Fear Overload Scream Park – Full Review

Fear Overload Scream Park is a Haunted Attraction located in Newark, CA.

2086 Newpark Mall, Ste 1149, Newark, CA 94560
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Haunt Type(s):

Multiple Haunts1HauntedMaze

Links:

Fear Overload Scream Park Facebook PageFear Overload Scream Park WebsiteFear Overload Scream Park Twitter PageFear Overload Scream Park on InstagramFear Overload Scream Park on YouTubeTickets to Fear Overload Scream Park

Contact:

Email Fear Overload Scream ParkMessage Fear Overload Scream Park on Facebook Messenger

Features:

Free Parking, Handicap Accessible, Food/Concessions, “Old-School” (Low Tech), You will NOT be touched, Original Characters, Indoor Waiting Line, All-Indoor Attraction

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This attraction was reviewed on September 28, 2019 by Team In-Corpse-A-Rated.

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Final Score: 7.98

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Summary:

Fear Overload Scream Park is scaring the residents of San Leandro, CA, as it once again opens at the Bayfair Mall. Founded by brothers David and Nathan Polanco, this small family enterprise has expanded into multiple haunted attractions across the country, including Ultimate Terror Scream Park in Sacramento, Hush Haunted Attraction in Detroit, Hanna Haunted Acres in Indianapolis, and Folklore Haunted House in Atlanta. Todd Border and Jake Gardner serve as General Managers of Fear Overload, and were gracious hosts. This year, Fear Overload’s two haunts are Night Terrors and The Tooth Collector. It had been a few years since we’ve been to Fear Overload, but they did change up the sets and floor plan, still had a fine attention to detail, and the actors really brought their enthusiasm.


Cast: 7.99

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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.


Costuming: 7.31

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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.


Customer Service: 9

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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.


Atmosphere: 8.1

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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.


Special Effects: 8.08

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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.


Theme: N/A

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There is no unifying theme of Fear Overload. Each of the two haunts has an independent theme, and the website does give a good backstory for each haunt. The Tooth Collector does an excellent job of carrying out its medical theme, showing the tortured Test Subjects and the Mad Doctors. Night Terrors is about a family in physical danger from its dreams, so it does allow for a more surreal and open-ended interpretation, and we found the storyline harder to follow. It came across as animal face actors startling us from various vantage points.


Scare Factor: 7.88

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Fear Overload does provide several forms of scares. The majority of scares came from actors startling us from hidden corners, but some did emerge from set pieces on the floor or from the ceiling. A few of them confronted us with intimidating stares, and the girl with the original makeup design arching her back does stand out. There was a nice drop door gag, and there was an area where you can see the walls pounded from the other side. The ending of The Tooth Collector had a good finale as an actress startled us right before we exited.


Entertainment & Value: 7.95

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We were satisfied with the entertainment and length of the two haunts. Each one took about 6 minutes to complete. The admission price included the various photo ops and a line actor who went out of his way to interact with us. It would have been nice to see more than one actor, but this gentleman did give it his all. The ticket price was appropriate for the entertainment received. Fear Overload did utilize its available space, and we did not find any ‘dead zone’.


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