Indy Screampark - My First REAL Haunted House Experience
By sparklykiss 7 Comments
And lemme tell ya: It was a pretty good experience! Mostly doing this because I told gingertastic_10 I would, as well. (Look, a plug! (And I needed a more fun blog. Because, let's face it, my last one was a real stinker.)
Anyways... We went last Saturday. Which was... The 8th? I went with my sister, my cousin Patrick, and his *nearly* nine year old daughter, Layla. She did so much better than me. I'm jealous. (I think I'll be reviewing all of the creepy and eerie places I go to this Halloween season. Hope it's not too much of a spam and more of a treat! :D)
But, uh, Indy Screampark has 5 haunted houses. Costs 25 to see them all, but that wasn't too awful. The scariest part was that line. Shit was intensely long. But after 40 minutes of waiting, we went into...
Bedlam
They sort of force you to go to the first 3 houses immediately after buying your wrist strap pass.And Bedlam was the first part. This was really unique to me because it was a neon, 3D haunted house. Full of clowns and a few fun house surprises. Everything glows with a few black lights and it's got quite the handful of animatronics. And since you have your 3D glasses goofing with your vision, you can't tell if the certain things that pop out are just because of the glasses or if, HOLY SHIT, a dude pops out from behind it because it was a fake. You'd be surprised at the actual size of this, and they even included this spinning tunnel, that, when the moment you go in across the bizarre cat-walk like structure, it turns you over. It was quite possibly the coolest part to me. What with all the 3D stars and bricks to make it even more cosmic. This feature even included a rickety bridge, maze, and a few obstacles to run through like a classic fun house, which was neat. But if Killer Clowns totally give you the willies, then this won't be that enjoyable. They had quite a few to follow the haunted house goers. *Shudder*
But on a scale of 1 to 10? I give this one an 8/10 solely for the "Wow" factor in that it GLOWED and was like a miniature fun house. I'd go into more detail on this one, but the overall run through experience was only a few minutes. 4 or 5 tops.
After that, we were in line for...
Kurayami
Thank god we go into groups. T_T Or I would have lost my mind. Fun trivia fact for ya: Kurayami is the Japanese word for "black out," apparently. Go share that language knowledge with your friends!This was a pitch black maze, littered with surprises and obstacles to throw you off. Such as walls that shock you, men who whisper bizarre chants from who knows what direction (They sounded as if they were everywhere around you), and air traps that feel like bee stings. If you've ever done one of those cheesy safari adventures or have seen Disney's Bug's Life Live, you'll know what I mean by the air things that feel like stings. This attraction was created to instill fear in its victims with the complete absence of light. It's advertised as being a tight maze with no hope of escape, but it's really just a twisted corridor with men dressed as creepy samurai warriors everywhere.
This would have been the one to give me the anxiety attack of a lifetime, but I wasn't completely alone in the dark. If I had been... I don't want to think about that. A few fellow patrons somewhat ruined the experience by using their cell phones as flashlights and not relying on their other senses. And because this one was completely boxed in and had no real ventilation so that no light could seep in, it was hot as hell. Only encouraging us to press through faster. Some would say that was a drawback, which it is when in a big group, but to go in that alone would probably increase my own fear and make that even more of a nightmare.
I found this stage of it to be pretty intense, but luckily, I had a really fun group to go with and made it more enjoyable. But you will sweat bullets when this is done. Considering this place is really popular and they don't vent that part of the experience out.
Overall, I give the Kurayami a 7/10 for it's fear factor. If patrons went alone? It'd be off the charts of scary for me.
Third up was...
Nachtmaur
More foreign language trivia! German for "nightmare."I really liked this one because it played on the idea of having various nightmares be brought to life. And they conveyed this with over 15 horrifically detailed scenes and this one had the most actors. They start you off by opening up what replicates manor doors. Very nifty by my standards, and they open up with a video on what's supposed to be a mirror of a deranged butler, welcoming you into a wild dreamland. They then take you through a cemetery, a manor, an abandoned school bus, a slaughterhouse, mad scientist lab, a crime scene, a morgue... Whatever sort of more "classic" horror image you can think of, this location had. If my mother had gone, seeing the girl in the glass coffin surround by rats would have been the end for her. (I felt bad for the little guys, it seemed like it was really hot in there. =( ) The giant vats of radioactive looking human bodies was incredibly disgusting, but I let that slide because the man in the library? Was a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde combo and he was super attractive. *Biased*
This one was great, though. It really was. Especially if you're not into cornfield mazes, neon clowns, or pitch black for your horror kick. This pretty much catered to everyone and included a vast amount of terrifying scenes for you to enjoy.
The transitions here were done really well and blended perfectly to me. They start from the early days of Dracula all the way to the more modern horrors with a Saw like kind of deal. Overall, I enjoyed it, even if it wasn't that frightening to me. 8.5/10.
Backwoods
This one was in the wooded area. And had the common theme of creepy country folk hillbilly people...The only light sources provided are those of glowsticks. They aren't that large, either. But they have you go in groups of around 12, with 4 or 5 glowsticks sprinkled through. They only lit up about 2-3 feet in front of you if you held them up above your head, but then that made you look like a target. T_T
Granted, this was really neat because you had to follow the pathway and they had different scenarios set up. The first you encounter is an enlarged outhouse. My cousin Patrick went in and we just watched him instead. (Even the people we didn't know. We were all pansies. Yep.) And he didn't see the guy in the back corner, I was the first to see him so I screamed and bolted past everyone. >.> Ditching the nearly 9 year old... >.>;; Don't judge me, shit was scary.
They had homes that belonged to all kinds of crazy people. Like a hunter with animal bodies and furs dangling all over the ceiling. The hunter himself was scary as hell and blocked the doorway andandandandand... D: Just all kinds of heeeeeeeebeeeeeeeeeejeebees. (It needed the emphasis, you weren't there!) There was the demented mechanic's place, but I had a tough time because scared there. It was Scooter's Auto and Body Shop. So of course I giggled. C'mon and catch a riiide! Only my sister understood the reference. Anyways, what followed were abandoned homes with creaky windows, a mobile home with an old woman who sang songs and yelled at people, men in ghillie suits who just crept up out of no where, and a house with a woman behind a shower curtain. Her silhouette alone was terrifying and seeing another appear behind her to take her out... D:
There were children in the last house just sitting and chanting and praying and then you go into their closet, with clothes you have to dodge (random body parts included!), where you encounter a giant steel door. This was the home of their boogey man. I didn't see him, I just heard him rev up a chainsaw and I was out of there. Finally was away enough to catch my breath, but they had another surprise just to fuck with people. I'll leave this one at that.
This one by far was the most terrifying of the 5. Even though we were with a big group, they had a lot of great actors in this part, chase scenes, and quite a bit of believable variety. The Kurayami gets to you when you're by yourself, this one doesn't matter the size of the group. This haunted attraction had a scary good execution (Lul, execution. I'm so punny.) and was good at giving the spooks.
I'd have to give this one a 10/10 for being capable to scare such large groups so easily and have them run for their lives in the finale. Possibly the highlight of Indy Screampark.
Dark Harvest
Cornfield mazes. D: Well, not so much a maze. More work was put into the other attractions than this one. And it's pretty apparent.This featured a pre-determined pathway and easily took 10 minutes to just stroll through. We were so tired from the other ones that that is exactly what we did. Just walked through as if it was nothing. And it pretty much was.
Random bodies are sprawled out in some places and a ton of well placed scarecrows do make you jump a little, but only a few actors are here. The scarecrows favor the ones from a particular Doctor Who episode and that was the only reason why they freaked me out. (That exact episode title escapes me right now. Just look it up, okay? Haha. =P) They had a full size bus to climb through with eerie drawings from children sprinkled through, and upon exiting, you see a fire shoot up, paying tribute to the Children of the Corn film. I guess this would be more terrifying if these things were your phobias, but they really didn't have much of an effect considering I just had to go through hell in the Backwoods. That took a lot of energy out of me and still is freaking me out when I think about it too much, haha.
The end did feature a random guy posed as security, who gives a cue to yet ANOTHER DAMN CHAINSAW KILLER. The exit here was much more muddy than the Backwoods, so there was quite a bit of stumbling on my part. (To the point where I will admit that I got my shoe caught and, uh, slammed my shoulder into a pole. I have a wicked scar, though, right?)
Just... Dark Harvest didn't have much for it to be absolutely memorable. And the last thing you do for these sorts of things is meant to be the one you remember the most, right? They ended it on a pretty poor note. I have give this at 4/10.
Maybe Hanna Haunted Acres' Cornmaze will be more climatic and give me a better outlook for those. Sure hope so. Granted, this weekend I'll be going to the King's Island stuff they do. It'll be a first. Anyone else been? And should I blog about that experience? Maybe take pictures because Indy Screampark doesn't allow them?