Scream Acres Ct 2014 Review

Ratings Legend

(1 skull) – Poor
(2 skulls) – Average
(3 skulls) – Good
(4 skulls) – Excellent
(5 skulls) – Best of the best!

Scream Acres Ct: Covington, KY

Teresa
This one hasn’t been around long, so it doesn’t have all the production of some of the professional haunts out there. It is inexpensive, and even though the lines are long and slow, Beetlejuice was playing to entertain guests and the wait was inside, which is nice for those cold, rainy nights. This one has some very detailed rooms and some of the actors made some seriously creepy noises! There were other parts with very little in the way of decor and actors, but that just means there is plenty of room to grow for next year. If you don’t mind a long wait, you get a variety of scenes for the money.

Frightmaster
To consider the scores on this haunt you must consider that it is only a second year haunt grown from an 18 year old’s imagination and several years of existing as a home haunt. All that considered, it’s not a bad haunt but still has room for improvement. Let’s look at the areas that were impressive first.

The curb appeal was very good due to the fact that the haunt was clearly marked on the outside and the wait queue was on the inside in a heated building out of the rain. The night we were there they had “Betelgeuse” playing on a big screen TV for the amusement of the folks in line. This was much appreciated as I will explain later. The front of the haunt appeared to be an old morgue which was the haunt’s theme as explained to you by the first actor you encountered. I’m not sure I followed the entire story but it was something about a deranged funeral director/doctor? Some of the rooms were well done with detailed decorations while others seemed to be lacking something. This is pretty common with a new haunt-in-the-works. The actors were acceptable and (for the most part) seemed to stay in character as we went through. The make-up was decent but I felt there was an over use of masks in the haunt. My overall impression was that the haunt was a good start and could be on it’s way to a great haunt with a few improvements.

The things I felt that had room for improvement were the following:
The queue line was WAY too slow – even in the VIP line it took us all of 1 1/2 hours to get into the haunt. We even came early and still had to wait 90 min. The reason for this was that they waited up to 10 min between groups. I understand that they didn’t want the “conga line” going through but you need to get a happy medium here, people. 10 min is way too long to wait in between groups. Not necessary. Also – send more than two people through at a time.

Next – the haunt in general was too well lit. No one gets scared in total daylight or in a house that’s all lit up. Also – you could see over the top of many walls and hallways – this too is due to too much lighting. I would have loved to see a few more dark spaces or dimly lit rooms.
Also – please loose the “Clown room”! It is so overdone, not scary (the one clown’s outfit was half open in the back) and the actor’s seemed actually confused as to how they were supposed to act or what to say. Use that space for something different and creative that no one else has.
Another suggestion – train your actors to not go out of character when they interact with people. I encountered several situations where I spoke about something having to do with the scene to the haunters and they instantly became the “17 year old wearing a costume” talking to me. This just kills the scene instantly.

And lastly, lose the “backwoods hillbilly” scene in back of the haunt. The chainsaws weren’t scary, the actors weren’t scary and it was just an annoyance.

Don’t get me wrong – this was a good haunt especially since it was designed by an 18 year old. It has monumental potential with some tweaks and fleshing out more details, upping the intensity, turn up the believably of the actors, darken the scenes, add a few creative touches, make the haunt longer and the queue lines shorter/move faster and next year this will be a haunt to rival any haunt in Northern KY.

Overall score: 3.00 Skulls (Good)

Visit their web site at cincyscreams.com