them enough space.)

2) Awesome stilt-walkers are awesome. In the prison’s loftier or open-air spots, most of the best ghouls are very, very tall, but that doesn’t mean they can’t lean right down into your face, especially if you get distracted.

3) Don’t forget to appreciate the setting. As the years go by, the haunt gets louder, flashier, and more disorienting, with lots of pounding music and noise, fog, and strobes and other lighting effects. But there are still moments when you can peer into eerily lit courtyards that have been virtually untouched since the 1970s, full of tumbledown cell walls and creepy wild weeds. Lights under the old grates in the 19th-century floors give a glimpse of the prison’s real underbelly. The striking architecture of cell blocks built in the early and late 19th century is worth seeing, whether or not you’re watching for ghouls.

4) Notice the vocal verve. One thing the masters of the haunted house are looking for when they call for actors are people who can make scary sounds. The best ones will be lodged in creepy corners throughout the attractions. They screech, click, hiss, wail, and make all kinds of other noises that defy description, and you gotta wonder — where’d they learn to do that? Did they spend years terrorizing little siblings and driving their parents bonkers before finding a paid outlet for their talents?

5) The ghillie suit is always somewhere. No, I’m not telling you where. Every year, someone dons this head-to-toe garment that makes him/her look like some kind of harmless bush, blending right in with the prison’s gnarlier corners — until it jumps at you.

Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary ($19-$39), Fairmount Avenue and 22nd Street, Philadelphia, is running on select evenings through November 7. Especially for busy October weekends, get your tickets in advance here.