Haunting experience: Gruesome scenes planned beneath the earth

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Halloween is nigh as Motlow College Phi Theta Kappa honor society member Leslie Kern portrays a mummy in Spooks Alive, the haunted cave adventure playing at Cumberland Caverns later this week. (Will Stewart photo)

For the second year, Motlow College’s Phi Theta Kappa honor society has teamed with Cumberland Caverns to offer local residents Warren County’s only haunted adventure this Halloween season.

New and improved, this year’s haunted cave, entitled Spooks Alive, promises visitors 20 scenes of scary and gruesome events deep within the bowels of the earth. Using high-tech sound and lighting systems, the 30-minute tour comes with enough surprises to keep even the most sure-footed person on his toes.

The cast of Spooks Alive is composed of around 25 Phi Theta Kappa members, who play such characters as mummies, Frankenstein and Wolfman. Tours through the candlelit cave are given by cave guides.

Members of Phi Theta Kappa have decided to use their organization’s portion of the profits from Spooks Alive to benefit Andrew Pierce, an area 3-year-old cancer victim who already in his young life has undergone radiation, chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. The group hopes to raise enough money from the haunted cave to be able to buy Andrew a central heat and air unit with a filtration system capable of removing such airborne agents as microbes, bacteria and mold.

Spooks Alive will be held Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights at Cumberland Caverns. Tours depart hourly from 7 to 10 p.m. Advance tickets can be purchased for $8 for adults and $4 for children at the cave or from Phi Theta Kappa advisor Jean Williams at Motlow. Tickets can also be purchased at the door for $10 for adults and $6 for children.

For more information, call Cumberland Caverns at 668-4396 or Williams at 668-7010.