The Haunted Trail of Chaos is back for another season of insanity! They feature everything from a carnival with evil clowns to a graveyard with a cryptkeeper and even a haunted movie theater! Every year, this attraction gets better and better and lives up to its name. They are extremely chaotic, and we love it!
They are located near London, Kentucky, and are going on their 4th season of chaos. This attraction is a combination of indoor and outdoor, and the queue is mostly covered outdoors. This year, they have a fun addition while you wait to enter the haunt. We have been coming to the Haunted Trail of Chaos for 3 years now. If you’ve never been here, we highly recommend it. And if you have been here before, they change something every year, so you are in for a treat!
Actors are all over the place in this attraction. We even saw some of the same actors twice or more, unexpectedly! There is no doubt they do very well at filling any possible dead spaces. Most of these actors were very convincing in their given roles. We encountered many MANY clowns with different behaviors, angry miners, hateful nuns, and much more! The clowns were mostly crazy and deranged (as they should be), and there were characters like Michael Myers who would appear in multiple locations and just stare at us (as he is supposed to).
The majority of the actors were interactive with us. The clowns especially enjoyed playing tricks on us, such as sending us down the incorrect path or blocking our way, or showing us a magic trick! Several actors would ask us the most random things, like “Don’t you want to stay for the specials?” We were thinking that WE were the specials (in a butcher shop). There were only a few actors who didn’t do much except jump out and scare us or yell “Get out”.
We thoroughly enjoyed each of the actors’ behavior. The Haunted Trail of Chaos had many clowns, but each of them acted differently from the next. There were crazy clowns, funny clowns, quiet, yet creepy clowns, etc. The loudest and most startling actor was the zombie in the barrel room.
The costumes this year were phenomenal! We noticed many of them had extra details that they were lacking last year. There was extra grunge, distressing, and age on almost every costume. Many of the costumes even included colored contacts and shoes that worked with the costume. We loved the realism of them!
The masks and makeup were also much improved compared to last year. Almost every actor with a mask or makeup was created with detail that helps with the illusion of being in a real haunted location. Even the actors who spoke to us and had a mask on didn’t sound like their voices were muffled.
Most of the scenes were created to fit certain actors within them. We encountered nuns in a church, a gravedigger at a gravesite/cemetery, clowns in a funhouse, etc. However, we also noticed there were areas like the “crazy room” (we called it this because there was so much going on, it was difficult to tell what the room was meant to be), that had clowns and Michael Myers. It didn’t quite make sense for them to be in the same areas. With that said, though, everything else was placed in locations that made sense.
We can’t stop talking about the queue actors! I keep saying, “I’ve never had this much fun waiting in line”. The queue actors included Sledge the Clown, Axel the Clown, & a little clown that kept staring at us. Sledge and Axel had some of the best banter we have ever seen! And Sledge was quite the performer. He put on a great show! And we got his autograph!
We had a very easy time locating this attraction. Our GPS took us directly to it, and there were plenty of well-lit signs and parking attendants showing us where to park. The ticket booth and queue were clearly marked with plenty of signage. And a bonus was that they had food trucks available for an additional charge if you got hungry.
We didn’t find anything dangerous in or outside of this attraction. There was plenty of lighting in areas with possible trip hazards and no scares in those areas either. Everything seemed very stable with no possibility of falling. No concerns here!
The staff at Haunted Trail of Chaos are always super helpful and friendly! Everyone we encountered truly wanted to be there and was happy to help in any way possible.
Haunted Trail of Chaos has a Facebook page that includes some general information, but could use some more details. The page includes the location of the haunt, the dates that it opens, and it keeps the page updated with any unexpected closures, food trucks, etc. However, we would like more details, including the opening/closing time of the haunt, whether or not the haunt is indoor/outdoor, touching policies, ticket price, etc.
As mentioned previously, we LOVED the queue actors, so they made the pre-haunt atmosphere much more fun! In addition to the queue actors, they also had music playing, lights, and amazing decorations (the hearse is so cool!).
Once we got inside the attraction, we felt like we stepped into a crazy, scary alternate universe. We never ran into another group of people, and most transition zones were made well. There were only one or two spots where we saw cords from a light or something that was plugged in. This was the only item that took away from the illusion of the haunt. But, overall, we were very satisfied with how we were immersed in the attraction.
We exited near the entrance of the attraction, and the port-a-potties, in case you were so scared, you wet yourself! It would be very easy to stick around and enjoy another performance by Sledge the Clown or grab a bite to eat at one of the food trucks.
There were many different sounds used throughout the haunt and in different scenes. The clown areas used music that belonged in a creepy circus. Overall, scary sounds were used throughout the haunt, and they made it work in most scenes.
Each scene was different from the next. We loved the clown scenes and the movie theater. There were props and items used in each that we had never seen before. We honestly have never seen a movie theater in a haunted attraction before, but it was very cool! And the clown areas had some amazing details!
Props and animatronics were found everywhere! Most of the props were well-made, realistic, and creepy. We loved the barrel room with the zombies and the church with the nuns. Each of these areas used some really cool props. There was also this really cool animatronic in the butcher shop that made us want to get out of there!
Several areas used sensory effects. We encountered fog, black lights, confetti cannons, flashing lights, and more. We didn’t encounter any use of scents, water, or illusions, though. When done well, sensory effects can have a positive effect on the haunted attraction, and we would have liked to see more of these in use. But overall, they did well in this area.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 9.25
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 9.13
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8.5
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 9.38
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 5.13
Haunted Trail of Chaos made me jump so many times I lost count. It also made my skin crawl with its use of phobias. If you are like me and can’t stand bugs, be careful with this haunt! There’s a reason this attraction has the name it does. You will find it to be quite chaotic in every room you enter.
With a combination of the actors, props, and animatronics, this attraction does a great job of making sure everyone in the group gets a taste of fear. We didn’t come across anyone who wasn’t ready to scare both of us. Each of these scares was timed pretty well, too. There were several times we were distracted by something like a confetti cannon to notice a creepy chainsaw-wielding clown ready to run us out of there!
There was a large variety of scares used throughout the haunt. We encountered the use of phobias and distractions, as mentioned above, jump scares, blood and gore, and camouflage.
The ending to the haunt was a bit dull compared to the rest of the haunt. We didn’t quite feel the intense build-up we were looking for in a finale. It was almost completely dark, and there were only two actors in the area, one of whom didn’t do anything except watch us. We would have liked to see a more intense finale.
The entertainment, aside from the main attraction, was a lot of fun. We greatly enjoyed the performance by Sledge the Clown, as well as the banter between him and Axel. Sledge even offered for people to sing karaoke. No guest wanted to, but the offer was there.
We felt like the Haunted Trail of Chaos was incredibly entertaining and well worth the price! It was only $15 per person, and the length was 20 minutes of uninterrupted entertainment. The minutes per dollar rating, 1.33, is much higher than most haunted attractions we have been to. We can’t recommend this location enough!
174 Cheek Turner Rd, London, Kentucky 40741
