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 Children!
1 ..... Don't walk, RUN back to the ticket boothto get your money back!
Scare Rating: (2.5 out of 5) Overall Experience: (3 out of 5)
http://www.creepyhollowwoods.com
OVERALL RATING = 15.5 out of 25
Scare Rating: 2.5
Overall Experience: 3
Costumes & Make-up: 2.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 2.5
Bang for Your Buck: 5 (46 min. @ $20.00)
Rated #7 Best Haunted Attraction in Tennessee by Hauntworld.com
9-28-12 (Friday, 7:00pm) ... I went to this with some friends from work, Randell Brannan, Darren Allen, Jennifer Golway & Laura Jo Rogers. I had a strong line-up of Haunted Attractions to visit this year and I knew that this one would be perhaps the weakest one on my list this year. It was rated the 7th best Haunted Attraction in the State of Tennessee and that’s pretty far down the list, but I had to check it out and see what they had to offer.
Scare Rating: Creepy Hollow has 4 different attractions, Haunted Woods, Haunted Barn, Merciless Maze and a Headless Horseman Hay Ride. There isn’t much to the Maze or the Hay Ride, so in fairness, I based my scare rating on the two main events, the Haunted Woods & Haunted Barn. The Haunted Barn was the best attraction they had and it maybe would deserve a 3 pumpkin scare rating while the Haunted Woods would get a 2 scare rating. Together, they get a 2.5 scare rating.
The Haunted Barn was short at only 13 minutes, but it was the best that Creepy Hollow had to offer. They had very few animatronics and relied mostly on human scare tactics. When you first enter the Haunted Barn, you sit down on a bench in front of a desk where a fortune teller tells you the story of Creepy Hollow and warns you of your impending doom. You sit right in front of this desk and as she finishes her story, the desk top springs open and a creature pops out at you. This was highly unexpected and did scare all of us. It really made you jump.
Then you are lead to the haunted part of the barn. They did a pretty good job at decorating the barn and the actors did a pretty good job at scaring you. It’s not super scary and they probably could have used more actors throughout, but as our first attraction at Creepy Hollow, it was a good start that had you thinking that Creepy Hollow might live up to its billing. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there.
The Haunted Woods came next. It took 17 minutes to go through the Haunted Woods. For what they had in the woods, it should have been shortened. Don’t get me wrong, I like a nice walk through the woods, but when you are paying to be scared, you expect more than what they offered. There were long gaps in between scenes or scare moments. At times, I would walk a long way before anything would happen and there were really only a couple of scare moments that really scared us in the group. Most of the scare moments were tame and the actors didn’t do a very good job with timing or pursuing you to get the scare. It was a dimly lit trail and occasionally, they had these spotlights facing you, which would cause you to temporarily lose your night vision and some of the actors would jump out at you from behind the light, where you couldn’t see them. This worked pretty effectively and was a good tactic but it wasn’t a major scare and other than a chainsaw moment was about the only scary moments on the trail.
I would say at least half the actors on the Haunted Woods trail, I could see them before we got to them which really killed the potential scare. They had a cave called Clayton’s Cave which was a neat idea and it would narrow as you walk through to the point where you had to crouch down as you left the cave. It was not an actual cave, just one built for the attraction. There were no actors in the cave to scare you, so it wasn’t really scary. Then they had two walls that you walk through that narrow at the top. It did have an actor but he was standing in the light. We all saw him 75 feet before we got to the walls, so it killed that scare moment. He was actually standing at the end of the walls looking down the trail. We obviously saw him way before he saw us. New for 2012 was a school bus that looked abandoned. You walk through the bus and exit the back of the bus. There was an actor that tried to scare you before you entered the bus, but I actually saw him before he scared us, so it didn’t have the effect that it should have. The actors really need to learn to hide better and stop moving around, it makes it easy to see them. The bus had only one actor inside the bus who jumped at you as you walked by and then he would race to the back and open the exit door to let you out. All 3 of these props were good ideas but lacked any real scare moments and didn’t have enough actors to make them scary.
The Merciless Maze was not scary at all and actually was more of a nuisance than anything. It took us 8 minutes to go through the maze but half of that time was spent trying to get out of the maze. It was a very short maze and the exit had been done with a false wall. My group had searched every pathway and could not find a way out. After about 3 tries of finding the exit, another group had caught up to us and tried to find their way out. They couldn’t find it either. So, after about 4 or 5 tries, we finally had to ask the only actor in the maze, a clown that jumped out at you at the beginning of the maze. I asked him if he could tell us how to get out and he said that he had more groups coming. I said, “well, you gotta show us how to get out of here, because we had looked 5 or 6 times and couldn’t find it.” He finally revealed that the exit was a false wall and showed us the general direction it was in. We finally found it and got out. Without the confusion of getting out, it would only take maybe 3 or 4 minutes to go through the maze and the scare factor would be maybe half a pumpkin. Not scary at all.
The last attraction we did was the Headless Horseman Hay Ride. Now, I really enjoy hay rides, especially on a cool fall evening. We had to pay an extra $5.00 for this attraction. If you like hay rides, then you may say that it was worth the $5.00 but not because of the Headless Horseman. There were no other scare moments and no additional actors to the hay ride other than the Headless Horseman. They pull a trailer with a tractor that takes you into a wooded area and then to a pasture area. Just a nice little hay ride and then the headless horseman comes galloping up to the trailer on a real horse. This is a real actor on a real horse. He circles the trailer about 3 times saying that he will have our heads. Then he takes off ahead of the tractor. Suddenly the tractor driver kills the engine and says “I’m outta here” and walks off into the woods. The Headless Horseman can’t find the tractor driver so then he picks out someone on the trailer. In our case, it was my friend Jennifer. He says he will have her head instead. He talks for a moment and then gallops off into the darkness. The driver re-appears and continues driving us back to the beginning point. The hay ride is then over. It was about a 13 minute hay ride. There was nothing really scary about the hay ride at all. None of the passengers even let out a mild scream. It was not scary at all. I felt like they should have had more actors scaring you along the way that would lead up to the Headless Horseman. It was just a 13 minute ride with about 5 minutes of the Headless Horseman. It was a pretty lame ending.
If I factored in the Maze and the Hay Ride to the scare rating, it would probably knock the overall scare rating down to a 1.5 pumpkin rating. Just look at the Maze & Hay Ride as being a couple of extra things to do while you are there but don’t expect them to be part of your scare experience. Of course, you can save $5.00 and choose not to do the Hay Ride, unless you just really enjoy Hay Rides.
Overall Experience: It cost $15.00 for admission to Creepy Hollow and that includes the Haunted Barn, Haunted Woods and Merciless Maze. You can pay $20.00 and get the Headless Horseman Hay Ride ($5.00 extra charge). We arrived at 7:00pm and had to wait an hour before we could buy tickets. Once we had our tickets, we went straight in with no wait. Now, in fairness, this was opening night for Creepy Hollow and I know sometimes opening nights are a bit hectic. They were definitely not organized completely and this was the reason for the hour long wait. We were the only customers there until about 7:45 and by 8:00, there were about 20-25 people there to buy tickets. We were first in line because we got there at 7:00pm.
This is a family owned 200 acre farm. Sometimes when you go to these types of Haunted Attractions (family owned farms) they aren’t always the most professional but they usually offer up a nice experience. The staff was really nice; very friendly and appreciative. Even though it wasn’t high on the list as scariest haunts, it was a nice experience. I enjoyed being with my friends and being out in the country air on a pleasant fall evening.
At the entrance where you buy your tickets, they had a bonfire pit with a nice fire going that had benches to sit on around the fire. This was a nice feature and I’m sure will really be appreciated when the nights get even colder as we head closer to Halloween. An actor dressed up like Friday the 13th’s, Jason Voorhees, interacted with us around the fire while we waited. Basically, he tried to creep us out.
They also had a concession stand where a husband and wife sold drinks and things like candied apples. The husband actually grows his own peaches that they sold for $1.00 each. These were the best peaches; large and perfectly ripe peaches. The man asked me to smell one of the peaches and I did and it had the best peach smell. I had to buy one and man was it good. I should have bought more from him. They also sold some glow necklaces and other food items but nothing cooked. The prices were very reasonable. I got a 12 ounce Mountain Dew and a large Peach for $2.00. They had some pretty cool t-shirts but I didn’t see any of them for sale.
If you’ve been thinking of going to Creepy Hollow, I would say this. Don’t go if you are looking to be scared. If you just want to have some fun and maybe get some friends together and just have a nice experience or if you don’t like to be scared too much, then it would be a great place to go and enjoy the evening with a mild scare. Creepy Hollow definitely needs more actors to fill the dead spots. It’s a low budget Halloween Attraction. The owners seem like really nice people and they are very hospitable, just don’t go expecting that they will scare the pants off of you. At about 46 minutes of attraction for $20, the price is great; you just don’t get a lot of bang for your buck within those 46 minutes.
Atrox Factory (Birmingham / Leeds, AL.)
Scare Rating: (4.5 out of 5) Overall Experience: (4 out of 5)
http://www.atroxfactory.com
OVERALL RATING = 21.25 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.5
Overall Experience: 4
Costumes & Make-up: 4.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 4.5
Bang for Your Buck: 3.5 (15 min. @ $18.00)
Rated #2 Best Haunted Attraction in Alabama by Hauntworld.com
Rated #21 Best Haunts in the Country by Hauntworld.com
10-4-12 (Thursday, 7:10pm) ... I went to Atrox Factory with friends Randell Brannan, Jennifer Golway, Jennifer's daughter Callie and Callie's friend Tara. We had a great time at Atrox Factory and it was easy to see why Atrox is rated #2 in the State of Alabama.
Scare Rating: One of the attendents at the Atrox Emporium, where they sell T-shirts, asked my friend Jennifer what the scariest part was after we went through the haunted factory. Jennifer said it was hard to say because there were so many and that's exactly how I felt. This is one of the best haunted attractions i've visited.
It took 15 minutes to go through the haunted factory but it was an action packed 15 minutes. Where sometimes even the best haunts have a few dud scenes, I can't say that there was one dud scene. From the time you enter the factory where they bring your group into a waiting room and an actor menaces you by invading your personal space and sniffing at your face to the very ending, Atrox is full of "every second" scare moments.
The actors throughout the factory were very aggressive at scaring you and really pursued scare moments at all times. The make-up and costumes were very good and these monsters actually will touch you! Now, I know that the majority of haunts have a "No Touching" rule for the actors, but I'll be honest, I hate that. I want the actors to reach out and grab my leg or tap me on the shoulder or spray me with water or tug on my shirt. This is only the second attraction i have been to where the actors do touch you. I love it! I hope that Atrox continues to do this. As long as the actors aren't touching or grabbing in a way that could cause a person to fall or be injured in any kind of way, I don't see a problem.
The decorations of the factory were awesome and really had a haunted factory feel. Even scenes that you have seen before at other attractions were done very well at Atrox. Strobe lighting was well thought out and used in a very effective way that actually aided the scare moments the way strobe lighting should be done. While Atrox does have animatronics, they were not overdone and were used in a very effective way. I still think one of the biggest mistakes that some attarctions make is using too many animatronics or not using them effectively. Atrox uses a lot of actors throughout the factory and this created a constant scare at every turn. They did a great job at diverting your attention while getting you from the back side.
They had what I call the spinning dryer. You've seen these at a lot of haunted attractions. It's basically a catwalk that has a large pipe spinning around the catwalk which disorientates you and makes it hard to walk straight. Unlike most spinning dryers, at Atrox there are two actors that join you on the narrow catwalk making it even more difficult to focus on walking staright and getting through the spinning dryer. They also had the closterphobic air bladders that you have to divide with your hands to get through. There were probably 3 long ones and a couple of shorter ones. I was in the front of our group and as I plowed the path through one of these, right before i reach the end, an actor reached his hand in at me and it really startled me. I wasn't expecting a hand to grab me.
They also had a really cool green laser that shown through fog filled corridores to where you couldn't see anything from about 3 feet below and actors would grab your legs and pop out at you. Right before this, you were lead to the laser scene by two actors dressed in swat team apparel that made it seem like you were in the taking down of public enemy #1 as they ushered you through smoke filled corridores. I had not seen that before and it was actually really cool and I thought it was creative.
All the members of my party got the scare of their life not to mention a nice damping down from several spots where water drips down on you from above. I loved the interaction! This made Atrox one of my favorite haunts.
Atrox is full of unexpected moments that will get you jumping. Just when you thought you knew what was coming next, you were wrong! I can't say enough about how creative the attraction is and how well the actors did their job of scaring the crap out of you. I don't want to give away all that Atrox has to offer, but there were many other scenes that were very creative that I had not seen done before.
My only criticism would be to make the Haunted Factory an 18-20 minute haunt instead of 15 minutes. At 15 minutes, it is a little short but I will say this, it is 15 minutes packed full of scaring the pants off of you!
Overall Experience: We decided to go on a Thursday night instead of our usual Friday night because the Atrox website said to expect long waits in line. After my experience at Arx Mortis last year (see 2011 HAUNTED ATTRACTION CRITIQUE), I didn't want to wait in line for a long period especially since we drove an hour and a half to get to Atrox. From the time we got in line to get our tickets to when we actually entered the haunted factory, only 27 minutes had passed. When you pay for your ticket, they give you a token with a name on it. Ours said "Bloody" and the one before us was "Guts". They do this so you don't have to wait in line the whole time. You just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere and when they call your token name, then you get in line.
Atrox has an ATM machine, they sell glow sticks and other glow items, they have a Papa John's Pizza booth, a concession stand that sells basics like drinks, popcorn, nachos etc... and at a very reasonable price. They have the Atrox Emporium where they sell t-shirts and have vintage horror items to look at while you wait. They also have port-o-lets set up outside in a courtyard like area. They have a big screen theater area where on this night, they were showing Jeepers Creepers, one of my favorite scary movies. They also had a cool big screen TV that you stand in front of and it shows you on the screen and then morphs your face into a zombie. This was really cool and i had not seen this before, so if you want to know what you would look like as a zombie, go to Atrox and your curiosity will be satisfied.
The atmosphere while you wait is great and well decorated. It's dimly lit and while it is meant to set the mood, it is actually a very comfortable space while you wait to enter the haunt.
My only criticism? I would love to see them have some actors interacting with people waiting and the port-o-let area is a perfect place to have some well hidden monsters popping out at you. My friend Jennifer's daughter and her friend were scared to even go to the port-o-lets, because that area looks creepy and just looks like something could be waiting for you. Inside, some actors could definately stir things up and set the mood for what will come when they enter the haunt.
We absolutely had a blast at Atrox. One of our group, Tara, was so scared and pulled on the back of my shirt so much, she about choked me to death! If the fake meat cleavers and knives had been real, then my friend Randell would look like a skinned cat coming out of this attraction. He had a few meat cleavers up his back side this night! Callie and her mom, Jennifer, supplied all the screams that you would care to hear ... and there were many! I'm sure that dogs on the other side of Jefferson County were probably barking from the high pitched screams of the Golway girls!
At $18.00, Atrox is a great bargain. They have really cool t-shirts that are a great deal at just $10.00. I bought 2 t-shirts and a glow bracelet for my kids back home. Everyting is very reasonably priced. I'm sure Friday & Saturday nights will have longer waits in line, but Atrox Factory is worth the wait. Atrox Factory is a must see!
Scare Rating: (4.5 out of 5) Overall Experience: (4 out of 5)
http://www.atroxfactory.com
OVERALL RATING = 21.25 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.5
Overall Experience: 4
Costumes & Make-up: 4.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 4.5
Bang for Your Buck: 3.5 (15 min. @ $18.00)
Rated #2 Best Haunted Attraction in Alabama by Hauntworld.com
Rated #21 Best Haunts in the Country by Hauntworld.com
10-4-12 (Thursday, 7:10pm) ... I went to Atrox Factory with friends Randell Brannan, Jennifer Golway, Jennifer's daughter Callie and Callie's friend Tara. We had a great time at Atrox Factory and it was easy to see why Atrox is rated #2 in the State of Alabama.
Scare Rating: One of the attendents at the Atrox Emporium, where they sell T-shirts, asked my friend Jennifer what the scariest part was after we went through the haunted factory. Jennifer said it was hard to say because there were so many and that's exactly how I felt. This is one of the best haunted attractions i've visited.
It took 15 minutes to go through the haunted factory but it was an action packed 15 minutes. Where sometimes even the best haunts have a few dud scenes, I can't say that there was one dud scene. From the time you enter the factory where they bring your group into a waiting room and an actor menaces you by invading your personal space and sniffing at your face to the very ending, Atrox is full of "every second" scare moments.
The actors throughout the factory were very aggressive at scaring you and really pursued scare moments at all times. The make-up and costumes were very good and these monsters actually will touch you! Now, I know that the majority of haunts have a "No Touching" rule for the actors, but I'll be honest, I hate that. I want the actors to reach out and grab my leg or tap me on the shoulder or spray me with water or tug on my shirt. This is only the second attraction i have been to where the actors do touch you. I love it! I hope that Atrox continues to do this. As long as the actors aren't touching or grabbing in a way that could cause a person to fall or be injured in any kind of way, I don't see a problem.
The decorations of the factory were awesome and really had a haunted factory feel. Even scenes that you have seen before at other attractions were done very well at Atrox. Strobe lighting was well thought out and used in a very effective way that actually aided the scare moments the way strobe lighting should be done. While Atrox does have animatronics, they were not overdone and were used in a very effective way. I still think one of the biggest mistakes that some attarctions make is using too many animatronics or not using them effectively. Atrox uses a lot of actors throughout the factory and this created a constant scare at every turn. They did a great job at diverting your attention while getting you from the back side.
They had what I call the spinning dryer. You've seen these at a lot of haunted attractions. It's basically a catwalk that has a large pipe spinning around the catwalk which disorientates you and makes it hard to walk straight. Unlike most spinning dryers, at Atrox there are two actors that join you on the narrow catwalk making it even more difficult to focus on walking staright and getting through the spinning dryer. They also had the closterphobic air bladders that you have to divide with your hands to get through. There were probably 3 long ones and a couple of shorter ones. I was in the front of our group and as I plowed the path through one of these, right before i reach the end, an actor reached his hand in at me and it really startled me. I wasn't expecting a hand to grab me.
They also had a really cool green laser that shown through fog filled corridores to where you couldn't see anything from about 3 feet below and actors would grab your legs and pop out at you. Right before this, you were lead to the laser scene by two actors dressed in swat team apparel that made it seem like you were in the taking down of public enemy #1 as they ushered you through smoke filled corridores. I had not seen that before and it was actually really cool and I thought it was creative.
All the members of my party got the scare of their life not to mention a nice damping down from several spots where water drips down on you from above. I loved the interaction! This made Atrox one of my favorite haunts.
Atrox is full of unexpected moments that will get you jumping. Just when you thought you knew what was coming next, you were wrong! I can't say enough about how creative the attraction is and how well the actors did their job of scaring the crap out of you. I don't want to give away all that Atrox has to offer, but there were many other scenes that were very creative that I had not seen done before.
My only criticism would be to make the Haunted Factory an 18-20 minute haunt instead of 15 minutes. At 15 minutes, it is a little short but I will say this, it is 15 minutes packed full of scaring the pants off of you!
Overall Experience: We decided to go on a Thursday night instead of our usual Friday night because the Atrox website said to expect long waits in line. After my experience at Arx Mortis last year (see 2011 HAUNTED ATTRACTION CRITIQUE), I didn't want to wait in line for a long period especially since we drove an hour and a half to get to Atrox. From the time we got in line to get our tickets to when we actually entered the haunted factory, only 27 minutes had passed. When you pay for your ticket, they give you a token with a name on it. Ours said "Bloody" and the one before us was "Guts". They do this so you don't have to wait in line the whole time. You just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere and when they call your token name, then you get in line.
Atrox has an ATM machine, they sell glow sticks and other glow items, they have a Papa John's Pizza booth, a concession stand that sells basics like drinks, popcorn, nachos etc... and at a very reasonable price. They have the Atrox Emporium where they sell t-shirts and have vintage horror items to look at while you wait. They also have port-o-lets set up outside in a courtyard like area. They have a big screen theater area where on this night, they were showing Jeepers Creepers, one of my favorite scary movies. They also had a cool big screen TV that you stand in front of and it shows you on the screen and then morphs your face into a zombie. This was really cool and i had not seen this before, so if you want to know what you would look like as a zombie, go to Atrox and your curiosity will be satisfied.
The atmosphere while you wait is great and well decorated. It's dimly lit and while it is meant to set the mood, it is actually a very comfortable space while you wait to enter the haunt.
My only criticism? I would love to see them have some actors interacting with people waiting and the port-o-let area is a perfect place to have some well hidden monsters popping out at you. My friend Jennifer's daughter and her friend were scared to even go to the port-o-lets, because that area looks creepy and just looks like something could be waiting for you. Inside, some actors could definately stir things up and set the mood for what will come when they enter the haunt.
We absolutely had a blast at Atrox. One of our group, Tara, was so scared and pulled on the back of my shirt so much, she about choked me to death! If the fake meat cleavers and knives had been real, then my friend Randell would look like a skinned cat coming out of this attraction. He had a few meat cleavers up his back side this night! Callie and her mom, Jennifer, supplied all the screams that you would care to hear ... and there were many! I'm sure that dogs on the other side of Jefferson County were probably barking from the high pitched screams of the Golway girls!
At $18.00, Atrox is a great bargain. They have really cool t-shirts that are a great deal at just $10.00. I bought 2 t-shirts and a glow bracelet for my kids back home. Everyting is very reasonably priced. I'm sure Friday & Saturday nights will have longer waits in line, but Atrox Factory is worth the wait. Atrox Factory is a must see!
Netherworld Haunted House (Atlanta / Norcross, Ga.)
Scare Rating: (4.25 out of 5) Overall Experience: (5 out of 5)
http://www.fearworld.com
OVERALL RATING = 22.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.25
Overall Experience: 5
Costumes & Make-up: 5
Decorations & Special Effects: 5
Bang for Your Buck: 3.5 (28 min. @ $30.00)
OVERALL RATING = 22.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.25
Overall Experience: 5
Costumes & Make-up: 5
Decorations & Special Effects: 5
Bang for Your Buck: 3.5 (28 min. @ $30.00)
Rated #1 Best Haunted Attraction in Georgia by Hauntworld.com
Rated #2 Best Haunts in the Country by Hauntworld.com
Rated #3 Best Haunts in the Country by TopHaunts.com
Rated #2 Best Haunts in the Country by Hauntworld.com
Rated #3 Best Haunts in the Country by TopHaunts.com
10-12-12 (Friday, 7:25pm) ... I went to Netherworld with friend Janice McClellan, her husband Chad and their son and son's girlfriend. It was a good 4 hour drive for us to get to Hotlanta, but Netherworld made the long drive worth the trip. I have been wanting to visit Netherworld for a while now and I finally got my wish! Netherworld did not disappoint!
Scare Rating: I have to start off by saying that this one was a hard one to rate. As far as a Scare Rating is concerned, I would say that Netherworld is in the same category as Atrox Factory (see above) and Disturbia Haunted House that I will be visiting next week but I have been to Disturbia the last two years. I gave Atrox a 4.5 Scare Rating and i would say that Netherworld is slightly less scary than Atrox but a just a touch scarier than Disturbia in 2011, which I gave a 4 Scare Rating. So, I gave Netherworld a 4.25 Scare Rating. Let me explain why it was hard to rate.
Netherworld has the best Animatronics that I have seen by far and I believe you would be hard pressed to find any better in the country. Their animatronics are simply awesome. Top notch, first rate amazing animatronics. They also have these incredible, what I call, manual animatronics. These are actually live actors that operate animatronic-like objects. Normally, when you see an animatronic monster, it will come at you but you know that it will stop at a point and it's mechanical, so you know it will stop and reset. These live actor ones at Netherworld are different. You first see it coming towards you and it looks like an animatronic but instead of stopping, it keeps coming at you and actually sometimes touches you or comes very close to touching you. It kind of freaks you out and then you see that an actual person is controlling this mechanism. One was a giant hand that was about 8 feet long and had moving fingers. This hand would come out at you as you walked by and just when you thought it would stop (thinking it was an animatronic), it would continue and actually try and grab you. This giant hand grabbed a girl in front of me and started pulling her in as her friend grabbed her hands and tried to pull her away. It was funny and the giant hand was really cool. They had several of these live actor controlled animatronic-like monsters throughout. All of them were really cool looking and added to the overall scare element.
Netherworld has two attractions, Banshee and The Hive. Banshee is the main attraction. For my Scare Rating, I am only rating Banshee at a 4.25, The Hive would be rated a 2.5 Scare Rating by itself. It took 20 minutes to go through banshee and only 8 minutes to go through The Hive.
In Banshee, while the animatronics were world class, the actors have some of the best costumes and make-up I imagine you will find anywhere. Netherworld has a story to it and the costumes are very original and have movie quality detail. These are simply the best costumes and make-up you will probably ever see in a haunted house. There are no Jasons, Michael Meyers, Freddie Krugers etc.. these are all original.
The actors are very good at what they do, however, if I have any criticism that pretains to the Scare Element, it would be with the human actors. I can tell these actors are very good and seem professional. I was a little surprised that they weren't more aggressive. Mainly the ones that walk around you or you encounter along the way. They didn't really lurch at you or invade your personal space much at all. They looked scary due to the incredible make-up and costumes, but it felt like they were holding back. They just didn't get in your face, so to speak.
Some of the actors were attached to bungi set-ups, where they would lurch at you from above or to the side of you. This was done several times through the haunt and it always caught you off-guard. These actors did a really good job at surprising you. Some of the animatronics also lurched at you from different angles, so sometimes you would think it was an animatronic before realizing it was a live actor. I thought these effects were really well done and the actors did a great job.
They had the longest spinning Vortex tunnel i have seen yet. It was much longer than what you usually see and it was very effective at messing up your balance. They also have another version of the spinning vortex with a kind of oscillating vortex that looked like you were walking through arch-ways and arms and body parts were sticking out at you as you walked by. It was pretty cool looking and was something different that I had not seen before.
They had two laser light rooms that were really well done. One in particular was pretty cool where just below the laser level, they had air bladders that you had to walk through and it gave the effect of walking through water and a creature would pop out at you.
The hive really was not that scary but like Banshee, had some really cool effects. The Hive is based on an experiemental labratory that specialized in insect DNA experiements. Once again, the effects and decorations were first class. The Hive really isn't meant as much to scare you as it is to play on your phobias and fears of insects and human experiements with insect DNA. It's creepy but not really scary.
Netherworld is the first haunted house that I have seen where I have to give some points towards the scare rating for the animatronics. Normally, i don't include animatronics into the scare rating because typically, animatronics don't scare you. They are more of an enhancement and the live actors are the real scare. At Netherworld, i have to say that the animatronics are so well done that they are a big part of the scare element. Netherworld has a ton of animatronics and at any other haunted house, having that many would be perceived as overdoing it, but at Netherworld, it was such a part of the fabric of the haunt itself, that it didn't seem overdone and was actually a big part of the scare element.
Simply put, Netherworld will scare you and you will see the best animatronics, costumes and make-up anywhere, but I would like to see the live actors be more aggressive and really try and extract bodily fluids out of the NETHER-REGIONS of the Netherworld customers.
Overall Experience: You will have a blast at Netherworld! It gets my first "5" rating for overall experience to date. It is well worth the $30 for admission. Banshee is $25 and The Hive is $5 for a total of $30 to do both.
Just about all the things you expect and want to see at a haunted attraction, you will get at Netherworld. There was no Halloween rock band the night I went but they have creepy music playing in the parking lot as you wait and i did not see any concessions other than they did sell drinks out of the gift shop. Other than that, they meet every demand.
First off, do you hate waiting in long lines? Not to worry, our wait was only 37 minutes to get into Banshee and this was a friday night at 7:25pm in Hotlanta! I was very surprised that the wait was only 37 minutes. Actually, I was shocked! There were a lot of people there but they move the line along very well. Now, because of this, you do tend to catch up to the group that was let in before you or the group beind you catches up to your group, but actually, i don't mind that. The more the merrier! It took us 20 minutes to go through Banshee.
The wait in line for The Hive was only 10 minutes. The Hive only took 8 minutes to go through. So, you are looking at 28 minutes of attractions for your $30. Not bad!
Just about all the things you expect and want to see at a haunted attraction, you will get at Netherworld. There was no Halloween rock band the night I went but they have creepy music playing in the parking lot as you wait and i did not see any concessions other than they did sell drinks out of the gift shop. Other than that, they meet every demand.
First off, do you hate waiting in long lines? Not to worry, our wait was only 37 minutes to get into Banshee and this was a friday night at 7:25pm in Hotlanta! I was very surprised that the wait was only 37 minutes. Actually, I was shocked! There were a lot of people there but they move the line along very well. Now, because of this, you do tend to catch up to the group that was let in before you or the group beind you catches up to your group, but actually, i don't mind that. The more the merrier! It took us 20 minutes to go through Banshee.
The wait in line for The Hive was only 10 minutes. The Hive only took 8 minutes to go through. So, you are looking at 28 minutes of attractions for your $30. Not bad!
The decorating job in both attractions is first class. This has to be the best decorated attraction I have seen. The detail of the decorations inside these attractions are incredible and you really feel like you have entered "Netherworld". A world somewhere other than here. All these monsters you see, you have entered their domain. Even things that are fake, look real. I just can't say enough about how authentic and realistic the insides of these attractions look.
The atmosphere at Netherworld is like the Disneyland of Haunted Attractions. There are Netherworld original costumed monsters of all sorts all over the parking lot scaring the hell out of people waiting in line or walking about. Some monsters will come skidding along on their knees (wearing knee gaurds) and sparks coming from their hands as they race past you. There are so many of these actors around, they could pop up behind you or in front of you at any second. Just about anywhere you are, there is one somewhere around you. While they will try and creep you out or scare you to death, they also allow you to take pictures of them or you and your group with them. It's all in good fun and I loved this aspect. So many haunted attractions don't do this and I always wonder why. It adds so much to the overall experience of your customers and may be what brings them back. Netherworld has got this down and they do an excellent job at entertaining you and really give you an experience you will remember.
All of these gothic-like Netherworld monsters are very good at what they do and you will see some of the best costumes you have ever seen. You feel very comfortable just walking around and watching people get scared and taking in the experience. You feel like you are at an "event" more than just at a haunted attraction.
Netherworld has the best gift shop I have seen to date. They offer all kinds of souvenirs. They have really nice t-shirts and a wide variety of different kinds of t-shirts. They sell stickers, skulls, skull keychains, halloween objects, pumkin candle holders, skeleton gloves, drinks, posters and they even have a Netherworld "Spirits of the Dead" CD that has scary music conducted exclusively for Netherworld. They have a ton of other merchandise available also but there are just too many to list here. Some items are a little pricey while others are very reasonable. I was actually surprised that everything wasn't more expensive.
I bought a cool looking t-shirt for my kids that has Banshee on the front side and The Hive on the back for $15.99, i bought the Netherworld CD for $10.00 and 3 large stickers for the kids for $6.00 ($2 each). I have listened to the CD by the way and it is really good! It would be a great CD to play at Halloween or for a party where you want creepy music. The attendent told me they actually play the CD at Netherworld.
They do have restrooms in the form of Port-o-lets and they also have a prop set up in the parking lot that is an electric chair that you can sit in and have your picture taken. It actually moves and has electrical popping sounds. Take your camera because you will have many opportunities to have your picture taken with one of the many Netherworld Gothic monsters roaming around your every turn. They may scare you first, but they are very willing to accommodate you with a photo moment. Just don't take your camera into the attractions.
In conclusion, there isn't much that they haven't thought of at Netherworld. If you like going to Haunted Attractions, this is a must see if you find yourself in the Atlanta area in October. You and your friends will have a great time and you can say that you visited one of the top 3 (sometimes #1) rated haunted attractions in the country!
The atmosphere at Netherworld is like the Disneyland of Haunted Attractions. There are Netherworld original costumed monsters of all sorts all over the parking lot scaring the hell out of people waiting in line or walking about. Some monsters will come skidding along on their knees (wearing knee gaurds) and sparks coming from their hands as they race past you. There are so many of these actors around, they could pop up behind you or in front of you at any second. Just about anywhere you are, there is one somewhere around you. While they will try and creep you out or scare you to death, they also allow you to take pictures of them or you and your group with them. It's all in good fun and I loved this aspect. So many haunted attractions don't do this and I always wonder why. It adds so much to the overall experience of your customers and may be what brings them back. Netherworld has got this down and they do an excellent job at entertaining you and really give you an experience you will remember.
All of these gothic-like Netherworld monsters are very good at what they do and you will see some of the best costumes you have ever seen. You feel very comfortable just walking around and watching people get scared and taking in the experience. You feel like you are at an "event" more than just at a haunted attraction.
Netherworld has the best gift shop I have seen to date. They offer all kinds of souvenirs. They have really nice t-shirts and a wide variety of different kinds of t-shirts. They sell stickers, skulls, skull keychains, halloween objects, pumkin candle holders, skeleton gloves, drinks, posters and they even have a Netherworld "Spirits of the Dead" CD that has scary music conducted exclusively for Netherworld. They have a ton of other merchandise available also but there are just too many to list here. Some items are a little pricey while others are very reasonable. I was actually surprised that everything wasn't more expensive.
I bought a cool looking t-shirt for my kids that has Banshee on the front side and The Hive on the back for $15.99, i bought the Netherworld CD for $10.00 and 3 large stickers for the kids for $6.00 ($2 each). I have listened to the CD by the way and it is really good! It would be a great CD to play at Halloween or for a party where you want creepy music. The attendent told me they actually play the CD at Netherworld.
They do have restrooms in the form of Port-o-lets and they also have a prop set up in the parking lot that is an electric chair that you can sit in and have your picture taken. It actually moves and has electrical popping sounds. Take your camera because you will have many opportunities to have your picture taken with one of the many Netherworld Gothic monsters roaming around your every turn. They may scare you first, but they are very willing to accommodate you with a photo moment. Just don't take your camera into the attractions.
In conclusion, there isn't much that they haven't thought of at Netherworld. If you like going to Haunted Attractions, this is a must see if you find yourself in the Atlanta area in October. You and your friends will have a great time and you can say that you visited one of the top 3 (sometimes #1) rated haunted attractions in the country!
DISTURBIA HAUNTED HOUSE (Huntsville, AL.)
Scare Rating: (4.25 out of 5) Overall Experience: (5 out of 5)
http://www.disturbiahauntedhouse.com
OVERALL RATING = 22.25 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.25
Overall Experience: 5
Costumes & Make-up: 4.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 4.5
Bang for Your Buck: 4 (25 min. @ $22.00)
OVERALL RATING = 22.25 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.25
Overall Experience: 5
Costumes & Make-up: 4.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 4.5
Bang for Your Buck: 4 (25 min. @ $22.00)
Rated #1 Best Haunt in Alabama by Hauntworld.com
Rated #15 Best Haunts in the Country by Hauntworld.com
Rated #8 Best Haunts in the Country by TopHaunts.com
Rated #8 Best Haunts in the Country by TopHaunts.com
10-19-12 (Friday, 7:00pm) ... I went with a group of 7 people, including my wife, Gail, and some work friends, Randell Brannan, Darrin Allen, Jessica Jackson, Jennifer Golway and her daughter, Callie. On this night, Danielle Harris from Halloween 4&5, Hatchet and Rob Zombie's Halloween was signing autographs at Disturbia.
Scare Rating: I have been to Disturbia every year since it opened in 2010 and the owner, Shane Dabbs has grown Disturbia every year and the scare element has increased each year. Now, in it's 3rd year, Disturbia was bigger and better than ever. I would argue that Disturbia and Netherworld, which i visited last week, are neck and neck both in scare rating and overall experience.
Scare Rating: I have been to Disturbia every year since it opened in 2010 and the owner, Shane Dabbs has grown Disturbia every year and the scare element has increased each year. Now, in it's 3rd year, Disturbia was bigger and better than ever. I would argue that Disturbia and Netherworld, which i visited last week, are neck and neck both in scare rating and overall experience.
It took us 25 minutes to go through Disturbia making it one of the longest single haunted attractions that I have visited. Disturbia has added more scenes and more animatronics from last year and they will continue to add more in the future!
The actors always do a great job at scaring customers and they are good at pursuing a scare out of people. The make-up and costumes are superb as always and Disturbia has some of the best animatronics around.
They added a good number of animatronics this year and they did a great job at selecting the right animatronics. The single best animatronic I have seen yet is at Disturbia. It's actually what I call a manual animatronic, having a live actor operating the animatronic manualy instead of it just being automatic. I saw a bunch of these at Netherworld in Atlanta last week and while they had some really good ones and had more of them, Disturbia has my favorite one. It's a huge skeleton that lurches out at you with it's boney hands and just when you think it's done, it doesn't stop! It keeps coming at you and even when you leave it behind it reaches around the corner at you! If you are last in your group, watch out! It has great lighting with it and is just really the coolest one that i have seen.
They have added several scenes from last year and without giving too much away, if Funhouses and apes creep you out, then Disturbia will truly disturb you. There have been many new additions mixed in with some of the best elements from last year. Last year, one of the creepiest things was this actor dressed as a porcelin doll (see 2011 HAUNTED ATTRACTION CRITIQUE) and "She's Back!!!" Except this time, she screams at you!
The actors did a real good job acting like they were an animatronic and then jumping out at you. This happened several times. You would see them and you would have to really look at them to see if they were real or not and then they would jump at you scaring the hell out of people. There were several dummies that looked so real, i thought they had to be real. This made it difficult sometimes to tell what was real and what was just a dummy. Disturbia actors will pursue you to get the scare and will say things to you in character, which I like and they could do more of that and it would be even better. Some of the actors were very well hidden and you could not see them at all until they leaped out at you.
The decorations at Disturbia are really well done. Every room and hallway has incredible decorations and you can tell a lot of work has gone into making it look realistic. They have walls that cave in on you with body parts that touch you as you walk through and they also have a vortex tunnel that does a really great job at disorienting you as you try and walk a narrow catwalk.
The decorations at Disturbia are really well done. Every room and hallway has incredible decorations and you can tell a lot of work has gone into making it look realistic. They have walls that cave in on you with body parts that touch you as you walk through and they also have a vortex tunnel that does a really great job at disorienting you as you try and walk a narrow catwalk.
My constructive criticism would be a couple of items. One, I am glad that they have extended the haunt as it took us 25 minutes to go through but there were a couple of spots in the attarction where there was too much of a gap between scare elements. The Funhouse part is a great idea and had some scare element but i thought that it has a lot of room for a lot more than it actually had. When I think of Funhouse, in a haunted attraction context, I think of freak show, evil clowns etc... It's a chance to really have some freaky stuff, grotesque people and creatures, freaks of nature etc... I mean creep the customers out! Give them images in their head they will remember and dream about for the rest of their life. The funhouse is a fantastic idea, but i think Disturbia needs to add more to it.
Two, it seemed like they were a little thin on actors. I mentioned the gaps above and there were a couple of areas where you knew something was about to happen but then it wouldn't and it just seemed like they were a little thin on live actors. By adding more distance to the attraction, maybe this thinned out the live actors a little. I'm not sure but I believe if they would add some more live actors to fill in the gaps, it will help keep the flow consistent.
Disturbia does have some actors that interact with customers in the waiting lines and around the floor area, and while they do scare some people as you will hear an occassional scream, I would love to see them be more aggressive and really try and scare people. They just weren't very active in trying to scare customers. It's fun for waiting customers to see the actors sneaking up behind people or lurching at people. It amps the crowd up and adds to the scare experience. The parking lot at Disturbia is a perfect place for actors to scare customers before they even reach the building. They could easily scare customers as soon as they get out of their car!
As we went out the exit, a guy with a chainsaw came out of nowhere and chased Jennifer's daughter out the door and chased her for another 30 yards out into a grassy area. I don't think she knew she could run that fast! This was hilarious to watch and was a great ending!
As we went out the exit, a guy with a chainsaw came out of nowhere and chased Jennifer's daughter out the door and chased her for another 30 yards out into a grassy area. I don't think she knew she could run that fast! This was hilarious to watch and was a great ending!
Disturbia does a fantastic job at scaring you and you won't be disappointed.
Overall Experience: I have only given a 5 rating for overall experience to one other haunted attraction and that was last week's Netherworld Haunted House. Disturbia gets my second 5 rating and even though 5 is my highest rating, Disturbia would get a 5+ as I think overall, it's a better experience than Netherworld.
Do you want a Halloween Rock Band? Check! Want great concessions with unique items? Check! Want a really cool gift shop? Check! Want a Halloween store? Check! Want a game room? Check! Want special guests signing autographs? Check! Want a halloween themed ride? Check!
Disturbia's Halloween Rock Band, The Cornstalkers, are a really cool trio of scary looking scarecrow musicians playing hard rock Halloween themed music. Songs like Metallica's Enter Sandman, Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, AC/DC's Back in Black etc... They are really good musicians and i always love to see them. They play on friday and saturday nights and I always go to Disturbia when the Cornstalkers are there. I love those guys!
They have arguably the best concessions at Disturbia offering fried Oreo Cookies, fried candy bars, soft drinks, Nachos, large heavy battered corn dogs, popcorn, an assortment of candied apples and I can go on and on. They have some really neat food items that you just don't see anywhere else. The prices are slightly above average but the food is great quality. I purchased a heavy battered corn dog, mozzerella sticks for my wife and a 20 oz. coke for $10.50.
Disturbia has a good gift shop with a wide variety of t-shirts available. They range in price from $10 to $20. They also have some Halloween masks, key chains, stickers and many more items. Something new for this year is a Halloween store! This store is really cool and has a lot of great Halloween props, animatronics and a fantastic variety of Halloween masks. Some of the best masks you will find. Much better than what you will find at some of your other Halloween stores. They are a bit pricey but they are high quality. They also sell all kinds of fake teeth, Auburn and Alabama lighted pumpkins, pumpkin blinking necklaces, earrings and bracelets etc.. There is a lot to look at and the owner says he plans on opening a website to sell his items on the internet. Disturbia also has a grocery cart full of glow items from glow sticks to glow viking helmets that someone pushes around the floor area all during the evening.
Disturbia also has a game room area where they have about 10 different video games to play. They also had what looked like a bull riding ring but instead of a bull to ride, it was what looked like a giant spider. I did not ride this but if I had a few beers in me, I probably would have!
As I mentioned earlier, Danielle Harris from Halloween 4&5 and Rob Zombie's Halloween was there signing autographs. This is a neat feature to have and it was cool to see her there. Disturbia has many guests who sign autographs throughout the season and you can check out their website (www.disturbiahauntedhouse.com )to see who all will be there on which weekend. You will pay an extra $5.00 cover charge when a special guest is there in addition to the $22.00 charge for the haunted attraction itself, but you are getting 25 minutes of haunted attraction for $22.00 or $27.00 depending on what night you go, plus you get all the entertainment.
Our wait in line was 1 hour and 8 minutes, but they give you a token when you buy your tickets, so you aren't actually waiting in line that whole time. You can walk around and check out all that they have to do at Disturbia and when they call out your token color, then you get in line. Once we got in line, we waited about 35 minutes actually in line. We got there at 7:00pm and the earlier you can get there the less time you will wait in line.
As you can probably tell, Disturbia gives you plenty to do while you wait. Some haunted attractions are so good at this that you feel like you could just hang out for hours and Disturbia is one of those places. If you had time to kill, you could hang out at Disturbia for hours. It's just a really cool experience.
Disturbia is well deserving of it's 5 rating for overall experience. Grab your friends and head to Disturbia for a great time! I promise it will be well worth your $22.00. The owner, Shane Dabbs is one of the best around at providing not only a great scary Haunted Attraction, but also giving you a festival like atmosphere and providing a customer friendly experience. I have gone for the last 3 years and will definately be back next year to see what all disturbing ideas Shane Dabbs has pulled out of his demented brain! I truly believe he is disturbed!
THE TORTURE FACTORY (Hohenwald, Tn.)
Scare Rating: (3 out of 5) Overall Experience: (2.5 out of 5)
http://www.thetorturefactory.com
OVERALL RATING = 15.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: 3
Overall Experience: 2.5
Costumes & Make-up: 3.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 2.5
Bang for Your Buck: 4.25 (24 min. @ $20.00)
OVERALL RATING = 15.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: 3
Overall Experience: 2.5
Costumes & Make-up: 3.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 2.5
Bang for Your Buck: 4.25 (24 min. @ $20.00)
Rated #3 Best Haunted Attraction in Tennessee by Hauntworld.com
10-25-12 (Thursday, 8:30pm) ... I had to bite the bullet and go to this one by myself. Yes, I had to take one for the team! Not to worry, I knew I could mingle in with some group of people. I knew someone would adopt me for the evening! Two really nice couples took me in as their 5th wheel and it was a lot of fun!
Scare Rating: The Torture Factory is made up of two attractions, The Torture Factory and Misery Maze. It took only 10 minutes to go through The Torture Factory, which was very disappointing. To be honest, the actors did a great job at scaring you but there weren't enough actors and it was a short attraction. The actors that were there had great costumes and make-up and they really did a great job at pursuing customers to get the scare.
The attendent at the start of Torture factory was telling us that Torture Factory was rated #1 in the state of Tennessee and he also said it would take 20 to 25 minutes to go through. Neither of these statements were true. I don't know who rated them #1 in Tennessee, but Haunt World rates them as #3 in Tennessee and it only took 10 minutes to go through Torture Factory. Maybe someone did vote them #1 in the state but I believe that is a bit misleading, in my opinion.
The Torture Factory has an "industrial" look and feel to it. The actors bang on a lot of things like metal barrels and metal roofing that really startle you. It's a "no frills" type of attraction. You won't see animatronics or a whole lot of special effects. It's basic live actor human scare elements mixed in with a pretty well decorated industrial atmosphere. It does look like a torture factory. There's no spinning vortex or caving walls etc.. It's an old school straight forward try and scare the pants off you type of attraction. It kind of reminded me of the haunted houses I use to go to back in the 80's in that respect.
There was one part where an actor is above you and he starts banging on a metal roof, which really startles you. The actor then runs across plank boards above and past you and you can see him do this but you can't see where he is going. Then suddenly you see him waiting on you and as he reaches down from above at you, suddenly, this actor jumps at your group rattling a chain link fence to your right. It's the ideal "Diversion" technique and it worked perfectly. The two girls in our group let out a hell of a scream when that monster came at us from our right side. The monster above gets your attention because he reaches down at you, creating the perfect distraction.
Another part of the haunt is a pallet walled maze that meanders back and forth as an actor constantly pesters you and belts out a creepy laugh. He kept following us through the maze but also came at us through the pallets. Just when you thought you were passed him, he would re-appear.
Misery Maze was an actual maze that you had to navigate through and I will be honest, it was hard. It took us 14 minutes to get through the maze. This was not a haunted maze, just a maze. At the beginning, a girl at the maze entrance tells you the rules of the maze. This girl ended up being a part of the maze. She was a younger cute girl and had a creepy "little girl" laugh (giggle). She would appear out of nowhere throughout the maze. She was the only actor in the maze and she wasn't even dressed as an actor. She was just wearing a Torture Factory t-shirt, but I actually thought she added both humor and some scare element to the maze. She would kind of go back and forth from being funny to appearing out of nowhere scaring you to death to laughing in that "little girl" giggle to being really nice. It was an interesting aspect of the maze and overall, I thought she did a great job. I know she scared the crap out of me on two different occassions.She knew the maze very well and could just pop up on you at any time.
The maze was very difficult to get through. The first part of the maze was pallet walled and you would constantly get lost and re-track and go in circles. Whoever designed that maze did a really good job. It was so confusing in a good way. Then when you finally got through the first part, then you entered the second part which was plywood painted walls and was just as difficult to navigate your way out.
Of these type of mazes that i have been through, this was the best maze I have gone through yet, because it was actually very confusing. You kept losing your bearings and after a while, you couldn't remember where you had already been and which direction you were going in. It was very effective.
My main criticisms would be that it needs to be longer. At only 10 minutes for The Torture Factory, even with the great job the actors were doing, it was just way too short. In this case, the length effected the scare rating. The maze at 14 minutes was a good length but should be coupled with at least a 15 minute Torture Factory, instead of only 10 minutes.
Even though the Misery Maze was very effective and the girl attendent did a great job, I think they should have had maybe 1 or 2 monster actors in the maze just to mess with you in addition to the girl, because it would have added a scare element to the maze but would have also added to the confusion by distracting you even further.
Overall Experience: I gave the Torture Factory a 2.5 overall experience mainly because there isn't much to the Torture Factory. It's in a small building and the maze is on the back side of this building. It's just a small area and not much to do there.
The Torture Factory tickets were $15.00 and Misery Maze was $5.00 for a total of $20.00 for 24 minutes of attraction, which isn't bad at all, although only 10 minutes of it was actually haunted. There was hardly no wait in line as it was only about a 5 minute wait to get into Torture Factory and 3 minutes to get into Misery Maze.
They have a pretty good concession trailer also. They had hot dogs, BBQ sandwhiches, drinks, glow sticks etc... all reasonably priced. Their T-shirts were very plain with just the Torture Factory name on it. I would love to see them do a t-shirt with the logo at the top of this critique.
They also are giving away a 2012 Dodge Ram Bighorn Edition truck on November 3rd. You have to make it through the Misery Maze to qualify. You write your name and info on the back of your Misery Maze ticket and when you reach the end of Misery Maze, you drop your ticket into a box. The only down side is you have to be present to win the truck, which i thought was rediculous. Anyone who travels a good way to get to The Torture Factory will probably not be willing to drive back there again for a longshot at winning a truck. The locals will benefit from that rule. I know the torture factory advertises on Facebook and Haunt World, so i assume they appreciate any customers that are coming from long distances to see their attraction and by having that rule on the truck, it's kind of disrespectful to those customers, in my opinion. If you truly appreciate all your customers, then let everyone have an equal shot at winning the truck. Out of our group of 5, 3 of us didn't enter the contest because we knew we couldn't come back and the two girls did enter even though they said they couldn't come back either.
I can tell that the owners of Torture Factory have put some thought into this attraction and are trying to build on it. This was only their 3rd or 4th year open, so hopefully they will be able to continue growing Torture Factory. They have obviously started off small with minimal cost but there is a lot of potential for Torture Factory. It has a good story line, good costumes, good actors, good advertising, good looking website and logos and banner ads, it just needs to be beefed up in reality. The actual experience does not exactly meet the expectations that you get from seeing all the advertising.
Overall, it's not a bad haunted attraction and has a lot of potential and upside. They just need to work on making it longer and get some more actors involved and that alone will greatly increase my ratings.
HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR (Courtland, AL.)
Scare Rating: (4.25 out of 5) Overall Experience: (3 out of 5)
http://www.hauntedhouseofhorror.com
OVERALL RATING = 18.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.25
Overall Experience: 3
Costumes & Make-up: 4
Decorations & Special Effects: 4
Bang for Your Buck: 3.5 (18 min. @ $20.00)
OVERALL RATING = 18.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4.25
Overall Experience: 3
Costumes & Make-up: 4
Decorations & Special Effects: 4
Bang for Your Buck: 3.5 (18 min. @ $20.00)
Rated #3 Best Haunt in Alabama by Hauntworld.com
10-26-12 (Friday, 9:07pm) ... I went to this with friends, Darrin Allen and his daughter, Brianna, and Jennifer Golway and her daughter, Callie. I went to Haunted House of Horror last year (see 2011 HAUNTED ATTRACTION CRITIQUE) and this is their 2nd year open, so I was curious to see what improvements they have made. The 2nd year is always an important year in the life of a haunted attraction.
10-26-12 (Friday, 9:07pm) ... I went to this with friends, Darrin Allen and his daughter, Brianna, and Jennifer Golway and her daughter, Callie. I went to Haunted House of Horror last year (see 2011 HAUNTED ATTRACTION CRITIQUE) and this is their 2nd year open, so I was curious to see what improvements they have made. The 2nd year is always an important year in the life of a haunted attraction.
Scare Rating: There are several factors that determine how i rate a scare rating, but no matter how many actors you have, one of the biggest things that can make a difference is timing. Timing of scare elements is crutial to any haunted attraction. Just like a comedian has to have proper timing in telling a joke. Even an average joke can be funny if the timing of the punch line is done correctly.
The actors in Haunted House of Horrors did an excellent job at timing of the scare elements and for this reason, Their scare rating increased from last year to a 4.25.
At just about every haunted attraction you go to, you will experience air blasts from a air compressor and sometimes they can be ineffective and even annoying but I have to say that these guys had the best placement and timing of air blasts that I have experienced. They were very effective and the air blasts were very strong. Most of the time, i was in the back of our group and the air blasts would scare the first person, so i knew it was there and then it would blast me and I would still jump after getting a major blast of air. It was just very effective and arranged very well.
It took us 18 minutes to go through Haunted House of Horror, which was an improvement over last year's 15 minutes. They have added some new things for 2012. I won't give away what was new but the additions were very well done.
There were no gaps in the attarction. The actors did a great job at pursuing you and most of the time, it was several actors coming at you from all angles. They don't touch you but they do invade your personal space and they pursue you even after you think they are done scaring you.
There is a funeral parlor room where you walk through and there is a mixture of live actors and fake ones. You can't tell which ones are real as nothing is moving. A strobe light flashes and you are just waiting for something to jump at you. All of a sudden, all the strobes go off and you are in total darkness for about 2 seconds. Your first thought is, "oh no!" because you know something is going to happen. Then the strobes turn back on and what you see is a bunch of zombie live actors standing up and coming at you. It is very effective and is something you don't always see. Turning the strobes off for that 2 seconds is a great idea that really provides a scare!
If you like (or don't like) evil clowns, then you will get your fill at Haunted House of Horror. These clowns do a fantastic job at timing their scare. Jennifer was in the front of our group and as she walked towards a wall, she bent over and looked to the left and a clown stepped in to her right and waited for her to look right and scared the hell out of her.
They have drop down windows throughout the attraction. These are fake windows that you can't see and as you walk by them or in some cases you walk right into them, suddenly the false plywood window drops down loudly and a creature jumps out at you. These are very effective and are placed very well.
They don'y have a huge amount of animatronice but the ones they do have are really well placed. They have the same one from last year where this body pops up and the lighting of it makes the face on this body seem to distort. It's kind of freaky looking and you have to really look at the face to tell if it's actually an optical illusion or if it's suppose to do that. I still don't know. As you are looking at this, a live actor mad professor is jumping at you and electrifying a chain link fence.
One of the coolest things they had was a fake door that you walk up to and it shows a video of this crazy woman coming up to the door with an axe and chopping at the door. As she hits the door with the axe, actual axe impressions appear on the door. As you're watching this effect, a female live actor with an axe appears out of nowhere and walks right through your group screaming at you. They have another one of these effects involving a violent murder with a chainsaw.
I don't have any real criticisms of the attraction part of Haunted House of Horror other than it would be nice to see them continue to add to the length. It has increased a little over last year, but I would love to see them make it a 20 minute haunt for the $20.00 admission price. At 18 minutes though, it's not bad! If they can increase the length without thinning out the human scare element, then they will really have something!
Overall Experience: My main criticisms for Haunted House of Horror comes with the Overall Experience. Don't get me wrong, you will have a good time and it is a scary haunted attraction, but they could definately beef up the experience you have outside of the haunted part of the attraction.
When you buy your tickets, they give you a token, so you don't have to wait in line. You just wait for them to call your token name and then you get in line. This is great as you can walk around and enjoy the atmosphere, but the problem is, there isn't much to do.
After paying $20.00 a ticket, we waited for 50 minutes before they called our token. Haunted House of Horror is in what use to be Courtland High School. You wait in the old gym of the school. It is dimly lit and they show a movie on a screen but I couldn't tell what movie it was and the volume is turned down, so you really can't hear the movie at all. It's a nice idea but not really a factor.
They do have a concessions area but with limited selection. They sell drinks, popcorn, chips and i think they had hot dogs. It's just a very simple concessions area and the prices are reasonable. They also have about 3 different types of t-shirts to buy for $15.00 and they look pretty cool. I did buy one t-shirt that has an evil looking clown on it. They don't really have much else in the way of souvenirs to purchase.
They do have a couple of actors that walk around the gym and they have great costumes, but they don't really do much other than just being available for picture taking. They have a black wall and a photographer who will take your picture with the two creatures. Because of the long wait, i would love to see these monsters actually keep the crowd amped up by scaring people. Occassionally, one of the monsters would startle customers as they first walked by the black wall but I only saw him do this twice during the 50 minutes we waited.
At least the long wait is inside but it's kind of a boring wait and there just isn't much to see or do. Once our token name was called, we waited in line for another 15 minutes, so our total wait was 1 hour and 5 minutes.
All of your top haunted attractions are really good at not only providing a scary haunted attraction but also giving customers a great overall experience and that is where Haunted House of Horror falls a little short.
Overall, you will have fun at this haunted attraction and it is worth the trip to Courtland and is worth the $20.00 you pay for a ticket, but if they would improve the overall experience, Haunted House of Horror could really be one of the better attractions in the state of Alabama. Being that this is only their 2nd year open though, Haunted House of Horror has done a great job and has room to grow for the future. If you didn't catch them this year, make plans to visit Haunted House of Horror next year!
The actors in Haunted House of Horrors did an excellent job at timing of the scare elements and for this reason, Their scare rating increased from last year to a 4.25.
At just about every haunted attraction you go to, you will experience air blasts from a air compressor and sometimes they can be ineffective and even annoying but I have to say that these guys had the best placement and timing of air blasts that I have experienced. They were very effective and the air blasts were very strong. Most of the time, i was in the back of our group and the air blasts would scare the first person, so i knew it was there and then it would blast me and I would still jump after getting a major blast of air. It was just very effective and arranged very well.
It took us 18 minutes to go through Haunted House of Horror, which was an improvement over last year's 15 minutes. They have added some new things for 2012. I won't give away what was new but the additions were very well done.
There were no gaps in the attarction. The actors did a great job at pursuing you and most of the time, it was several actors coming at you from all angles. They don't touch you but they do invade your personal space and they pursue you even after you think they are done scaring you.
There is a funeral parlor room where you walk through and there is a mixture of live actors and fake ones. You can't tell which ones are real as nothing is moving. A strobe light flashes and you are just waiting for something to jump at you. All of a sudden, all the strobes go off and you are in total darkness for about 2 seconds. Your first thought is, "oh no!" because you know something is going to happen. Then the strobes turn back on and what you see is a bunch of zombie live actors standing up and coming at you. It is very effective and is something you don't always see. Turning the strobes off for that 2 seconds is a great idea that really provides a scare!
If you like (or don't like) evil clowns, then you will get your fill at Haunted House of Horror. These clowns do a fantastic job at timing their scare. Jennifer was in the front of our group and as she walked towards a wall, she bent over and looked to the left and a clown stepped in to her right and waited for her to look right and scared the hell out of her.
They have drop down windows throughout the attraction. These are fake windows that you can't see and as you walk by them or in some cases you walk right into them, suddenly the false plywood window drops down loudly and a creature jumps out at you. These are very effective and are placed very well.
They don'y have a huge amount of animatronice but the ones they do have are really well placed. They have the same one from last year where this body pops up and the lighting of it makes the face on this body seem to distort. It's kind of freaky looking and you have to really look at the face to tell if it's actually an optical illusion or if it's suppose to do that. I still don't know. As you are looking at this, a live actor mad professor is jumping at you and electrifying a chain link fence.
One of the coolest things they had was a fake door that you walk up to and it shows a video of this crazy woman coming up to the door with an axe and chopping at the door. As she hits the door with the axe, actual axe impressions appear on the door. As you're watching this effect, a female live actor with an axe appears out of nowhere and walks right through your group screaming at you. They have another one of these effects involving a violent murder with a chainsaw.
I don't have any real criticisms of the attraction part of Haunted House of Horror other than it would be nice to see them continue to add to the length. It has increased a little over last year, but I would love to see them make it a 20 minute haunt for the $20.00 admission price. At 18 minutes though, it's not bad! If they can increase the length without thinning out the human scare element, then they will really have something!
Overall Experience: My main criticisms for Haunted House of Horror comes with the Overall Experience. Don't get me wrong, you will have a good time and it is a scary haunted attraction, but they could definately beef up the experience you have outside of the haunted part of the attraction.
When you buy your tickets, they give you a token, so you don't have to wait in line. You just wait for them to call your token name and then you get in line. This is great as you can walk around and enjoy the atmosphere, but the problem is, there isn't much to do.
After paying $20.00 a ticket, we waited for 50 minutes before they called our token. Haunted House of Horror is in what use to be Courtland High School. You wait in the old gym of the school. It is dimly lit and they show a movie on a screen but I couldn't tell what movie it was and the volume is turned down, so you really can't hear the movie at all. It's a nice idea but not really a factor.
They do have a concessions area but with limited selection. They sell drinks, popcorn, chips and i think they had hot dogs. It's just a very simple concessions area and the prices are reasonable. They also have about 3 different types of t-shirts to buy for $15.00 and they look pretty cool. I did buy one t-shirt that has an evil looking clown on it. They don't really have much else in the way of souvenirs to purchase.
They do have a couple of actors that walk around the gym and they have great costumes, but they don't really do much other than just being available for picture taking. They have a black wall and a photographer who will take your picture with the two creatures. Because of the long wait, i would love to see these monsters actually keep the crowd amped up by scaring people. Occassionally, one of the monsters would startle customers as they first walked by the black wall but I only saw him do this twice during the 50 minutes we waited.
At least the long wait is inside but it's kind of a boring wait and there just isn't much to see or do. Once our token name was called, we waited in line for another 15 minutes, so our total wait was 1 hour and 5 minutes.
All of your top haunted attractions are really good at not only providing a scary haunted attraction but also giving customers a great overall experience and that is where Haunted House of Horror falls a little short.
Overall, you will have fun at this haunted attraction and it is worth the trip to Courtland and is worth the $20.00 you pay for a ticket, but if they would improve the overall experience, Haunted House of Horror could really be one of the better attractions in the state of Alabama. Being that this is only their 2nd year open though, Haunted House of Horror has done a great job and has room to grow for the future. If you didn't catch them this year, make plans to visit Haunted House of Horror next year!
THE HAUNTED LESTER HOSPITAL - ZOMBIES ATTACK (Lester, AL.)
Scare Rating: (.75 out of 5) Overall Experience: (.5 out of 5)
http://www.thehauntedlesterhospital.com
OVERALL RATING = 6.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: .75
Overall Experience: .5
Costumes & Make-up: 1.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 1.5
Bang for Your Buck: 2.5 (8 min. @ $10.00)
10-29-12 (Monday, 7:30pm) ... After seeing a newspaper article on this haunted attraction, I had to go check it out, even though I went by myself. I hooked up with 2 young couples once I got there and went through with them. Lester Haunted Hospital is done by volunteers for "Scare 4 Charity", a charity that helps local needs for citizens in all forms, so it was for a great cause.
OVERALL RATING = 6.75 out of 25
Scare Rating: .75
Overall Experience: .5
Costumes & Make-up: 1.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 1.5
Bang for Your Buck: 2.5 (8 min. @ $10.00)
10-29-12 (Monday, 7:30pm) ... After seeing a newspaper article on this haunted attraction, I had to go check it out, even though I went by myself. I hooked up with 2 young couples once I got there and went through with them. Lester Haunted Hospital is done by volunteers for "Scare 4 Charity", a charity that helps local needs for citizens in all forms, so it was for a great cause.
Scare Rating: The Haunted Lester Hospital takes place at the old D.E. Jackson Memorial Hospital in Lester, Alabama and it is a small community hospital built in the 1940's. They say it is really haunted, but only human spooks were out this night.
I am giving this a really low scare rating because it simply was not scary. Many of the actors telegraphed what they were going to do and they didn't really try and scare you very much. They backed off quickly and sometimes talked to you out of character.
There are no special effects, animatronics or any other special things to see. They just use some of the old hospital equipment and have actors with masks on but no make-up or special costumes.
It's was probably the least scary Haunted Attraction I have ever visited. It only took 8 minutes to go through the attarction and i only gave it a .75 scare rating because there are a couple of spots in the attraction where a few people might get a little scared, but you won't need to bring any diapers to this one.
Overall Experience: I gave this a low overall rating for several reasons. There are no bathrooms that i could see, no concessions, no gift shop or t-shirts or anything else. You basically walk into the old one level hospital and in 8 minutes, you walk out and go home.
I hate to criticize these guys too much because these are strictly volunteers who do this haunted attraction for charity. I applaud what they are doing and it is for a worthy cause.
I would just say that if you are wanting to experience a real scare, then i would not recommend Haunted Lester Hospital. If you don't mind the lack of scare element and want to pay your $10.00, which all goes towards charity for "Scare 4 Charity" and want to support the local community in and around Lester, Alabama, then please visit Lester Hospital.
Obviously, they don't have a lot of capital to put into this attraction and i knew this going in, but I just wanted to see what they had to offer. For the serious Haunted Attraction nut, this would be a waste of your time and money.
Truthfully, I like to see all types of Haunts, not just the "Big Boys", so i didn't mind visiting Lester Hospital and it was for charity, but for the sake of these reviews and to inform you as a potential customer who is looking for a great experience and haunt, i would say spend your time and money at another Haunted Attraction.
Thank you "Scare 4 Charity" for all that you are doing and I hope you guys continue to do this haunted attraction and raising money for the communities you serve.
DARKWOOD FARMS - WALKING DEAD MAZE (Arab, AL.)
Scare Rating: (1.5 out of 5) Overall Experience: (1.5 out of 5)
http://www.arabhauntedhouse.com
OVERALL RATING = 8 out of 25
Scare Rating: 1.5
Overall Experience: 1.5
Costumes & Make-up: 1.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 1.5
Bang for Your Buck: 2 (8 min. @ $12.00)
10-29-12 (Monday, 9:00pm) ... I decided to check out this Haunted Attraction after i visited The Haunted Lester Hospital. It was a night that was slow and cold.
Scare Rating: Darkwood Farms is what i like to call a "Community Haunted Attraction", meaning that it's something fun for the locals to do, but I wouldn't travel a long distance to visit.
There was no wait in line at all and it only took 8 minutes to go through the attraction. Darkwood Farms is a two part attraction that is melted into one attraction. The first part is the haunted part and then you go into the "Walking Dead Maze".
A girl attendent leads you through the haunted part and the actors basically wear masks with very little make-up or costumes. The scenes are not real scary but they do make an effort to scare you. The scenes are a bit tame and kind of cheesey. One scene has an actor lying on a table while an actor uses a chainsaw to pretend cutting into him. It's kind of silly in all honesty. The actors are mostly younger kids and they seem to be having fun, but it's just not real professional.
Some of the actors actually follow you through the attraction. Two of these were two young boys about 8-10 years old that were wearing glow in the dark masks and black cloaks. They kept following me all the way through.
The attendent then leads you to the entrance of the "Walking Dead Maze". I don't know why they name the Maze the Walking Dead Maze because there are no actors or zombies in the maze. The two boys followed me into the maze. The maze has black plastic walls and is totally dark. It is hard to navigate your way through but the two boys with glow in the dark masks said to follow them and they would help me get out.
These boys were sweet kids and they asked me my name and they told me their names, Devin and Dylan. They followed me through the whole attraction and even out the exit. They were kind of a humorous part to the experience, but it was not that scary.
Overall Experience: I can see how a group of teenagers would have some enjoyment at Darkwood Farms, but i don't think most adults would think Darkwood farms is very scary or is a great experience. The experience it self was ok but nothing special. There were no concessions that i could see and really not much to do there. Luckily there isn't a wait in line though.
You enter a barn to buy your tickets for $12.00 and to enter the attraction. Everything is decorated with black plastic, so it's obvious not a lot of money is put into the attraction.
If you are looking for a haunted attraction that will really scare you and offer a nice overall experience, i would not suggest Darkwood Farms.
You would be doing much better to save your money and drive up the road about 30 minutes and visit Disturbia Haunted House in huntsville.
OVERALL RATING = 8 out of 25
Scare Rating: 1.5
Overall Experience: 1.5
Costumes & Make-up: 1.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 1.5
Bang for Your Buck: 2 (8 min. @ $12.00)
10-29-12 (Monday, 9:00pm) ... I decided to check out this Haunted Attraction after i visited The Haunted Lester Hospital. It was a night that was slow and cold.
Scare Rating: Darkwood Farms is what i like to call a "Community Haunted Attraction", meaning that it's something fun for the locals to do, but I wouldn't travel a long distance to visit.
There was no wait in line at all and it only took 8 minutes to go through the attraction. Darkwood Farms is a two part attraction that is melted into one attraction. The first part is the haunted part and then you go into the "Walking Dead Maze".
A girl attendent leads you through the haunted part and the actors basically wear masks with very little make-up or costumes. The scenes are not real scary but they do make an effort to scare you. The scenes are a bit tame and kind of cheesey. One scene has an actor lying on a table while an actor uses a chainsaw to pretend cutting into him. It's kind of silly in all honesty. The actors are mostly younger kids and they seem to be having fun, but it's just not real professional.
Some of the actors actually follow you through the attraction. Two of these were two young boys about 8-10 years old that were wearing glow in the dark masks and black cloaks. They kept following me all the way through.
The attendent then leads you to the entrance of the "Walking Dead Maze". I don't know why they name the Maze the Walking Dead Maze because there are no actors or zombies in the maze. The two boys followed me into the maze. The maze has black plastic walls and is totally dark. It is hard to navigate your way through but the two boys with glow in the dark masks said to follow them and they would help me get out.
These boys were sweet kids and they asked me my name and they told me their names, Devin and Dylan. They followed me through the whole attraction and even out the exit. They were kind of a humorous part to the experience, but it was not that scary.
Overall Experience: I can see how a group of teenagers would have some enjoyment at Darkwood Farms, but i don't think most adults would think Darkwood farms is very scary or is a great experience. The experience it self was ok but nothing special. There were no concessions that i could see and really not much to do there. Luckily there isn't a wait in line though.
You enter a barn to buy your tickets for $12.00 and to enter the attraction. Everything is decorated with black plastic, so it's obvious not a lot of money is put into the attraction.
If you are looking for a haunted attraction that will really scare you and offer a nice overall experience, i would not suggest Darkwood Farms.
You would be doing much better to save your money and drive up the road about 30 minutes and visit Disturbia Haunted House in huntsville.
SPOOK TRAIL - Mazeum of Monsters & Mayhem (Quinton, AL.)
Scare Rating: (4 out of 5) Overall Experience: (4 out of 5)
OVERALL RATING = 18 out of 25
Scare Rating: 4
Overall Experience: 4
Costumes & Make-up: 2.5
Decorations & Special Effects: 2.5
Bang for Your Buck: 5 (43 min. @ $13.00/$8.00)
Rated #10 Best Haunt in Alabama by Hauntworld.com
11-2-12 (Friday, 8:20pm) ... Ok, I had to get in one last Haunted Attraction before the end of the season. It will be 11 months before i get to go to another one, so fortunately Spook Trail is open the weekend after Halloween.
11-2-12 (Friday, 8:20pm) ... Ok, I had to get in one last Haunted Attraction before the end of the season. It will be 11 months before i get to go to another one, so fortunately Spook Trail is open the weekend after Halloween.
Scare Rating: Spook Trail is a no frills, straight forward "in your face" scary haunted attraction. They have no animatronics, no professional make-up or costumes for the actors, no spinning vortex, no REAL special effects but they will scare the hell out of you.
Even though you won't see the professional looking make-up & costumes that you might see at your higher profile haunted attractions, the actors at Spook Trail had some really creepy costumes and masks. It was a circus of all kinds of freaky looking monsters.
The actors are very aggressive and are in your face at all times. They are relentless and come at you from all angles. Spook Trail is a labyrinth of endless narrow passage ways. It's mostly done with black plastic and wood pallet walls that keep you guessing at where you are at all times. It is such a twisting and turning maze that you quickly forget where you are and you just try your best to figure out which way is forward.
It took us an unbelievable 43 minutes to make it through Spook Trail. A freaky and aggressive guide leads you through the maze but he disappears and re-appears and is constantly grabbing you or flashing a light that temporarily blinds you and nullifies your night vision, making it even more difficult to navigate, or clanking a loud cow bell at you. He does a great job as a menacing maze guide.
You can easily get turned around and go down the same corridors you already went down or end up going backwards. The actors do a pretty good job at herding you along. Being that this was an after Halloween night, there weren't many people there, so i wasn't sure if this was normal or if the actors just enjoyed tormenting us, so they kept us for as long as they could in the maze.
There aren't many "scenes" in the maze. It's just human scare element all the way but these guys do a really good job at scaring the crap out of you. Their timing is really good and they are very aggressive at scaring you. They invade your personal space and they do touch you and grab you. They grabbed me in just about every part of my body except the "No Fly" zone! I like that and it definately adds to the scare element. These guys are relentless. There are no gaps in the whole 43 minutes it took us to go through. Actors were coming at you at all times. I couldn't even tell how many actors they had because the same ones would scare you several times. It was constant. The actors were the most active and aggressive than probably any other haunted attraction i have visited.
One of our group said they felt tired, scared to death and violated all in one. I said, "well, they did their job!" After 43 minutes, it does kind of wear you out and these guys don't stop till you are out the exit.
My only criticism and it's a small criticism is that the last 10 minutes was like, "ok, we've had enough". Not that the last 10 minutes wasn't good, because like i said, they don't stop, but it was just a little long. Don't get me wrong, i am all about bang for your buck and i don't know that you will get more bang for your buck than you do at Spook Trail. I actually enjoyed the 43 minutes but some in my party thought it was a little long, so it's a mild criticism as far as I am concerned. Once again, i don't know if it was that long because it was a slow night or if that is normal, but this is one attraction at 43 minutes, which is incredible and unheard of in the world of haunted attractions.
I don't scare easily and I was probably startled at Spook Trail more than i have been at any other haunted attraction. The only reason why Spook Trail doesn't get more than a 4 scare rating, which is a high rating from me, is because it's the same scare element throughout with no real visual scare elements or scenes that help add to the overall scare rating, but Spook Trail would get the highest scare rating based on just human scare element over all others. They have the human scare element down and do a fantastic job.They do have a great walk through the woods section where strobe lights flash perfectly to really mess with your senses and the actors come at you and it looks like slow motion. This was very effective. They make great use of strobe lights.
Overall Experience: Spook Trail also gets a high rating on overall experience, because this is just a really cool place to visit. It's a little out of the way in Quinton, Alabama (near Jasper northwest of Birmingham), but it is without a doubt worth your time and money to check this place out.
They have a great "The Boneyard Grill" concession area. I was actually surprised at how much food they had to offer and how reasonable the prices were. The food is really good and it was a fun atmosphere at the grill as some of the actors would come out and mingle with you. I bought a large bowl of Chili for $2.00 and a 12 ounce can of Mountain Dew for $.75 and it was really good. They also had BBQ, chili dogs, hamburgers, cheese fries, Philli Cheese and a lot more.
Even though these guys scare the hell out of you, they are some of the friendliest people also. Some of the actors come out and talk to you after you exit and laugh about how they got you or something funny you did. The staff at the ticket booth and concessions are all really nice and accommodating. You feel right at home at Spook Trail.
They do have port-o-lets and it was great that they added a light inside, which is the first time I have seen this. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but it was nice to be able to see the toilet in the dark.
They have some really simple basic t-shirts that have the Spook Trail logo in orange on a black t-shirt and they are only $10.00. Sometimes the more simple t-shirts look the better and i bought 2 t-shirts, because this was a great experience and the price was right.
There isn't a gift shop, halloween rock band or movies playing but the atmosphere at Spook Trail is really nice and you feel very comfortable hanging out for a while after you go through the maze to decompress after nearly spilling your bladder.
They do have music playing outside around the Boneyard Grill and some picnic tables to sit and enjoy your meal and talk about how much fun you had in the maze.
The normal admission price for Spook Trail is $13.00 but if you bring a canned good, they take off $5.00 and you only pay $8.00 per person. This is an incredible deal. For this reason, it gets a 5 rating on bang for your buck. $8.00 for 43 minutes! This is the best bang for your buck I have seen yet. Trust me, if you visit Spook Trail, you will have a lot of fun and you certainly can't beat the price.
I would highly recommend a trip to Quinton, Alabama to visit Spook Trail. Your canned good donation will go to the local community United Way, so not only will you get scared to death or maybe release some bodily fluids, you will have a great time and will be helping to make life easier for those who are less fortunate.
Take the time to support Spook Trail next year. These guys have a great thing going.
I agree -I thought it was a step up from last year. Really fun night with lots to do and lots to look at. Can't wait to go again next year!
ReplyDeleteDisturbia was a blast! Yes, I agree, it was a step up from last year and i think Insane Shane has more coming our way! Can't wait for next year!
DeleteGood to see someone visit and fill us in on all the places out there! Working at a haunt you never get to see or hear about others! Thanks for informing us!
ReplyDeleteShane, thank you for the kind words. Thank you for the hard work you put into Disturbia! You guys have built an awesome Haunted Attraction. I can't wait to see what you do next year! Thanks again!
Deletethank you for visiting us at the spooktrail so glad that yall enjoyed it and thank you again for the great review and spreading the word about our can food drive
ReplyDeleteYour welcome Kristin! That was my first time at Spook Trail and it was a pleasant surprise! It was a great ending to my 2012 Halloween season! Thank you for the great hospitality - we had a lot of fun!
ReplyDelete