Visitors to haunted house complain they were subjected to simulated rape
With each Halloween, haunted houses seem determined to up the ante and deliver added thrills and chills — even if it puts patrons in peril. Six Flags’ 30-hour coffin contest has raised safety concerns. In Nashville, a one visitor to a haunted house was stabbed by his friend after someone believed to be an employee allegedly handed her a real knife. Now an Ohio attraction is being accused of subjecting visitors to mock rape scenarios that could be triggering.
As Cleveland’s ABC News 5 reports, organizers of the Akron Fright Fest in Springfield Township, Ohio, are facing claims that their haunted house — billed in local media as the area’s “first R-rated haunt” — includes a troubling rape enactment.
According to one couple who visited the attraction, a haunted house employee violently grabbed and began “thrusting” against them without their permission.
“There was a man in a mask standing over my boyfriend,” attendee Sarah Lelonek complained to News 5. “My boyfriend was on the edge, and he was being pushed down.”
“She comes over and yells, ‘Stop, what are you doing? That’s my boyfriend,'” confirmed Lelonek’s boyfriend, Ryan Carr, who added that the employee allegedly responded, “Not anymore, he’s mine now — I’m going to rape him.”
Carr claimed that the man then “started thrusting against me.”
Lelonek later posted a Facebook message noting that she had reported the incident to the police — who, she claims, declined to take action — and warning that the haunted house could be triggering to “victims of sexual assault.”
News 5 reports that other visitors have made similar claims. Management for Akron Fright Fest responded that the “issue has been resolved.”
Lelonek, however, now says that she has been blocked from the Fright Fest’s Facebook page, which now features a lengthy “public service announcement” disputing the “negative posts.” Although Lelonek and others have insisted that they experienced the rape scenario in a haunted house billed as an all-ages attraction that did not require signing a waiver, organizers claim that it’s actually part of their “full-contact adult haunted house,” which requires a signed waiver and signs explaining what to expect. Visitors are also given a safe word to use when the action gets too intense for their liking, they say.
“The only legitimate complaint we got was from somebody who did not believe the sign and everything we do inside of the haunted house,” the post reads. “However he could’ve used his safe word at any point to stop the haunted house and chose not to.”
The message notes that the attraction is intended for “adrenaline junkies who live for horror movies, haunted houses, and extreme sports.”
Carr maintains that he was not given a waiver or a safe word. According to his own Facebook post, Lelonek was also grabbed by employees, even though she warned them that she has a disability.
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