Dayton Scream Park Review (2012)

The cast consists of between 100-120 interactive and volunteer actors that take pride in the construction of the trail each year. The sheer number of actors fills up each attraction and helps eliminate dead spots. Each actor (or group of actors) gets to build their own scene and design their own scares to their own twisted likings. As a result, if you’re looking for a variety of characters, this is the place to go! These guys and gals have a little bit of everything to offer. From crazy savages and monsters to skeletons and trolls, it’s here! Among our favorite characters are the werewolf (who played his part very well), ‘the rappelling guy’, and a very hungry gorilla!

The attraction was a little difficult for us to find. We finally realized that an orange highway sign is used that says ‘Hayride 1500 feet, Haunted Trail’ with arrows pointing you in the right direction. We didn’t notice it immediately because we saw the barricade and were accustomed to thinking that it meant the road was closed, when this wasn’t the case. We followed the rest of the signs and found a large, gravel parking lot with portable restrooms when we arrived. An attendant was also present at the gate to point us towards the best parking spot available. The ticket booth was located next to a concession stand where refreshments could be purchased and another stand offered Nightmare on Valley Street souvenirs. For those waiting in line, an occasional BOOM helped keep patrons’ blood pumping.

It was fairly easy to predict what type of scare was coming up throughout the trail, but we never knew exactly when or what was going to scare us! Distraction was used occasionally and scares ranged from actors falling from trees and wrenches banging next to us to motorized vehicle scares and a caged prisoner swinging from a tree. For the trail, we found that most of the scares were directed towards the front of the line, but those in the back got some scares as well! Our group got separated multiple times throughout Rat Trap which helped take us out of our ‘comfort zone’ and made it a scarier haunt.

General admission to the Nightmare on Valley Street is $12 for the trail only. Rat Trap and the Hillbilly Hayride are an additional $10 each, but kids 5 and under can experience the Hayride for free(which is a dark off-road experience with no monsters)! A combo ticket can be purchased for $25 that will grant you access to all three attractions. A $2 off coupon can be printed off their website applicable to the trail. We estimated that it took our group from 40 minutes to an hour to make it through the trail and escape the Rat Trap, making this attraction very comparable to other attractions in the area!