Lake Joy Trails of Terror Review (2024)

Lake Joy Trails of Terror fills its haunt with approximately 50 volunteer actors on most nights. The cast spans the age range from young to old, and each actor seems to have found the appropriate scene for their skills.

The owners told us the names of several characters to look out for, and it wasn’t difficult to match the names with the appearances. Bloody Larry was rightly doused in what looked to be fresh blood. The actor gave Larry “life” with a strong, controlled voice and an intimidating stare. We were happy to leave his slaughter room as quickly as possible!

The hospital scene introduced us to Dr. Hell, who has definitely gone a little crazy with hypodermic needles and surgical procedures on himself. Despite wearing an anesthesia mask, the actor was able to convey some muffled but menacing speech.

We encountered Cutcake, the clown, both in the haunt and out in the midway. In both settings, the actor portrayed a maniacal, fun-loving, yet fearful character who was happy to interact with guests.

The seemingly sweet girls wearing pretty white and pink dresses in the doll room quickly showed their scary sides once we were trapped inside their playroom!

Some members of the cast relied on the physicality of creating unnatural movements and contortions of their bodies. These creatures didn’t need to make a sound…they created unease just by moving unnaturally through their scenes, which is always a refreshing change from constant vocalization.

One character who definitely used her voice was a tiny girl in a cage on the porch of one structure in the woods. Her high-pitched sustained screams were ear-piercing as she cleverly worked her screams into indicating the correct direction to proceed.

Cast members of Lake Joy Trails of Terror were good at creating a look that fit their respective scenes. Many costumes were distressed or blood-spattered as if they’d been up to no good, deep in the darkness of the forest. With only a couple of recognizable exceptions, the costumes and characters were original creations, unique to the Trails of Terror.

In the clown area, several well-costumed characters were on the prowl, desperate for us to “play a game” with them! Most of the clowns were decked out in black and white and had makeup to match. The overall effect was great against the more colorful background of their scene.

Bloody Larry, in his gory abattoir, was quite convincing. The deep red shiny blood covering his head and torso looked sickeningly fresh!

An “Asylum girl” we had seen in the midway really stood out in her mostly white padded room scene! Her white zippered mask covered her whole head with braids coming out of holes in the top. Her white shirt and white pants were a great contrast to the dark costumes you usually see in haunts.

A hairy bat creature that snarled and clawed at us through a broken window was an incredibly complex and realistic mask and costume!

Overall, costumes and makeup/masks tended to be well-tailored to the specific look of the character and scene.

Tickets are available for purchase on the website for $25, a $5 savings over purchasing at the ticket booth. Ticket purchases made on-site are $30. There is also a fast pass option for an additional $20. Investigate all of your ticket options online. There is no posted list of prices at the ticket booth, but they are set up to take credit cards at the haunt.

There is a “White Shirt Experience” as an additional purchase option, but you have to start the process of purchasing your ticket to find and add on the “FEAR experience” option for $15. This option will get you a white t-shirt that says, ‘I survived the extreme experience’. Along the way, you’ll get extra “attention,” including being pulled into scenes by the creatures, and may even be separated from your group for a while. And you’ll most likely get a healthy dousing of “blood” before you escape Trails of Terror!

There is no charge for parking and the very helpful staff will direct you to an ideal parking spot. From there you will need to check in at the ticket booth. They will provide you with a wristband, then send you on your way to the midway and/or queue line.

There is a t-shirt shop for all of your haunt merch needs, and porta-potties are conveniently located on the midway near the queue line entrance.

Lake Joy Trails of Terror does not try to establish a storyline for their haunt experience. Instead, visitors move through a succession of chilling scenes. This approach creates an unpredictable atmosphere where you never quite know what is coming next.

As we moved through the haunt, the transitions between settings kept us curious about what we would see next. One moment, we were in the unsettling confines of the Asylum girl’s padded room and the next, we found ourselves in a blood-soaked abattoir with Bloody Larry. Each scene was distinct, featuring its own themes and characters, allowing for a diverse array of frights that felt almost like a series of nightmares strung together.

This lack of a cohesive narrative allowed the creative team to explore various horror tropes and aesthetics without being tied down. The haunt creates a journey through a twisted carnival of horrors, where every new setting offers a new terror or phobia to the visitor.

While Lake Joy Trails of Terror is largely an old-school-style haunt, they do incorporate some special effects into their mix.

While nearly every haunt uses claustrophobia bags, we have to say, the bags here were the longest, firmest we have encountered. We had to push really hard to get through them!

Along the way we encountered not one but two laser swamp setups, creating a great illusion for the waiting actors hidden underneath the glowing swirling fog!

Lake Joy Trails of Terror also uses some great camouflaged characters to get truly unexpected scares. We don’t want to share all the secret details, you’ll need to experience them for yourself!

Lake Joy Trails of Terror uses a variety of tactics to get screams from each group. The chief methods are jump scares. The winding pathways and various scenes provide ideal spots for their enthusiastic actors to leap out and catch you by surprise.

A number of characters got their scares through intimidation. Bloody Larry came up close and personal and even got in an additional scare by leering through the slits of a pallet wall, thanks to some clever set design and layout!

The haunt also achieves scares using a few common phobias. Many people have a fear of spiders. The spider chamber we went through had some pretty extensive webbing. Despite trying to avoid it, we managed to take a few web tendrils with us. We also had to crawl underneath a large web to get through the room and avoid the spider.

Our fear of needles & syringes was definitely pushed to the limit in Dr. Hell’s operating room!

Lake Joy Trails of Terror also addresses phobias of tight spaces. Many haunts have claustrophobic bags, but this haunt has the longest, toughest single set of bags we have encountered. It was challenging to push our way through to freedom.

There is a bit of disorientation thrown your way with a tilted, striped hallway. While you’re trying to process how to navigate the steep, angled hallway, another effective jump scare knocks you for a loop!

A general admission ticket is $25. Our walkthrough of the trails took 20 minutes. This results in a value of 0.8 MPD (minutes per dollar), which is a good value when compared to many other haunts we have visited.

Included in your haunt ticket is a large midway area with standing tables. Here you can enjoy food or drink from a food truck, people watch, and listen to music. The haunt often features a DJ, but on the night of our visit there was a live band on stage playing appropriately haunting music!

You’ll also find several photo ops with great props and lighting for your group.

The night of our visit was pretty warm for October, but on a cooler evening, there is a fire pit and sometimes a bonfire out in the middle of the midway field.