Nightfall at Old Tucson is a bit of an odd creature in the haunt world. I went to it last year, and I was thoroughly unimpressed by the haunts themselves, and thoroughly impressed by the full-on experience of being there. It isn’t an experience for grizzled adrenaline junkies who need the rush that only the most extreme of scares can give. It actually isn’t very scary at all. Nightfall at Old Tucson is, instead, an extremely family-friendly experience that prioritizes accessibility and atmosphere over being scary. It felt perfect for families with children to get their kids (or scare-averse adults) more comfortable with spooky season. So what was a jackalope to do? Steal children, of course!
This year, I showed up to Nightfall with three kids in tow, two of whom had never been to a haunt before. I wanted to see how much they would enjoy it. They enjoyed it quite a lot, in point of fact. The nine-year-old was so proud to have made it through every “scare zone”, even though going into the actual haunted houses was a bit beyond her this year. The eleven-year-old screwed up every bit of her courage and faced the Carnival Row zone, a monumental achievement for someone who had nightmares from seeing the Friday the 13th poster. All three had a wonderful time, and while the haunts themselves left me cold, I couldn’t have been more delighted with the evening.
If you want a scary haunted house, don’t go here; you’re going to feel like you’ve wasted the not inconsiderable ticket price. But if you want a fun night full of spooky-themed fun, cool shows, amusement park rides fit for kids, please go. If you have a family with kids, please bring them; it’s one of the best intro haunts you’re ever going to find!
The cast that fills out the haunts and the scare zones all seemed to be having a great time. Every witch, cultist, patient, and clown I spoke with was deeply in character and giving it their all. They were also deeply kind. Everyone else I was with was terrified and doing their best to be brave. When they asked, seriously, not to be scared, every single creep abided by their wishes, still staying in character as they spoke with them but doing their best to alleviate their fears. It was fantastic to see.
I just wish there were more of them. There were around three cast members in each scare zone, which made sense. Scare zones are very small; it’s a 30-second walk to get through them. The problem is, I’m pretty sure there weren’t more than three cast members in each haunt I walked through, and those are 5 minutes each. A really well-dressed set and well-timed special effects only get you so far; additional actors acting would do great!
Any haunt with money needs to spend at least some of that on its costumes. That goes doubly so for a haunt with so few actors at any given time. Luckily, Nightfall seems to have answered the call. Most of the costumes were fairly generic but solid. If I say “cultist” or “witch” or “asylum patient”, the thing that you’re imagining, that’s exactly what the costume looked like. It was only with the clowns that whomever was working on costumes seems to have been allowed to stretch. A black and white clown, a clown on stilts, a chainsaw clown with a busted eye, those characters were enough of a variation on theme to really stick out.
Despite the somewhat unoriginal nature of the costumes, they were all really well done. I didn’t notice holes in the makeup; they struck a good balance between dealing with Arizona heat and completeness, and nothing at all took me out of the moment. Whatever makeup artist they had working with them did a great job, just let them flex their imagination a bit more.
That park clearly cares about its customers. Parking was absolutely fine, with plenty of spots and not too difficult a walk from the parking spaces down to the park itself. I encountered no difficulties with any staff member I spoke to, everyone was unfailingly polite. All necessary information was posted, though finding a map proved a bit harder than it should have online. (In person maps were easy to come by). There were no safety hazards, and everything flowed really well.
The vibe of this park is immaculate. It’s impeccably dressed for Halloween, with great signage and decorations everywhere. The atmosphere is decidedly spooky season, and it gets you excited to enjoy everything they have to offer. The park itself helps with that; the Old West motif in the middle of nowhere Tucson is inherently creepy. There was a storyline of clowns taking over the park, but none of that really comes through in the haunts or scare zones. They had much more of a “spooky for spooky’s sake” vibe to them.
Within each haunt was a contained theme or story that was a lot of fun. I really loved the slow escalation within Asylum, moving to more and more extreme wards. The clown rules were also a delight. One thing that did hurt immersion was that the spacing wasn’t the best. Within Inferno, we ran into the people in front of us, and then another group caught us from behind. Dabney’s funhouse was even worse; there were easily 20 people caught up in our haunted house conga line. It killed any sense of tension or surprise, which is a shame because what was there looked really cool.
Given their reliance on animatronics and special effects, you’d hope they’d have these down, and you’d be right. They had some truly cool animatronics to behold. The giant ones in the scarecrow scare zone and Inferno were really cool to watch, and one in Dabney’s funhouse was well timed and placed enough that it genuinely startled me. It was the sole reason I didn’t bring the 9-year-old Jr. jackalope through; I thought that one thing would be too much for her.
Sound effects throughout the park were atmospheric but not intrusive, and the decorations and set design were a huge step up from last year. The only real spot they were a bit lacking was in the creative sensory effects. They didn’t really have any; some better fog work or something unique would really help set this haunt apart.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 4.67
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 5
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 5.67
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 5.33
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 5.67
Fear is in the eye of the beholder, but to this particular beholder, there wasn’t much to be scared of. There weren’t enough actors to really mix things up or keep us on our toes, and animatronics only go so far. Tension is released once you realize that the things going bump in the night are largely mechanical. All that being said, I am admittedly a jaded 39-year-old who’s been through hundreds of haunts. The 13, 11, and 9-year-olds I took through the haunt were terrified, so your mileage will definitely vary.
It might sound like I’m a bit down on Nightfall, but I genuinely loved this place. It was a better first haunt for the kids than anything else I can think of. While the haunts weren’t that scary and ticket prices are steep, you get a ton of great shows in addition to haunts and scare zones, plus the atmosphere and the carnival rides. Jackalopes that needed a break from the spooky rode the carousel, hung out in the mechanical cars, and yelled “yeehaw” on some bucking robot horses. There’s a ton here; it’s not just haunted houses. I wholeheartedly think that the ticket price is worth it. (I’m not going to comment on the $8 slices of pizza, which I’d consider much less of a good deal.)
If you think you’d want to experience a spooky festival and some entertainment without delving too deeply into the more extreme parts of the season, or if you have a family, I highly recommend stopping by.
201 S Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85735