Sam Raimi's '50 States of Fright': Would you dare descend the '13 Steps to Hell'?
What is it about hauntings and ghost stories that grab our imaginations? Even when we know that chasing demons can only end in insanity and misery, why do we still do it?
A case in point: Maltby Cemetery in King County, Washington. Situated near the town of Maltby, the cemetery's gravestones date all the way back to 1908 but beyond its history, there's a pretty sinister reason for the graveyard's 'fame'.
According to legend, the Maltby Cemetery is the location of a haunted staircase that begins at ground level and extends thirteen steps into the ground. The steps reportedly lead to the crypt of a wealthy family that practiced satanism and the occult arts.
Now imagine you're a kid who laughs in the face of such tall tales and you decide to dare the steps. You descend down the staircase, one step at a time.
With each step you take, you can feel a deathly silence enveloping you and your whole life begins to flash before your eyes. And then you reach the bottom.
You take a deep breath, glad that the ordeal is over. You turn around with a sense of relief only to find you're no longer in a graveyard but in Hell itself.
Such a horrific vision would be enough to drive anyone mad and apparently a lot of people have been driven insane after foolishly taking the steps. Now after reading this if you still want to explore the 13 Steps to Hell, that's unfortunately (or fortunately) not an option anymore.
The steps were either demolished or filled in years ago, reportedly because of the owners of the land not wanting teenagers coming to the cemetery to party and trash the place. Whatever the reason, the steps are no longer accessible and the cemetery itself is closed to the public but there is one way you could explore the legend closer.
Legendary horror filmmaker Sam Raimi is producing an anthology series of ten-minute horror stories from across the US called '50 States of Fright'. The show will be available for streaming through the quick-bite mobile streaming app Quibi and one of the episodes will be exploring the legend of the 13 Steps.
'50 States of Fright' is set to premiere on Quibi on April 13.