Every haunted house has a little bit of theatre kid in their DNA. At their hearts they’re live theatre, a combination of improv and scripted dialogue playing to the small audience of people that walk through the room. They utilize costumes, theatrical special effects, props, and generally follow the same beats as a musical or dramatic production. But what would happen if you went full theatre kid and let it overwhelm every aspect of the haunt? What unholy creation would be brought to life?
Mill of Madness seeks to answer this very question. In a confident second year after an extremely strong first-year outing, they seek to make haunted houses more of a full-on theatrical production. While there is still some improv and chaos to be found, the Mill is far more scripted, notable setpieces that are timed and planned to the smallest detail and frequent pauses through the structure for the actors that make up the Mill’s denizens to put on a show. Does it all work? I personally didn’t find it especially scary, though your mileage will vary with that. I did, however, find it to be a great deal of fun. Mill of Madness would be in my annual rotation even if I wasn’t a Scare Factor reviewer, and I highly recommend you check it out if you haven’t.
The cast at the Mill of Madness is an interesting bunch. Unlike other haunts where who is there on any given night can vary and their assigned roles are both loose and can vary from night to night, Mill of Madness has a core cast of about 35 that are very specifically cast in their roles and stick with them all season. They have assigned lines and personalities that play to the stories, and they really give it their all. Even in their improv, you can see that they inhabit very specific people rather than archetypes.
This specificity seems to make it even easier for them to improv. They have a baseline of knowledge and a lot of experience in their specific character, so they’re quick to respond to questions or taunts with a fun, appropriate rejoinder. Whether it’s the insane doctor apologizing to me for being from Phoenix or the little girl getting mad at my group for cheating at Rock Paper Scissors, there’s a ton of interactivity to be had. Every character felt unique and convincing, which made the whole vibe a ton of fun.
The minds behind Mill of Madness make B-grade horror movies, and that experience comes through in the costuming and makeup done within the Mill. All of the costumes feel lived in and true to the scenes that they’re in, and there are small touches here and there that make things really pop. It’s in the little things, like how the creepy little girl that forces us to play games has glow-in-the-dark hair ties. For the most part the small things were taken care of, eye holes blackened, arms and necks properly dirtied.
The one issue that I saw was a mistake rather than an oversight. A demon in the finale had a really cool mask, but for whatever reason as the night had worn on the mouth blackening had gotten rubbed away and the mask had come a little bit undone. It led to his mouth being very visible inside the mask, and the demonic mouth looking pretty fake. I spoke with the owner afterward and he looked shocked, so it’s something that obviously hadn’t started the night that way. Things like that are just indicative of them being such a new haunt, I’m sure they’ll get more practiced in how to handle the kinds of issues that prop up in live theatre as the haunt gains in experience.
Every single staff member I spoke with was professional and wonderful. Their website has everything you need to know. There is not a huge parking lot, but there’s enough street parking and closed-down parking lots in the businesses around the haunt to always have a place to park. In their first year, the haunt had a few slip hazards that I highlighted in my review. Each of those has been taken care of now. It was incredibly safe. I genuinely have nothing to talk about in this section, customer service was great.
Many haunts have no story at all, they just know that you’re there for a scare and they give you one. Others will talk about their story on their website, but then make no nods to it in the haunt itself. The Mill of Madness starts you out with a three-minute long, professionally produced video explaining the story and introducing you to what is about to happen. It isn’t enough for things to be scary, they need you to understand why things will be scary and what your role in everything is. Things like that truly make immersion strong, and that sense of being drawn into things doesn’t ever go away.
There isn’t much to the haunt grounds other than the haunt. There isn’t room, every bit of space you have is taken over by the madness. Recognizing that, they make sure to indoc you at the very start of the haunt, and then at the end there’s what I’d almost call a cooldown room, telling you to drink plenty of water to flush the “drugs” out of your system and giving a quick health check to make sure you’re fit to return to the world at large. It’s an ingenious way to ease you in and out of the haunt, I wish more places did this.
Coming from a B movie background, the special effects at the Mill are exactly what you’d expect. They’re cheesy, they’re fun, and they’re effective. Walking through “decontamination” you’re hit with water and mist, putting you right into the scene. Electric pops startle you as you move past some broken wires. The animatronics are top-notch, especially a giant monster trying to make their way through the ceiling to come at you.
Last year the effects were great, but let down by poor sound design. This year they’ve corrected that, you can hear the special effects very well, but equally important you can hear every character. They all have hidden microphones, emphasizing their voices and making them carry to the whole group in attendance. It’s a great move. I wouldn’t call every effect the most realistic, but they’re all a lot of fun.
How scary was it? (35% of score): 6
How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 8
How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 8
How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 8
How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 8
Mill of Madness does its best to be scary. Actors will come at you from all sides. They’re unpredictable, some screaming, some quiet, some just unhinged. There’s a wide variety of scares, but somehow I just didn’t find it scary. I think that’s a personal thing, other people might find it scary, fear is a very subjective thing. For me it was a bit too polished and slick to be truly scary, it didn’t feel raw enough to me. And that’s totally ok. While I wasn’t scared at any point, I did have a lot of fun.
The climax is a good example of this. You have a climactic battle between a giant demon, a sorceress, and a cult member. The special effects are very well done, it’s a great callback to the previous year, and it’s generally just well done. But it didn’t feel scary or threatening to me, it felt silly in a good way. It felt like a stage show. I was delighted, but I wasn’t afraid.
You’re not going to get much extra for your ticket price, there is nothing here other than the main attraction. What you get in the main attraction is a lot though. The entire haunt took me 24 minutes to get through. With a general admission price of $24.99 that’s a Minutes per Dollar score of .96. That’s incredibly high, a tremendous value when you consider that all 24 of those minutes were a lot of fun. There are scarier haunts in Arizona, but you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a better value for your dollar than here.
3749 E Atlanta Ave, Phoenix, Arizona 85040
