Dudas Haunted Farm Review (2023)

First off, let us say this: any cast that shows up ready to go on such a rain-soaked night has our respect and admiration. Some of them actually reveled in it – a few of the corn maze crazies had themselves a real hoedown falling down in and rolling around in the mud.

Cast size seemed adequate to a tad low. We can’t be sure how many did not show up because of the rain, so a bit of a pass should be issued in that regard. But judging just by what we saw, and it should be said similarly to many other haunts we visit, they could have benefited from a few more bodies to fill out the long attraction walkthrough (/ridethrough).

Just about everyone in the cast put on a good and entertaining performance though, with recognizable personalities and traits delineating each character. Several had great lines of dialogue or improvisation skills; Jimmy was boastful, the bartender was talkative like any good barkeep should be, and the smooth talking barber fired off some Cockney-accented zingers. Also, most provided some form of interaction; we noticed only a couple that behaved like bumps on the log.

Outside the attraction, we’d like to acknowledge Hilly (short for hillbilly, we guess) and Maizey (mistress of the maze and corny jokes, naturally). These personable country bumpkin-ette sisters/door people/actors really got into the spirit of things. They teased patrons, spiritedly introduced the attractions, and directed barbs at each other in classic sibling rivalry fashion. And they actually are sisters! In fact, we found out there are, fittingly, quite a few family connections down on the farm.

Hayride:

The star of the hayride was Hop Hop. This giant crazy rabbit hopped up, or popped up, in several scenes. His little buddy, the teddy bear from hell, croaked out a strangled ‘helloooo’ when we waved at it.

The chainsaw cowboy also showed up multiple times, swinging his saw like a pro. A reckless dude literally played with fire right in front of the Stab ‘n’ Fill gas station. And two sadistic girls refreshed the menu at the Roadkill Diner with some very fresh meat right in front of our eyes. The victim at the moonshine shack screamed with gusto and enthusiastically took a fall like a stunt pro when she got pushed into the mud.

Maze:

The girl in the graveyard gave us another good screamer victim. Well, we didn’t see anyone attacking her, but she sure wanted to get out of there… based on her decibel level!

The squeaky voiced funhouse clown declared that he always bet on red when he challenged us to a spin of the jackpot wheel. The mine worker had clearly gone stir crazy from being trapped in the shaft for 20+ years.

The back nine of the maze featured Jimmy and Little Jimmy, and the two creeps who wanted to add us to their collection of nailed up corpses in the Circle of Doom. They were more taunters, teasers, and misdirectors than scarers, but Jimmy had a lot of great lines and the Circle of Doom crew did a chuckle-worthy bit where they were playing dead, laying down in the mud, after we (yes, you guessed it) went in a circle and came back around to them.

Duda’s brought some strong costuming game to the field.

Best look of the evening belonged to a dark robed dude rocking a studded, horned black helmet and a wicked blade. This thing appeared like a cross somewhere between ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Resident Evil’ baddies. We found him after exiting the second attraction, we for sure would have run away screaming if he’d showed up in the maze! We hope this supremely sinister looking being haunts you inside one or both of the attractions when you go to the farm.

Speaking of actors outside the attraction borders, the sisters looked good, too, in country lass duds that included straw hats.

Hayride:

The chainsaw cowboy glared at us through sinister skull face makeup. Mangy Hop Hop looked like he just dug himself out of the Pet Semetary, and the 4 foot tall teddy bear somehow appeared adorable and awful at the same time.

Barnabas the barber brandished cartoonishly giant scissors out of Wile E. Coyote’s Acme arsenal. Porcelain doll-like masks on the diner girls creeped us out. The scarecrow looked super realistic and believable with a burlap face covering and full body outfit.

Maze:

Not to be outdone by Hop Hop, the barnyard beasts kept on coming in the maze. A piggy faced chainsawer pursued us through his sty and a man-sized chicken (!) ran around like a man- sized chicken with its head cut off.

The clowns wore full length carnival suits. Jimmy and the other tormentors dressed in dark robes, a refreshing change of pace from the ‘plaid shirt & jeans’ aesthetic often found in corn mazes.

Duda’s Haunted Farm is located in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on the southern outskirts of the Pittsburgh metro area. GPS delivered us without issue, but the unlit sign was a little hard to see on this storm darkened evening.

We found free parking on gravel. The entrance direction was quite obvious. There was also good signage directing us to each attraction.

Like in most corn mazes, we traversed a sizable measure of uneven patches and knobby or slanted ground, so watch your step. A good (preferably rubber) pair of boots are your friend, especially if it’s been raining at all.

We had pleasant interactions with staff all over the place. They were cheerful and chatty beyond all expectations, given the weather circumstances.

You can find pertinent info on the haunted subpage of the main Duda’s Farm website, and updates and promos on the Facebook page for Duda’s Haunted Farm.

We made our way through the very nice and atmospheric entryway into the main area, passing a huge bunch of pumpkins, some giant skeletons and other props, and an overall fall harvest look and atmosphere. This is, after all, a farm that does the daylight autumnal activities for kids and families as well.

The attractions were overall kind of pleasingly low-tech, but a gaggle of animatronics and other large props around the midway gave us some awesome eye candy to enjoy.

The queue area for the hayride consisted of an apt mix of hay and straw elements. The maze entrance gave us a look at the super cool facade of an evil church with stained glass windows, an eerily illuminated cross, a macabre robed figure, and a posed animal skeleton.

Immersion inside the attractions was somewhat hit and miss. A fairly high volume of dead space threw off immersion and slowed the pacing/momentum. Perhaps part of this was again attributable to the stinky weather, so your mileage may vary.

In any case, we’re very sure Duda’s is going to be filling things in as they continue to grow, with more scenes, or scenery and props, or actors. These folks just added another entire attraction in their second year. That’s a lot of work and they are clearly committed to expanding and improving.

In general, the farm gave off old-school vibes. But we saw some pretty cool animatronics, both in the midway and in each attraction. We encountered a snarling werewolf on the hayride path, and a skelly in the maze that we would swear was laughing at our pathetic attempts to navigate between the stalks.

Hayride:

Structures and scenes were stylishly constructed and staged. The terrific drive-in movie scene employed a fabulous set-up, with numerous old cars parked and a real movie playing – or at least some of those awesome animated commercials they run at the drive-in theater.

We crossed a school bus with the Creeper standing atop. It’s always great to see the underrepresented ‘Jeepers Creepers’ movie franchise referenced. A surprising water gag spritzed us, but it’s probably a lot more shocking when it’s not pouring down rain already! Someone here has a thing for lycanthropes, we saw another werewolf perched on the roof of the gas station.

Much of the path was lined with hay bales (painted with faces, ghosts, etc.) and stuffed dummy bodies. Tiki torches here and there provided the organic touch of a natural, flickering, eerie light source.

We heard an air raid siren, a horn honking clown, cracklers, a gunshot at the moonshine shack, and Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ playing on the jukebox at the diner.

Maze:

We maneuvered through a series of artfully designed structures in the first part: starting with a church where the preacher at the pulpit had a few bones (his own) to pick. It opened onto a neat little graveyard set we entered through swinging gates.

We also swung our way through wooden doors into the spooky saloon and bellied up to the bar. At the mine entrance, a skeleton kept watch outside and a pumpkin-headed specter stood guard on top. The funhouse featured creepy-azz clown props and a mini ferris wheel outside, and we narrowly found freedom by landing on ‘Escape’ – the only decent option on the roulette wheel. We noticed fitting decor and details in all these mentioned.

After those sets that came in relatively quick succession, the main effect was the maze itself. We managed to navigate the earlier (read: not so hard) sections pretty well, but we and a couple other groups got stuck near the end. Yep, it was frustrating and confounding. We have heard that some people remain wandering around in there for upwards of an hour!

Hayride:

We usually find hayrides to be the least scary haunt type and also the least scary attraction in a multi-attraction haunt. It can be hard to generate frights when your targets are semi-enclosed in a vehicle.

But in a switch, the hayride had the biggest scares here. They mainly came from distractions and/or monsters jumping out of the dark onto the outside of the wagon.

Nothing like the sound of a chainsaw ripping to life behind you, where you can’t see it, to quicken your pulse. A gruesome murder at the drive-in, a couple heads chopped off elsewhere, and serial chainsaw tirades set us on edge.

Hop Hop and Teddy acted creepy as hell. In one memorable sequence, Hop Hop kept pace with the wagon at a distance and then closed the gap to join in the drive-in carnage. He showed up in other scenes, too, to our disgust and delight.

The scarecrow looked quite unsettling, but didn’t do much besides growling and slowly contacting the wagon frame with something that made a sound like a tin cup being dragged across cell bars. We wished the scarecrow would have been more action-oriented to go with its frightening looks, as the actor was at the end of the ride and so constituted the finale.

Maze:

Most of the scares came by way of the various structures. The chainsaw piggy in his sty got us good. If you’re averse to the ol’ Texas Massacre tool like one of us is, all the chainsaw action at the farm will result in some panic.

The scarecrow from the end of the hayride spooked us near the graveyard by appearing out of nowhere, nice job… that’s how it’s done!

We were again taken by surprise at the saloon, the mine, and the funhouse for some pretty good jump scares.

The maze was front-loaded with frights, as all those fun structures occurred in the first 15 minutes. After those frightful moments, as discussed in Cast, the rest of the way was mostly actors needling and taunting and trying to get us to go the wrong way …which admittedly is not real hard, even in ideal conditions. But as such, like with the hayride, we unfortunately didn’t experience much of a slam-bang ending here either. Putting some focus on rousing conclusions would raise the scare quotient a good deal.

We rode the hayride wagon for 29 minutes and meandered around the maze for 37 minutes, for a total of 66 minutes.

The attractions cost $20 each, or you can save $5 with a $35 combo ticket. The MPD (minutes of in-attraction entertainment per dollar spent) came out to 1.89. While that is a commendably high number (anything approaching 2.0 is increasingly generous), we had to factor into our rating the empty patches mentioned earlier.

Other entertainment came in the form of a corn kernel pit to flounce around in and make corn angels (ever wonder what it feels like to live inside a microwave popcorn bag? here’s your chance!), a fire barrel for warming up, pre-attraction hijinks with the hayseed sisters, and potentially a carnival dark ride advertised as a $5 add-on.

As people who never pass up the opportunity to try out a dark ride, we were really looking forward to this. However, the ride got damaged in a recent storm, and so it was not operating. Hopefully,, they will fix it soon because that would be a thoroughly awesome addition.

Some items at the exceptional food stand came with the farm’s own produce, like its tomatoes on the white pizza with garlic sauce. The pepperoni pizza turned out yummy. And the pepperoni rolls (a regional specialty of dough encasing mozzarella cheese and pep slices, served with marinara dip) were enormous, filling, and tasty.

So, who should go to Duda’s Haunted Farm? Fans of old school style should like it, and those who enjoy a good and good-looking cast, as well as puzzle solvers who relish springing themselves out of a twisty labyrinth. For absolute maze fanatics, Duda’s hosts an event called Mayhem the weekend after Halloween for those who want to face off against even more diabolical maze constructions.

We look forward to seeing how this seedling haunt continues to bloom in future growing seasons. In the meantime, we wish you luck, maze runners… you’re gonna need it!