Cedar Point Halloweekends: Sandusky, OH Indoor Haunts GA Boecklings Eerie Estate This award winning haunt was still our favorite and still packs a scare, but after three years needs some fresh ideas and scenery. The old fashioned haunted house is meticulously decorated in period furniture and nick-nacks, the actors are extremely convincing (we did miss the original old Mr. Boeckling greeting people at the door, though) and the lighting is perfect for setting the mood. This haunt won our Frightmaster award last year and with the addition of some new scenes and a little more creativity, could very easily grab that award again! Rating: 10 – Excellent The House on Boo Hill This is a family oriented haunt perfect for the kids. It’s well lit with just a little bit of creepiness but was actually one of the best surprises this year. I loved that they took out the mirror maze from last year and added new rooms. The alligator bathroom was awesome and the bed of nails was a nice touch! It was just enough for the kiddies to experience a little Halloween chill without really scaring them. Good job!!! Rating: 9.5 – Excellent Club Blood This is a your worst nightmare dance club – unless of course you LIKE vampires, blood, fog and very loud music! Lots of banging around, sneaking around and misdirection make for a haunting experience. Different but fun! Good actors. Great sound. Could be a bit longer, though. Rating: 8.5 – Very Good Eternity Infirmary This was my personal favorite haunt this year at Cedar Point. The actors were over-the-top convincing with more enthusiasm and in your face scares than any of the other haunts. The rooms were fairly sparse but just enough furniture to get the point across of a creepy sanitorium where the patients have taken over. Lots of screaming and...

Kings Island Halloween Haunt: Mason, OH Holiday Horror This was the second year for this haunt at Kings Island and was pretty much the same as last year. The rooms were fairly well lit, keeping the scare factor to a minimum. The half-interested actors are what brought this haunt down in points this year. They acted like they couldn’t care less. Very disappointing. Rating: 5.5 – Average Mysteria This is also the second year for this haunt at Kings Island and, in our opinion, was a total miss again with both theme and scare factor. It is nothing but white walls, chain link fence and lasers. All actors were in white or green body stockings. I am assuming that the intent was to blend in with the scenery – it didn’t work! It was a true maze with dead ends but at the exit there was a girl out of costume which was poor actor placement. This one missed the mark. Rating: 2.5 – Poor Slaughter House This haunt is a gore-fest! Loads of body parts and blood. It’s like Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Saw! Nice use of props. It felt dark and dirty. The car prop with the lights and horn was great! Rating: 10 – Excellent Urgent Scare This was another “heavy on the gore” haunt that remains pretty much the same year after year although it felt shorter than in past years. This haunt has some of the better props and theme than the others and had lots of noise and banging going on. Rating: 9.5 – Excellent Club Blood Club Blood is unique in that it combines the vampire mystique with a little S&M. The actors are very realistic and invite you to take a bite. Great costumes, good dancers, good all around haunt! Good curb appeal – really looks like a weird fantasy club...

USS Nightmare: Newport, KY A new year and a new attitude with the boat! More actors than seen in the past, longer haunt (almost 27 min to walk through compared to 22 last year), and new rooms where a big surprise awaits! Our reviewers were impressed with the fog, the greeter in front and especially the Captain on this year’s USS Nightmare. Some of the comments from our new haunt investigators were “can’t fake the feel of a real boat!”, “plenty of new scares, high and low!” “4th time here. Always a great time!”, and “OMG, I WAS SCREAMING!”. That about says it all. The water and wind effect in the rainforest area bring a realistic feel to your haunt experience and the camo guy in the jungle really surprised several of our reviewers. While several of the rooms were populated with characters from the past, several new characters also took over the boat this year so look for some new faces. Without describing the turn by turn experience to you (like some websites do), just suffice it to say if you think you knew the boat from past years, think again! There’s a new Nightmare waiting at the dock for you. Come aboard for awhile and stay forever!! Rating: 10 – Excellent Visit their web site at...

The Dent Schoolhouse: Cincinnati, OH (Dent) 2012 Frightmaster Award honorable mention! ** Descriptions May Contain Spoilers ** Bang for the buck For a haunt of this caliber, we feel 20$ is totally worth it, however some may feel that this is a bit pricey. Discount tickets are available at local Arby’s, Dominos, or by bringing a Crush product to the ticket booth. Tickets can also be ordered and printed at home to skip the ticket line. Come early to avoid the lines, the house is blacked out enough to provide a great experience even with a little daylight left. I know some places offer corn mazes, hay rides, petting zoos or whatever with admission, but this place is a haunted house, and a good one. You can make an evening of it, watch the videos showing on the big screens while you wait in line (or skip the line), hang out and listen to WEBN-provided music while wandering haunt actors scare the crowd, and even catch special guests (as we did with the Ecto-1). So if a haunted house is what you want, this one is worth the price of admission. Especially if you take advantage of the discount days. Rating: 10 – Excellent Curb Appeal Just waiting in line is enough to get the heart going. The windows are boarded up looking spooking, the rough wooden fence is menacing and Charlie can be seen peering out in the attic window. Ghouls wander through the queues preying on patrons that are not paying attention. A video of “history” of Charlie the groundskeeper and the Dent Schoolhouse plays on loop in the lines, which is very professional and really helps to amp up the audience. This theme carries throughout the haunt and helps the whole experience feel consistent. It doesn’t get much better than a legit old building decked out...

Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park: Middletown, OH 2012 Frightmaster Award Winner! Opening Comments – Todd C – Haunt Reviewer: When we were asked to visit Land of Illusion, I immediately expected Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt part 2. With the combination of little marketing and distant location, Land of Illusion was never really on my radar. Therefore, my expectations were low. I figured it would be okay but not great. I expected subpar actors with consumer-grade props. I estimated we’d see everything within an hour. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Paranormal Party / Club Zombie These are not what I would call haunted attractions, but rather just help the atmosphere of Land of Illusion. As you enter the Scream Park, you’ll be greeted with a towering bonfire 12 feet wide with plenty of seating. Club Zombie is a stage located off to the right where a healthy dose of techno and pop music were being blasted. Through the night these spots were hotbeds of activity where people were gathered, munching on snacks from the snack bar, dancing or singing along to the music from Club Zombie, or just fighting off the night’s chill around the bonfire. This makes the night feel like a party, someplace to hang out, rather than just a trip through a haunted house. Dr. Psycho’s Haunted Estate This was the most traditional “haunted house” style haunt, including both indoor and outdoor areas. Both were great. Outside, lighting is minimal . in the good way. There’s just enough light to know where you’re going and see what you need to see, but not enough to foresee what’s lurking ahead. Inside, you find yourself in a two story building full of grotesque detail and excellent actors. There were a number of knee-level nooks that the actors could approach you from that were very effective. This attraction...

Sandyland Acres: Petersburg, KY (NKY) The Haunted Hayride This hayride in the country just keeps getting better and better every year! This year Gene and Brenda Webb have outdone themselves and completely remastered the entire haunt with new scenes, scares and surprises. A very intimidating Mortimer Sneed greets you as you get on the hayride and explains the rules to you before your trip. “Tonight you will face the fears that will send shivers up your spine which may be your very last time. Before I usher this tractor to drag you off into the night there are a few things you must remember. No smoking, there’s hay on this wagon, no drunken liquids not even a thimble full. Stay seated at all times even if the dead is coming to get you. No cursing, the only cursing that should be going on is that performed by witches and the last thing is the dead line. Only the dead can walk upon the line. Do not let your feet walk across the line. Keep them tucked against the hay at all times and if you don’t touch the dead, they won’t touch you.” This set the mood for the trip. The large silo sprouted flames into the night every few minutes, startling even The Frightmaster. As Freddy greets you in the line and ushers you to the large wagon of hay bales you know you’re in for a treat. Then the trip begins. As you pass a creepy looking abandoned motel, a girl runs out at you holding a knife screaming to save her. The ride takes a turn and before you know it, you’re in the cornfield. They added additional actors to the trip through the cornfield this year, popping up out of nowhere and in any direction making it a 10 on the scare factor! Once you...

The Chambers of Horror: Middletown, OH Rating the Middletown Chambers of Horror is a bit like trying to rate a small town fair against a large multimillion dollar amusement park. It simply cannot compete when it comes to the flashy attractions, yet it carries a charm about it that the big parks lack in their money-driven atmosphere. If I were to judge on heart alone, this haunt would get aces across the board. You can tell that everyone on board has a passion for haunted houses and enjoys what they do. Having been converted from restaurant, the Haunted Chambers is much longer than the exterior advertises. I felt there were two strengths to this haunt – the actors and the maze. The Chambers of Horror excels at the confusion haunt. You get completely turned around while they zig and zag you through every square inch of the relatively small building, making it feel longer. Several key rooms make you decide your fate by selecting a door, only to end up in the same room several times. Trick dead ends and moving walls are great effects, but it is diminished a bit by having to be guided through by an actor. To me, it takes away from the experience some when you are given instructions like keep your back against this wall and look up when you hear a sound. The effects are great, but it would be nice if you didn’t need a tour guide telling you where to go at every room. Some areas are too dark and while that helps add to the confusion, it also means that you stumble around in the dark until an actor tells you go left then straight. If some of these areas were a little brighter or had scenery to tie the rooms together the actors could have more time to...

iSqFt Haunt – Catacombs of the Pumpkin God: Blue Ash, OH This year’s Catacombs of the Pumpkin God haunt was the best yet and over the top scary as far as low budget haunts go. Gus and Todd are skilled haunt designers by anyone’s estimation and have created one hell of a haunt in just a couple of days time. With the use of mostly home-made props and a few store bought animatronics and a large dose of creativity, the Catacombs of the Pumpkin God shaped into a great haunt with more scares and surprises than ever before and a quality of haunt that few home made haunts have dreamed of. The haunt takes approx 8 minutes from start to finish and each twist and turn brings new shocks, from the animated clown animatronic from “IT” to the bigger than life talking Pumpkin God, through the graveyard scene with it’s ghouls and skeletons, past the mad doctor and his sexy nurse/victim and even a very imaginative ghost hologram, the screams and the fun never stops until you’re out the door. The use of different levels of lighting and back backdrops gave the rooms an almost surreal feel and the music kept the mood and added to the creepy atmosphere. There was even a grill cooking a human leg that actually threw off heat like a real grill. The rooms were well done, the haunt long enough with enough twists and turns to disorient, and the actors frightful to the max! This haunt was well done and then some. It’s a shame that it’s limited to just the employees of iSqFt because it would make a really fun neighborhood haunt. Bang for the buck – Free! Rating: 10 – Excellent Curb Appeal Rating: 9 – Excellent Scare Factor Rating: 10 – Excellent Actors/Professionalism Rating: 10.5 – Frightmaster Candidate! Audio Effect...

Cedar Point Halloweekends: Sandusky, OH 2011 Frightmaster Award Winner! (Best indoor haunt) Indoor Haunts GA Boecklings Eerie Estate This award winning haunt only gets better every year with the addition of some new rooms, more creepy characters and more screams. As a matter of fact, we think that the Eerie Estate has more screams per square foot of haunt than any other haunted attraction in the tri-state! Just try keeping your cool in here. The rooms are meticulously decorated in late 1800’s decor, dimly lit and very quiet until BAM! The actors literally make you want to run through the rooms! But don’t run, you’ll miss the best that they saved for last… Rating: 11 – FRIGHTMASTER Happy Jack’s Toy Factory Ever wonder why there are no toys left in the entire city of Sandusky, OH? They have all turned into evil little predators and now reside in Happy Jack’s Toy Factory! Seriously, the demented-looking Barbie’s alone would fill a warehouse. Nicely spaced scares, good creativity (loved the GI Joe room!) and other unexpected surprises throughout give this haunt excellent fun value while keeping it high on the scare meter. Not your mother’s Toys-R-Us for sure!!!! Rating: 10.5 – FRIGHTMASTER Club Blood This is a dance club you may want to have second thoughts about going to after dark. The interior is a mix of loud dance music, strobe lights, creepy vampires and barrel mazes that keep you confused and yet terrified at the same time. The haunt is one of the shorter haunts but does manage to stay in theme throughout, maximizing the vampire cult idea. I did feel it needed something more out of the ordinary to give it a little variety but it was a good solid haunt and a lot of fun to go through. Rating: 8.5 – Very Good Outdoor Haunts Blood on the...

The Dent Schoolhouse: Cincinnati, OH (Dent) Charlie the janitor has been a bad janitor again this year and left the bodies of the missing school children laying all around the old schoolhouse. If this place doesn’t give you the creeps from the very beginning, you better check your pulse to see if you are already dead. You start off going through the dark, 1950’ish playground with phantom children playing merrily at recess. But the mood darkens when you enter the school and are checked out by the not-so-nice school nurse (one of our favorites!). As you make your way through the dark hallways in this very old, foreboding building, you see room after detailed room of corpses, skeletons, monster animatronics and many not-so-happy school children. Your job is to find out where Charlie is lurking and avoid the same untimely demise as the children. This haunt is intense and the surprises are many and definitely NOT for the squeamish or faint of heart! The haunt is also very long so it’s worth a bit of a wait in line. Tip – watch out for Damien Reaper – one of the creepiest characters we’ve encountered in any haunt! He will send chills down your spine! Rating: 10 – Excellent Visit their web site at...