Nightfall at Old Tucson Review (2024)

The cast overall was a mixed bag at Nightfall.  Haunts like Dabne’s Funhouse and The Bloodletting were bursting at the seams with enthusiastic, interactive creeps and clowns who were more than happy to give it their all.  While their banter could use some work, with one notable cultist seeming shocked that I was speaking to her and scrambling to give me an appropriately spooky response, their commitment to the bit absolutely couldn’t be called into question.  I was absolutely delighted to see everyone doing their best, and their joy in their work was infectious. 

The same can’t quite be said for the Mirror Prison or Hell’s Gate.  Both haunts felt a little light on numbers, and while the cast was enthusiastic, they felt a lot more stiff, grunting, or screaming at me and not much else.  Actors in their Scare Zones, small areas throughout the park you could walk through at your leisure, had great enthusiasm.  They had a few set lines and were committed to giving them, but when you got them off book, they really seemed to love what they were doing.

Old Tucson seems to have a lot of revenue coming in, with a huge crowd and a not-cheap ticket price.  None of that money really seemed to make it into their costuming, and the makeup seemed to feel lazy.  None of the mask-wearing spooks had their eye holes blackened, and a bit of grimy face paint had an almost harsh border with clean necks.  Hands and arms were generally clean as well, further breaking the illusion that they were going for.  I understand that there is a huge cast to get into makeup and costume, but an unaltered Spirit Halloween quality mask and a robe is not a good enough getup to show that someone is a demon.  All around, it felt like it lacked effort and originality, with one effective cultist makeup that got copied half a dozen times in nearly identical face paint.

One positive of all this is that it renders everything less scary, which works for the overall family-friendly vibe the place seemed to have.  Nothing will look realistic or detailed enough to scare children that you might want to bring.  It’s clearly just people having fun and trying to scare you, and while that isn’t going to work for a serious haunt, it does make for a place to bring people who might cower away from more serious scares.

There seemed to be more people wearing the standard Old Tucson uniform to help inform and move guests along than there were costumed freaks.  They were exceptionally helpful and unfailingly polite.  For the most part it was very easy to find information that was needed, their website was flawless and their media campaign helped show exactly what is needed.  Even their map is really well laid out, with showtimes for all their shows and locations of everything clearly marked.

The only real issue that I had was getting into the park.  This place gets very packed very fast, and while the line does move quickly it’s so extensive that it was a solid hour from the moment I parked until I made my way into the park.  The wise-cracking skull placed to harangue and inform guests in line can only do so much to alleviate that kind of wait.  The wait was made even worse by some misinformation.  I had a general admissions ticket, and after seeing (and feeling) the wait I decided to try and upgrade my ticket to an RIP so I could skip any lines.  I asked a line attendant, who said I could do that if I stayed in the ticketing line.  Twenty minutes later I found out that not only were RIP sold out, they had sold out prior to opening.  I totally understand that in the heat of the moment some information might not get passed down to everyone, but a ticket category being sold out prior to opening really should have been told to all line attendants.

You’re immersed in the world of Nightfall pretty much from the minute you pull into the parking lot.  A western town built in the middle of nowhere is a great scene, and the entire place is decorated and absolutely bursting with Halloween cheer.  Signposted “Scare Zones” provide an extra level of immersion, one that families with kids can easily avoid if that will be too much for the little ones.  Shows, haunts, and everything else put you right back out into the spooky wonderland, and you never feel outside of the infested Western vibe they’re going for.

Inside the haunts is usually solid, but one major instance did ruin my immersion for a bit.  Within Bloodletting, I came across a cast member with his mask off playing on his cell phone.  I can’t really imagine a better way to shatter the illusion than that.  It didn’t ruin my night or anything, but it was a big hit to immersion that shouldn’t happen at any haunt, let alone a large and professional one.

Special Effects within the park are used sparingly but to generally solid effect.  The most common effects I came across were fog machines, along with the spiraling tunnels that almost every haunt seems to use.  Dabne’s Funhouse had the bulk of the special effects; the entire place was bursting with interesting set design and cool moments.  The mirror prison had some great moments, too, with vibrating floors and an absolutely amazing animatronic.  The other two haunts seemed to let it down a bit though, with black plywood designs and not a whole lot else going on.  Bloodletting did make an attempt at some cool scenery, with werewolves chained up and being experimented on, but they were mostly backed up by black plywood and a few bits of metal, limiting how well it could set the scene.  A bit more effort in those haunts and better set decorations would really make things pop.

Ultimately this was not a scary haunted attraction.  Actors did their best to provide scares to everyone in the group and around me, but what scares were available tended to be somewhat predictable and repetitive.  What one cast member would do in a haunt is what every cast member did, and most haunts just ended unceremoniously, to where I wasn’t sure if I was actually done or not.  Allowing cast members to act a bit more freely and having more of a buildup towards a climax would be a great and easy way to up the intensity a bit and make things more fun.

The one exception to these criticisms is Dabne’s Funhouse.  This particular haunt was superb, startling, and fairly scary despite a lack of threat.  It also felt the most creative despite the theming being the single most overused trope in haunts: clowns.  I was engaged and surprised throughout, and the climax of the haunt wasn’t just effective; it had one of the best jokes I’ve seen in a haunted attraction.  I’m not going to spoil it for you, but it was the first time I’ve ever laughed out loud in a clown haunt.

With a general admission ticket costing $44 and a walkthrough time of 21.35 minutes, we are left with a Minutes Per Dollar Score of 0.49.  While this is well below the average of the preferred $1 per 1 minute we like to see most, it doesn’t at all tell the whole story of Nightfall.  In addition to their four haunts, you get multiple Scare Zones, a number of live shows that guests can watch without extra charge, various park activities including miniature golf, a carousel, a petting zoo, and lots of food vendors.  Your active time in the haunts might only be 21 minutes, but you could easily spend hours partaking of every bit of fun the park has to offer.  The value for your ticket here is miles beyond almost any other haunted attraction in this area and should be extremely attractive to any families that want a fun, spooky theme