Four Scythes Haunted Attraction is celebrating its sixth year of delivering frights to the public. Located at the Cumming Fairgrounds, the talented Four Scythes crew impressively assembles the entire haunt in just one month and operates for only eleven nights during the fair. After the fair closes, they add a third themed attraction and reopen for an additional four nights of terror.
As a 501(c)(3) charity, during the past six years, Four Scythes has donated more than $250,000 to the American Cancer Society and over 30 local charities in their county. All actors and staff are dedicated volunteers, giving their time to scare for a cause.
This season, guests will journey through Vespers Mortuary, which seamlessly transitions into Haskill’s Meats. Once the fair ends, Four Scythes returns with full control of the fairgrounds to unveil their post-fair attraction: Carnival of Screams.
Note: The night of our visit, Carnival of Screams was not yet open, so it is not included as a part of this review.
The actors at Four Scythes Haunted Attraction are incredibly enthusiastic in their roles – made even more impressive when you realize they’re all volunteers! On any given night, you can expect to encounter 30 to 40 performers bringing the haunt to life. Their characters ranged from eerily quiet and subtle to loud, energetic, and unrelenting. Some even showcased special skills, like controlled indoor sliding that added excitement to the action.
Inside Vesper’s Mortuary, we met an unforgettable assortment of vampires. One interactive actress leaned in close and told me I “smelled like Type O.” Little did she know, I am Type O! We kept my blood to ourselves and scurried into the next scene.
Several times, we mistook real actors for props, only to have them spring to life moments later. One standout moment was the veiled lady at the organ. We were sure she was a mannequin until, as we squeezed past her, she suddenly moved, prompting a quick exit into the next room…
Another highlight was the slider in the coffin maze, who amazed us with his agility as he darted under and around coffins, circling back to us within seconds.
In Haskill’s Meats, a towering, imposing actor startled us in the smokehouse before we encountered a crew of “butchers” busily processing their latest victims. One particularly loud and lively worker offered to turn us into cutlets, which was our cue to get out of there fast!
The costuming and makeup at Four Scythes are top-notch and tie quite well to their respective scenes. The airbrushed makeup, even up close, looks impressively realistic. Every costume is highly detailed and helps bring out each character’s personality and story. With vampires as the central theme, it would have been easy to rely on clichés – throwing on a cape and a pair of fangs – but Four Scythes goes far beyond that. The team has created a variety of vampire looks, from those who appear almost human to those who are clearly otherworldly creatures.
The main vampire, Rosalynn, is a stunning yet terrifying sight in her black Victorian gown. Her bluish, veiny skin, dripping yellow fangs, and milky white eyes sent chills down our spines. While a few of the actor masks appeared slightly ill-fitting (we’d love to see more of them airbrushed instead), the makeup overall was excellent. One standout use of masks was the spider mask. It is well-designed and disturbing; it features multiple eyes and fearsome mandibles. The actor wearing it struck a deep, contorted pose as we entered the scene, creating a truly disorienting and memorable effect.
In the Haskill’s Meats segment, costuming shifted to fit the gritty, industrial slaughterhouse setting. There was a mix of blood-splattered aprons, grimy work shirts, and tattered overalls – some with a hint of backwoods hillbilly flair. A few workers wore grotesque masks that enhanced the unsettling atmosphere, making us wonder what kinds of meats were being processed here!
Four Scythes Haunted Attraction has one of the most detailed and user-friendly websites we’ve encountered. It includes everything a visitor could need: dates of operation, multiple ticket options, parking details, an in-depth storyline for the haunt, and full contact information. To help reduce your wait in line, tickets are sold in time slots. Those times indicate when a visitor enters the queue line.
Tickets can be purchased online or on-site, making it easy to plan your visit. We recommend purchasing tickets in advance, as the line to the ticket booth was quite busy the night of our visit.
For those looking to shorten their wait, Four Scythes offers a Fast Pass add-on for $20, allowing guests to bypass the main queue. The next level up is the Ultimate VIP ticket, which grants front-of-line access along with a souvenir t-shirt, stickers, and even s’mores! Groups of 20 or more can also take advantage of discounted ticket pricing.
Restrooms are available at the fairgrounds, and food options depend on the time of year. During the fair, there’s an impressive variety of food vendors to choose from. When the fair isn’t running, Four Scythes still provides food options for haunt nights, ensuring guests can grab a snack before or after their scares.
Parking can be a bit of an adventure during the fair, with nearby lots charging around $20. However, a free parking deck and lot are available just up the hill – it’s worth circling around to find a spot there. Once the fair concludes later in the season, haunt-goers can enjoy free parking in the main fairgrounds lot, making visits later in the month even more convenient.
Four Scythes Haunted Attraction packs an impressive amount of detail and atmosphere into just 6,000 square feet. Set inside a large barn at the busy Cumming Fairgrounds, the exterior doesn’t give away what’s waiting inside, but once you step through the doors, you’re completely immersed in the richly detailed and creative world of Vespers Mortuary.
Every scene ties neatly into the overarching story, with clear evidence of the team’s time and attention to detail. The only thing that occasionally broke immersion was the open ceilings, a common limitation for haunts due to fire codes and sprinkler systems. Many rooms were able to cleverly disguise ceilings with mossy ghillie fabric, beautifully lit to blend into the scenery.
Highlights include a greenhouse built from old windows and overflowing with greenery that practically swallows you whole, and our favorite feature, the “coffin maze.” This tight, dark corridor is lined with stacked coffins – some upright, some lying open – all crawling with vampires that strike again and again!
Four Scythes delivers a strong storyline, fantastic scenery, and memorable characters. While we never quite lost ourselves completely in the immersion, it’s still a wonderfully executed and highly enjoyable haunt that we’ll definitely be recommending to others.
Four Scythes makes excellent use of special effects that always serve the story rather than distract from it. One of the first things you’ll notice is the smell – that signature haunted house aroma pumped into the haze throughout the attraction. Each scene has its own distinctive scent: a sickly rose perfume in the mortuary cosmetologist’s room, a swampy pond water odor in the outdoor scenes (complete with a working fountain), and even the stomach-turning stench of raw meat inside Haskill’s Meats. In total, the team uses a dozen distinct scents in a compact space, and remarkably, they never blend together.
Sound design is used to great advantage throughout Four Scythes. The ambient noises are so immersive that you could close your eyes and easily imagine yourself standing outside on a dark night at appropriate spots. The sound effects and musical cues shift seamlessly from scene to scene, adding realism to the storyline.
Other effects that stood out included a heat-blasting “fire” furnace that engulfed us in a dense jet of fog lit to resemble flames, and a garage scene with a moving door and realistic sound design that caught us off guard.
Animatronics are used sparingly but effectively, always as scene enhancers or misdirection for live scares. We especially loved the massive carved stone skeleton statue towering over the graveyard, which suddenly lunged forward as we passed beneath it, and the wall-climbing creature that jerked backward toward us, revealing a monstrous face.
Perhaps the most surprising feature was a stairway illusion unlike anything we’ve seen in another haunt. Simple in concept but brilliantly executed, it left us disoriented in the best possible way.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 9
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 9
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 9
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 8.75
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 8
Four Scythes Haunted Attraction is designed for maximum impact, with cleverly constructed spaces that give actors plenty of opportunities to strike from unexpected places. Jump scares are both frequent and effective, keeping visitors on edge throughout the haunt. Just as unnerving is the constant sense of being stalked by those vampires who are either waiting around every corner, following you through the maze.
Inside Vesper’s Mortuary, guests may find themselves face-to-face with several common fears. The first is the fear of blood, and there’s plenty of it. One memorable scene surrounded us with hanging blood bags and puddles of what looked disturbingly fresh and shiny. Anyone who is squeamish about the sight of blood might feel their pulse quicken in that room.
Then there’s the spider room, crawling with oversized arachnids and home to a performer wearing a grotesque spider mask. It’s a perfect trigger for arachnophobia, and paired with the dim lighting and confined space, it makes for an unsettling moment in the haunt. And of course, if you suffer from sanguivoriphobia – the fear of vampires – Vesper’s Mortuary offers no relief, as it’s filled with a wide variety of bloodsuckers waiting in the shadows.
Moving into Haskill’s Meats, the theme shifts from gothic horror to gritty industrial terror. Here, the fear of dismemberment (apotemnophobia) takes center stage as guests navigate through a maze of meat hooks, sharp instruments, and roaring chainsaws. This segment also uses disorientation to great effect, especially in the fog-dense smokehouse and the winding, misty maze, where visibility drops to almost nothing and your sense of direction completely fades.
A general admission ticket to Four Scythes Haunted Attraction on the night of our visit (during the Cumming Fair) was $20. Visitors attending while the fair is in operation must also pay the $10 fair admission fee. Our walkthrough time came in at 13.5 minutes, resulting in a value of 0.45 minutes per dollar (MPD). While this figure is at the lower end compared to many haunts we visit, it’s important to remember that your ticket purchase helps support a worthy charitable cause.
If you’re looking to boost your MPD value, consider attending during the final four nights of operation after the fair closes. During this period, admission is $25, there’s no fair entry fee, and guests get access to an additional haunt, making it a much stronger MPD value.
Beyond the main attraction, Four Scythes also offers two excellent photo opportunities and fun interactions with queue-line characters like Rosalynn, the Vampire Mistress, who’s always ready to pose for pictures alongside other costumed actors.
235 Castleberry Road, Cumming, Georgia 30040
