Each night can be different at a haunt, but on the night we visited, there was an apparent increase in actors throughout the whole park compared to seasons past. We’re the type of haunt-goers that like to interact with the actors and, by and large, most of the monsters did pretty well at engaging with our group. We could tell who the rookies were, though, as some of them would cut back on their intensity once they realized we weren’t terrified. The areas where this happened were the low marks of the evening, but aside from those instances, we truly had a blast with the cast! Most were able to fluently ad-lib with us and executed their roles really well. Let’s dig into what we found in each attraction:
Middletown Haunted Trail:
With the Trail being the longest attraction at LOI, it makes sense that they’d have the biggest variety of characters as well. The monsters here ranged from the classic Michael Myers and bloody butchers to hellish hillbillies and sinister spiders.
Dialogue was really good in most areas, but we did get a lot of repetitive ‘help me’ pleas from the victims here. Some of their deliveries were outstanding, though, and we really got a sense that they were trapped and needing our help. Others just didn’t seem to be into it and, honestly, we didn’t feel so bad for leaving them in their cages.
The guy at the beginning of the catacomb area was debatably the most believable on the Trail. Some of the younger – or possibly less-experienced – actors were a bit harder to fall for. Though, this typically gets better as the season progresses and after they start to find their groove. Those in the sewer scene, the voodoo people, the witches, the kitchen / school staff, the plague doctor and the ‘Death Guide’ were among the most interactive with our group.
Phobia:
Phobia is different than most haunts, in that the haunt itself is what’s supposed to provide most of the scares… rather than the actors directly. It’s designed to be more of a ‘psychological’ scare instead of an actor-driven one. With it’s short duration, they typically use about 10-14 actors on any given night.
Don’t get us wrong, we still crossed paths with a few blacked-out brutes that seemingly came out of nowhere – and with perfect timing, we might add! They weren’t the most talkative bunch (it’s very loud in most of this haunt anyway), but they definitely did know how to use their scenes to our disadvantage without using dialogue.
Killer Klowns:
The Klown crew was on it! This was probably the best performance we’ve seen out of this entire haunt in all of the years we’ve been reviewing LOI. Everyone was energetic (sometimes literally bouncing off the walls) and didn’t let up from the time they saw us ’till after we were well out of their scenes. Most were eager to describe how they were going to rip out our [list body part here] and do [such and such] with it’ which did get a little redundant after a while.
On a typical night, you will meet around 14 different clowns, so be prepared. You’ll likely see some of them more than once as well, which filled out the haunt nicely and virtually eliminated any dull moments. While it’s hard to choose from such a good lineup, ‘Terrorist,’ ‘Craze,’ the pinball clown, and Chompers were all standouts of the night.
BTW, did we mention clowns love boogers?
Dr. Psycho’s Haunted Estate:
The sickos in Psycho’s – much like the Trail – also varied scene by scene. Our journey through the Estate started with a lone survivor of the evil Doctor’s experiments warning us of what was to come, and that we shouldn’t continue going through. Of course, you know we did…
Along the way, we encountered cannibalistic hillbillies, most of which had good dialogue but weren’t overly aggressive. ‘[Insert threat], pretty boy!’ and promises of getting our eyes plucked out by chickens was the common theme in their shanties’ all the while thoroughly popping our personal space bubbles.
We also encountered a few medical staff operating on apparent previous passers-by, as well as other residents of the Estate, including the Doctor’s daughter. There was one hillbilly, however, that seemed to be lurking around every corner and kept us looking over our shoulders, wondering where he was going to sneak up on us next. Sometimes he was hiding above us, below us, and unknowingly right beside or behind us. Kudos to you, poor sir!
Temple of Terror:
The Sandman and his impaled doll head ‘Sally’ greeted us into the Temple this year. Combined with the introductory elevator scene (more on this in ‘Special Effects’ below), this was by far the best haunt intro of the night. It was blatantly obvious that he’d rehearsed this skit and executed it flawlessly; he even managed to ad-lib with us and made it work with his story. Bravo!
The Temple’s tormentors also had a good variety of vocal talents, easily disguising their natural voices and producing quite a choir or snarls, growls and snorts that kept us from letting our guards down. Occasionally, we’d get a random spell-speaker or two, but they were definitely the exceptions and not the rule. We did hear ‘Get out!’ one time, but overall, this cast sounded more evil and demented than most at LOI.
This was also a pretty interactive haunt, cast-wise, both verbally and physically. With a mix of traditional ‘pop scare’ techniques and longer, more in-depth encounters with witty wordage, it was harder to predict what would be lurking around the next corner. At other times, we’d have actors darting out in front or behind us’ you know, just to make sure we weren’t getting too comfortable with our pace.
We would also like to mention the temple dog that waited in a variety of nooks and crevices for our group. At times, we found him climbing on things and, eventually, proving to be one of the most interactive characters of the night.
Individual Scores:
Middletown Haunted Trail: 7.98
Phobia: 7.2
Killer Klowns: 8.85
Dr. Psycho’s Haunted Estate: 8.09
Temple of Terror: 7.91
