Fear Overload Scream Park Review (2019)

The cast of Fear Overload was essential to bringing this haunt’s success. Even though we were told about half of them were rookies, we couldn’t tell, because they all brought their best. Fear Overload does have enough actors to keep the scares and entertainment flow consistent. Collectively, they showed enthusiasm, intensity and were engaged as needed. Nobody broke character when we walked through the two haunts. This cast was very interactive, as several individual actors would stop us, or alter our course. There were actors emerging from below our knees, from above our heads, and from hidden corners. The dialogue was appropriate and creative to the respective themes. Night Terrors featured more grunts and groans, as the actors wore animal masks. The Tooth Collector had several actors speaking to us. Several Test Subjects yelled, ‘Give me your teeth’. There was a memorable actress in the nursery who said, ‘Give me your baby! I want your placenta!’ We can’t say we’ve ever heard that in a haunt before. A mad doctor with a machete confronted us and said, ‘I want your blood. Give me your blood!’ There was only one actor who uttered the old haunt clich������������������, ‘Get out!’, but overall, we found the dialogue to be relevant and appropriate to each haunt’s theme. There was more variety of characters in The Tooth Collector, from Test Subjects to Hospital Staff and Doctors. Night Terrors had more similar types of characters, as most actors had either bird masks or wolf masks.

We found the actors of The Tooth Collector to have relevant costumes according to the medical theme, from doctor’s lab coats to hospital gowns. Night Terrors has a more nebulous theme of nightmares, and most of the actors appeared to have regular street clothes with their animal masks, instead of any distinguishing costumes. There was one actress with an original makeup design, which resembled a cross between an animal and a killer clown face. It gave her a very creepy look as she arched her back until her head looked at us upside down. Most of the Test Subjects of The Tooth Collector had bloody mouths, with blood running down their chins as they yelled, ‘Give me your teeth!’ The most common animal masks of Night Terrors were the bird masks, which were very reminiscent to the medieval plague doctor masks from the era of the bubonic plague. There were also a few wolf masks worn by actors in Night Terrors, and all of the masks did work in terms of giving the actors a more scary and intimidating appearance. The costumes of The Tooth Collector were very appropriate and complete with the theme. Even though Night Terrors does have a more open interpretation of dreams and nightmares, we would have liked to have seen less street clothes and more imaginative attire.

Fear Overload is easy to find, because it’s located at the Bayfair Mall, across the parking lot from Century Movie Theaters. There’s plenty of free parking, it has an obvious large banner with the haunted attraction’s name above the front door, and is handicap accessible. We couldn’t find any safety issues, as there were no tripping hazards and plenty of emergency exits. The staff members of Fear Overload were professional, friendly, helpful, answered all our questions, and treated us with respect. Fear Overload’s information is easy to find, as they have a presence on various social media and have a very cool website. If there’s anything to note on this point, it’s that the website features an awesome promotional video, but we did not see any of its costumed characters anywhere at Fear Overload.

Fear Overload is located at a mall, so they are limited to how much they can promote outside in the parking lot area. They have a giant banner with the business name, all designed in a spooky gothic style. There’s no mistaking this place as anything but a haunted house. From the entry doors, guests walk down a long corridor with custom Fear Overload feather flags, a large promotional sign for photo ops, and ending at the ticket booth. From there is a lobby with heavy metal music, dark blue mood lighting, and several painted walls depicting various Halloween themes and scenes in florescent colors. As well as the painted walls, there are various static props for photo ops and selfies. We enjoyed the way anticipation is built, from the quiet parking lot and corridor transforms into the loud and rocking lobby.

Fear Overload utilizes multiple special effects to create it’s two haunts. The sound effects are very effective, especially in the nursery where we heard the sounds of infants crying. But throughout the haunts, we heard the sounds of people crying for help and various mood music. The scenes and props are very impressive. Fear Overload’s art department aims for a modern and realistic look, complete with distress, dirt, grime, graffiti and blood. There are various gutted up bodies in both haunts. The place looks absolutely nasty. In the past few years, Fear Overload has kept the same floor plan and wall d������������������cor. Now this year, we compliment Fear Overload for changing the floor plan and making the haunt less predictable. We noticed more twists and turns, so we were more disoriented. There was nothing out of the ordinary to break us from our suspension of disbelief; everything in these haunts were relevant to their themes. Overall, the special effects were effective at providing scares and entertainment.