Grissom Maze of Terror Review (2017)

There are a lot of actors running around Grissom Maze of Terror and they are pretty good at popping out of unexpected places. It is evident that this is their first year though, as they were lacking in any real dialogue on interaction. With the exception of the nun in the queue, the actors basically resorted to popping up and screaming at us. There were a few times when someone would scream ‘Get out!’ ‘Keep moving!’ or tell us that we were ‘going the wrong way,’ when we clearly weren’t. Given some time and actor training, we expect this haunt’s cast to improve greatly.

The nun in the queue line and a couple of the clowns were very well costumed, along with one of the guides, who was dressed like a vampire bellhop. The rest of the cast relied heavily on standard latex masks, which made any attempt at dialogue nearly impossible. At one point, an actor wearing a very loose Freddy Krueger mask, jeans and a black t-shirt with a white logo on it, popped up onto a short wall next to us. There was not a lot in the way of makeup except for one classic clown with their white face and red nose, and a few basic dirtied looks.

Inside the haunt is pretty safe but, while we waited in line outside, we watched as one kid ran out of the exit and was scared towards the road, nearly getting them run over by a passing pickup truck. There is a roadway/driveway that passes right in front of the haunts entrance and, despite a police vehicle being parked right there, people have a tendency to speed by a bit too fast. While the speed of passersby is not under the haunt’s control, scaring people towards the road is. There was a table selling some munchies outside and you could also buy snacks at the ticket booth. At one point during out wait outside, the police officer brought out a box of free popcorn to offer the crowd. There was not much in the way of queue line entertainment either. Outside, there was a clown roaming around and a kid in just overalls that would walk around and just stare at you. Once you got inside the building, there was a screen near the front of the line showing clips from horror movies on repeat and an angry nun that tried to make sure that you and your date remained chaste. They have some chairs set up along the wall of the hallway to rest in and an arcade punching game at the end of the hallway that you can punch for $1.00. During our two and a half hour wait in line, we saw a few people nodding off in the chairs. Knowing that we were reviewers, we were asked by an actor in costume, how long the line was at our previous haunt’while we had been waiting for two hours in his line. Not a good question, not a good time.