We would say the effects efforts are Forest of Scream’s calling card. Excellent set decoration and detail, remarkable props and animatronics, and a deft touch with fog, lighting, and pyro made for a memorable evening of eye candy.
The fun started right away at the hayride’s first stop with an awesome witch shack where fiery sparks and ashes appeared to be streaming out of the cauldron. But when they touched us, they felt cold like snowflakes. What witchery was this?! Were they fantastical foam bits? With a crashing crescendo, the witch cast a curse that seemed to call the nightmarish creatures of the forest to descend upon us. Thanks a lot, witch.
The actors worked really well inside the scenes with whatever effects were at hand. We went through a bunch of killbilly shacks and shanties sporting dilapidated porches, taxidermied animal heads, severed human heads and severely distressed carcasses, and literal buckets of gore. Banjo plucking played while we went past a smokehouse that was actually belching smoke out of every crack in its ceiling. X-marked barrels of moonshine surrounded a prop yokel projectile-puking his drunken guts out.
Ramshackle vintage vehicles looking like they belonged to the ‘40s dotted the landscape. A pair of wild boars ripped apart a body. A stupendously savage sasquatch animatronic likewise tore a dude in half. A chicken-man chowed down on a chicken, while nearby wolf and werewolf props howled fiercely. An abandoned mine was crawling with spiders and skeletons. In the cemetery scene, dramatic organ music accompanied a beautiful stone church and mausoleum.
However out of place it might have appeared at first, the sci-fi section elicited oohs and aahs from the wagon when we rode between massive metal walls while lights flashed and alarms went off, massive experimental creatures snarled, and metal gating sparked.
The trail started with a crypt-like area full of caskets, vamps, and bats. The fog grew thick and glowing lanterns cast sinister shadows. We encountered another graveyard, passing under a wrought iron arch. The melonhead caverns were very well done, a mazy warren of darkness and eerie figures topped with gourds.
Bizarre laughing noises and distorted screams joined in with wonky walls of atonal sounds assaulting our ears, eventually switching to a Phantom-esque organ. Spirited animatronics launched at us with hysterical shrieks and screams. One of the few missteps effects-wise that we noticed was that several of them lacked proper lighting to make them out, both here and on the hayride.
Morbid Manor looked sensational, better than ever before. The care they took in refurbishing the house paid off with a seriously polished look – in a decrepit sense, of course – exemplified by perfectly distressed walls and a delightfully time-worn overall appearance. It also sounded great. Old-timey music played as if on a staticky turntable; a creeptastic version of “Mr. Sandman” in the early going gave way to more organ music as the end approached.
Animatronics featured prominently here too, and a swirling, levitating table proved to be the coolest effect. Rooms passed too quickly to notice many of the fine details: kitchen, dining room, autopsy and prep areas, and a book-laden study with a cozy fireplace were some of the notable environments.
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