Fear Town Haunted House Review (2021)

We’ve always encountered a good number of actors at Fear Town. It takes quite a few people to keep a 45-minute trail entertaining. Even more so now that they have to be broken up into three separate themes. Snozzer’s traveling circus has a few clowns, but also some terrifying freak shows too. The Prey has a couple of hillbillies or rednecks and also some victims from a children’s camp. Zombie Extreme surprisingly didn’t have as many zombies as I would expect. More fun than that, there were a lot of scientist-type characters who have been developing an energy drink and they wanted us to try some.

There was a handful of good actors inside the haunts all doing their jobs. But, hands down, the best actors Fear Town has to offer are out in the midway. We were fortunate enough to see some of these awesome characters inside the haunts as well. They had a big belly clown walking around with a hammer and tape over his nipples getting plenty of selfies with people. One guy dressed up as a member of KISS for some reason. Another character was in a black robe with long hair and I couldn’t even see his face, but he liked to walk up to unsuspecting groups and clash two symbols together. Just a lot of random fun out there in the midway.

Our favorites were an amazing clown character named FroYo and a spunky camp counselor with a bell he wanted everyone to slap a lot. FroYo we first saw in the middle of the traveling circus attraction. He popped up out of nowhere and screamed ‘Mint Chocolate Chip!’ Still managed to make a group of girls scream. He came out into the midway and started dancing with everyone and asking them what their favorite flavor of ice cream was.

The camp counselor was an absolute expert at saying ‘Hi There! How are you doing!?’ Even to people clearly on the other side of the parking lot. This bell he carried around looked like it was attached to an old washboard or old wooden telephone terminal or something. And he would scream at people ‘Ring My Bell!’ and they would hit this little service bell. Then he’d yell at them again ‘Again! Keep Ringing My Bell!’ and they would slap it repeatedly. And in the loud bell noise ringing he would scream ‘Faster! Faster! Faster!’ and people would simply oblige without thinking about it. Then he just walked away screaming to someone else ‘Hey There! How you doing?’

Something I’ve always thought about the actors at Fear Town is that it feels like the haunt has a hold of them. The majority of the attraction is out in the woods and, although it’s not super deep into the wilderness, it always feels like the tree line separates the world of the fun carnival games from the world of dark and evil spirits. I’ve never known if the actors were supposed to have particular spots in the attractions, but they do a great job convincing me that this whole area is their home. And I might not get the same exact show as the people behind or in front of me. That’s something to keep coming back to Fear Town to see.

For the most part, all of the actors are in full costume. It felt like the majority of them were not in a mask and liked the body and face paint. Another reason why it felt like the woods took hold over some of the actors: a lot of very dirty looking characters that I could believe were just weirdos camping out in the woods for too long.

The majority of the cast wore costumes that looked like they didn’t mind getting ripped apart. They are working in the dirt most of the time. And… I feel like it rains down there a lot; every time I’ve gone down there, they have had at least some sort of drizzle. So it might be a little much to rely on nice-looking costumes in such a place.

Our favorite character FroYo had the best costume in our opinion. From a distance, he looked more like a horned clown in a painter’s uniform. But, once he gets closer (and he will), you’ll notice that his two devil horns are actually ice cream cones! Complete with melted ice cream scoops that are dripping down his white clown face. The white overalls are stained with the same flavors as the two cones have on top of his head. Blue and pink was smeared all over him and he was even wearing a blue and hot pink tie-dye shirt underneath. I like big colorful flashy costumes as much as the next guy, but it was cool seeing a character stick to his own color scheme.

I’ll admit, the last few times I have been to Fear Town (up until this year), the crowd control has been a trial and error experiment. It’s a difficult thing to manage a bunch of groups going through any attraction for longer than five minutes, let alone forty-five! As a frequent haunt tourist, I find myself needing to step in every once in a while to help with those situations and I end up stopping my group to let the group ahead of us move forward. I’ll shamefully admit that there have been times I was stuck in a conga line with five groups in front of me and I didn’t have a choice but to break out of the line and walk past them. The last time I was at Fear Town I had to do the same thing only in the opposite direction! I was stuck in a group following another group, following another group, whose leader decided that two plywood walls that weren’t ‘completely’ connected to each other were clearly part of the regular path. Naturally, everyone followed him. I realized we’d been walking in the dark woods for about a minute before I had to just get out of line and walk back to the gap in the walls. The cast eventually figured out the situation, but not before I got to enjoy the rest of the attraction with zero complications from other guests.

That being said, it would seem to me that this is at least part of the reason why they decided to break apart the trail into three shorter attractions. And, fifteen minutes each is actually still a good chunk of time for a haunt. Also, for any guests that might want to take a break in between haunts, or if the lines get a little too long, they can wait in the midway and get some food or a drink or play games to pass the time. It worked out great as far as we could tell. We didn’t bump into anyone or have anyone bump into us.

Finding Fear Town is as simple as driving on pretty much the only road there is to drive on in the town of Seekonk and looking for the giant trailer with the forty-foot-long Fear Town banner. They are located more or less behind the speedway race track, but there are plenty of arrows and signs placed everywhere that tell you where to go until you see one of their helpful parking attendees waving you in. When we entered Fear Town, there was a helpful guard that asked if we needed tickets or tokens (which were to the right), or if we were all set to head to the first attraction.

Fear Town has been probably one of two attractions I can think of in New England that likes to do Facebook Live updates. Sometime in mid to late summer, they like to get online and give everyone a descriptive update and answer any questions live. It has been a very helpful tool, especially with a place that likes to do such extensive changes every year.

This midway is probably the most fun midway you are going to find in New England. It is very much like a festival setting with all kinds of horror-themed games. We got a few wooden coins as tokens to use at these games and had a blast. They have a total of nine different activities to choose from: axe Throwing, Break-a-plate, Casket Ring Toss, Victorian Eyeball Pong, Skeleton Basketball, Hangbar Challenge, Wax Hands, a life size Operation game(!), and a 5 minute 4D experience called The Asylum. The tokens were a great idea, much easier than whipping out cash, which nobody seems to use anymore anyway.

When we pulled into the parking area, we expected to see a bunch of lights and people running around like we would at most attractions with a midway in the beginning. But, Fear Town has multiple tractor-trailers surrounding the midway. To us, it almost looks like they are used as barrier walls to keep a zombie horde out of their compound. Adds a little bit of a creepy vibe if you ask me. Either way, it’s definitely a fun surprise when we walk in and see all the different activities to choose from.

Fear Town has relied more on the spooky vibes from the sets and the woods in their years here at the speedway. I’d assume the weather has a lot to do with it, being so close to the ocean. I can’t recall too much in the way of animatronics or anything fancy like that. But, they do have plenty of sound effects and music to match the themes.

They seem to like keeping the attractions quite dark. Never dark enough that you can’t see where you are going, but dark enough to wonder if there is something right beside you hiding in the darkness. A rope light sometimes was the only thing guiding my way while a blue pin light focused my attention away from the lurking creatures on the other side.

We started with Mr. Snozzer’s Traveling Circus. Snozzer’s use to be in years past ‘Mr. Snozzer’s Family Fun Center.’ Definitely clown-themed, but they really try to bring in other circus characters… more like a freak show and carnival workers gone bad.

The Prey was centered around a summer camp for kids. But, the creatures and psychopaths who live around the woods of the camp came in one night and butchered everyone in sight. Think Friday the 13th meets Wrong Turn.

Zombie Energy was by far our favorite theme. The story is that some company moved into town and started making a brand new energy drink called ‘Extreme Z.’ When we entered the attraction, it started out as a quick tour of the facilities like we were the new investors into this drink. Quickly, we realized that this company has just been conducting multiple experiments on the people of this town and now we have to find our way out! The coolest part of this attraction is that they actually sell this energy drink to the guests… with its very own label and everything!

It could be the weather’s fault again, but I’ve always felt like Fear Town has this abandoned vibe to it… something that gives the attraction that little bit of actual creepy sense. The wood panels in some of the sets feel like they are leaning or loose, not in a safety hazard way though. Sometimes I come across one that has multiple holes and it’s ripped apart. The scary thing is that it is just such a shift from all the crazy fun carnival-type stuff in the midway to these dark and weathered sets. This feeling is also amplified a little due to the fact that all the attractions are located right at the beginning of the tree line. Walking into the different attractions and looking back at the big bright area muffled by all the trees and sounds. It gives us a bit of a trapped feeling like the woods and ghosts of this place want to keep us.

Prices for general admission vary depending on the date. Starting at $20 on slow nights and up to $30 on busy nights. Combo tickets start at $30 and go up to $40 depending on the date, and these tickets get you all the attractions plus 4 tokens. The Monster Combo starts at $44 and goes up to $54 and gets you 10 tokens.

They have a special that they’ve been running for opening weekend for a while now, and it is only $16.66. The best bang for your buck is absolutely during the opening weekend.

Fear Town runs on a timed ticketing platform now. There are intervals of 15 minutes in between time slots starting at 7 pm and every fifteen minutes up till 11:45. Ordering online is easy and preferred. But, if you wait till the last minute, don’t be surprised to find nothing but a few Monster Combo tickets available in a few time slots. Tickets sell fast at Fear Town!

With all the fun activities they provide, I would have to say that Fear Town is one of the most fun nights you can have in October. And, now that they have separated the attraction into three, it’s much less of a hike and more of a well-paced experience. And, every year, they like to expand and add more. Always a fun and scary time at the fastest growing haunt in New England!