Friday, November 02, 2007

The role of Count Floyd will be played by Jesus Christ
Boo! Okay, here's your Snickers.

They expected to see the kind of stuff normally associated with a haunted house: skeletons, ghosts, chain saw-wielding zombies, that kind of thing.

Instead, some teenagers said the images inside the building on Carroll Road in Mira Mesa gave them the shock of their lives: a video of aborted fetuses, an image of a bloody Jesus on a cross, a scene in which an actor portrays a suicidal man clutching a shotgun as the devil urges him to kill himself.

“Then they had (the teenagers) pray and wash their sins,” said Ananda Brisco of Scripps Ranch, whose 14-year-old son went into the building with three of his friends expecting to enjoy a typical Halloween scare.

“We were shocked. . . . I had other people's children with me, and I subjected them to this without their parents' permission. We just thought this was going to be a regular haunted house.”

The haunted house – admission was free and a sign outside advertised “Blood Rain” – turned out to be a production of The Potter's House, an international church that has made news over the years for its graphic, religious-themed Halloween events around the country.

The pastor of the church's San Diego branch, Joe Rice, said the production was meant to “present the gospel of Jesus Christ in a venue other than a church service.” The haunted house was intended as a commentary on the evils of abortion, pornography and school violence, Rice said.

He noted that the free tickets – which were handed out at movie theaters, stores and other public places – warned of graphic content, as did signs in front. Nobody younger than 13 was allowed in.

“Some people will say it's false advertising,” Rice said. “I don't think so because to me it is a haunted house. Freddy Krueger isn't going to walk in with an ax. But that's fairy tale. This is more real. This is a real haunted house to me.”