Halloween starts now in Philly: The gates open at Terror Behind the Walls

Outside Cell Block 15, also known as Eastern State Penitentiary’s (ESP) Death Row, there’s a small commotion when a fellow writer at the September press preview realizes that his photographer has vanished into thin air.

It’s 11:30am on a Thursday, but somebody seems to have “chickened out” before the show even got started.

I know how it feels when you first step into the cell blocks at the famous prison — excuse me, penitentiary — on Fairmount Avenue: I worked as a historic tour guide there myself for three seasons, and for the first week or two of training, it feels like you’ll never find the gates again if you get separated from the group.

And year after year, the folks behind Eastern State’s annual haunted house fund-raiser, Terror Behind the Walls, seem to come up with a new nook of the 11-acre prison (with 15 cell blocks built from the early 1800s to the mid-1900s) with which to terrify ticket-buyers. Last year, ESP says its scare-seekers traveled from all 50 U.S. states and 26 foreign countries on four continents.

This year, favorite attractions like the panic-inducing, glow-in-the-dark 3D horrors of “The Experiment” and the smoky pandemonium of “Lockdown” in Cell Block 12 are returning, but ESP touts its latest attraction, carved into a small, freshly reroofed labyrinth on the prison’s east side, as its most interactive show yet.

If you’re squeamish about severed limbs, or if you don't like being startled, “Machine Shop” is not for you.

And find something else to do if you’re one of those keep-your-hands-off-me people. A lot of the crowd wranglers at Halloween attractions yell “Do not touch the actors; the actors will not touch you,” with only the bursts of menthol from their lozenges to betray their sore throats. But this year, ESP actors will daub you with fake blood and slap a glow-stick collar on you — if you ask.

It’s a signal to the actors to do their worst: “Those who opt in for true interactivity may be grabbed, held back, sent into hidden passageways, removed from their group, and even [oh no, not audience participation, anything but audience participation] occasionally incorporated into the show,” all the way through “six long attractions.” (Better stop at the Port-o-Potties first, especially if you’ve been hitting up all those Fairmount bars.)

I survived “Machine Shop,” along with my colleagues, though I really can’t say if that one photographer was ever heard from again.

Terror Behind the Walls 2014 at Eastern State Penitentiary ($19-$45), 2027 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, is running through November 8. For dates, prices, tickets, and more information about special events and tours, visit Eastern State online.

At right: the yard behind Cell Block 15, where the back walls of Cell Block 11 have collapsed. Photo by Alaina Mabaso.