As Halloween quickly approaches and October brings with it its creepy season, one local mall offers something extra-spooky: Viaport Rotterdam House of Horrors wax museum will surely thrill visitors.
Wanna Play offers haunted environments filled with puzzles to be solved and creepy classics such as macabre-looking dolls that challenge players. In one room of Wanna Play?, players can also try their luck at escaping.
Marnehuizen
Marnehuizen, Europe’s largest military ghost town, serves to train soldiers how to operate in urban environments. Many streets carry memories from those destroyed during bombing raids at the start of World War 2, giving it a particularly sinister vibe.
Photographer Jeroen Hofman captured these unsettling photographs for his book and video project ‘Marnehuizen’. Each frame gives the sense that something terrible may happen soon.
It resembles a dystopian movie set and can be quite unnerving to explore the buildings here; especially with large piles of rubble and dark smoke rising from them. Although open to visitors, please keep away from training soldiers during their training periods; you may be allowed access to visit castle during open monumental days.
Cramer’s Mansion
Stuart Warren Cramer Senior saw an English Manor house while traveling and wanted one as his summer retreat. In 1917 he built Maymont on top of a mountain, featuring 37 rooms that even hosted parties attended by Presidents Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower!
This mysterious mansion has an eerie history of hauntings, strange noises, and ghostly sightings. Multiple people have reported feeling as though they’re being watched by an unseen force; others have heard children’s voices echo through empty rooms; still others have witnessed flickering lights or seen mysterious figures within its confines.
This week will see the release of a movie about the real-life Cramer Mountain Hillbillies. Starring Matt Damon and Noah Schnapp as members of this infamous group convicted for conspiracy to commit armed robbery, some people remain skeptical as it claims to be based on real events.
The Prison Zierikzee
Zierikzee may be a popular tourist spot, but it still harbors a hidden darkness. Boasting a history of witch hunts and other supernatural happenings, making Zierikzee one of the Netherlands’ most haunted locations – abandoned psychiatric asylums, scorched grounds from witch hunts, skull-stacked catacombs are some of the many ghostly sights you’ll find here.
Medieval castles can be found throughout Europe, but Moosham Castle near Salzburg stands out as being particularly haunted. It served as the site for the Salzburg Witch Trials where 139 individuals were burned or hanged – 39 children among them – according to legend you can still hear their screams at night!
The Tropical Swimming Paradise
This book follows a travel writer as they spend 13 nights living completely immersed in an iconic home known for its violent history and paranormal claims. Nothing quite like this has ever been attempted before-in fiction maybe but not real life!
The pool and spa are set within a lush rainforest environment, complete with waterfalls and grotto areas. Their pure saltwater leaves you feeling clean and refreshed; and it can even be heated, should that be required.
Rotterdam’s annual film festival has found ways to overcome its unfortunate calendar position (it always falls just days before Berlinale), offering strong premieres as well as eclectic revival screenings. Gustavo Beck and Gerwin Tamsma created this year’s theme “history of shadows,” providing audiences with films that challenge our understanding of past events and our relationships to them.
