With all the political and international turmoil, this is shaping up to be the scariest Halloween ever! For instance, artist Ben Isitt and the Freighthouse Square have teamed up to resurrect the Black Lake Medical Asylum, which opens Friday. The following release has been, er, released: 

“In the winter of 1939, construction began on the state-of-the-art medical facility, Black Lake Medical Asylum and Research Facility. Dr. Herbert West, the famed East Coast neuroscientist, was appointed as the first chief of staff of what was supposed to be the premiere neurosurgical research facility on the West Coast. Soon after he took up his post in the spring of 1940, things at Black Lake started to go very wrong … This is the story of Black Lake Asylum …”

 

Of course, the timeliness of this announcement leads some of us journalistic types to suspect that the haunting is not for real. And it doesn’t matter. With the help of professional actors, outstanding artistry and high-tech gadgetry, the transformation of the Freighthouse Square from a happy shopping center to a blood-curdling nightmare is possible, even if down deep we know it’s not based on fact. Or is it?

The Rain City Hearse Club will hold a rally at the Asylum Saturday night.

[Freighthouse Square, Oct. 10-11, 6 p.m. to midnight, $13 per patient in advance at participating Freighthouse merchants or at the door (there’s an ATM on-site; those things scare me every time), 2501 E. D St., Tacoma, freighthousequare.com]