The Curse of Shamrock at Shattered Nightmares Haunted House
Date of Visit: 3/15/25
Visited By: Team Zombillies & Team Lone Wolf
Stepping beyond the veil, we quickly find ourselves facing an old home. Lanterns glow against the stained front door… stains that, ominously enough, resemble splashes of blood… it’s hard to tell, and we’d rather not know anyway. The carved leer of a jack o’lantern watches us from its perch; below that, the Boogeyman himself- Michael Myers- lurks a little too close. Is he static or real? We hope we won’t have to stick around long enough to find out.
The lady who greets us prior to entering seems friendly, but that does little to quell our apprehension. Who knows what horrors of the green and gold holiday await us beyond that door? Bracing ourselves, we reach for its stained surface and slowly push it open. Only one question remains: are we feeling lucky?
I’d heard a great deal about Shattered Nightmares Haunted House, located further north of Indiana in Terre Haute. Without giving away too much, I was informed that not only was it a lengthy walkthrough, but the haunt also had quite a few tricks up their sleeve – both in the rooms of the house and in how they pulled off their scares. All of my friends who’d been seemed to really enjoy the place and I knew I had to visit someday. Fast forward to 2025, and the haunt once again opened their doors… but not for an occasion you’d expect, like Christmas or Valentine’s Day. Nope – Shattered was celebrating a holiday many haunts overlook: St. Patrick’s Day! It seemed The Curse of Shamrock had consumed the whole house, leaving it overrun with demented leprechauns, killer clowns, and other crazies. Getting out of here alive would surely be a daunting task, but I still decided to roll up with five of my haunt-loving friends to test our luck!
General Admission for The Curse of Shamrock was just $20. In a hurry? Shattered Nightmares offers Nightmare Express admission for $40. Parking was FREE on site and there was quite a bit of space available.
True to the event, Shattered Nightmares sure had their green on! Not only was their sign lit up in green, but they added a lot of green lighting above the queue. Even the tickets matched the theme, a plus for those of us who collect them. Shattered is popular in the area and a crowd was forming well before they were ready to open. Customers were kept entertained by line actors who came and went, including a blue-haired clown, a menacing leprechaun wielding a crackling taser, and a bad bunny concealing a nasty surprise under his bloody fuzzy face! (Make eye contact with him at your own risk. We did – and soon found him approaching our group! Uh oh!)
Once we began our journey through the haunt, we didn’t see a whole lot of holiday decor – to be fair, several areas were quite dark so it would’ve been hard to notice. Their swamp (more on that below) was the greenest area we passed through; we also noticed gold coins scattered here and there and encountered a static leprechaun later. Did we dare to mess with the gold? Tempting during a St. Patty’s event for sure, but we behaved ourselves. (Not so with our other group of three – they came out with coins!) Lack of holiday decor didn’t bother me much as it was my first time visiting, so I was really just enjoying all the delights- and frights- that come with exploring a new haunt! Always a treat.
In addition to the whole haunted house vibe, and without giving too much away, Shattered was one of those haunts I got a sort of “town” feeling from. We definitely crept through our share of eerie house scenes- like a kitchen, dining room etc.- and darkened halls. But our adventure also took us into an orphanage, a winding swamp that was tricky to navigate, the “Red Apron” butcher shop, and other freakishly fun spots. In addition to having some awesome sets, Shattered Nightmares had many tricks up their sleeve throughout the walkthrough… let’s just say the actors weren’t the only scares we had to watch out for! It was like the whole house was alive!
Many Nightmares were on the loose throughout this crazy house the night of our visit. Dead areas were few, and when we did find any it felt like they served to build up to the next scare. The actors also seemed to know their scenes well and worked within them to set us up for additional frights. We even had characters who were sneakily hidden behind curtains and doors to guide us along the way – great interaction!
Walking among the shelves of a library in disarray, we were admonished by the librarian to remain silent… after they scared us and made us yelp. “Quiet!” they snapped, prompting a group member to grouse “How come you can yell and we can’t?!” A strong odor accosted our noses in the kitchen, where we found copious amounts of blood and rotting food – and were given quite a fright when the “cook” came bursting out amidst clattering pans! We were threatened by multiple leprechauns; the one in the morgue struck so aggressively they damn near sent yours truly right into a wall (with a muffled cuss word) and both groups were expertly tag teamed by the pair in the swamp. The pig-masked butcher running the Red Apron was easily one of the most vicious maniacs we were unLUCKY enough to run into, nailing each group with multiple scares and running us off with a chainsaw! Yikes! And all hell broke loose by the time we reached the carnival – those clowns were relentless hunters. We weren’t sure if they were ever going to let us leave!
Maybe we didn’t leave with any of the leprechauns’ riches- well, most of us- but at least we all got out in one piece! The Curse of Shamrock was an absolute blast for our entire party, as well as a fun introduction to the world of Shattered Nightmares for many of us. It was also personally my first time attending a St. Patrick’s Day haunt and I gotta say – I wish more haunts would celebrate the occasion! At the time of writing, this was Shattered’s one and only off-season show for now; if you want to experience this madness for yourself you’ll have to wait a while. Keep an eye on Shat’s website and socials for more information on when the door to that house will creak open and admit some new victims for the Halloween season.
