BY NED ADAMSON
Enquirer Contributor
EVENDALE -- It's time to enjoy Hellraiser, Kitchen Butcher Shop and the Black Hole.
A new batch of Stephen King movies? No -- new rooms at the St. Rita Haunted House, which opens Thursday for more than four bloodcurdling weeks.
The house -- on the grounds of St. Rita School for the Deaf -- boasts 19 new rooms in this, its 23rd year. And there are other new touches for 1998.
Special events such as face-painting and performances by musical groups including Rinse Cycle, Footloose and a Tribute to Elvis by Bruce Wilburn are scheduled. On several evenings, they will entertain those waiting in line.
"We've been around probably even before haunted houses got so popular, and we are one of the only ones left where the entire proceeds come right back to us," said Jodi K. Weiser, a St. Rita staffer. Opening Night is 700 WLW radio and Cincinnati Cyclones Night. The Roger Bacon High School marching band will perform.
Mrs. Weiser said that although St. Rita tries to supply plenty of scary moments in the 15-minute walk through the house, the blood-and-guts aspects are held to a minimum. "We try to do this thing with some taste," she said.
The St. Rita Haunted House is actually a real house dating to the Civil War, on the St. Rita grounds at 1720 Glendale-Milford Road.
Several high school, college and community groups will be helping the St. Rita school, as usual.
All proceeds go to the general fund and help with various needs, such as staff salaries, textbooks, equipment upgrades, building repairs and tuition assistance. Last year, 18,000 people visited the house, raising $30,000.
The St. Rita school serves 145 students, 45 of them from around the country and several foreign counties.
If you go
The St. Rita Haunted House, which opens Thursday, will be open 7 to 10 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays and 7 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is $5 per person (group rates available). Matinees for children 10 and under at $1 each are scheduled 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 24-25.
The school can be reached from Exit 14 (Woodlawn - Evendale ramp) off Interstate 75. Call 771-7600 for group rates and other information.
