In 2022, Samir Patel was driving on a single lane road in Denmark with thick trees on either

side. As he was driving, he noticed the name of the road, and it's rather appropriate.

You can't make this stuff up right, it literally is called Dark Valley Road.

Samir is Atlas Obsgera's editor-in-chief. He was driving on Dark Valley Road during the summer,

but in October, this road is blocked with a military-style checkpoint. Men in Tyvek suits

roam around, carrying assault rifles. Every once in a while, they stop a car and pull out the

passengers. And as you turn onto this road, you see a sign that says dystopia on it.

Dystopia is Denmark's largest haunted house attraction. Those dudes pulling people out of

their cars, it's all part of the setup. Dystopia is built in what used to be an old fish processing

plant, which can I just say, of all the potential abandoned factories where you could build a haunted

house. This is possibly the creepiest. It works perfectly, too, because there's legitimately,

in some places, weird black stuff dripping from the ceiling, and they don't actually know what

it is. And then there's all these concrete that would have been fish holding ponds in the back,

which make a really great setting where you're chased through this outdoor maze by a large

man with chainsaw with a severed pig's head as a mask. They call him Mr. Piggy. He's the mascot

of dystopia. People come to dystopia to voluntarily get chased around by Mr. Piggy and get the crap

scared out of them. But that's not why Samir was there. He was interested in another group of people

who regularly visit the haunted house, a group of researchers from a place called the Recreational

Fear Lab, who are looking at the fun side of fear. I'm Johanna Mayer and this is Atlas Obscura,

a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Today, we head into dystopia,

and as Samir tells me, it might be scary, but it's also fun as hell. More after this.

Typically on our show, we tell you about a place. Today, I'm going to talk with Samir about

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