Legends of Fear Review (2020)

Legends of Fear has always provided some of the most dedicated and spirited cast I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Much like many other haunts in the country, this year, they did have to scale down on the number of actors allowed in the attractions, but it was hard to notice. Compared to other years, I cannot say there were any lengthy gaps in between cast members in either attraction. And also much like other attractions in the country, the most difficult thing this year for all actors is the regulated six-foot social distancing and face mask rules. A haunt actor’s job is much more fun and rewarding when they are able to get the biggest fright out of their customers and that has always been a little easier when they can enter your personal space. Legends of Fear has always been quite good at keeping their distance in the past, using other means of scarring without invading your personal bubble. This year all of the actors have to follow strict guidelines and use dialogue and sounds and creepy imagery to achieve the scare or at least the entertainment.

One of the first things we saw on the hayride this year was the creepy old barn with some country crazies waiting outside and inside for us. All of them were screaming and hollering something murderous as we passed but we had a wagon full of twelve-year-old girls, so it sounded more like a One Direction concert. They did calm down for a few seconds, enough so I could hear one of the last actors in the barn scream, ‘Why don’t you all check out some of our livestock? Or would you rather join them!’ and suddenly a giant pig head attacks the wagon on the other side, but it might as well have been Harry Styles.

Somewhere in the middle of the ride, we came across some demented butcher boys. We could hear them screaming for meat even though the tractor was still a hundred feet away from their set. We figured these guys are going to be insane if they’re already going crazy with no one in front of them. As we got closer I heard one of them scream out, ‘I can smell them!’ And then craziness ensued! They started swiping at us with cleavers and demanding more body parts, there must have been three of them surrounding the wagon. The taste for blood and flesh was bad enough but it turned into an obsession for eyeballs towards the end. ‘I want their eyeballs’ said one of them, ‘ Give me their Eyes!’ screamed another from the other side. Everyone wanted eyeballs for some reason, but it turned out to be a bit more creepy than just chopping off limbs.

At least one of the actors in almost every set on the ride are speaking through a mic. It helped a lot in trying to understand what they were saying. Some actors were wearing face masks that seemed to be much thicker than others and the muffled dialogue became impossible to understand. It was hard enough to understand when actors were wearing regular latex masks. And with the screaming girls on our wagon, we really appreciated the few scenes that had a dialogue-driven character delivering lines through a speaker.

Be prepared to see some awesome circus clown talent this year. Joining the cast are two crazy fire dancer girls. One twirling a nifty hoop of fire and another with those cool fire fan things flailing all over on a stage of her own. Another clown came out of a tent with two sticks of fire looking like he was about to beat us over the head with them. Pretty sure he was just igniting the fires for the dancers but it was awesome that he used the effect for all its worth.

No matter what night, week, or year it is for some reason I always get a jump from one particular spot. It hasn’t been the same actor or character or anything like that but they are always perfect with the timing. Probably the very first actual actor we come across on the Hollows trail is stationed at a wooden doorway. I always know it’s coming and no matter how much I prepare myself for it I fall victim to the simplest jump scare in the haunt. I don’t get it. He didn’t even scream or make a weird noise or anything! It was more like a friendly chuckle to a bad Dad joke. So I jump like a freight train is about to hit me and before I continue on I lower my head in shame for a few seconds.

The trail is loaded with characters all doing such an amazing job. Some new witches were brewing up a big pot of soup with a dead body in it. After we pointed out how gross it looked, the witch cooking the soup leans over to us and says ‘Shhhhh, she’s sleeping’ and then laughs like the crazy witch she probably actually is in real life. One of my favorite dollhouse sets had about three creepy young girls all spaced apart as much as possible screaming, ‘We’ll Get to be Friends forever!’ After multiple attempts to get us to play with them, I think one of them finally had the decency to be honest with us and admit, ‘You’re going to join our Collection!’ I stopped to think about how creepy to think all these dolls around me are actually guests that never made it out of the forest! The first clown we saw at the Funhouse came out of nowhere with a light in his face screaming, ‘Stop right there! Six feet away, what are you doing!’ as he flashed a light on the ground in between him and me. ‘Welcome to the funhouse oh we’ve got nothing but tricks and treats for you tonight,’ said one clown as we entered the carnival games row. Another helped up what looked like a rotten candied apple ‘Wanna buy a candy? It’s on special tonight, you buy one you get your head chopped off!’ as she swiped at my head with a rattler. We encountered what we thought was some kind of sacrificial killing before we got close enough to understand. Some weird guy was apparently stabbing a headless vampire body over and over with a wooden stake. And then he started singing a strange rhyme ‘Three Cheers! The Traitors Dead! I cut her up, and took her Head!’ showing us the decapitated head of a vampire. That was rather unique because I’ve seen plenty of crazies playing with and singing about dead bodies of regular victims, but never with a body of something so terrifying and could easily defend itself. Worried me a little bit thinking about how insane this character might be. And we always have a good time with the character that is usually stationed at ‘Raven’s Rock’ the ritual sight. This year they stopped us in our tracks and asked, ‘Who do I torture and who gets to watch!?’ I quickly pointed out my partner to be tortured. The character instantly clapped back, ‘ Oh but I could probably torture you for much longer!’ ‘ he’s right.

All of the cast involved this year did a great job. Both with being aware and respectful of the regulatory guidelines and also being the best scare actors they can be this year. I always look forward to seeing them every year!

When it comes to full-faced, latex masks, it almost feels like Legends of Fear doesn’t believe in them. Their make-up department loves the art form of creepy airbrushing and how it comes off as a more realistic effect for the guests. Sure there are always a few characters who dawn the full-faced masks, especially the boys down at the chainsaw barn and all the creepy scarecrows towards the end of the Hollows trail. But for the most part, everyone had an unsettling airbrushed face with some sort of stylized face mask.

Very few of the actors we saw had basic face masks actually. Even the ones who did have basic ones were characters that made sense to have basic masks. Like the nuns who easily looked like they were protecting themselves from a black plague, that would have worked in a normal year too. Or the butcher boys and nurses at the asylum, both looking the part just protecting their mouths from all the blood that gets sprayed all over. But the rest of the cast had opted to find scary versions of neck gators and elastic band covers. Some clowns had some gnarly teeth masks and it actually might be even creepier than seeing the real teeth! When you think about it, the masks are already unnaturally weird looking, especially when it’s an oversized printed monster mouth on a regular-sized human head. And at the same time, I don’t know what kind of face they are making underneath and the fear of the unknown is the grandest fear of all!

As far as the costumes go, Legends of Fear doesn’t skimp on anything. They are firm believers that an actor must be in full accurate attire for their character. No white sneakers, only black shoes and preferably boots. No jeans or sweatshirts showing. The characters have always acted authentic so they must look authentic too or the magic is ruined.

I absolutely love everything this family and crew has gone through to bring us a safe and exciting October event every year. It is another reason why I believe this is one of the greatest haunts we have and will ever have! The attractions and passionate actors and attention to detail alone are enough to make anyone come back year after year. But when they see all the other stuff going on and how it blends in with the craziness of the haunt perfectly, that is what makes people start planning for their next October trip in November! People don’t even know what they are going to get their kids for Christmas in November! They probably end up getting them tickets to Legends of Fear for next year *wink-nudge*

So this year obviously with the pandemic going on they had to make sure they were being as safe as possible. Everyone has to wear a face mask, everyone gets their temperature taken, and an officer quickly runs a hand held metal detector over us. They had two stations that let people into the park each of them had their own officer and temperature taker. And there were plenty of sanitization stations throughout the property.

We were most impressed by how incredibly active the staff were in helping as many people as possible. It really was like if they saw a group that was standing around or walking towards a no activity area they would stop them immediately and ask where they were trying to go and guide them the rest of the way. It’s easy to see how it could be confusing when you first enter. The ticket barn and snack shack and gift store and all the people gathering around the bone fire are all things people would assume are where to go if they aren’t reading anything. Speaking of reading things’

I would like to nominate Legends of Fear for Most signage put up to help customers EVER! We parked and there was a sign guiding us where to walk. We lined up to get in and they had regulation rules posted on every tree and board they had. We get into the park and there are big tall sign stakes pointing out where the ticket line is, where the Haunted Hayride line is, where do VIP ticket holders go, always wear a mask and stay six feet apart. Even a consent form stating that any video or photo taken of you at the attraction is allowed to be used by Legends of Fear. Even in the waiting lines, they had a sign posted every twenty feet reminding people about staying socially distant since they couldn’t mark on the gravel or mulch or dirt.

A lot of hayride attractions in the country have actually decided to get rid of the wagon ride for this year and turn their attraction into a drive-through haunt. But we heard the news that Legends of Fear is one of the few in the country that came up with a safe way to do the wagon rides. Not knowing anything about how we were excited to find out how they could make this work. Well first of all, unlike a lot of haunted hayrides out there, Legends of Fear has a total of thirteen tractors running this year’ not four! I also screamed a little on the inside when they told me the magic number thirteen, like something really bad or really good, was about to happen. They have taken out the hay and replaced it with a long wooden bench on either side of the wagon. Groups were told which corner of the wagon to sit on. They were labeled A, B, C, and D. Only so many people in a group could sit in a corner of the wagon, so they made sure to space out the groups accordingly. The wagon is about twenty feet long and eight feet wide so the six-foot distance works great. Nobody sits in the middle and the actors do not walk onto the wagon at any time. It worked out great!

One thing I’m sure many customers will appreciate is the fact that their porta potties have little lights inside them so it’s not pitch dark all the time. And the main one up at the midway is all somewhat privacy screened by a large mausoleum set. They have plenty of them too, a few up at the front and a few at the beginning of both the hayride and the trail.

A quick shout out to the owner, Brad, who has it hard enough making sure everything is working right. And apparently, he’s also the full-time custodian of the property. A never-ending battle of picking up cups and bottles and napkins and wrappers keeping the place clean for everyone. So if you are a future guest of Legends of Fear, do Brad a favor and put your trash in the damn trash, please!

As confusing as some might think Legends of Fear is to navigate when they arrive, it’s only because there is just so much to take in. We walked right into the center of what kind of felt like a giant Halloween party. They have their big bone fire right in the middle of all the action where everyone was warming themselves up. The snack shack famously sells bags of mini cider doughnuts covered in cinnamon sugar! And those are fresh out of the fryer too. Music is playing all the classic rock hits over the whole area. They have what seems like hundreds of different photo opp locations with different props and monsters and sets. But the grand spectacle of the midway section is the awesome classic haunted house facade they acquired last season. A two-story face of a house with old weathered boards and a creeky porch and that (for lack of the correct term) old-style tower kinda looking section. This year they were able to give it a bit more detail and added the old 60’s style jack-o-lantern string lights to the porch and even some fog spewing from the top of the house too.

But what we think really does the trick to make people feel so welcome at the awesome haunt is the orange and purple string lights. I’m not exaggerating when I say these lights are everywhere up at the front and around the gift shop. There is something so cheery about them yet so spooky when they are representative of the orange and purple Halloween colors. It also helps that they are wrapped around skeletons and evil custom-made pumpkin monsters! The gift shop is also designed on the inside to be a delightful Christmas shop for when guests come in November and December for their trees. But during October, this place is transformed into a vibrant orange lit Legends of Fear Merchandise gift shop. They have over four different designs for T-Shirts in sizes from Small to 4XL! They have hoodies in different sizes too. All kinds of glassware and stickers and fun stuff, even some nylon full head masks with skeleton and Michael Meyers prints on them. It’s a great little gift shop that really feels so welcoming and true to the Halloween spirit.

This year customers are so lucky to experience the fun and amazing talents of Daniel Greenwolf Celtic Magician. Mr. Greenwolf is first and foremost obviously a magician but also a great illusionist and fire performer. He’s performed at some of the biggest festivals in the world and has won multiple awards. While waiting in the hayride line we got to witness some of his talented acts and it was awesome!

While waiting in the line at the Hollow Trail, we got to watch some classic videos playing on a big projector screen. The line was moving very well that night but I’ve always appreciated the projection screen as the best way to pass the time in a long line. I think we caught a bit of Night on Bald Mountain from the 1940’s Fantasia playing. When we got even closer to the start of the trail, they had set up a great live scare cam projection too! Somewhere in the trail, a camera was capturing the moment a group would get spooked by a hidden creature. But everyone kept asking where in the trail that camera was but the ticket taker would never tell them. Not that they would remember anyway, it’s like a thirty-minute hike through the seven layers of hell for crying out loud.

Before pulling into the parking lot we had to travel through some windy turvey roads in a somewhat heavily wooded neighborhood. It was just getting dark enough to start seeing stars and the attraction had probably just let the first wagon of guests go off. Even from the roads through the trees we noticed the giant fireballs of light exploding from the farm! My partner even stopped to ask me with concern, ‘Was that lightning or something’ and I couldn’t resist. I put a big creepy smile on and said, ‘Oh no, my child ‘ it’s Legends of Fear’ ‘ and then she pointed and laughed at me.

Talking about the literal special effects they have at Legends of Fear, I think the most prominent one would be the attention-grabbing bursts of flames set up at the real entrance to the haunted hayride. Pretty much everyone in the midway, hayride line, and especially everyone waiting on one of the wagons can see these majestic explosions. It’s always fun to hear and see other guest’s reactions the first time they notice it. They think everything is fun and games without even going through yet and then suddenly the game changes because something went Boom.

The hayride actually has a good number of animatronics and effects. A few puppeteered evil animal heads that always surprise us, a couple screaming tortured bodies, and even some giant monsters that come to life and threaten to drag us to hell! A yearly favorite effect has always been the laser swamp fit for a hayride wagon. This must be a one hundred foot long area with multiple lasers and plenty of fog to give off the illusion that we were traveling through a glowing swamp. They even dug the ground out a little bit so it really feels like we were going down into the water.

But I have to say that this year they introduced a prop that I had to contemplate putting him in the Cast section. As I said before, a lot of the entertainment factor for this year had to go into some more dialogue-driven characters. Well, it looks like they figured out a great way to get a dialogue-driven character to show up multiple times throughout the hayride. I couldn’t find a name so we’ll just call him The Skeleton from the Barn (10 points to me for creativity). He is clearly an animatronic and his voice is played through an amplifier, but he is somehow the comical relief aspect of this ride. The first time we saw him at the barn he thought it was Christmas time! Quickly he is corrected and switches to his October character with a deep demonic voice. ‘Welcome to Legends of Fear Haunted Hayride, where your deepest fears are waiting for you inside’ he says to all of us on the wagon before the barn blows up again. The second time we see him he has become a headless horseman halfway through the trail. He says something to the effect of, ‘I’m the Homeless head, or horse, horseless heads … jeez will somebody just come and fix this stupid light!’ yelling at the little tiny light bulb that is indeed the only thing illuminating his tiny set. And one last time we see him right before ending our ride. We pull up beside him and he says, ‘Hey wait wha ‘ son of a beetlejuice! There was supposed to be 47 dead bodies on that damn wagon, what the hell am I going to do with all these holes I just dug? Oh that’s right, the demons on the trail will get you.’ It was a lot of fun to see a little bit of humor thrown into this super dark and chaotic ride.

Music and sound effects were definitely used on the wagon ride but out on the trail we could really get up close and personal with the sounds pumping through the forest. Speakers must be set up in even the darkest and most unused spots of the woods because it felt like we couldn’t escape. Even in the thick dark parts of that forest, we could hear screams and creatures lingering in there, almost taunting us to make a run for it. A soundtrack matched the theme of every set we ventured through. A music box for the dollhouse, carnival pipes for the funhouse, even some classic metal for the melon heads. But I was extremely impressed with the lightning sounds and lights bouncing off of the Hemlock Manor Funeral Home. The set design in this house alone is crazy good, but when I came around a corner of the woods and saw the incredible facade of this old mansion with its candlelit windows my haunted heart just melts with that weird horror romance feeling us weirdos get. And the lights flickering just like natural lightning would and matching up with the sound of thunder perfectly was amazing. And whatever they use for the sound system really made it feel like it was real, just crisp and clear thunder that rumbles but not distorted. One of my favorite parts of the night.

I’ll always remember my first visit to Legends of Fear was actually during the daytime when they offer a friendly family hayride with no actors or anything turned on. When the wagon came around the corner of the tree line and we saw this nice little white chapel tucked up against the woods. It was so clean and white with nothing around it we thought for a minute they might have some sort of Melonhead religious commune or something (more on melonheads in the Theme section). But when we came back for the haunt at night it had transformed into this amazing nun-infested chapple with moving blue lights and a haunting funeral toll bell that eventually became the only thing we could hear. This year we noticed a projection of an old ghost hearse riding off into the great beyond on the side of the chapple. One of the nuns was reading some creepy Latin from a book that was literally ON FIRE! The whole chapple smelled of burning incense! And for the most part, these crazy dark nuns left us alone and just stared at us, which was insanely chilling as it was. And right before we thought we were good and safe away from them, the screaming crazy demon nun comes out of nowhere and almost snatched us! Sensory overload in that little chapple and we love it!

I can’t wrap up this section without talking about the new star of the trail. Ladies and Gentlemen! New for 2020 Legends of Fear gives you The Burnt Broomstick! A twenty-eight-foot tall Witch’s market emporium. I’ve never seen anything quite like it but you would expect to see something of this quality and creativity at Disney! We saw it as we entered the trail from the top of a hill in all its glory. And we walked down a short path (which by the way used to be dirt but now it’s paved, thank you for that) to the front of this awesome display. Tons of jack-o-lanterns in front of shopping display windows filled with witch attire. Even the trees leading up to the place had old-time lanterns hanging on the branches to really transport us into a new world. Above the front door hung an old-fashioned storefront wooden sign reading, ‘The Burnt Broomstick’ accompanied by an actually burnt broomstick. Inside this little store was enough random cool witchy type stuff that would make the entire town of Salem Massachusetts jealous! They had used candles, skulls, spell books, wands, potions in little glass vials, potions in bigger glass bottles with eyeballs on them! And of course, everything looks like it hasn’t been dusted or touched in years! Even the shelving that all this cool stuff sat on looked like some crazy witches would have made them. And everything was only lit by small colored lights and candles. It is exactly how you might think a real fantastical witch would set up a store for witches. There was a great witch ‘working the counter’ who was cooking up a big cauldron of stew with the secret ingredient slowly cooking inside it, a whole human! And she even cast a spell on us as we walked in. In some sort of witch spell language, she pointed her wand at us and something started crackling right behind us! We were clearly in some kind of danger but I didn’t want to leave, the place was so cool looking!

Legends of Fear doesn’t have any particular story that follows through the attraction but they stay true to their selected themes for each section of the hayride and the trail. The first scene on the hayride is a big red barn filled with country crazy boys and girls and livestock and farming equipment. A whole section of the ride is dedicated to a black light, neon, sort of Tim Burton-esque tribute. A giant glowing jack-o-lantern hangs in the trees while two giant skeletons praise it like the God of Halloween. I can’t forget the Sanderson Sister style witches near the end of the ride with their cackling and torture fantasies. We entered their little world through a laser vortex tunnel the wagon could actually fit into! All the scenes had these little things that helped us lead into them. And the aforementioned ‘Skeleton from the Barn’ almost acted like a little tour guide when he would pop up every now and then. I’ve described this attraction much like a tour through a creepy demented town and it feels even more so this year than any other.

The Hollows trail is said to have five distinct areas. The Funhouse of Fear, Melon Head Revenge Trail, Haunted Hemlock Manor, Pine Hills Parish, and The Dark Harvest. Each one of them again feels like a self-guided tour through this demented town. And each one takes a good stretch of time to get through.

The Melon Head Revenge Trail pays tribute to the local legend of the so-called ‘Melon heads’. Southwestern Connecticut folklore tells the story of a group of humanoids with giant grotesque mutated heads. They live in the deepest parts of the woods around these parts and have been spotted along the sides of the road since the 1940’s. In versions of this legend, they are actually escaped patients from the Fairview Mental Asylum in Newtown, CT. Funny how Fairview is also the name of the tree farm that Legends of Fear takes place on. And some of the reported sightings of these deformed people have been right on the same road, Saw Mill City Road! Which in reality is only a mile and a half long, so they were definitely spotted practically ON the property of Legends of Fear! This particular section of the attraction doesn’t seem to play too much into the deformed giant head part but definitely the stories about how they all made their own little community in the woods. Picture a bunch of psycho hillbillies in the middle of the forest making shelters out of branches and tree bark and the litter they find on the side of the road is their treasure. That’s the part of the story this section pays respects to.

We’ve loved the actors and the design and atmosphere every single year we’ve gone to the amazing Legends of Fear. And every time we go we get a little jumpy here and there since the types of scares are always so different from one another. But I have to keep saying that the main thing that creeps us out the most is the spirit of the place. If there’s one thing I love about most haunted attractions it is this overwhelming sensation I feel at them. This feeling that somehow screams out how much work and dedication went into building this place, how much the actors love doing what they do, how many more people became part of this crazy family of weirdos and how it’s better than any other family out there. And sometimes in some places it feels like there literally is something in the air and the trees that brought it all together and keeps it alive every year.

The scares at Legends of Fear work the best because they work with each other. Even in this terrible year of staying as far away from everyone as possible, they still found ways to stay connected and work as a family. It’s not scary because we feel we are getting spooked by one insane character, it’s scary because we know the whole family is about to show up too!

Legends of Fear strongly suggests getting your tickets online this year. They have a very limited amount of tickets being sold at the booths every night and they are selling out fast. Timed tickets this year too for every half hour, which makes the midway entertainment even more necessary and amazing. The hayride is still about thirty five minutes the same as last year. The Hollows trail last year took us forty eight minutes to get through! This year the trail lasted a good thirty two minutes but it was obviously because we didn’t have any actors running into us and holding us back. In some areas of the trail in the past they must have had an actor almost literally around every corner. Can’t be doing that this year. And also the flow of the groups is moving particularly well. Usually they have a pause to let groups into the Manor and then another one into the Parish, there was no one waiting to go in this year. They were doing a great job at keeping everyone moving.

A combo ticket for both attractions is $55 this year. If you wanted to just do the trail or just the hayride they are each $30 tickets. The hayride still only operates on Fridays and Saturdays and also the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend. An hour and seven minutes in total for $55 gives Legends of Fear a Minutes Per Dollar value of 1.22 for this season, meaning for every dollar spent we get about a minute and ten seconds of haunted entertainment. But this is excluding all of the cool shows that Daniel Greenwolf puts on for us in the hayride line, the movies and scare cam in the Hollows Trail line, all the sets we can take pictures of that practically make this place a Halloween museum, and all the other great things this place has to offer.

Legends of Fear is still one of the greatest and most amazing attractions I have ever been to in my entire haunt touring career. There is something lurking in the air that is so hauntingly beautiful that keeps everyone coming back and yearning for it all year long. If you want to know what a real amazing autumn night is supposed to feel like, then grab your family and friends online and get tickets to Legends of Fear!