Fear Fair Review (2019)

This cast was absolutely ON it on the night of our visit! We’ll list a few highlights in a minute, but let’s start by saying that everyone stayed in character very well. Despite the unseasonably hot weather for the end of September, we were surprised to see how energetic these characters could be.

We could tell that they were a little short-staffed on the night of our visit and, given the many large scenes that Fear Fair has, these guys and gals were subsequently forced to cover a lot of ground with our group moving through at a pretty normal (slow walk) pace. Even though we still had a few “dead spots” where we didn’t see any actors for several moments, it seemed like they did a pretty decent job for the number of actors they had.

With the exception of the new ancient evil area, a good portion of the actors at Fear Fair have pretty elaborate speaking roles. There were several that we weren’t able to spend much time with, but they still delivered performances that let us know exactly who they were supposed to be. Highlights include Marie Laveau, Papa Legba, the swamp sisters, the possessed girl and the grave keeper in the “Laveau’s Curse” area, the witch, the plague doctor, the goat and the mouse in “The Pestilence,” and the warden, Bubbles and Peaches in “Rockford Riot.”

Most of the Ancient Evil monk-like monsters were pretty quiet with us, but one in particular separated our group and whispered “I can smell your fear” to the guy in the back. While that’s probably true, it’s also likely our guy may have simply had a case of the sweats with this hot weather we’ve had lately…

Marie was making some pretty wild sounds as we passed through her house! She was giving us the death stare and we’re pretty sure she was mumbling some kind of “you’re gonna die” curse at us. Luckily, we didn’t end up in her cage.

Next up was the Papa Legba and his lively voodoo doll duo. Papa was also pretty soft-spoken, but we managed to make out that one of us would have his protection for the duration of our tour, and that person would need to go first to keep the rest of us safe.

Any perceived safety didn’t last very long, as the swamp sisters split us up again. One was particularly wirey, twitching and crouching around like something very evil was going on with her. All we can say is our necks would be in one of those EMT collars if we had to try that for a full night!

Next up was the possessed demon girl in the church. What seemingly began as an empty room went to Hell when a poor victim went flailing across the room and landed in a pile in front of the door we’d just came through! In a deep, growling voice, she proclaimed that she was now “our God” and demanded we bow to her. One of us tried to get smart and said, “What happens if we don’t?” She quickly informed us that our souls would be hers! Luckily, she deemed us unworthy and sent us on our way…

The goat had some very realistic “ba-a-a-a-a” sounds going on, for sure! He’s also pretty handsy’ or hoovsey? It wasn’t long before one of us was pinned against the wall while he got a good sniff. Watch out for the witch, the plague doctor and the mouse here too; if people weren’t getting launched across the gravel by some kind of sorcery, they were getting “choked out” by a medieval physician or clawed by voracious vermin!

The Rockford Prison was full of rambunctious inmates that have no issues having their way with you! By the time we arrived, the warden had clearly lost his mind (in more ways than one) and the whole complex had been completely overrun. Any males in your group will tend to be targeted more than females; you might be put behind bars, taught how to recover from dropping the soap, and/or privileged with the task of spooning with Peaches in exchange for safe passage.

Once again, this crew was at near-peak performance on the night of this review visit! If Fear Fair is able to fill in a few of the “dead spots” that we found, they’ll definitely be among (if not “THE”) top performers in the region. Bravo!

Costuming continues to be a strong suit at Fear Fair as well (pun intended! Go ahead’ laugh it up).

Generally speaking, the entire crew of characters that we saw appeared to be well-detailed and astonishingly authentic! From Miss Laveau’s corseted dress and colored contacts to the goat guy with furry legs and a full-head mask with realistic hair and horns, we found ourselves struggling to find things that were “off” with the wardrobe selections.

Admittedly, we felt things started off a bit slow with the cultists. At first impression, they were wearing simple, brown hooded cloaks. But the more we thought about it, how detailed can a cloak really get? Plus, it’s likely that guys this old (hence “ancient evil”) probably didn’t have all the blingy belts, buttons and what-nots that we’ve seen more-modern looks utilize. Regardless, they weren’t the typical lightweight, fresh-out-of-the-bag things that you get from the Halloween store. Rather they seemed to be pretty rugged and, actually, aged similarly to their dungeon-like surroundings. They also had some gnarly teeth! While not as elaborate as some of the other looks we found here, they still earned a pass for authenticity.

We’d say the Rockford Riot area was the next tier up from the introductory scenes. Standard orange and dark-blue jumpsuits had been tattered and grunged up to be fitting for their surroundings, while others used cleaner uniforms or, by contrast, nearly no clothes at all! Makeup, when used, added a nice “dirty / grimy” effect to the near post-apocalyptic aggressors.

Some of the Pestilence people were similarly cloaked as those in Ancient Evil, but with more of a “1800’s village” look than a “we’re about to sacrifice you” sense. Think medieval-era peasants, witches and vampires and you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. We didn’t see many vampires, but “Girl,” one of the highly-detailed characteresses from the queue area, had stepped into the castle at some point and added some much-needed evil into this nearly-unoccupied stretch of the tour. Her pasty face, sharp teeth, claws and black goop-oozing mouth will not soon be forgotten!

The Laveau’s Curse characters were the definite stand-outs of the night. Overall, these costumes seemed to be constructed much more elaborately and really drove the “voodoo” theme home (that’s the bayous of Louisiana, of course). The living voodoo doll, airbrushed makeup, fresh-from-the-grave suits and various accessories set each of them up to achieve their unique looks with ease! Be sure to watch out for moving for moving statues as well!

We’ve been to Fear Fair many times over the years and it’s one of the closest haunts to us, so we’ve gotten to where we know how to get there almost by heart. But, we still used our GPS just in case we missed a turn. We were led directly to Freeman Field where the haunt is located. From there, all you should have to do is follow the haunt’s searchlight. This year, it was perched right on top of the building, so it’s nearly impossible to mess this one up! However, if you still need directions, just follow the main road straight ahead and you’ll find a fairly large, free, self-serve, gravel parking lot right next to Fear Fair’s building. There are also a couple of lots around the building if you end up coming from a different direction. On busy nights, it may take a while to find a spot though, so do keep this in mind.

Finding our way around the premises was rather simple. We just followed all of the lights and sounds and headed towards the small red booths. Each one was marked by a large sign, as were each ticket line, so it was easy to know where we needed to go to get in line. We did notice an extra note above the ticket line for online ticket holders: you MUST check in at the ticket booth to get a physical ticket before getting in the queue line! There was no “skip the line” feature as of this writing, other than the fast-pass ticket that grants access to a shorter queue line.

As we made our way through the haunt, we found a few sets of dimly-lit steps, as well as several uneven thresholds going into and out of the buildings that we weren’t warned about. There are also some intentional sliding and moving floors, so just be sure to watch your footing at all times.

There were quite a few staff around and they were all wearing Fear Fair shirts; they were easy to distinguish in case a question or concern were to arise. Each one that we spoke with was very friendly and knowledgeable about the event. Before you leave, be sure to pay Rusteen a visit in the photos / merchandise booth; she’s got all kinds of awesome Fear Fair and Peaches swag and mini donuts (cinnamon sugar and salted caramel flavored)! She can also hook you up with the group photo taken before you entered the attraction.

Before we ventured out for the night, we looked up their information online. Everything was easy for us to find, including a description of each area within the haunt, their calendar and hours of operation, and even an FAQ section.

Outside, the wall of the building facing the waiting area is covered in real concrete that makes it resemble an old war-torn military bunker. Multi-colored lights accent the structure and compliment the fog and light show coming from the DJ stage. DJ Fear was playing a variety of upbeat tracks to get the crowd pumped, ranging from R&B to hard rock. If that’s not enough, the sudden blasts of real flames are sure to get your blood pumping!

Aside from the building itself, there were multiple buildings decorated red and black for the haunt that were offering multiple things. One was the haunt’s ticket booth, while another housed their concessions and merch, and the third was where we found the Last Ride coffin simulator. Vintage string lights were strung overhead and there was a TV at the ticket booth playing the haunt’s promo videos. We definitely recommend you check those out before entering!

On this night, there were about 3 queue line entertainers weaving in and out of the crowd for most of the time we were out there. Every now and then, another would reveal themselves. These characters were so decked out and interactive with everyone that we couldn’t help but get excited to go in!

We showed up to Fear Fair before their opening time and, we can just tell you now, this is highly highly HIGHLY recommended! As a matter of fact, just pretend like they don’t sell tickets at any other time, because you NEED to see their opening ceremony; it’s to die for! We will discuss this more below, but we thought it was very intense and a great indication as to what was awaiting us inside.

Fear Fair’s atmosphere isn’t just outside the building; it flows into the inside as well! The haunt doesn’t begin as soon as you enter the door. Rather you’re led into another short queue area with a large house-like facade, a twerking zombie photo op, and a giant projector screen where the haunt’s promo videos were also playing.

Next is a green screen where group photos are taken. After we got our photo card (that they’ll scan if you want to buy a print), we were guided into a dark, rocky tunnel with a gnarly little critter that lurched down at us from above! The flickering lights and oxygen level monitors in there were having a hay day! Ironically, this serves as the last safe zone you will encounter before stepping into one of their elevators to start the haunt. The sounds from the stage could be heard rather loudly in this area, but the decor and flickering lights brought out the creepiness of the attraction just before we entered.

To say that quite a plethora of special effects can be found at Fear Fair would be an understatement. If you love eye-candy and large animatronics housed within realistic sets, then this attraction should be on your must-see list of destinations. You’ll be in for a treat!

Within these walls, you’ll feast your eyes on many sights that you absolutely will not see anywhere else. The vast majority of the scenes and buildings were constructed in-house (literally) by this talented crew. You can’t tell it by looking from the outside, but this building contains realistically-sized structures, above-ground concrete crypts, a prison, a swamp, two towns, a castle and more!

The attraction itself is rather lengthy and there was hardly any down time at all where we didn’t have something to either maneuver around, ride in, admiringly gaze upon, or that was striking at us from out of nowhere’ among other things. We tried to look at everything as best we could, but there was so much in there that we’d need to go through a few more times to catch it all.

Several of the first things we came across inside included a twerking zombie, a winding underground tunnel and a series of elevators. These are no normal elevators either; the darn things malfunction every time we get on one! For some reason, we always wind up on the 13th floor and not by way of taking each floor at a time’ but maybe that’s supposed to happen. After the cables snapped and we died in a fiery elevator crash, we were set to roam freely with the other undead in their newest section, “Ancient Evil.”

We’ve seen a lot of human remains over the years, but we don’t see a collection this large covering a single area very often; there were human skulls everywhere! There were also some with their all-bone bodies still intact, waving candelabras around, and lunging out at just the right time to scare the pants off of us. This section was rounded off with a couple of other “big surprises,” one of which should be shockingly familiar to returning visitors, but we’ll let you find out what those are for yourself.

Laveau’s Curse walks you through a realistic house and voodoo workshop, a life-sized replica of Bourbon Street, a gator-infested swamp, a crumbling church and an above-ground cemetery. The attention to detail here is, for the most part, absolutely superb! We did miss seeing one of the larger critters in the swamp, and some of the overhead netting caught one of our heads, causing us to look up and notice some lighting and sound bleed from the neighboring prison. While this did take away from the suspension of disbelief a little bit, the snakes, sounds of crickets, the flowing water (fog) effect and the wavy rope bridges quickly brought us back down into the scene. Beyond that, the collapsed church steeple and the sheer realism of the above-ground cemetery tombs never cease to amaze!

The village buildings that comprise The Pestilence are also quite impressive! If you haven’t been here in a few years, this area used to be “Downtown Atlanta” from TWD. There are no traces of urban presence anymore, as the pavement is now gravel and the stores are now a castle and a village of cottages and livestock stables – complete with wooden shingles. Rodents can be seen crawling everywhere, and a few animatronics, a large creature, flame-like torches and claustrophobic passages lie waiting for you in the darkness.

Lastly, Rockford Riot is yet another returning attraction that is also very well decorated. We passed through a weightlifting area, the warden’s office, grungy bathrooms with turd-filled toilets, an infirmary / morgue, a laundry room and, of course, a few cell blocks. This was debatably the most special effect-heavy area in the haunt! Strobe lights, scents, grungy walls, electrical poppers, flailing zombies, air blasts and a whole lot more are sure to make your prance through the prison anything but pleasant.

One final note: some of the animatronics here will get extremely close to you when they go off. In fact, if you’re in the right place at the right time, they may even run into you! We felt this technique did a good job of adding some easy scares in places where folks may otherwise feel safe.

Fear Fair is one continuous walkthrough where you will become encompassed by 4 separate and distinct themes. The first area we plunged into was their newest, ‘Ancient Evil.’ As we progressed, we came to ‘Laveau’s Curse’ and, soon after, ‘The Pestilence.’ Our tour concluded with multiple stops in the ‘Rockford Riot’ prison area.

As hinted on their website, Ancient Evil takes you beneath the streets of a small town where you can see the remains of thousands of former residents. They say that the last remains were added centuries ago, but we can assure you that there are other things down there too, other than just the remains! In Laveau’s Curse, voodoo is very real. As a matter of fact, you will need to gain protection from Papa Legba just to make it through safely. However, this safety will come at a price’

In the third area, The Pestilence, you will be thrown back into the 14th century where an evil witch has cursed the black plague onto the very village you will be walking through! Last but not least is Rockford Riot, where the warden of the Rockford Correctional Facility is losing his battle against a horde of violent felons. Will you succumb to their prisonly ways to save yourself from an entrapment behind bars forever?

Each of the theme transitions were clear and we always had a pretty good idea of which attraction we were in at all times. Characters were using theme-related dialogue and, as mentioned in costuming, period-correct attire was plentiful. This really helped in bringing out the themes as well as the scenery and signs in some cases. Before we entered, we watched some footage that was filmed inside which gave us a good idea of what was to come as well.

Quite a collection of scares were cast upon our group at Fear Fair this year. At one point, we did catch up to a slow-moving group of two girls that we ended up finished our walkthrough with. We watched them jump and scream and, at times, they seemed to be too scared to enter some of the scenes on their own (which is apparently why we caught up to them).

Everyone in the group was targeted on multiple occasions, even when our group grew by 2 members. Be prepared if you decide to opt for the glow / ‘touch’ necklace. Each of us were removed from the group more than once and forced to navigate areas of this malevolent madhouse alone! Well, we did ask for it, didn’t we? Also keep in mind, if you do opt for the necklace, you can always take it off if the experience is too extreme for you.

The attraction’s layout provides an array of great hiding spots. This helped in making the scares unpredictable, and they definitely took advantage of some of these. However, some of our attacks were attained even when the monsters were hiding in plain sight! We were impressed by their addition of multi-dimensional scares; strategic lighting and sound effects were mixed with drop panels to intensify their reveals.

However, not all of the scares directly involved the cast members; some of the props got us all on their own too! On multiple occasions, we unexpectedly found ourselves face-to-face with some of the seemingly-static props. Certain areas used a creative mix of fog and lighting to create an environment that, when an actor was in a specific area of the scene, they remained completely unseen. We’ll tell you, there’s nothing like walking through thick fog and hearing something scurrying across the floor right in front of you and not being able to see it until it strikes!

Aside from the scares mentioned above, we also endured a suddenly-moving bridge, a collection of common phobias, stalkers, loud noises, sudden blasts of air, victimization between the cast members, threatening dialogue, and several good distractions; one of which nailed BOTH sides of the group!

We don’t want to ruin it, but the finale of the show consisted of a lot of loud sounds and’ well, you’ll just have to find out for yourself! It will definitely leave some on a high note though, since it majorly attacks the sense of hearing.

Fear Fair’s ticket prices remain unchanged for 2019. General admission tickets are $25.00 per person and grant you access to all 4 attractions. They also offer Slash Pass admission for $35.00 which is good for the really busy nights as your wait time should be significantly lower than that of general admission.

This is a very unique attraction in that you can choose your level of fear with. For those of you looking for more of an extreme, hands-on experience where you may be removed from your group, pushed, pulled, etc., your whole group can opt in for this at no additional charge! So, if you don’t think this sounds like your cup of tea, just make sure your group is in agreement and don’t get the necklace. Regardless, opting out of this won’t keep you entirely safe from all of the scares!

Fear Fair has added a new opening-time show to their haunt that is an absolute must-see! We’ve personally only witnessed a few opening acts at haunts, but this one was intense and unlike any other. However, it IS an opening act, so you must be on the property at their opening time to experience it. Here’s a link to our Facebook Live video of this show, if you’d like to get a good idea of what we’re talking about:

Aside from the opening act, as mentioned in Cast, there were multiple queue line entertainers dancing, running, and sliding about the waiting line entertaining the crowd as they waited. Watching them interact with unsuspecting guests was priceless. After the opening ceremony, DJ Fear took over the crowd with laser lights, fog, flames, and a mixture of music to keep the pulse-pounding party pumping. The indoor portion of the waiting area offers a twerking zombie and a large screen displaying a taste of what you might see inside.

They also had other amenities on-site, including The Last Ride buried alive coffin simulator, a tarot card and palm reader (that may be there every weekend), and a very reasonable concession booth with lots of haunt memorabilia that you should check out as mentioned above in Customer Service.

From the time we stepped foot on the elevator that plummeted us from the 13th floor, it took our group a full 28.5 minutes to complete the experience. This brings Fear Fair’s MPD (minutes of entertainment received per dollar spent) to 1.14 which is above the average we see most often!

Although it’s a bit of a drive from most major cities, we feel that Fear Fair is absolutely worth the trip and your visit this season, based on our above analysis. Be sure to try and show up at or before their opening time so you don’t miss out on the opening ceremony! For those looking for an interactive show inhabited by a superb cast, do yourselves a favor and ‘Drive a little and scream a lot’ in Seymour, Indiana this year!