They said the asylum was abandoned, but they lied; mayhem still lives inside! To begin this review, I must be 110% transparent. Mayhem Haunted House was once our stomping grounds for acting. We took two years off before we took the role for The Scare Factor. We will be reviewing Mayhem with full, non-biased opinions. Mayhem Haunted House is out in the middle of nowhere. Truthfully, it’s out there!
You drive down a gravel road to find a flashing arrow sign pointing you to the attraction. It’s dark, there aren’t very many lights, and it’s kinda eerie to pull into.
The cast of Mayhem Haunted House was on their A-game this year, unlike in previous years. Many of the actors were the 4H teens volunteering. There were a few “get outs” and “what are you doing here”, but you could tell they were first-year actors. The majority of the cast was quick with the scares and easily gone without a trace. I loved the doctor in the operating room operating on a patient and the dread-headed clown in the dark, barely lit hallway. We did notice the lack of actors in some places, but they had at least one actor in every room, and we later found out that they were short on actors that night. Out in the barn, there were a few actors, but the ones that were out there utilized all the space to ensure we didn’t have a dull moment.
Some rooms did have two actors in them, and they seemed to work together very well, like they had been haunting for years together! Every one of the actors at Mayhem stayed in character, even if they noticed us walking through. The coordinators made sure to give their team a break to help keep their energy high through the night. We did get to catch the tail end of the break they take, and got some back-stage area walk-through, and saw all the actors at once.
The costumes of the night were kind of all over the place, with nuns, hospital patients, and clowns. Lots of clowns. The costumes themselves were dirtied and bloodied up very nicely and had the details they needed. The patients were in old hospital gowns and had dirty, old blood stains, with the clowns being a little more cleaned up, but still dingy. The outside part of the haunt had a rustic look; the clown out there still were on theme with their space. You could tell they were not store-bought, and even if they were, they did an amazing job making them themselves.
The wonderful behind-the-scenes staff is and has always been amazing with the knowledge of the facility and where everything is. This is, I believe, the second year they have utilized the new outdoor barn for que and the various food and adult beverages you need. The new system they use for text message alerts was very handy and helpful when our time was up to go through, that way it gave us more time to look around and visit with other patrons. You can find all their information on the Facebook page and their website, mayhemhauntedhouse.com. The Facebook page is where we found all of the pertinent information we needed before our visit.
While there’s not a full storyline for Mayhem, they do follow the creepy hospital theme. The history of the facility was an old county home; the entire 3rd floor was used for a mental ward. Knowing that history, they are trying to incorporate it into the story. Before entering, you get the rules and story from the line attendant. He gives you the story of the building and how it connects to the beginning of the haunt storyline. But even if he wasn’t telling the story, the first room alone lets you know you are ‘meeting with the doctor.’ This haunt doesn’t throw a theme in a room and abandon it. They used the traditional flow of a hospital, utilizing a break room all the way to a surgical room. The story stays consistent till halfway through, then you have a transition area that brings you to the circus area of the haunt. The transition halls were brief and still entertaining. You weren’t going through a dark hallway that reminded you of a haunt. You were still in a decorated room with a theme.
When you think of old asylums, you think of crazy patients and old medical equipment, and the building Mayhem resides in was once a county home for the town of Wapello County. They really pull into the old hospital theme with old hospital beds, real hospital equipment, a real-looking morgue with real-looking feet coming alive and moving. Once you exit the hospital through the sewer with water dripping on you as a sensory effect, you seem to find yourself at a ticket booth of a messed-up world of clowns.
Mayhem Haunted House even built a clown car that chases after you with an ear-piercing horn! You follow the path through the clowns only to find yourself in a barn with very little lighting. If you’re tall, I’m sorry, but you will be ducking through most of the barn. Mayhem uses a vortex tunnel, and that gets me every time I walk through them wherever we go. You eventually find your way outside, only to find more scary areas. The parking lot is shortly after the outdoor area. Fog machines are heavy, and there are signs throughout the entrance of the haunt about all the sensory items used inside the haunt.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7.63
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 8.5
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8.13
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 8
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 6.5
We hardly ever get scared in haunted attractions anymore, and Mayhem seemed to get us a handful of times. They have some very nice new scare tactics that I haven’t seen many haunts using. Katie got scared a few times from two actors ganging up on her and using the room they were in to their advantage. The one scare actor that got both of us was the actor in the glass-panel room. I won’t go too far into detail so spoil anything because it’s a good spot! The other scares we had gotten were the actors in the sewer and the clown in the door room!
You enter Mayhem Haunted House grounds, you quickly notice the size of the building and the awe of the grounds, you queue in the big barn outside the actual haunted attraction, and you have plenty of opportunity to get a quick snack and specialty drinks at one of the many food trucks they bring in and plenty of opportunity to speak to friends before going in. General admission was 15$ with no options for a fast pass. Many years back, they used to have a line that stretched through the parking, and once you hit the auditorium, you would get to watch a Halloween movie. With the barn being added for waiting, you have the opportunity to sit and relax. Once you get a text to enter, you only have to wait in groups of 5 to 6. I think this feels like the waiting is shorter. Once you pay, you have 15- 20 minutes of scares.
13011 120th Ave, Ottumwa, Iowa 52501