A genuine 100-year old stone mansion, set on two acres of land, is the unique setting for Demon House. The ominous looking place must have been creepy even before it was transformed into a haunted house.
Unlike the other attractions we've described so far, Demon House has no line. Instead, you purchase your tickets and receive a number. You can then wander the expansive grounds, enjoying the heat of the bonfires and the comfort of picnic tables to sit on. There are concession stands with food and games, as well as an outdoor movie theater with continuous horror movie showings. If you hate standing in line, then, Demon House is the haunt for you. Unless you're in a hurry, there's no need to purchase the VIP ticket; the wait, building anticipation as the dramatic house looms in the background, is part of the experience.
Once inside, Demon House relies far more heavily on actors than anamatronics, with a small skit or playlet enacted in most rooms. The actors were talented, and the longer performances gave them full scope to work hard - and successfully - at the scares.
I'd like to complement the hard-working guy who ran the entire Area 51 section and the Mad Scientist and his assistant Igor for featuring particularly strong performances.
Since Demon House is actually a house, scares were added to the already spooky interior. Many of the house's features were memorable, including the grand staircase up to the second floor and the large rooms.
Demon House has several theme mazes. Although I don't particularly care for mazes (see my Hundred Acres Manor review), there was so much variety in the themes and designs that my interest was held throughout.
Admission is $15, which is somewhat more expensive than other haunts. But the dramatic setting alone is probably worth the price, and the great acting and imaginative decorations seal the deal.
Demon House
http://www.demonhouse.com/
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Frightless Farm
The promotional material Rich's Fright Farm features a Mayan pyramid and the theme of "Ancient Encounters". Certainly anyone who visited would expect something enormously different from last year.
They would be right, but ultimately disappointed. Fright Farm for 2007 contains enormous changes from the 2006 incarnation, representing a great deal of hard work. But while pretty eye candy abounds, scares are few and far between.
Fright Farm starts with the usual long line. A live band was playing heavy metal music, which some people in the line loved and others hated. All agreed that it didn't sound particularly haunted or spooky. As you wait in line, the haunted mansion itself looms in the distance, attractively floodlit. This helps build anticipation as most of the attraction is a slow build-up to actually entering the house.
Once you get your ticket punched, you are allowed to board a flat trailer towed by a massive tractor. Those unfamiliar with farm equipment might find the tractor at least a bit exotic, as you are pulled slowly through what feels like miles of cornstalks. Here is the first disappointment: On the route, there are few scares and little atttempt is made to entertain. There are various static panoramas but nothing particularly interesting or startling. For a long patch, you're riding parallel to nearby the freeway and the road's floodlights ruin the mood. The one thing I really liked about last year's ride, the fire breathing dragon, was missing in action, and it seemed like they had about half the scares or fewer that they did last year.
Once at the entrance to the house, you come in to an impressively high ceilinged foyer and then you are rushed through a variety of scenes. Much of the artwork is good but there are few actors in this part and virtually no scares. A great deal of it looked familiar as part of last year's Terrormania haunted attraction that failed. Apparently Fright Farm's management bought a lot of their old stuff.
After a surprisingly short time you are dumped outside of the house and have to wait in a 10 minute line for the next part of the attraction. A few more items from Terrormania appeared, but most of the rest of the haunt was recognizably similar to last year's event. Unlike the other haunts we've reviewed, acting was poor. The few actors just didn't seem like their heart was in the task of scaring us.
The waterworks was my favorite section from last year, and they even had a couple of scares in it in a haunt that was otherwise noticably devoid of them. The eye candy was fairly good but way too much time was spent in the three choke point areas waiting for people to admit us to the rest of the attraction. We etimate that of the roughly 50 minutes we spent in the haunt, about 20 minutes were spent waiting in line.
About five minutes before we got into the house, actors started to appear. Most of them were wandering around aimlessly, seemingly deranged figures unaware of our presence. Only a couple of them seemed to care seriously about their mission to scare us.
Finally we got back into the house. The controlled indoor environment increased tension, but the shortage of actors and scares let us down again. There were a few great set pieces - I wanted to spend time in the jungle area relaxing, but of course the relentless pressure of the walkthrough crowd sent me through quickly. My friend who came with me pointed out that there was a giant, very expensive monster from Terrormania in the jungle. I hadn't even noticed.
The climax at the end of the haunt was the spinning tunnel illusion that had begun our trip into Terrormania last year. At that point we were dumped unceremoniously into a boring corn maze (with no actors at all) and back to the concession stand.
On a positive note, I can report that the concession stand pizza was good, and the people there were friendly. For that to be the high point of a $15 haunt experience that took an hour to get to is unfortunate testimony to how drab my Fright Farm experience was.
http://www.richfarms.com/frightfarm
They would be right, but ultimately disappointed. Fright Farm for 2007 contains enormous changes from the 2006 incarnation, representing a great deal of hard work. But while pretty eye candy abounds, scares are few and far between.
Fright Farm starts with the usual long line. A live band was playing heavy metal music, which some people in the line loved and others hated. All agreed that it didn't sound particularly haunted or spooky. As you wait in line, the haunted mansion itself looms in the distance, attractively floodlit. This helps build anticipation as most of the attraction is a slow build-up to actually entering the house.
Once you get your ticket punched, you are allowed to board a flat trailer towed by a massive tractor. Those unfamiliar with farm equipment might find the tractor at least a bit exotic, as you are pulled slowly through what feels like miles of cornstalks. Here is the first disappointment: On the route, there are few scares and little atttempt is made to entertain. There are various static panoramas but nothing particularly interesting or startling. For a long patch, you're riding parallel to nearby the freeway and the road's floodlights ruin the mood. The one thing I really liked about last year's ride, the fire breathing dragon, was missing in action, and it seemed like they had about half the scares or fewer that they did last year.
Once at the entrance to the house, you come in to an impressively high ceilinged foyer and then you are rushed through a variety of scenes. Much of the artwork is good but there are few actors in this part and virtually no scares. A great deal of it looked familiar as part of last year's Terrormania haunted attraction that failed. Apparently Fright Farm's management bought a lot of their old stuff.
After a surprisingly short time you are dumped outside of the house and have to wait in a 10 minute line for the next part of the attraction. A few more items from Terrormania appeared, but most of the rest of the haunt was recognizably similar to last year's event. Unlike the other haunts we've reviewed, acting was poor. The few actors just didn't seem like their heart was in the task of scaring us.
The waterworks was my favorite section from last year, and they even had a couple of scares in it in a haunt that was otherwise noticably devoid of them. The eye candy was fairly good but way too much time was spent in the three choke point areas waiting for people to admit us to the rest of the attraction. We etimate that of the roughly 50 minutes we spent in the haunt, about 20 minutes were spent waiting in line.
About five minutes before we got into the house, actors started to appear. Most of them were wandering around aimlessly, seemingly deranged figures unaware of our presence. Only a couple of them seemed to care seriously about their mission to scare us.
Finally we got back into the house. The controlled indoor environment increased tension, but the shortage of actors and scares let us down again. There were a few great set pieces - I wanted to spend time in the jungle area relaxing, but of course the relentless pressure of the walkthrough crowd sent me through quickly. My friend who came with me pointed out that there was a giant, very expensive monster from Terrormania in the jungle. I hadn't even noticed.
The climax at the end of the haunt was the spinning tunnel illusion that had begun our trip into Terrormania last year. At that point we were dumped unceremoniously into a boring corn maze (with no actors at all) and back to the concession stand.
On a positive note, I can report that the concession stand pizza was good, and the people there were friendly. For that to be the high point of a $15 haunt experience that took an hour to get to is unfortunate testimony to how drab my Fright Farm experience was.
http://www.richfarms.com/frightfarm
Friday, October 5, 2007
Hundred Acres Manor, South Park (Pittsburgh), PA
Hundred Acres Manor is located within South Park, a massive park in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. The park setting itself is beautiful and dramatic; particularly at night, when you drive into the hills, the setting is spooky and eerie enough to be its own haunted attraction.
So when you round a curve and see Hundred Acres Manor itself, a tacky commercial building with a neon sign above it, there is at first a sense of let-down, a sense that you've been conned. Where is the manor?
The line is long and winds all over the entry area, with noting to look at but a lone banner advertising one of their affiliates. You can buy a VIP pass for $20 to bump yourself to the front and in this case it's probably well worth the money.
Hundred Acres Manor is a fairly simple walkthrough style haunt. You enter into a world of darkness, which soon combines the usual themes you see everywhere - the insane asylum, the electric chair and the decaying mansion. The crowd rushes you through the whole thing and so your memory of it becomes a tired muddle; you might even confuse it with other, long forgotten haunts you went through before. At the same time, the haunt is almost too long; time seems to drag as you push yourself through an infinity of dark corridors, dimly lit. Generally, the haunt is way too dark to see much of the very real amount of effort that was put into creating the props and the overall experience.
Actors pop in and out of the usual holes in the walls, and the loyal chainsaw reigns supreme; but the haunt generally relies on the tried and true, refusing to take any risks that might raise this above the average haunted experience. You get a feeling that despite new scares coming all the time, the house really has little new to offer each year and is coasting on the old glories associated with its predecessor, Phantoms in the Park.
The ending climax of Hundred Acres is the giant maze, which seems to have been there since time immemorial. The black walls dull your sense of direction, disorienting you in a way that winds up being more boring than scary. The desultory performance of the actors, who look as tired of the whole thing as you are, doesn't increase your interest. After a few minutes of trudging through the maze, you just wish it was all over.
This year, a new optional section was added to Hundred Acres Manor: The claustrophobia room. Since I am a touch clastrophobic, and was sick of the haunt after the maze, I chose to exit. A friend who did go through it noted that it's just like having balloons rubbed against you on both sides. His conclusion overall was that Hundred Acres Manor has been resting on its laurels for many years, and is "overrated", perhaps because for a long time it was the region's only large haunted house.
Hundred Acres Manor
http://www.hundredacresmanor.com/
Admission: $13
Scare House, Pittsburgh, PA
ScareHouse is a haunted attraction based in a gritty urban neighborhood near Downtown Pittsburgh. Its web site promises huge scares, highly professional makeup and actors and a super-slick, cinematic haunt experience. That’s a high bar to follow, and we’re here to see if it delivers.
As we arrived at Scare House a bit after 7:30pm on a Thursday, the omens were good for a highly professional haunt. Their commercial building (it looked like a bank but was really a former school) loomed massively over the street. As we went around the block to the entrance, a massive line of hundreds appeared in view. Everyone was excited and eagerly anticipating the wonders that must lie inside.
The natives got a bit restless, though, since the wait dragged on for a long time. A VERY long time. Scare House’s management intelligently sent a guy out to entertain us while in line. Unfortunately, his tone was loud and he sounded like a homeless person heckling us rather than someone trying to entertain. Most of us thought that was exactly what he was, since his highly professional makeup job was next to invisible in the dark.
Once inside the building, we were greeted by friendly people, but our wait simply to buy tickets at the booth stretched on to infinity. It took us about half an hour from when we started to line up to when we were able to purchase our tickets.
After we bought our tickets, the line continued on through a room where we were introduced to Steve, a paranormal investigator, who seemed to exist to sell us shirts. He seemed a little puzzled about why he was here and why there were so many people looking at him. Old horror movies were exhibited effectively on a large projection screen, but the wait continued to drag on. All in all it took about one hour and twenty minutes to get into the main body of the haunt.
It was clear that huge effort had been expended on set decoration and making the haunt look nice. If you want a visually stunning haunt with a lot of different scenes, all meticulously prepared, this is the place for you. It looked more like a museum or an art exhibit than anything else.
We really enjoyed the art exhibit aspects of this place, but when it came to scares most of the rooms didn’t have any. The occasional anamatronic, easily recognizable from the catalogue, came up and tried to frighten us. But the average room was just a static exhibit with beautifully prepared props but no actors or anamatronics.
The actors were good - we’d like to give a shout out to the farmer, who fooled even our best spotters - but for the 50-odd rooms there were not nearly enough of them. The actors’ performances, costumes and makeup were highly professional.
But a strange thing was noticed - the actors didn’t seem all that keen on scaring us. The talent was there, but the small rooms left them little freedom of movement, and without freedom of movement there was no drama. It’s impossible to leap out at us when you’re already inches away.
Actors would occasionally follow us from room to room but there was little intimidation factor since they were sharing the narrow corridors with us and really couldn’t engage with us in any meaningful way.
All and all, we liked Scare House, but it was not the sleek cinematic tour de force promised by the advertising and web site. We do recommend it to people who want to enjoy slick artistic scenes of terror without the fright and intimidation factor that many people seek in haunted houses.
As we arrived at Scare House a bit after 7:30pm on a Thursday, the omens were good for a highly professional haunt. Their commercial building (it looked like a bank but was really a former school) loomed massively over the street. As we went around the block to the entrance, a massive line of hundreds appeared in view. Everyone was excited and eagerly anticipating the wonders that must lie inside.
The natives got a bit restless, though, since the wait dragged on for a long time. A VERY long time. Scare House’s management intelligently sent a guy out to entertain us while in line. Unfortunately, his tone was loud and he sounded like a homeless person heckling us rather than someone trying to entertain. Most of us thought that was exactly what he was, since his highly professional makeup job was next to invisible in the dark.
Once inside the building, we were greeted by friendly people, but our wait simply to buy tickets at the booth stretched on to infinity. It took us about half an hour from when we started to line up to when we were able to purchase our tickets.
After we bought our tickets, the line continued on through a room where we were introduced to Steve, a paranormal investigator, who seemed to exist to sell us shirts. He seemed a little puzzled about why he was here and why there were so many people looking at him. Old horror movies were exhibited effectively on a large projection screen, but the wait continued to drag on. All in all it took about one hour and twenty minutes to get into the main body of the haunt.
It was clear that huge effort had been expended on set decoration and making the haunt look nice. If you want a visually stunning haunt with a lot of different scenes, all meticulously prepared, this is the place for you. It looked more like a museum or an art exhibit than anything else.
We really enjoyed the art exhibit aspects of this place, but when it came to scares most of the rooms didn’t have any. The occasional anamatronic, easily recognizable from the catalogue, came up and tried to frighten us. But the average room was just a static exhibit with beautifully prepared props but no actors or anamatronics.
The actors were good - we’d like to give a shout out to the farmer, who fooled even our best spotters - but for the 50-odd rooms there were not nearly enough of them. The actors’ performances, costumes and makeup were highly professional.
But a strange thing was noticed - the actors didn’t seem all that keen on scaring us. The talent was there, but the small rooms left them little freedom of movement, and without freedom of movement there was no drama. It’s impossible to leap out at us when you’re already inches away.
Actors would occasionally follow us from room to room but there was little intimidation factor since they were sharing the narrow corridors with us and really couldn’t engage with us in any meaningful way.
All and all, we liked Scare House, but it was not the sleek cinematic tour de force promised by the advertising and web site. We do recommend it to people who want to enjoy slick artistic scenes of terror without the fright and intimidation factor that many people seek in haunted houses.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Haunt Review has been founded!
Haunt Review is a new blog designed to be an occasional review of haunted houses in and near the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.
We show you the best ... and the worst ... of the local haunt scene!
Haunt Review
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