As our intrepid little group cautiously begins our trek into the woods, a bell tolls from afar. Does it toll for us, signaling our doom? We can’t be sure. All we know is that some very dark whispers surround this patch of forest. Tales of secret military experiments; experiments that inevitably went awry, releasing all manner of monsters and murders into the shadows of the trees. Are they watching? Who knows what could be waiting for us in this Forsaken Forest?
Born from several creative minds from both the theme park and haunted attraction industries, Forsaken Forest- located in rural Richmond, Indiana- is ringing in their third season of operation for 2025. I had the honor of giving them their first-ever Scare Factor review last year, and when I was offered the opportunity again, I didn’t hesitate to accept it. After all, who better to face the wicked woods than a Lone Wolf? Keep reading to find out what’s lurking along this haunted trail.
Tipsy the Clown and his son Corny greeted us at the Forest’s entrance and gave us a rundown of the rules we were expected to follow. (Hope you like clowns if you come here. They were everywhere!) Not far into our adventure, we came across Jezebel and her clan of vampires. They were pleasant enough at first… but we couldn’t say the same for the poor human they’d brought home for dinner! A deceptively kind older lady, Granny, met us further on and offered to introduce us to her family, who worked in the butcher shop. Unfortunately for us, none of them remained nice for long – she delighted in the screams of the “long pig”, the pig-faced butcher was aggressively slicing and dicing, and we nearly lost one of our own to him as well! Another gang of hillbillies wasn’t as enthused to see us barging into the junkyard they called home. After a great deal of threats and hollerin’ about our unwanted presence, we were told we “stank” and ordered to get off their property. One of them groused, “I’m a hillbilly and I know how to shower, so what’s that sayin’ about you?!” Sirens and warnings blared while a horde of escaped zombies snarled, crawled, and lunged for us. We found Madame Miri, the fortune teller, waiting inside a shack in the swamp. She let us know we’d just arrived in time for dinner and graciously offered to share… too bad all of us were also on the menu! (I told her she didn’t want me. Wolves are tough and stringy. Not good eatin’.) Many crazy clowns were prowling the circus tent, looking for wayward victims to play with. They were all over the place: cackling, taunting, and insulting our group, and coming back to torment us over and over again. I don’t think any of us were ever happier to escape a circus tent in our lives!
Forsaken had a good-sized cast when I came through. Some scenes had more people working in them than others, but none of them were empty, and all of the actors played well off each other. There was a good mix of scary and interactive moments among them. Most cliché dialogue, such as “get out” and “fresh meat”, was excluded; I would also refrain from lines like “what are you doing in my (X)”. Screaming and pleading were reserved for victims, and I was impressed by how convincing they sounded. The cast was quite interactive on all fronts, too: with each other, their sets, and the group.
I would love to see some random maniacs or beasties hidden in between areas of the trail. There’s a lot of darkness and foliage they could use for cover, and in the quieter periods between scenes, customers will drop their guard. Perfect opportunity to nail ’em. Parts of the show that didn’t make sense were extremely few, but funny as they were, I was wondering what was up with the kids ordering us around at the beginning.
Care was taken to ensure that the cast of crazies haunting the Forsaken Forest each had a look that matched their characters, and it wasn’t hard to figure out who or what most of them were supposed to be. There seemed to be a heavier tendency to use makeup over masks, and makeup looks had varying degrees of detail, but they all looked pretty good.
The vampires were among the better-dressed of the bunch, wearing elegant dresses and long coats. Granny outside of the butcher shop was rocking an appliance that gave her a big dump truck booty, and the butcher himself wore a signature pig mask. Madame Miri had intricate markings painted on her face and wore a beautiful gown, while her followers were clad in robes. Some of the greatest variety was found in the circus clowns: I saw frilly dresses, clown suits with stripes and polka dots, and Bozo wore suspenders over a dirty tank top that had various “smiley” faces drawn on it. Their slider clown, Crash, actually had his beard painted in dual colors to match his face and costume!
Other neat costuming touches I noticed were the actual LED lights and creepy X’d-out eye on a butcher roaming the line. The scientist in the military bunker, where we encountered zombies, had bandages clumsily wrapped around his head… that did nothing to cover his exposed brain (!). Several actors carried props as part of their act: numerous chainsaws, horns, and yet another roaming clown even carried a whole clown puppet! Getting back to the zombies, they looked quite gory and had disheveled, dirty clothes to match. The hillbillies looked nice and rough too – perfect for their characters.
I did still spot opportunities here and there to grunge/distress some costumes more. Remember, if you look ghoulish but you’ve got a nice pristine dress or suit on, it just doesn’t look complete.
The first thing I noticed when I got close was a big lit-up arrow sign in the road, like you’d see during road construction. That was an attention grabber for sure! A big truck with the haunt’s logo on it and a custom brightly-lit sign further back were both clear indicators I’d found the right place. Parking was on the other side of the road and that’s what the arrow was pointing toward. Plenty of cones and a parking crew made it easy to get parked and it was free. Walking up from the parking lot, I noticed Forsaken’s ticket booth was clearly labeled. Prices were displayed on a tablet when a customer approached the window: they ranged from $25.00 for General Admission to $75.00 for Instant Access. Helpful, friendly staff were everywhere in case someone had a question.
Flashing orange wands and cones in the road were meant to get the attention of oncoming traffic and help groups cross safely. The haunt’s drink and merch stands were indoors and had a sign pointing them out. Another custom sign and string lights made it easy to find the trail entrance. The haunt does have a loose storyline to tie all their different scenes together, and I would love to see this added to the website; they had everything else covered. Because this is a rural haunt and it’s sort of isolated, adding a sign or two further down the road in either direction would also help people know they’re going the right way.
A howling wolf statue with glowing red eyes, the enormous skeleton clawing its way out of the ground, and other decor around the ticket booth made it clear right away that I’d just arrived at a haunt. In front of one of the buildings, a nice photo op had been set up under an even nicer Forsaken Forest sign. Out on the lawn, the DJ booth blasted fun tunes for everyone to enjoy. (Pay attention to what’s playing: the Forest has its own theme song!) Additional bits of Halloween decor had been added around the square. A fire pit and a burn barrel provided warmth to guests, and some tables were set up for those who had purchased drinks at the merch counter and wanted to hang out. Speaking of merch, a variety of fun Forsaken Forest goodies was available for purchase. There were also vendors selling crochet items.
I met several roamers during my time on the property. Be forewarned: they can appear anywhere… out in the square, inside where the merch counter and vendors are, and even on the trail itself. A scarecrow wearing a suit and a dusty hat snuck into one of my photos, and it didn’t take long for the infamous Bozo to track me down either. I earned the nickname “Porkchop” for the rest of the night (don’t ask – long story).
Out on the trail, just about every scene we walked through felt suitable for a haunted trail. A lot of what we saw is outlined further up, so I won’t go over them all. This haunt is located on the property of a business, so it would be difficult for them to fully remove any immersion breakers, like equipment and vehicles. However, I would advise the haunt to watch for small things that may seem out of place on the trail and temporarily take guests out of the show. (Example: I let their team know about the crisp, clean business sign that was hanging up in the wooden maze.)
Forsaken Forest’s set design game was strong. Some had higher amounts of detail than others, like the catacombs we had to progress through early on: we were surrounded by stone walls covered in moss and glowing candles. The clown tent also had tons of decor and set pieces. However, all of them looked good and left no question as to what they were.
Due to the haunt being an outdoor trail and currently running on generators, there wasn’t much by way of animatronics out there. They did have many other neat effects, such as a green laser swamp and test tubes with light shifting in them to simulate fluid moving. There was also a super cool giant man-eating plant puppet that I haven’t seen anywhere else! The audio in each scene was a bit on the low side, but I picked up on a bell tolling in the distance, banjo music, and the theme to a certain horror movie involving ventriloquist dummies. Several sensory effects were included too – strobe lights, fog, fishing line hanging down in multiple spots, and scents like popcorn and cotton candy.
Boosting the audio just a little in the scenes, and maybe adding some in between to make it less quiet on the trail, would help with immersion. They had some large props along the trail that I could tell would look killer, but it was too dark to see them – I recommend adding some light to make them stand out.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7.75
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 10
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8.25
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 7.75
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 7
Due to the absence of animatronics, many of the Forest’s scares were derived from its cast. With that said, they were an energetic crew and got us quite a few times – the first actor to make an appearance after the kids came out of nowhere and nearly put me on the ground from the start! An excellent chainsaw assault took place about midway through the trail; I counted about three chainsaw maniacs, and they were a well-coordinated team. (Shout-out to the one who vaulted over a wall and ran right after our fleeing group leaders! Loved to see it!)
Attacks came from literally every direction, including crawlers and up above. Props were used to enhance scares; in addition to the chainsaws, one of the hillbillies fired a LOUD gun, and I got a good laugh out of the clown who blasted me with air and made a joke about a “blow job”. I went in with a handful of other people, and the actors did very well with dividing their attention equally among all of us.
I would have liked to see a stronger finale, as it kind of fell short at the end (minus Bozo sneaking up on me with a chainsaw, of course). It would be awesome if they could get some animatronics running, too. Even if they aren’t meant to scare groups, they make a great distraction when everyone’s looking at that cool animated thing and they don’t see the actor(s) waiting to strike…
Luckily for me, I did not join the many forsaken souls haunting the Forest and managed to escape the trail in approximately 27 minutes. With a base ticket price of $25.00, that made Forsaken Forest’s MPD (Minutes Per Dollar) rating an impressive 1.08! While I’m sure the interactive bits helped with the show’s length, I thought they did well with including real acting along with the scares most people visit haunts for. Hanging out in the square with the roamers and listening to music was fun, too, though I’d love to see them add more to that area in the near future.
Are the rumors surrounding the woods of Richmond true? Did a bunch of freaks and creatures really escape from a military bunker and overrun the property? If you think you’re brave enough to find out, grab some friends and hit the trail into the Forsaken Forest this Halloween season.
5970 IN 121, Richmond, Indiana 47374
