If you took a poll of what scares New Yorkers most, chances are they’d say getting on the subway — indoor waterfalls, surprise shutdowns, hating on dogs. But the worst is yet to come, and it’s inspired the city’s scariest event of Halloween 2018: The L Train Shutdown Nightmare haunted house.
Opening Oct. 18 through Nov. 3, the L Train Shutdown Nightmare is a massive 40,000-square-foot pop-up at 53 Scott Ave. in Bushwick that also includes a nightclub called Club Transit. The setting is especially appropriate since Bushwick will be among the neighborhoods hit hardest when the L train goes on hiatus, so it may as well get some benefit out of it.
Inside the L Train Shutdown Nightmare haunted house
The scares inside aren’t so much about North Brooklyn residents having to ride a bike or find a comparably affordable apartment elsewhere in the city (that would be too cruel). Instead, The L Train Shutdown Nightmare haunted house imagines the year 2019, six months after the rails have gone silent, and “things did not go as planned.” In fact, it doesn’t even label itself as a haunted house but “the horrifying reality of a post-L train nightmare.” Inside, terror and hysteria rule the “decaying streets of Bushwick, warped by the chaos and destruction wrecked by the disturbing aftermath of the L train shutdown.”
We’ve reached out to the organizers for more details, but their Instagram hints at terrors like mutants coming up from the depths and giant rats taking over platforms. Which isn’t imaginary so much as a regular Tuesday.
After you’ve gotten all the screaming and crying out — may as well do it here instead of on the train — Club Transit is also an actual nightclub with live acts scheduled almost every night of the haunted house, and a vintage costume party on Halloween night. And because Brooklyn is all about the hustle, Club Transit is also a hub for local fashion, art, food and drink vendors. Hours are 8 p.m.-midnight for The L Train Shutdown haunted house and 10 p.m.-4 a.m. for Club Transit; you must be 21 or older, and tickets are $35 for both, or $20 if you only came to dance.
The L Train Shutdown Nightmare is not the first scary venue in Brooklyn to name-check the decaying subway line. The sleep-themed Instagram gallery Dream Machine in Williamsburg has morphed into Nightmare Machine for the spooky season, including a Millennial Graveyard for all the things slowly killing us like unreturned texts and, of course, waiting for the L train.
