SCARE RATING SYSTEM
5..... Go ahead and have an Ambulance on standby, you're gonna need it!
4..... May initiate releasing of bodily functions!
3..... Scary, but nothing you can't handle!
2..... Seriously? This place would only scare the Elderly& Young
1..... Don't walk, RUN back to the ticket booth to get your money back!
"Trail of Fears" Madison Parks & Recreation (Madison, AL.)
Scare Rating: (2.5 out of 5) Overall Experience: (3 out of 5)
http://www.ci.madison.al.us/index.aspx?nid=93
OVERALL RATING = 14.5 out of 25
Scare Rating: 2.5
Overall Experience: 3
Costumes & Make-up: 2
Decorations & Special Effects: 2
Bang for Your Buck: 5 (15 min. @ $3.00)
I took the whole family to this one, mainly because the kids had never been to a Halloween Haunted attraction like this and it was only $3.00 p/person. You couldn't beat the price. It was only $15.00 for the 5 of us.
Like they say, you get what you pay for. This was a Haunted Hay Ride through Dublin Park in Madison. The beginning of the ride was the best. They had a witch that was crouched around a smoking cauldron and you couldn't tell if it was a real person or a prop until the trailer got right next to the witch and then suddenly the witch turned her head towards the hay ride and got up and brought some bloody body part to the trailer. It was creepy and unexpected. Whoever that witch was, she did a great job.
The next great scene was a graveyard scene which was dimly lit with moonlight and strobe lights pulsating giving the graveyard a creepy look. There was a female actor standing in the middle of the graveyard with the song "Ring around the posies" playing. As your attention was turned looking at this creepy scene, actors dressed in various monster outfits would suddenly run over to the trailer on your backside and scare the heck out of you.
While these scenes were great, the rest of the ride was a little lacking. A giant spider that was dropped over the hay ride near the witch scene was slightly scary and caused the girls on the hay ride to scream. A chainsaw scene where an actor chased a girl down and then she hopped on to a table and he began to lay into her with the chainsaw was badly mis-timed and took too long for it to really be scary.
Actors were constantly running up to the trailer and beating on the sideboards of the hay ride and this was scary to some degree because you couldn't see them coming very well. The ending was not scary at all and was really disappointing. The hay ride climbed up a hill to a level area up top and you kept waiting for something to happen. You just knew this was the ending and something would happen. As the trailer turned around to go back down the hill, you could see the actors hiding behind trees, because they moved around too much and some had flashlights on, so this kind of killed the suspense. As we reached the trees they hid behind, the actors just kind of walked out to the trailer and really didn't do much at all. It looked like they were talking to each other and just really weren't trying to scare anyone. Kind of a half hearted attempt at scaring.
For my kids, Abby (6 years old) was scared to death and spent most of the hay ride tucked under my legs and didn't watch 90% of the hay ride mainly due to the very beginning witch scene. Jackson (7 years old) was a little more brave and watched most of it but was scared. Bryan (9 years old) loved it but was also scared.
Even though the hay ride was disappointing, overall the experience was a good one and was a good one to take younger children on. It was worth $15.00 for a family experience. I might have paid as much as $25.00 for the 5 of us but not more than that. The wait in line was about 30 minutes which wasn't too bad. They didn't have any kind of scary actors or entertainment to keep you occupied. One of the local radio stations was doing a remote from there but they left shortly after we arrived.
They ran 3 trailers for the hay ride and they were running about every 15 minutes. They were able to fit anywhere from 20-24 people per trailer depending on how many kids were on the trailer. They used a mix of volunteers and Park & Recreation employees. They did have an attendant on each trailer and they mainly played spooky music from a boom box. They did have a concession trailer where they sold soda drinks, pizza and a few types of candy. We purchased pizza, soft drinks and candy rings. The pizza was actually really good and their prices were really cheap.
Overall, it was a nice family experience and the kids really enjoyed the experience. Just the hay ride itself was nice and the kids love hay rides. It was a nice cool night and the moonlighting was just right. The scare part needs to be upgraded and needs to be complete from beginning to end, but not a bad start for the "Trail of Fears" and the price was right. If you don't like it, you are only out $3 bucks, so give it a shot and see what you think.
Pope's Haunted Farm (Salem, AL. - just outside of Auburn, AL.)
Scare Rating: (4 out of 5) Overall Experience: (4 out of 5)
http://www.popeshayride.com/sites/popesfarm/index.html
OVERALL RATING = 20.5 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4
Overall Experience: 4
Costumes & Make-up: 3.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 4
Bang for Your Buck: 5 (50 min. @ $25.00)
Pope's Haunted Farm had 3 events, Haunted Hay Ride, Haunted Barn & Haunted Forest. It cost $12.00 for one event, $20.00 for two events and $25.00 for all 3 events. I, of course, paid for all 3 events. i would recommend doing this, because you never know which one will be the one that scares you the most. Get the full experience!
The Farm is a little difficult to find as it is out in the boondocks outside of Auburn. They do offer a $5 discount ticket online for opening weekend & the week before Halloween only. Unfortunately, i couldn't go on those weekends.
I went to this with some friends from work, Ed Richey, Randell Brannan, Melinda Dunn and Darrin Allen. We had a blast. The overall experience was great. We waited in line for tickets for maybe 10 minutes and they have concessions at the ticket house also. You get a ticket for each event, so you can go whenever you want. They are kind of known for their hay ride, so we did that first.
The hay ride took you back through a heavily wooded area on the farm and had many twist and turns to the trail. The trailer was an old Cotton Farm trailer that would hold as many as 40 people at a time. The wait in line was about 20 minutes. They had set up many scenes along the way that you would drive through. They had a wide variety of scares with a lot of chain saw action. The actors would actually jump up on the trailer and walk down in between everybody sitting on the sides. They were constantly coming at you from the sides and up on the trailer. It really gave all the girls on the hay ride a chance to stretch their screaming vocal chords. Girls were jumping from one side to the other as the actors would come along the sides of the trailer. Because we were riding through heavily wooded areas, it was dark and spooky. It was a great atmosphere. They didn't use animatronics, just old fashion human scare elements and it worked. The hay ride lived up to it's billing and was fantastic!
Next, we went to the Haunted Barn. I was pleasantly surprised by the Haunted barn. It was a moderately sized barn and I really thought it was going to be quick and kind of cheesy. The haunted Barn was actually very scary mainly because the actors did such a great job at trying to scare you. Once again, they didn't use a lot of animatronics, just good ole fashioned scare tactics that worked. We waited in line maybe 15 minutes. At first, you would enter a room where you watched a video with the "Saw" clown. This was a waiting area that separated you into groups of about 7 at a time. Then you entered a section of inflated bladders that you had to divide to get through. It really prayed on your Closter phobic fears. The rest of the way, it was dark and you had to feel the walls to figure out where to go. The actors would come at you from above, in front and to your sides and you couldn't see anything. As you turned each corner, you just knew that something would be standing right there. I am not easily scared but the darkness really added a lot to the scare factor. The scenes were great and there was always some creature waiting to scare you. The Haunted Barn was great and really surprised me at how well it was done. I went to Disturbia in Huntsville this year and I think Pope's Haunted Barn was scarier than Disturbia.
Next, we finished with the Haunted Forest. I would say that out of the 3 events, the Haunted Forest was the least scary but it was a neat event and I am glad I paid for it. It was actually a walking trail through the woods. We waited in line for maybe 15 minutes. As we waited in line, this guy with a scary mask and a chainsaw would sneak around and get right behind you and suddenly fire up his chain saw and scare the hell out people. I have to give this guy credit, he was good at sneaking up behind people. He would wait until people would start talking to each other and sneak up behind them. This made the wait seem a lot less as everybody got a kick out of watching this guy scare groups of people. It was very funny.
The Haunted Forest had some neat features like a laser tunnel that you walk through and as you walk through, faces would appear in an out of the laser walls. They also had what I call a spinning dryer. It's basically a big metal pipe with holes cut in it and light shoots through the holes. As you walk through the spinning dryer, it disorientates you and you feel dizzy and you start to lean to the sides. It was a neat trick on your senses. The air blast at some spots didn't really scare me but made some girls let out a shriek. They had actors with mask on along the trail that would come out and surprise you. When you first start the walk, you enter a trailer where they have scary scenes and then a scary doctor that comes out and does a little routine. This is actually a way for them to separate people into groups. The doctor was probably the worst part of the trail. It just wasn't scary and the doctor didn't really do anything, but fortunately, it was brief and we moved on to the trail outside. The insane girl in the strait jacket in the trailer was actually pretty creepy though.
The overall atmosphere at Pope's Farm was awesome as we spent a little over 2 hours there total. They had some great looking Pope's Farm Halloween t-shirts for sale along with some other Halloween souvenirs. I actually bought two t-shirts and a skull flashlight for my kids. It was a beautiful evening and the layout at Pope's Farm is very inviting and you feel like you could just hang out there all night. They also had some hay bales set up behind the souvenir tent for small kids who might get too scared for the rides. Pope's Farm is a little out of the way, but worth the drive and worth the pay. You will have a really good time with friends and the Haunted experience is great!
Disturbia Haunted House (Huntsville, AL.)
Scare Rating: (3 out of 5) Overall Experience: (3 out of 5)
http://www.disturbiahauntedhouse.com/
OVERALL RATING = 16.5 out of 25
Scare Rating: 3
Overall Experience: 3
Costumes & Make-up: 4
Decorations & Special Effects: 4
Bang for Your Buck: 2.5 (12 min. @ $20.00)
Disturbia takes place in what use to be a supermarket which they have converted into Disturbia Haunted House. Disturbia is owned by the man who was involved in Greystone Manor Haunted House, which is now called Arx Mortis, in Killen, AL.
Tickets were $20 and there was a long wait of about 45 minutes to one hour. I think we actually waited one hour. That one hour was made bearable however by watching a Halloween Rock Band called The Cornstalkers. The Cornstalkers were awesome. They play mostly classic rock songs with a Halloween tone to them. They are comprised of a Bass player, Drummer and Keyboard player. The keyboards give every song a spooky atmosphere and the Bass player is very good at playing bass and he mingles with the waiting crowds also. It was really cool seeing these guys and it made the wait bearable because you kept wanting to hear what song they played next. They played songs like Metallica's "Enter Sandman", AC/DC's "Back in Black", Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" etc... The Cornstalkers were an awesome treat!
Now, I have to be fair about Disturbia. This was their first year in existence and i know the owner had a lot of trouble with the City of Huntsville and all the paperwork to get this Haunted House up and going. It left him with very little time to get everything done the way he wanted to. It is obvious that they have spent a large amount of money on animatronics. They had some of the best animatronics I have seen anywhere. Really cool stuff. Some of it scary and some of it was not scary but more cool.
My criticisms of Disturbia is that it was way too short (took me only about 10-12 minutes to go through) and the ending was anti-climatic. I went with an old friend of mine from high school, Lee Cox, and I think we were both kind of "blah" about it after it was over. The ending had you going down a hallway where there was an exit sign at the end. The last scare scene before you get to this hallway was not very scary and then all of sudden you start walking down this hallway and you see the exit sign. I was thinking, "That’s it?" You kept thinking that they would give you one more good scare somewhere down this hallway but it didn't happen. Once you walk through that door, you are back in the parking lot. It really was just anti-climatic and to be honest, i felt like the $20 we paid was too much for what we got out of it, although, seeing the Cornstalkers almost made it worth the $20.
They did have souvenir t-shirts etc.. and concessions. I didn't buy a t-shirt because they were $20 I think and the experience just wasn't enough for me to buy a t-shirt.
The actors are all paid actors and they actually did a great job. There were some really cool costumes and make up jobs. They did fairly well at scaring you. I just think there needs to be more of the human scare element to the overall experience. The props and animatronics were all first class. There were some really cool and authentic looking scenes along the way, but I think there just weren't enough actors within some of the scenes. There were many times you waited for someone to jump out of something and it just wouldn't happen. With another year, I have no doubt that Disturbia will grow and become a first class Haunted House. The foundation is there for Disturbia, it just needs some tweaking.
I will say this though. The owner of Disturbia did say that he was glad to be open this year but that next year (2011) would really be the year to come. He has big plans for next year. It is unfortunate that he didn't have enough time to get this thing where it should be this year. Disturbia was a much talked about Haunted House, being the new kid on the block for the Huntsville area. and they did a lot of advertising. Disturbia has a big name to it and the owner wants to make it live up to all the hype. I personally think Disturbia will rebound from this year and I think everybody who wasn't happy with it this year, ought to come back next year and give it another shot. I think Disturbia will do extremely well next year. If you know the owner, you know he has high expectations and I think Disturbia will be a huge hit. I definitely plan on going again next year.
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