Final Scores – By Category:

Cast (20% of Final Score): 8.13

Costuming (10% of Final Score): 8.51

Customer Service (10% of Final Score): 9.88

Immersion (10% of Final Score): 8.61

Special Effects (15% of Final Score): 9.17

Scare Factor (20% of Final Score): 8.14

Entertainment & Value (15% of Final Score): 8.15

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Final Scores – By Attraction:

Attraction 1 – Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse: 8.55

Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse teaches its arcane arts in a real former school building that turned 100 this year. There are some nods to the educational institution it used to be, but Mohican does not hammer home its school setting like other haunts that used to be schools such as Akron, Dent, and Crawford. It’s one long attraction composed of random scenes, including ones alluding to the school setting (a classroom set, a hall of lockers, and similar touches), interspersed with themed areas like Dead & Breakfast, CarnEvil, Contagion Industries, the opening cemetery-and-crypts sector, and the outdoors finale of Slaughterville.

Created by former home haunters, the schoolhouse is beyond filled up with all manner of lovingly handcrafted sets and effects, superbly integrated with outstanding lighting and sound choices. Will Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse head to detention, or did they make the grade this year? Let’s check the report card…

The spooky schoolhouse is a big building and the walkthrough is long, so we usually start out their review by saying that some areas seem a little light on creatures ‘n’ creeps; probably unavoidably so, given that anything less than an army of actors could properly fill the joint. But as we’ll examine in Special Effects, the sheer volume and vigor of the sets, props, and effects manage to fill up any unpopulated spaces. Even so, the total numbers were still reasonably strong, and the actors on hand made an impact.

Things got underway with a bang, as a corpse bride came at us from a couple of different angles in the opening cemetery set. The bewitched bride gave us fair forewarning of dangers to come (“Beware my sisters!”) and unleashed a maniacal cackle. A nasty nurse told us the doctor would see us now, and wasn’t kidding! The scientist barred our advance through the lab while croaking at us in an unsettling rattle. The arachnid queen tried to feed us to a squadron of spiders.

The janitor told us, “You’re my replacement and man, I need help; a little boy flushed Barbie heads down the toilet, and now there’s brown water and poopies everywhere!” No thanks, and you can keep that mop, pal. An insidious infant declared that “Mommy tried to make me share my toys and I don’t like that, so that’s why I had to give her an electrifying bath” – followed by gales of self-amused guffaws.

Vicious vampires wanted to suck our blood, cantankerous clowns tormented us, and chortling actors with chainsaws revved up their power gear. We also met up with ear-bursting loud screamers, sneaky whisperers, creepy crawlers, and aggressive in-your-facers.

The schoolhouse citizens came at us bearing a variety of looks in both masks and makeup. We saw a lot of ghastly white faces with sunken dark eyes, or blood-dripping eyes and mouths. Vamps rocked pointy fangs. The chainsaw freaks in Slaughterville wore overalls as part of their country creeper garb, one of them with a huge pig mask. A completely cocooned spider victim in the corner of a webbed-up room turned out to be a live person (but probably not for long)!

The several clowns all sported a different look from the others, whether hair, facial accouterments, or outfit…and we found one looming over us in stilts. The mad doctor appeared to have been experimenting on themselves as a subject, based on the long fingernails they clacked at us, and hideous face. The corpse bride looked ethereal in a lacy white dress and ghostly face paint.

Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse is located in Perrysville, about 20 minutes from Mansfield in north central Ohio. Free parking is available on grass and gravel. GPS delivered us to the haunt’s doorstep, plus there was an illuminated sign out front.

Staff was friendly and helpful. Clear signage directed us to the ticket booth, and from there we easily proceeded to the adjacent queue. There were multiple stairways to negotiate. We found several places inside the attraction with helpful arrows to indicate the next way to go. Much appreciation, from the directionally challenged crowd (a.k.a. the leader of this review team).

Police and security were a prominent presence as soon as we joined others at the entry door, and a metal detector was in use. The attraction maintains a superior website and Facebook page.

The skelly-driven hearse and the rather imposing facade, outlined in lights of the attraction’s trademark green hue, with skeletons creeping up the walls and an imposing grim reaper prop looking down from the top window. This sets the haunting scene!

Once through the door, we got our first look at the wall art mentioned in Special Effects (next section). Further on, the ticket stand and queue presented a fantastically atmospheric setting. Props, lights, photo ops, and music combined for a fist and blood pumping good time in the wait line. The walk up stairs to the attraction entrance had more art and props to gawk at.

Any authentic location typically ramps up the immersion from the get-go, and this building, being an old school, did so. The explosion of effects and rapid fire series of scenes helped keep our belief on point. On the minus side, the conga line, and some visible A/V equipment, took us out of it. And some bare black walls in the basement kind of stood out, mostly due to how loaded everything else looked! After surviving Slaughterville, a short walk took us through the gift shop.

Grim and gory, mostly homemade props and set dressings gave so much eye candy, our optic nerves nearly exploded from sugar shock. This is always one of the most overstuffed FX-travaganzas we have the pleasure of seeing. If the schoolhouse had a trophy case, no doubt some sfx awards would be proudly displayed there. No matter where we turned, there was something horribly awesome to look at. Mannequins, animal, and beast props, signs, elaborate sets, and more paraded before our peepers in a mad march of mayhem.

The sizable and jaw-droppingly awesome lab looked ripped off the screen from a Frankenstein movie, with flashing lights, electrical effects, loads of scientific equipment, and an alien autopsy all competing for attention. The cemetery and vampire crypts were decked out with funereal trappings including gargoyles, giant grave markers, and vampiric figures standing by plaques that name-checked famous monsters of filmland like Barlow (Salem’s Lot) and Barnabas (Dark Shadows).

The freaky art studio/gallery rooms featured easels, artwork, the study notes of the artist/serial killer who had apparently stalked unfortunate victims to use as canvas or subject, and decapitated mannequins…or maybe they had been more than mannequins, since there seemed to be a lot of blood around those neck holes!

The Dead & Breakfast rooms strung together elaborately detailed haunted-mansion-type sets, several of them with a Christmas theme. CarnEvil trafficked in circus and carnival settings, including calliope music and grotesque clown figures. A series of cobwebbed chambers we might call Spiderville housed eight-legged buggers of every shape and size. Contagion Industries delivered glowing chemicals, mutations, barrels of noxious green gunk, and hazmat-wearing corpses. Slaughterville finished things up with a pallet pathway, rustic shacks, and pumpkin-headed scarecrows.

Impressive artworks painted onto the walls by young local artists (see our pictures) always make us stop to admire them. The schoolhouse went hog wild at the laser swamp trough, indulging in two separate, quite large rooms, each outfitted with a wooden maze, protuberances to knock your legs, props like a giant snarling wolfman, and some other neat lighting effects.

Speaking of lighting, the schoolhouse crew displayed a fabulous facility with light variations including strobes, spots, colors, and ranges of intensity. In what was probably the best audio showing of our season so far, we heard (to name just a few) howling wolves, barking dogs, horns, and circus music in CarnEvil; shocking sparkers, an air raid siren, distorted evil laughing, machine guns firing, and an excellent soundtrack headlined by eerie keyboards.

Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse gave us lessons in fear from fundamental primers to advanced studies. Fear fuel got delivered by chainsaws, clowns, vampires, werewolves, spiders, mutilations and wounds, animals and insects, medical staff, toxic chemicals, killer kids, and more. The assault got carried out by effects, props, and actors.

As for those actors: shouty shriekers, creepy quiet types, and jump scarers, who leapt out of dark corners, (especially the stilts clown, who appeared from behind with perfect timing), all got in their unique fright attempts. A squirt of water in a baby delivery room was a surprising gross-out. The web-encased spider victim startled us when they suddenly moved and called for help in a muffled voice.

An unusual finale, not focused exclusively on chainsaws, was highly appreciated. The overall scare score, though, came in a little lower this time, mostly due to being stuck in a conga line for much of the second half, that caused us to miss some chances to be frightened. We visited on what is traditionally one of the busiest nights of the season, the second Saturday before Halloween, which no doubt contributed. Next year on this crowded evening, we might just try to hit up some yard displays!

Class ended in 28 minutes. This was quicker than our previous visits, all of which lasted a half hour or more; it seems we got swept up and hurried forward by the conga line instead of being slowed down by it. But that’s still a solid amount of time spent inside. Versus the $25 general admission, the MPD ratio (minutes of in-haunt entertainment per dollar) ended up at a quite respectable 1.12, especially given the overall high quality of the experience.

Fast pass is available for $35. Ten dollars for a fast pass is a good deal; you may pay up to double the general price at some places. The prices we’ve quoted include a $5 online discount on general admission and fast pass, so at the door you will pay $30 for general or $40 for fast.

A very generous group rate starts discounting your tickets at only 4 people! That might be the lowest group requirement we have ever seen. You should scan social media and the website for special offers like pre-season sales and Heroes Night, which gives a deal to military personnel and first responders – this year it happens on Sunday, 10/27. Also keep an eye out for special events like a creepy car show.

Whether you’re a new student of spookiness or a senior in ghastly grad studies, it’s a fun time to get your dark diploma from this certified sinister school.