Music

This Kurt Cobain haunted house was really messed up

by Richard Howard

October’s rolled around, and as a result ’tis the time for scary stuff like ghouls, goblins and new music from Iggy Azalea.

Of course, when you grow up, the run-of-the-mill kiddie stuff just won’t do it anymore, and you start looking for more hardcore Halloween haunting options. Still, the idea of a Kurt Cobain themed haunted house in industrial Los Angeles just screams “come hither for some overly disturbing shit.”

On behalf of those of us not in LA/too wary of such a venture, Noisey checked out the three-night affair. And while it turns out its creators aren’t monsters willing to recreate Cobain’s death, it still rates pretty high on the “Dude, WTF?”-o-meter.

For those wondering what to expect, the project Live Thru This: Kurt Cobain Haunted Heck by artist William Kaminski was described thusly:

For 3 NIGHTS ONLY, descend into a live and immersive grunge hell that will electrify the complex and disturbing role that deceased Kurt Cobain continues to play in our collective pop consciousness. The structure of the haunted house is adopted to fill with the nightmarish specters of a dark and evil alternative history of the tragic icon. Through a long interactive maze the audience encounters blood-curdling scenes brought to life by a cast of over 20 performers.

While the weight of this wordy description was mitigated slightly by the line “$5 suggested donation for performers” which followed, it still sounds like some heavy stuff. And Kaminski definitely delivered. Described by one attendee as seeming like “the type of haunted house where you might go in and they actually kill you,” the first scene depicted a strung out Kurt sitting on a toilet and dry-heaving.

From there things descended into madness: El Duce (the dead guy purported to have been paid by Courtney to kill Kurt) verbally harassed female attendees. There was a recreation of Kurt’s story about having sex with a developmentally challenged girl. Then, a room in which a high AF Kurt and Courtney amiably offered to let entrants hold baby Frances Bean. One of the haunted house’s main focal points? I shit you not – a dream sequence featuring a rapping now-adult Frances hanging out with a Juggalo.

So while it was pretty dark stuff, it seems more like a legitimate artistic exploration (albeit very weird) as opposed to twisted exploitation.