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hellohellions · 8 years ago

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Haunt Vault: Hundred Acres Manor (2016)

Admittedly, I think we’ve given Hundred Acres Manor something of a bad shake in the past. The last time we visited, some two or three years ago, I left feeling that the entire ordeal was way overhyped and flat-out disappointing in comparison to the advertisements and the praise we had been hearing for the establishment for weeks. The setting was there, but where was the passion? The artistic direction? The character that sets it apart from every other haunted hollow and creepy crypt in the area? The creative potential was staggering and we hated to see it go to waste on confusing set designs, ill-timed scares, poorly applied makeup, and actors repeating the same lines over and over again while we stood frozen in line from the intense crowds.

It just goes to show that one off night or one half-hearted performance can really muck up your perception of a haunt. Such is the nature of any event with live entertainment.

Nevertheless, we returned to the site with some small hope of improvement from the haunt of years past and we were not only pleasantly surprised, we were completely swept off our feet.

What we liked

Theming: There are a lot of things going on in this haunt. Like Rich's Fright Farm or ScareHouse, there are multiple episodic haunts contained within the event that don’t necessarily tie into an overarching theme, but fill out the haunt with a variety of vignette-style offerings. In this case, there were six attractions: Dead Lift, Damnation, The Torture Tank, Vodou, and two brand new sections called The Breach, and Hallow’s Eve. That’s a lot of disparate haunt material for one event, you might think. And under normal circumstances, it would be an ambitious undertaking to fit those odd puzzle pieces together into something coherent. But Hundred Acres Manor managed to make it flow together quite nicely. There’s a ton of variety in terms of scare tactics, as one might expect.

Dead Lift and Damnation are a bit more of your traditional haunted house fare: demons, the dead, and decrepit houses filled to the brim with scares. Torture Tank can best be described as a gladiator-style, steampunk, post-apocalyptic setting that thrusts you right into the action. It was an adrenaline-packed industrial nightmare that made you want to run, run, run. In fact, it was almost reminiscent of Halloween Horror Night’s RUN, and in a similar fashion, you can expect loads of whirring engines and massive power tools used in this setting. (Three chainsaws! THREE! At ONCE!) Our next stop is Vodou. It was of course, the voodoo themed bayou haunt, a theme which seems to be growing increasingly popular in recent years. Despite this, Hundred Acres Manor keeps it fresh by adding a lot of unexpected twists and turns, including a stroll through a New Orleans cemetery! Next up is The Breach, which ended up being my favorite section during our visit. The Breach is themed around an alien invasion in a government research facility (in space!) and by gum - they really made it work! The aliens were everywhere and it really did feel like you were somewhere alien and uninviting. Our final act is Hallow’s Eve, a very traditional take on Halloween hauntings. Themed around a vintage Halloween party, it was brimming with spooky delight and had a dusty, kind of nostalgic charm to it. This is a world apart from the confusing, almost themeless haunt I had attended previously, and the varying themes definitely brought some great scares to the table without compromising the haunt’s integrity.

Set design / Atmosphere: Hundred Acre Manor has a look that really steals the show. The large, foreboding gothic architecture packs a punch when you’re standing in line, and just the stark red lighting on the facade gets your blood pumping in anticipation of witnessing the horrors contained within. The inside of the structure is just as beautiful. There is so much going on with scenery in terms of props, sensory experiences, and obstacles in your path that it’s almost overwhelming. Instead of feeling cluttered and confused, however, the experience is a treat for the eyes, and sometimes a bane for the nose. Seriously, the use of scent in this haunt was incredibly jarring (in a good way, of course!) and we’d love to see more haunts explore extra sensory material like this. The use of animatronics to supplement scares here is some of the best I think I’ve seen in a while. Some of the animatronics were just massive and terrifying, and they served as a beautiful distraction for actors to come in and do their thing. In addition to animatronics, there is some absolutely wonderful use of obstacles and terrain at this haunt. Vodou had one of the most gorgeous water scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a haunt, in which an actor was wading underneath the dock we were walking on. There was also some stunning work in The Breach’s “anti-gravity” room, which was all at once breathtaking and disorienting. There was some clear thought that went into executing these rooms and for that, I think Hundred Acres Manor has proven itself to be a rare gem in terms of set innovation.

Costuming: While there were some generic costume choices in here, the makeup looked loads better than it did before. There were no really outstanding characters, which was disappointing, but quite a bit of the makeup did look lovely. And we LOVED the aliens in The Breach. Science-fiction based haunts: take note. This is how you do otherworldly creatures.

Actor energy: Distraction-based scares are big here, and that’s just the way we like ‘em. Not to mention that there was a ton of actor energy all throughout the attraction. While one or two rooms out of the whole thing had actors milling about (including one we saw check his phone; a BIG no-no), most of the actors were ready to pounce at any time and were more than willing to follow us through multiple rooms. Our favorite was the xenomorph-like alien that chased us through the light tunnel in The Breach. They were incredibly energetic and just kept coming at us, even when we thought they were starting to back off. Scares were aggressive, abundant, and loud, and while I’d like to see more subtle, psychological scares done by some of the actors (especially in Hallow’s Eve), there was a lot of good material coming from the actors this year.

Pacing: The crowds for Hundred Acres Manor are absolutely hellish. Seriously. But the good folks at the haunt know how to space out their customers and keep them from bumping into other groups during the experience, something which I complained about during my last visit. I think the sprawling line at the beginning often hampers peoples’ haunt experience, but it’s a necessary evil to keep two-to-six person groups from corralling in the haunt like a bunch of cattle. (The wait isn’t as tremendously long as you would assume, either.) Additionally, the haunt seemed to stretch on for ages. It didn’t feel too short, but it didn’t grow exhausting to endure. There’s a nice amount of time spent in each area, and it really helps to keep the pace of the experience up.

What could be improved

Repeating lines: This is a gripe that I had before about Hundred Acres Manor, and while there were leaps and bounds in terms of improvement since my last visit, this is the one thing that they never really touched on. There was far too much “get out” and “come play with me” and actors just screaming at you if they didn’t know what else to say. Moreover, actors would repeat the same line in a room multiple times, and after a while, it just rips you right out of the experience. This might just be one of my pet peeves in haunts, but I do think it detracts from the visit somewhat to hear the same line screeched three or four times while you’re in a room.

Makeup: While a lot of the costuming was nice, and the cast knew how to accessorize well to suit their characters, there were lots of times where I saw cheap grease paint slathered muddily onto actors’ faces. In the dark, this isn’t a huge deal, but if a character is in an area with decent lighting, the use of chunky grease paint makes it seems like corners are being cut.

Final thoughts: Hundred Acres Manor has definitely redeemed themselves in terms of haunt credibility, in my eyes. The new additions in 2016 more than made up for the lackluster experience I had a few years back, and I can’t wait to see what Hundred Acres Manor brings to the table in haunt seasons to come!

Overall, we give this haunt an 8/10.

We also went back at the end of the season for Lights Out for Leukemia, a wonderful black-out charity event held by Hundred Acres Manor, and were thoroughly satisfied with the experience. Not only were they putting on a great show for us, they were doing it in the name of good will. Good on you, Hundred Acres Manor.

#hundred acres manor #pittsburgh haunts #pennsylvania haunts #haunt #haunts #haunted house #haunted houses #haunt review #haunt reviews #haunted house reviews #haunt life #haunt vault

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hellohellions · 8 years ago

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Valentine’s Day in the Basement Review (2017)

Our second favorite time of year is just about upon us: pre-Halloween haunting, and what better way to kick off the off-season by spending Valentine’s Day with our good friends at ScareHouse? Valentine’s Day in the Basement was an enchanting way to spend our Valentine’s weekend, filled with frolic, fear, and delicious cookies! Yum!

What we liked

Atmosphere: ScareHouse’s home is a historic building in Etna which seems to naturally generate atmosphere all on its own. It goes without saying that the rooms upstairs are extravagant, including the Arcana Lounge, the bar, and the area where the tarot readings were taking place. All of these are locations used in the general admission haunt during the October season, and they are loaded to the brim with atmosphere and a dusty, vintage feeling of dread.

The theme: This year, The Basement was themed around Alice in Wonderland - a theme that isn’t a stranger to being adapted into a horror story, if the likes of American McGee have anything to say about it. Yes, this version of Alice in Wonderland isn’t a children’s storybook tale, but a lunatic’s paradise: an asylum where the mad denizens of Wonderland are patients, and you - the unlucky Alice - are being committed. This theme has been done before, but we really enjoyed the direction it was taken in The Basement. The characters were all very symbolic, and the interpretations of the characters were really interesting. Every haunt needs a good theme as its foundation, and I think taking inspiration from a popular fairy tale is a great way to turn an innocent, silly story on its head, converting it into something dark and unsavory.

Actor energy / characters: If a solid idea is the foundational bones of a haunt, then the actors are the blood that pulses through its veins, filling it with life. The cast of characters at ScareHouse is by far one of the most well put together, and I’d go as far as to compare their success to really big ticket haunts like Busch Gardens and Halloween Horror Nights in terms of iconic characters. Not only was there a great cast in The Basement itself, but the crew working upstairs were just as entertaining, if not more so. We really loved the bartender character and the Jabberwock’s improv show, among other characters - some that we recognized from the past, and some that were very new to us! Honestly, if we had to list everything we liked about the acting at this year’s event, this review would be pages and pages long. We have nothing but kind words for the entertainers at ScareHouse, and the genuine talent among the ScareHouse cast makes this haunt an absolute must-go-to for us.

Makeup / costuming: As expected from a large scale haunt, the crew did an amazing job fixing the characters up with something dapper to wear - both in The Basement and out. The patients looked absolutely deranged. We loved the fact that they were wearing things they found laying around the asylum, as one does. The nurse who admitted us at the beginning also looked amazing (and her contour was GORE-geous), and we adored the Red Queen’s card neck frill. The iridescent scales that were painted on the Jabberwock’s face were so lovely, I almost wished there was more of them to look at. Overall, the makeup work and coordination of the costumes was lovely. There are no cheap masks to be found here, only masterful makeups and costumes that have character in spades.

Edibles:

(Spoilers)

The triumphant return of something we praised ScareHouse for during their 2016 season - edibles! I love when these are included in haunts. Having someone eat something in order to proceed makes the experience so visceral and uncomfortable, it really is a great way to break some boundaries and get someone immersed in the experience. And I have no idea what "pill" I was given by the... um, well, she was a lunch lady… but it was such an incredible assault to the senses that I was really startled for a moment. Not disgusting, but thoroughly unpleasant and more than anything, spicy. Yikes. I’m white as Wonderbread, I can scarcely handle ground black pepper let alone what I call the Jalapeño Nightmare Pill that I was given in the asylum. Nonetheless, it was a tremendously fun addition to the haunt and after the fact, it was a really funny thing to have happen.

Of course, there was also the matter of desserts at the party after our experience in The Basement. Behind the Arcana Lounge was a little speakeasy called The F*cking Bar, which offered hot chocolate (with all the fixings!), fresh water, and delicious Valentine-themed cookies. Seriously, I ate maybe seven or eight of them. Our compliments to the chef, they were truly scrumptious.

So many things to do: Not only was there the haunt going on downstairs, but there was a party with desserts, tarot readings, and characters to interact with upstairs that kept us entertained long after we had escaped the asylum. The additional bar area was also loads of fun, and interacting with the characters in there may very well have been our favorite aspect of the event. ScareHouse really pulled out all the stops when it came to entertaining their guests before and after going through the haunt, and we couldn’t appreciate them more for it.

What could be improved

Honestly, I can’t think of a damn thing I’d like to give constructive criticism on. If our arms were being twisted, the only thing we’d have to say detracted from our experience was “we can’t believe it was over so quickly!”

Final thoughts: We gave this haunt a final score of 9.5/10. The scares came hot and fast, and the personality of the experience really shone through at this year’s Valentine’s Day in the Basement. We hope to see more events like this in the future that really dig deep into the creativity of the staff and give us more reasons to keep coming back for more!

#scarehouse #the scarehouse #the basement #valentines day in the basement #haunt #haunt life #haunted attractions #haunted houses #haunted house #haunted attraction #Haunted Attraction Review #Pittsburgh Haunts

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hellohellions · 9 years ago

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Rich’s Fright Farm Review (2016)

Fright Farm is a commercially successful haunt in Smithfield, PA. Nearing its third decade of operation, this haunt previously held the spot as one of my favorite haunted attractions in Southwestern Pennsylvania. I have a soft spot in my heart for the place, mostly because I’ve been going there since I was a wee lass, so I was excited to see what they could bring to the table this year. Themed around an alien invasion, I had some pretty high expectations for Fright Farm to really showcase their team’s creativity with sets and creature designs, and I was really anticipating some fun costumes. Unfortunately, Fright Farm seems to have reached its peak years ago and is now relying on its marketing success to bring in the crowds, rather than the talents of the people behind the attraction.

What we liked

The live music: Fright Farm has live music in the queue line, which is a nice touch because the queue line can get pretty long, especially later in the season. Employing bands allows them to get some exposure and allows queue occupants to get some free entertainment with their tickets. During our visit, a funkadelic jazz band was playing and while they didn’t really fit in with the atmosphere, they were still tremendously entertaining so we need to give them a tip of the hat before we dig into the details of the haunt.

The costumes for the aliens: The aliens that appeared throughout the maze were visually plain, but were startling to look at because they looked just human enough to fool someone in the dark. Some of them had big, glowing eyes that I thought brought a nice touch to the design and they were genuinely fun to look at. Their unnaturally smooth movements really stood out from anything else in the haunt and they were a delight to interact with.

What could be improved

Actor disposition / makeup:

A good actor knows that timing is everything when it comes to the scare, and the scareactors at Fright Farm have botching up the timing on groups down to a science. There was no direction to the startle scares, and the thing that most often happened was that someone would pop out and no one in my group would be startled because they came out at such an inopportune time that we could see them coming from a mile away. There was no element of surprise. There was also no variance in which part of the group was pounced upon; the people directly in front of us got the brunt of the scares - what few there were - and we, my group and the three people behind us, got the sloppy aftermath. Some of the actors tried to recover the flat scares and while the effort they put forth is admirable (and appreciated), they just couldn’t be salvaged. At least those actors put forth some kind of energy into their performance, because there were so many actors milling about, half-dressed in their costume, talking to each other out-of-character or complaining to the guests that they were tired. I have never seen so many costumed actors put so little passion into a haunt that they didn’t even try to remain in character, and many that bothered to delivered their lines in a weary deadpan that conveyed their lack of interest perfectly. I can’t say that we were any more interested in what was going on than the poor actors were. Maybe it was lack of direction or it just happened that everybody was having a rough night, but it was extremely disappointing nonetheless.

Makeup was minimal, to put it kindly. So many of the “infected” just had greasepaint smeared across their faces in muddy streaks and the seams of the costumes were so obvious that you could, in numerous instances, see the civilian clothes that some of the actors were wearing underneath their costumes. This is the kind of carelessness that I would expect from a high school fundraiser event and not from a haunt going on its 27th season. The aforementioned aliens were the only spatterings of originality in the house, and their appearances were few and far between. Apart from that, a bizarre inclusion of IP characters in the hayride who had no place being included as part of the experience and otherwise normal-looking people with dirtied up faces was the bulk of our experience with costuming.

Set design / space management:

The set design was nothing to write home about. The layout of the haunt remains the same between seasons, and that would be perfectly fine and good if the permanent layout was utilized well. The house that you walk through is an imposing structure from the outside, with a gorgeous exterior that brings to mind the classic “haunted houses” of cinema - in fact, it almost resembles the Bates’ residence from Psycho; a towering Victorian home that has fallen into clear disrepair. There is a sinister air that surrounds the place that builds suspense pretty successfully while you’re waiting in line. The house acts as a base for the year’s events, since the interior of the building changes from year to year depending on what the theme is. This year, however, was just rife with black tarp and some spray-painted design covering the walls. The same spray-painted design. Over and over and over again. The use of props played out similarly. While there were some genuinely good uses of hanging props - particularly electrical wires and tubes which made it hard to navigate in tight spaces, the prop usage and set designs were overall lacking. There were so many times that we just saw masks lying around on tables without any rhyme or reason to them. No attempt was made to hide the seams, they were just… there. As if they needed to fill the space and they couldn’t think of anything else to put there.

The most disappointing part, in my eyes, was that there were so many areas in the haunt that were just devoid of anything happening. Just empty rooms and hallways that had no actors, few props, and no animatronics or ambient sounds employed at all. Even in the hayride, there were long stretches of silence where there weren’t even sets to provide something, anything, to look at. And in some cases - both on the ride and in the house - it looked like there was supposed to be someone or at least something in there. It completely killed any atmosphere and left my group feeling bored and unimpressed. The haunt could have greatly benefitted from a higher concentration of actors, or at least the reuse of the assets they did have if they were irreparably short-staffed, but there was little to no direction in actor or prop placement.

Plot cogency / theming: Seeing an alien invasion at a haunt is a breath of fresh air in an industry filled to the brim with exhausted themes like cannibal hillbillies and evil circuses. With so many directions you can take, be it body horror à la The Thing or Dead Space or a mysterious paranormal investigation courtesy of The X-Files, there are unlimited opportunities to come up with a fun and original take on extraterrestrial interactions. Fright Farm squandered every chance to use this theme to their advantage. As far as we could tell, the basic plot of this year’s haunt was this: aliens have invaded, there are scientists involved… also zombies, we think? Sometimes, a security guard shows up and acts like a drill sergeant. We’re not sure what we’re supposed to be doing or seeing, and we’re not even really sure what the aliens are doing here. Are they experimenting on people? Is there a space virus causing people to become ravenous undead monsters? Have the scientists uncovered the secrets of the universe and have they inevitably gone mad from the revelation of such truths? We received no answers. There was no elaboration, partly because we could not understand a word of what any of the scientist characters were saying. Not because they were being purposefully cryptic, using scientific jargon, or had been afflicted with madness caused by an alien parasite, but because their speech was entirely unintelligible. We straight-up could not tell what most of the actors were trying to say. There was the suggestion of a plot, but it was applied as liberally as one could possibly manage. The alien theme could have been used so well, especially because the location of the event was on a farm (crop circles and cow abductions, anyone?) but there was nothing to tie it to the farm. The general lack of aliens was also a let-down. During the hayride, there was only one segment at the very end of the ride that suggested the presence of aliens - an odd, green light in the middle of the field which, we assume, was supposed to be a spaceship - but that’s it. There is so much potential for creative design choices with a science fiction theme, but there was almost no care involved in making sure the components of the story pieced together. There was no coherence to the theme, and we ended up wondering what was even going on as we walked through.

Final thoughts: We gave this haunt a rating of 2/10. With such a reputation preceding it, and with the size of the crowds being ushered in this early into the haunt season, I expected so much more from Fright Farm this year. Fright Farm really is capable of doing so much better, and they’ve proven that in years past by having energetic actors, original and cohesive plots, and great set design. But they phoned in their performance hard, and I can’t recommend in good conscience that anyone need witness the shitshow that Fright Farm put on this year. Especially considering the $25 admission. Until Fright Farm polishes up and does what they are more than capable of doing, I doubt that we will be returning any time soon.

#fright farm #richs fright farm #richs farms #richs farm #haunt review #haunt #haunt life #haunted house #haunted attraction #haunted house review #haunted attractions #haunted attraction review #haunt reviews

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hellohellions · 9 years ago

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Lonesome Valley Farms Review (2016)

Lonesome Valley Farms’ Valley of Terror is a departure from the larger, more well-known haunts in the Pittsburgh area. Tucked away in a corner near Greensburg, PA is this little attraction that really brings a lot to the table, despite its limited size and scanty advertising. My two-man group ventured off the beaten path and were delighted with what Lonesome Valley cooked up for us this year.

What we liked

Actor energy / dedication:

Lonesome Valley really upped the ante with their actors this year. Not only were there more of them to fill the gaps that they had last year, but the actors genuinely put on some great performances. A lot of them went above and beyond to stalk us through the corn maze, the hayride, and the house itself, and one of them even asked my partner for my name, and then ran from their position to tell literally every other actor in the haunt. Talk about a personalized experience! There’s a lot of passion behind those masks, and while some of the performances fell flat, most of the actors put forth a ton of effort and really stood out as interesting characters. There wasn’t an actor that broke character throughout the entire experience, and there were lots of actors roaming around outside of the attractions which created such a lively atmosphere that we weren’t even bored while waiting for the hayride to start. Though the haunt is smaller than a lot of the others in the area, they know how to utilize what they have well and I think that Lonesome Valley could really grow into something huge and incredible with a little bit of publicity. Special mention goes out to the incredibly acrobatic Freddy Krueger, who went above and beyond to showboat for our group and really sold the character without uttering a single word. There were a lot of expressive silent characters, which provided some genuinely unsettling scares without relying too heavily on the pop-out-and-say-boo methodology of haunting.

Good use of space / theming:

There are some extremely claustrophobic spaces in the house portion of the haunt and they make for some unsettlingly close encounters with the actors. There were some underfoot and overhead scares that worked well and broke up the monotony of people just popping out in front of you. The scares came fast and hard, and there was a lot of stuff packed into such a small space - which really worked for the farm setting. There were a ton of well-used props and sensory details, including smells and changes in the texture of the path, that really caught us off-guard. Lighting in the house really sold the setting and made us feel immersed in the environment. Lonesome Valley is a pioneer in the “spooky farm” genre of haunts. Instead of the typical backwoods creeps and inbred country folk, we get a lovely assortment of genetically altered half-animal, half-human creatures that are not only eye candy but are genuinely threatening to boot. You get your typical characters in this kind of haunt, like a butcher or a disgruntled farmhand, but they fit well into the area and there’s a variety of actors in the house.

Good use of animatronics in house:

I was a fan of the use of animatronics, because they were used in-tandem with the actors. Lonesome Valley didn’t rely on the animatronics to sell their scares, they used them as supplementary material to the actors’ scares - and there were numerous times that they would get me with an animatronic, then I’d turn around and an actor would scare me again while I was distracted. This is some good time management.

Quality makeup:

For such a small-scale haunt, the crew really put a lot of love into costumes and makeup. There were some towering beasts that wouldn’t look out of place in a big-scale, professional haunt, in addition to some great makeup on the human characters. Someone on the crew really knows how to make bruises and blood, and that’s an area where a lot of haunts cut corners.

What could be improved

Line repetition:

Despite Lonesome Valley’s excellent re-use of limited actors, there were far too many times when said actors repeated their lines to us or just ended up laughing in our faces when they had nothing to say. This is a minor gripe, but it really takes me out of the experience to have lines regurgitated.

IP characters:

This might be my worst pet-peeve in haunts. There were too many recognizable IP characters that had nothing to do with the theme of the place, including Twisty the Clown and Freddy Krueger (although I’ve already waxed poetic about the actor’s abilities). I’d like to see more originality in small haunts, and the reliance on characters from TV and movies kind of impedes that. If Lonesome Valley could wean themselves off of that reliance, I think their original concepts could really get some time in the limelight.

Cheap props / masks on the hayride:

The decorations throughout the hayride were nothing to write home about. Some of the stuff was recognizable from stores such as Spirit Halloween and it really threw me off. Additionally, because a CD player was used, there were some abrupt changes in music during the hayride. Admittedly, this could be excused because the haunt is genuinely a small-town, family-run affair with volunteer actors. I can’t speak for the budget of the haunt, but they do a pretty damn good job with what they have. I would just like to see a more polished finish on the hayride because the house is such a drastic increase in quality.

Final thoughts: We gave this haunt a score of 8/10. This is a genuinely good haunt that is chockfull of scares, and it’s tucked away in a corner in Greensburg unbeknownst to a lot of the public. I can safely give a full recommendation of Lonesome Valley Farms’ Valley of Terror. I’d love to see this place get more business, because they put on a great show for us and I’d love to see the place grow and improve over the season.

#lonesome valley #lonesome valley farms #greensburg pa #pennsylvania haunts #haunts #haunted houses #haunt reviews #haunt review #haunt life #lonesome valley farms valley of terror #valley of terror #haunted house review #haunted house reviews

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hellohellions · 9 years ago

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Scarehouse Review (2016)

Scarehouse is a small, family-owned and operated haunt just outside of Pittsburgh that has garnered a lot of media attention in the past few years. Though the sets and layout are changed from year-to-year, for us the quality of the haunt has remained the same. This year, we braved general admission and ventured deep into the bowels of Scarehouse’s Basement for a slightly more personal encounter, and we were impressed with what the Scarehouse team had in store for us.

Gen. Admission: There are three separate attractions in the general admission haunt: The Summoning, Nocturnia, and Infernal. Each segment is separately themed, but the haunts flow together in a continuous line - no separate queues necessary.

What we liked

Set design: It cannot be overstated that Scarehouse is simply a beautiful haunt. The historic location is perfect for creating an evocative setting that transports you directly into the heart of a dusky, 1930s lodge. The crew makes excellent use of lighting and really piles on the atmosphere, even in the queue line, where the tension hangs as thickly in the air as the synthetic fog that accosts the queue’s occupants. My partner-in-crime particularly likes the soundtrack in the queue, and I have to agree. That vintage, crackling big band jazz really transports you into the time period.

Actor energy: Despite the gorgeous props and scenery, our favorite aspect of Scarehouse is their cast. We’d be hard-pressed to find a scareactor (or actress) who failed to stay in-character during our visit, and they’ve all got charisma in spades. A very special shout-out to Princess Holly, who kept us entertained in line. The highest energy we saw all night was in the theatre area of The Summoning, which was jam-packed with actors who played off of each other well.

Clever scares / Good use of space: Scarehouse has a trend of using tight corridors to its advantage. The scareactors can get close enough to unnerve their guests (and often enough to feel their breath on your cheek - yikes!) but never once were we even so much as bumped into. The winding turns of the attraction make it easy for actors to surprise you around a corner, and there are a number of overhead scares sprinkled throughout to provide some variety. There were a handful of genuinely smart fright tactics that came out of Scarehouse this year. This is particularly true of Infernal, which provided a nice variety of startles and atmospheric scares. Sound cues were used particularly well here and there were many times where the actors simply appeared out of nowhere.

What could be improved

Nocturnia: Personally, I just don’t like blacklight/3-D haunts. They simply don’t scare me, and they just end up being disorienting and often unpleasant to the senses. Thankfully, Nocturnia didn’t assault our eyes too terribly with clashing patterns and horrific changing lights as this brand of attraction is apt to do, and the visuals in the maze actually brought this section of the attraction together rather harmoniously. The storybook-like set pieces fit perfectly well into the bizarre, midnight forest carnival narrative. Nocturnia had a small spattering of good startles that redeemed the haunt - I’m looking at you, tall man - but they were few and far between. It was inarguably visually stunning, presenting its attendants with a gorgeous fairytale land of macabre circus-folk and mysterious paper-white forests, but scare-wise, it just didn’t impress. The strange, cartoonish world of Nocturnia could have been decently scary with some better utilization of actors.

The Summoning: (Spoilers) The “chosen one” arc in The Summoning could be more interactive. As it is, there are few opportunities for the chosen person to really do anything that makes a difference in your experience at the attraction and at the end of the haunt, the chosen one really doesn’t have too much relevance. As in, they don’t really… do anything. There is no sacrifice, they aren’t momentarily separated from the group, they aren’t temporarily ushered into the Great One’s ranks; it just doesn’t piece together in the way that it could. The final scene in The Summoning in general is somewhat lacking in comparison to the buildup to meeting the Great One. The suspense leading up to the meeting falls flat and the use of an animatronic leaves one wanting something more. There’s a lot of potential for this portion of the haunt to pack a much bigger punch than it does, and I’d hate to see a great concept’s execution disintegrate because of a lackluster ending.

Final thoughts:

Would we recommend the regular haunt? Absolutely. Scarehouse has a lot to offer in terms of both fright value and set design. We hope they only continue to improve throughout the season.

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The Basement:

We’ve been through The Basement two times prior (once during the 2015 haunt season and again for Valentine’s Day in The Basement in 2016), so naturally we were excited to see what was waiting for us down there. This year, The Basement was themed around the birthday party of a clown named Happy… and that’s all the information we received prior to entering. At first, we were skeptical of what could be done with the tired “evil clown" theme, but we were pleasantly surprised by what The Basement had to offer.

What we liked

Use of limited space and variety of scenes: The building’s basement is not tremendously big, so space management is an absolute necessity for an attraction like The Basement. Thankfully, the cast and crew of Scarehouse utilize the space they have down there for maximum scare potential. The rooms in The Basement are cohesive, though varied, and there’s a nice flow to the place despite the fact that you’re led to do some backtracking through the area. There’s definitely a claustrophobic element to The Basement, the rooms are purposefully small to allow for close encounters but they’re not so small that the actor is constantly handling, bumping into, or brushing against you. The scenery fit the feel of the event and it wasn’t just black tarp and cloth curtains - there were fully decorated sets down there. There was also a shocking amount of sexual content for an experience themed around a clown’s birthday party - which isn’t a bad thing, and it wasn’t anything that crossed any reasonable boundaries. It was definitely jarring, but it both amused and horrified us at numerous points during the experience.

Actor energy, improvisation: There were a number of different characters in the basement this year, as there have been in times past. We particularly like the fact that there are not only a lot of female scareactors down there, but that very few of any of the actors are in the victim role - that part is left for you, the guest. There’s a lot of energy in The Basement, and a lot of improvisation. The actors could respond quickly to anything we said and they didn’t miss a beat. The characters were memorable, and like we said before, it wasn’t just clowns all around. There was a shocking amount of variety given this year’s theme and I think they brought a refreshing breath of life to what would normally be a tired concept. There was a lot of originality in the characters’ backstories and how they presented themselves that we really dug.

Edibles: Spoilers - we did have to eat something this year. Personally, I’m thrilled. This is a new component to really up the ante and it could be genuinely unsettling for those who aren’t tremendously comfortable with the idea of being forced to eat… well, something. We won’t give what it is away, but let’s just say that my teammate did not enjoy it.

Spacing between groups: Our two-person haunt squad didn’t meet any other group during our experience in the basement, aside from in the very beginning where we were all seated for entry. We were spaced out enough so as to have a completely solitary experience, which worked just perfectly for us.

What could be improved

Length: As far as the length of the experience went, it definitely felt shorter than it did during previous visits. I’m not sure whether it’s because of opening night jitters or because the experience was simply noticeably shorter, but it was kind of a letdown to have the experience over with so soon.

Final thoughts:

Would we recommend The Basement? For those who don’t mind the manhandling, yes. We look forward to going to The Basement each time it opens and this experience only made us look forward to its future endeavors that much more.

Overall: We would rate this year’s Scarehouse 8.5/10.

The timed ticket system works wonderfully, in our experience. We didn’t wait more than thirty minutes to get onto the shuttle and into the haunt from the time that we arrived - and we did arrive early. This is definitely an improvement over the heinously long lines that wrapped around the outside of the building in the past, so I definitely don’t take the time slots for granted. Scarehouse parking at the Pittsburgh Zoo is also a godsend. They definitely keep things organized around here.

I actually found myself getting more “frightened" in the upstairs haunt; particularly in Infernal, which made good use of its tight corridors and myriad of props. The Basement is an entirely different beast, and it supplied a very different sense of fear than being startled could ever provide.

#scarehouse #the scarehouse #pittsburgh haunts #pittsburgh #haunt #haunted houses #haunted house #haunt review #haunt reviews #haunted attractions #haunted attraction #scary

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hellohellions · 9 years ago

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#misc #i have a genuine problem #scarehouse #pittsburgh haunts #pittsburgh #the basement #the scarehouse

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hellohellions · 9 years ago

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Fall update, introductions, and haunt to-dos:

Ah, September. The Halloween pre-sale season. True, we haven’t quite arrived at the best time of the year - but with the upcoming haunt season looming closer and closer with each passing day, I think it’s fair to say that we can afford to get the Halloween hype train rolling. While the likes of The Dent Schoolhouse and Halloween Horror Nights Japan have already kicked off the haunt season, we still have another week to go before any haunts open up around the Pittsburgh area. The 16th marks the OFFICIAL start of the Halloween season up here with the opening of Pittsburgh’s own Scarehouse; which not-so-coincidentally will be the first event that my two-man haunt squad is going to be visiting this year.

I fiddled with the idea of writing reviews for both Scarehouse and their extreme haunt, The Basement, for the past year. Unfortunately, through a combination of the typical student woes coupled with a debilitating case of social anxiety, I wasn’t able to post reviews for our run in October, nor our experience in The Basement during February for their Valentine’s Day event. In fact, I visited no less than five haunted houses during the 2015 season and not a one of them saw any kind of review from me. Needless to say, that doesn’t really help the haunters’ community, nor does it allow me to properly credit the haunts that I think do a great job (and give constructive criticism to those that… don’t). So this year, we are hunkering down and busting open this blog to bring you proper haunt reviews.

Thus far, our haunt itinerary looks a bit empty given our fluctuating schedules and the present lack of open houses. But as the season progresses, we should be roaming around the area and checking out all the haunted attractions that our combined budgets and schedules will allow. So please stay tuned for our reviews for the 2016 season!

#haunt #haunt life #haunt reviews #haunted attractions #halloween attractions #crunchcoasters #scarehouse #the basement #haunted house #haunted houses #hauntseason #haunt season #updates

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