Infernum in Terra Haunted Attraction is a new challenger in the haunt industry. Located in Wheeling, West Virginia, Infernum in Terra is in its second season. It is a new haunt for us and we were extremely eager to see what they had to offer.
The owner has created, designed, and built everything in the haunt himself. This is quite an impressive feat for one person. I know how embarrassingly long it takes me to throw up a few decorations in my front yard, so, kudos. Last year’s ‘construction’ theme is gone. This year, he has completely reimagined the theme of Infernum, giving us a look into his ‘nightmares.’
Infernum offers a small but competent cast of varying conceptions. As we entered the haunt we were greeted by a grandmother. She was trying to get her grandson to sleep. She said we could listen along while she read him a bedtime story. As she started reading we noticed she was not speaking English. Confused, we looked at one another and continued to listen. She noticed the dumbfounded looks on our faces and asked if we were following along. After stating we were not understanding, she sarcastically replied, ‘It is a children’s story.’ She dismissed our claims and continued reading in this odd language. After a surprising event, she told us, ‘He must be having one of his nightmares.’ She ushered us to the next room advising we move ‘before he wakes up.’ She was quite convincing and had a feeling of arrogance to her. Next, we encountered a lunch lady offering some not so delightful delicacies. She provided a straight-on performance and interaction, nothing outside of the usual dialogue for a lunch lady. Though, she did give the dreaded ‘fresh meat’ line. This is one of the most overused phrases next to ‘get out.’ Another poor soul we met was complaining about being trapped in his job, at a factory, for ‘months, days, years?’ His day did not get better as he was electrocuted by some machinery. He was perturbed that we did not help him and then screamed at us to go. He provided a good over-the-top performance making us feel uncomfortable and shameful. We found a janitor, who snapped after someone made a mess of the bathroom. He had their dead body hanging above a toilet. There seemed to be quite a bit of fecal matter spread everywhere. So I really can’t blame him, if I had to clean up all that sh!t, I would want to kill someone too! In the occult/devil worship area, a girl was chanting ‘AAllliii’ repeatedly and screaming. She must like boxing? I agree Muhammed Ali was the GOAT. She played double duty as she popped out for another jump scare later. In the circus room, we met a female showman, show-woman, again what is the appropriate term? She put on the best performance of the night. She was passionate, believable, a little crazy, and enjoyable. It all fit well and she pulled it off without over-acting like a cartoon villain. She too would appear again for a quick jump scare. As we headed up a ramp to a small shack a Cow-headed man came running at me causing me to take a step back. He was carrying a large oar and he would smack it off of the floor. He came pretty close to my foot. He did not like people being in his shack, by looking around I think he was enjoying his alone time. I don’t think that wooden oar was the only thing he was beating in there. Arachnid teenager (I don’t want to get sued by Disney) was an interesting being, his movements were very wild and jerky, giving a very inhuman feel to the character. He reminded us of the young boy from the movie ‘Us’. He waited for us to be distracted before making a move. He made some growling noises and asked, ‘What are you looking at’ then he kicked the door open and told us to ‘get down the stairs.’ He was nice enough to wish us luck on our way stating ‘I hope you fall and survive.’ How nice! He did follow us for a bit. Downstairs we encountered two undead females who provided screams and stopped us from continuing. We encountered one more demon who provided no dialogue just an unexpected jumpscare.
For a second year haunt of volunteer actors, we thought the performances were great. We would like to have seen more actors but due to COVID, they could only run about half of what they had in their first year. A good mix of interactions from boo scares to the dialogue we were pleased with all performances.
Costuming for most characters nothing hit it out of the park for us. Grandma had on a nightgown and wore a nightcap and glasses. The lunch Lady wore an all-black garb, a hairnet, and glasses that had white paint on them. The occult girl had a black dress with white and black face paint. The industrial worker wore overalls as did the janitor. The janitor’s face mask seemed a little out of place. It was a full skull ski mask. The female ring leader wore a women’s tuxedo, I guess that’s what it would be considered, and had a matching top. The barnyard creature had an original cow mask that included antlers and had a bloody apron. Spider guy wore a spandex outfit that had a spider web pattern on it. One of the girls in the basement had on a flannel top, jeans, and some white face paint. She also had red drops of blood running down her face. We would have liked to have seen her in something different besides street clothes. The second actress in the basement was in a black dress with basic white paint.
As the owner Sean also runs Screamation Studios, which is known for their masks and props, we were expecting to see more masks used on the actors. However, with COVID, he felt it was not safe to ask actors to wear a heavy mask over the top of a protective safe mask. So maybe next year.
Infernum was easy to find using Google maps. The biggest issue we had was trying to find a place to park. Parking is on-street around the area. There was also a parking lot across the street, at the AEP building, which we used. We were told it was ok to park at this location. This may not always be the case though. We did have to call as we were driving around to verify where to park. We could not find anything on the website or Facebook regarding parking. The gentlemen I spoke with was very helpful. In fact, all the staff and employees we spoke to were very accommodating and welcoming.
We did not notice any safety issues outside of the normal for a haunt. You do have to climb a large set of metal stairs to enter the haunt. Some areas inside are dark and some are tighter, us full figure boys felt a little cramped, but that is the point.
Regarding COVID, Infernum is: checking temperatures of actors, all staff and actors are required to wear masks, additional cleaning of all touch surfaces, removal of contact points, hand sanitizing stations have been added, timed ticketing, groups have been limited to six people, no group mixing, guests must wear face masks, masks for sale at the site for a dollar, and social distancing. Due to these procedures, we felt comfortable attending the haunt.
Infernum in Terra’s atmosphere leans more to the mysterious and unknown. When you enter the lobby to purchase your tickets there are some cool Halloween masks and props on the shelves, snacks, and a photo op. After you receive your tickets you will exit and head around to the side of the building. This is where the queue line is.
Outside there were no decorations. No music, no sound effects, just the unknown. A large brick building, a set of steps, and a door, what lurks behind?
Infernum packs in a great deal of d������������������cor and props into their scenes. Not to mention we counted nearly 30 sets, which is a very ambitious amount for a 2nd-year haunt! Some of the scenes did seem more polished than others, but I think as time goes on, then that will change.
For the most part, all of them had great concepts, excellent lighting, and good execution of sound. There were a few times I did notice some sound carrying over from other parts of the haunt, but I imagine that is normal with the design of the building. Believe us when we tell you that Infernum has some very unique props that could rip the roof off the haunt!
When we first entered the child’s bedroom, we noticed it was smaller, complete with a small bed, bright yellow paint, a large pirate flag, and other decorations typical of this type of scene. On the bed was a breathing body’ was it real? Was it an animatronic? Suddenly, the child’s dreams took over, and our wild ride began.
Instead of walking through a normal bedroom door, we had to escape the child’s bedroom through a secret passageway. After we made our way through, we experienced a violently shaking door (we didn’t open it), an old office with a moving nun, a group of students (one of which ended up banging its head off the desk), a cafeteria, a tool shed, a unique fog effect, and an electrifying encounter. We also saw a guy that… wasn’t particularly good at his job.
One of the most notable scenes was a gravity-defying room. All of the objects were on the ceiling! Or were WE on the ceiling!? We’ll let you decide. We thought this was such an outstanding effect!
Along with intricate detailing, well-placed theatrical lighting, and many authentic items to look at, we found a dummy torso wearing a face mask that was quite comical. We also found some effects used in ways we haven’t seen before, such as a pegboard light duo, aquariums with skeletal remains, a dissected body, an abominable snowman, and a bathroom totally smeared with feces’ It even continued down a tight hallway. We noticed a bloodied body hanging above a toilet and, I must say, I’d be ready to kill someone if I had to clean up all that sh!t too!
Additionally, we had large creatures trying to eat us (one even had two heads), they disoriented us with effective strobes, had plenty of coffins to bury us in, and’ someone or someTHING likely knows how to throw knives. Just when we thought they couldn’t throw anymore curve balls at us, we ended up in a world of hanging bras, we were face-to-face with a cow creature, the red glow of a room gave off a ‘dreamy’ vibe, atrocious food took away any appetite we had left, and I got too close to a garbage can because you just never know what might come to life at this place!
To save some stress on my wrists, we will say that there are plenty more hidden animatronics, a cool mirror area, an attic, and a spider’s lair. But wait, there’s more! Once downstairs, we traveled between a huge skeleton’s legs, through a small pallet maze, a blue hazy cemetery, and two final scenes that brought the whole story into a full circle. Like a good M. Night Shyamalan movie, it had us questioning everything we had just seen. Was it a nightmare? Was it real? What the hell? That was intriguing!
SFX Effective at Scaring, Entertaining (35% of score): 8.67
Could Tell What Theme Was Without Asking (15% of score): 9.33
Theme Well Executed, Believable (25% of score): 9.5
THe industrial look of the building doesn’t necessarily go with the theme, But what building would?
Location Authenticates Theme (10% of score): 6.5
How Scary (15% of score): 8.17
As stated above the theme is nightmares. Which is a good theme to have if you want the freedom to throw just about everything you can imagine into a haunt. Especially being a child’s nightmares there are so many things they can find disturbing and scary, the possibilities are endless. The way the scenes were mixed by going through the house also felt realistic, at least for me. I know when I dream, things bounce around a lot and sometimes a familiar setting leads me into a new dream. I also felt the lighting and fog areas accentuated the dream feeling. I hope they stick with this theme as we found it original and inventive. I would like to see what other ideas they could come up with, perhaps more common dreams people have would be interesting to bring to life.
The location/building did not add to the theme. It is more of an industrial building but we didn’t feel it was that noticeable once inside.
Infernum has some hard-hitting scares coming from everywhere. The actors provided solid interactions without too many boo/scream scares. They do have a lot, I mean a lot of animatronic props. I’ll be honest I am not a fan of animatronics as scares. I have mentioned before I think they should be used as a distraction to assist an actor in a scare. The majority of the time props and these machines do not cause a good scare for me. Especially with the advent of COVID animatronic props are being used as a scare alternative to actors, and it has been falling flat for me.
However, I will admit Infernum proved me wrong. I was caught off-guard several times in this haunt by props scares. It could be a few reasons. It could be there are so many you just can’t anticipate all of them. Or it could be the placement, they just come out of everywhere. Also, it could be that the owner creates all of his custom props. So it’s likely they haven’t been seen before online or in a store. They are unique. It is probably a mix of all these reasons.
Altogether, the story, sets, actors, and props provided a good variety of unexpected scares.
4302 Jacob Street, Wheeling, West Virginia 26003