2006 Haunted House Review -UPDATED
Aberthau's Haunted House
Since my departure, things have gone down hill. They're using a lot of my props, but not the good ones. The whole thing is set up in a pretty goofy manner, that reminds me of how it used to be when the girl guides did it. I've not been through during operation, so I can't really comment on the quality, but from what I saw, ( Read more... )
Since my departure, things have gone down hill. They're using a lot of my props, but not the good ones. The whole thing is set up in a pretty goofy manner, that reminds me of how it used to be when the girl guides did it. I've not been through during operation, so I can't really comment on the quality, but from what I saw, ( Read more... )
Potter’s House of Horrors located in Surrey. Decent haunt put on by people who enjoy what they do. Despite the fairly obvious scare tactics and the overly abundant lighting (a common criticism) it was a fun romp through halloweeny goodness. Props and animatronics were slightly ramshackle and there were a lot of teenagers trying to scare me but not really knowing how. (but I’ve found from casting these things myself, you have to work with who you get)
Surrey Haunted Train was goofy goodness. Much more entertaining than I expected. High energy but perhaps a little too high energy, not letting the tension build up. Oh and maybe a little more thought could be put into theming this unique venue to make it something really special.
Barnyard Phantoms was where I went for Frightfest; a summer meeting of haunt enthusiasts. The attraction was scarier then because there were long stretches of black corridor that were disorienting. When it was all ready for the season there were too many teenagers who looked like teenagers, and the scares weren’t particularly well-choreographed. It was also a very short haunt. But still worth checking out if you’re in the area.
Film Haunt is the biggest waste of 15 bucks since I paid about that to see Ron Howard’s The Grinch. I consulted on this goddamn thing and they didn’t listen to a goddamn thin Ben or I said. The whole thing is a trainwreck, but a trainwreck with great but WAYYY overlit sets and a bigass explosion finale. But the battling vampires were lame and high-school esque, the scares were nothing of the sort, and worst of all it made no goddamn sense. For a place that made a big stink about having “sets and characters that made sense thematically” it certainly came out of nowhere that in their first overlit spaceship set there was a long-nosed, green-faced witch sitting in the captain’s chair prophesizing doom. For the record, the “story” behind the haunt is a giant bug escaping and getting loose. So WTF is with the witches and the goddamn vampires? Ron, if you read this, your haunt sucks and it sucks because you and Jonsey won’t listen to people. Everyone who works with you that we talked to was largely embarassed to be involved. Listen to them. And nobody should patronize this haunt.
Fright Fest at the PNE was mostly carnival-trailer-haunt style attractions. Curiously overlit at that. That being said if you’re looking to make a night of spook then this is the best bang for your buck. Staffed by generally uncaring and unenthusiastic actors and filled with buzzers, occasionally broken props and some sparse but nifty animatronics, the haunts still can get a jump out of you.
Double Spurs I have only recently heard about. They take a much more elabourate approach to room design. This place definetly takes the cake for having beautiful sets. Scares were very well choreographed and the camo-net-guy totally “got” me. But the house is very linear (as Ben quite rightly put it) with one room leading in a straight path to the next and so on. But still very well designed. They were low on actors that night and Ben, Haley and I were pulled from the line to get the first-through tour in the hopes that we’d lend them a hand since they were short staffed and we showed up in full gear. Would have LOVED to helped out but the Reaper’s line was long and it would have been a shame to miss it, even for such a good cause.
Which brings us to Reapers. I didn’t know what to think going in but the hour-long wait made me think this might be a goodie. Then the Freddy, Meyers and Jason waslkabout characters made me think different. Minus 5 points for using trademarked characters that don’t really interact with the line and minus a further 5 for letting the Jason get away with wearing one of the crappy glow-in-the-dark jason masks. But THEN! Oh ho! I finally got into the haunt…. was a great attraction! These people know exactly what they’re doing! Super scares, perfect lighting, great props, themed well enough that nothing stood out as “WTF is this doing here?” (except the checkerboard room) and long enough that the wait in line didn’t seem like a waste of time. Reaper’s is great. Check it out if you can.
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