Hundred Acres Manor’s attention to visual, auditory, and olfactory detail is still incredible. Easily the most impressive addition this season is the large set piece displaying a fog-swept London street. From the merchant stands’ decaying wears to the intricate building facades, the entire scene appeared to be plucked directly from a Victorian street corner, corrupted through the prism of fantastical horror, and deposited in Bethel Park. The bar was well-made, also, right down to the mid-game dart board, and the dungeon, hanging lanterns and shackles warning us about the potential outcome of dallying too long looked great. The chanting room was incredibly eerie ‘ its animated residents’ gyrations a bit TOO human-like… The whole of Host was an urban sprawl, dilapidated and forlorn, with a persistent haze imbuing everything with an eerie complexion as we anxiously tread from building to building in hopes of evading suspicious townsfolk or worse.
For whatever reason, we appreciated Torture Tank more this season. There really isn’t an inch of that attraction that isn’t caked with sinew or flesh. The Stitcher hallway is especially gruesome, and the Tank’s version of the electric chair animatronic was one of the most violent that we’ve seen. The ‘Bridge Over the River Stitch’ was a pensive affair. Hidden amongst the carcasses and crimson canvasing, we knew the proverbial ‘they’ would be coming, but we didn’t know from where.
The lead-in to Vodou seemed to be improved this season, as well, with the endless of billows of fog from London wafting over to obfuscated the vines and foliage that signaled the transitioned into that attraction. The cave segment is still fantastic, all dripping puddles and stalactites. The two major scares within were good : the first approached slowly, ominously; the second was a tour-de-force. Obviously the tilt room hasn’t lost any of its impact. The heartbeat hallway, something out of a Poe-induced nightmare was our favorite sliver of madness within Vodou. Perhaps the simple ‘effect’ at the end was meant to indicate who the true ‘monsters’ of the Manor really are.
The Breach wasn’t drastically altered this year, but received a handful of touch-ups that improved the overall experience. After the decontamination hallway, we abruptly encountered the first of these : an excellent full-size xenomorph. It stared us down as evasively side-stepped it, but fortunately kept its distance. The undeniable highlighted set piece remains the ‘alien attack’ room, though an additional, unexpected element has increased the chaotic carnage of that scene. The Breach certainly utilizes the broadest range of light effects of all the attractions, and its ‘blue light’ hallway is mesmerizing, like experiencing a futuristic, hyper-active toaster oven from the bread’s perspective.
Hallows’ Eve still opens with its most impressive set display : essentially the Cleaver household if those folks were haunt enthusiasts. We always find ourselves dallying at the entrance to absorb all the detailing. The teleportation haze that transitioned us from peaceful (if eerie) house into the macabre vignettes was nice; another display of the Manor’s extensive fog effect wizardry. Each of the proceeding scenes was well-detailed, as were the passages between them, but the hunter scene was probably our favorite. The entrail hallway has the dis-stink-tion of being one of the worst smelling segments of any haunted attraction we’ve ever visited. Congratulations? 1AM is a truly odoriferous attraction all-around, but you’ve won the Right Guard reward!
Excluding a chunk of Hallows’ Eve that was uncharacteristically quiet, the entire walkthrough included eerie haunted soundtracks and effects. From torture tanks high-tempo, adrenaline-awakener, to the traditional haunting somberness of The Host, the effectiveness and immersion of the entire attraction is greatly benefited by its aural accompaniments. It’s quite a unique ride, too, reaching ‘Mr. Sandman’ at the start of Hallows’ Eve after having the equivalent of ‘Enter Sandman’ greeting us at the ticket booth. The Breach’s sci-fi accents, the howling winds and crickets of Vodou’s swampy area, the alien buzzing of the Stitchers, the tribal drumming that increased as we progressed through the caves and the Heartbeat Hallway’s Tell-Tale throbbing were the best auditory effects that we encountered.
Hundred Acres Manor is undeniably one of the greatest examples of a haunted attraction providing ample and effective stimulation across nearly perceptive mechanism available to the human machine. We appreciate that they uninvited taste; the haunt world isn’t ready for him to show up just yet.
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