In the heart of Topeka, a new haunted festival has emerged to bring a little excitement to your life. Originally just ‘Nightmare on the Boulevard’, the newly named ‘Nightmare Festival’ has expanded to include two different haunts, an escape room bus, midway games, and a concession stand. It also features the “scare suite”, where you can scare others going through the haunt. If you time it right, you might be able to scare your friends!
The two haunts at this location are: ‘Nightmare on the Boulevard’, the original haunt, which is 7,000 square feet, and “Circus of Shadows”, the newest haunt, which is 3,500 square feet.
No need to add bad weather to your list of fears; this temporary haunt is all indoors, located inside the exhibition hall of the event center. It’s a single-level with even floors and no stairs. Neither haunt had an excessive amount of blood, gore, or nudity, making them a safe option for families or younger haunters.
Overall score for each attraction
Nightmare On the Boulevard – 7.84
Circus of Shadows – 6.94
Total overall score: 7.39
Boulevard
Boulevard had a broad theme and therefore encompassed a variety of different characters throughout its halls. There was a good mix of humans and creatures, adding spice to each scene, and it felt like there were enough actors for the haunt.
A handful of cast members had speaking parts, and it was beyond the cliche phrases you might hear at any given haunt. While there were a few screamers, it wasn’t overdone or used constantly. My favorite lines were from the hotel staff. I asked housekeeping for fresh towels, and she told me to get them myself!
Circus
All the characters in this haunt stuck with the circus theme in some capacity, which lent itself to creating a more believable atmosphere. I was expecting nothing but clowns, but was surprised to see a variety of characters that fit the theme that I didn’t even consider.
There were only one or two actors with some dialogue, and the rest were jump scare noises.
This haunt felt like it was lacking in the number of scare actors. Even though this haunt had relatively the same amount of people per square foot as the other haunt, the brighter lighting took some of the transition mystery out, making it feel like more people are needed.
Boulevard
The complexity of the costumes varied as much as the characters wearing them, but all of them seemed highly decorated or slightly aged for the character. If the character didn’t have a full face mask, they would have face paint, except for a few “humans”.
All the costumes seemed appropriate to the theme of the rooms. The medical team wore lab coats, the hotel staff wore fancy Victorian outfits, etc. They looked to be good quality and not cheap store-bought costumes or things you would have in your closet, making the characters more believable. At least one or two characters had a voice changer to add to their character complexity.
Circus
The costuming in Circus of Shadows obviously followed a circus theme to match its characters. All the costumes looked to be of great quality, similar to the other haunt. The high shock costume that stood out the most in this haunt was the teddy bear face creature. I mean, who doesn’t have nightmares when they see a teddy bear cut open like a fish and worn as a mask?
I don’t recall seeing anyone holding a weapon, but there were some noise makers about.
Finding information for this haunt beforehand might be a little tricky, but it’s out there. The Facebook page is the best place for up-to-date information; the Jinxed Production website, which is basically the haunts website, has some descriptions of the haunts as well as the dates. The most comprehensive information is on the event center’s webpage, which includes some descriptions, dates, the token system, and other information like the clear bag policy.
Located inside the exhibition hall at the event center, you don’t have to worry about the weather or mud at this haunt. There is a large, free, well-lit, paved parking lot, so parking is not a problem, even with other events going on. The haunt entrance is located to the right of the main arena, near the box office. There were signs pointing the way, and it was easy to find, even with the crowd that was there for the other event that night. Metal detectors and security with wands are in use, so leave any metal items in the car. Since this is at the event centre, they have large, clean, multi-stall bathrooms, which is always a plus.
The staff that I spoke to were all very friendly and informative. I didn’t need much help, but I feel like it would have been easy to get help if needed. There weren’t a lot of staff members simply walking around, but you could find them at the attraction entrances and the merch/ticket booths. There were signs at several locations around the midway explaining the token system and costs for everything. There was only one ticket booth open at the time, but they had a second ticket booth set up in case it got super busy.
Midway/Festival
As soon as you step into the exhibition hall, you’re immersed in a haunted party. The overhead lights are dimmed and colored red & blue to help set the spooky party mood. Upbeat instrumental party music is pumping through the sound system, and there is no safe space from the multiple queue line scare actors wandering around. While mostly clowns, they do have a few other creatures that you might see, and one of them is riding a large tricycle around.
The entire festival (midway & haunts included) spans almost the entire 70,000 sq ft of the exhibition hall. The Tavern of Terror (the concession stand) sits in the middle of the room with lots of high-top tables and is surrounded by metal bar fencing to define the space. The concession stand also takes tokens to purchase food and drinks, so keep that in mind when you’re buying your first set of tokens. There was beer for sale, as well as basic food like hot dogs, nachos, and candy. You’ll also find two axe-throwing booths, an escape room bus with two rooms, a sleep deprivation experience room that can hold four people, and the “scare suite”. The scare suite is a room where you can view three of the haunt cameras and activate the scares. Don’t worry, I didn’t participate in this, so none of my fellow haunters that night were traumatized by me…..yet.
The two haunts are both located on the right side of the room, with the extra activities along the back left wall. There is a lot of space, so the area doesn’t feel overly crowded, and it’s easy to move around. Both haunts exit near where they start, so you exit right back into the festival midway and on to your next activity.
Boulevard
Considering this is a temporary haunt, there was a variety of materials used with a lot of details put into the walls and the rooms. While the majority of the rooms were built with plywood, they were painted and decorated with items that matched the rooms. The haunt overall was fairly dark, but you could see that some walls were painted to look aged or had blood smeared on them, while others were black to create darkness. Alternatively, several rooms used wooden pallets, metal fences, and alternative barriers like spider webs or barrels.
The haunt was constantly twisting and turning, which really gave the illusion of a maze and not just walking from room to room. There were a few spots where they had an opening, but it was blocked by a prop or a scare actor. It made it disorienting, but in a good way. You never quite knew where you were in the haunt.
There were several different room themes used. A morgue, hospital room, hotel, bedrooms, hallways, sheds, etc. All of these rooms weaved from one to another to create an exciting experience. I don’t know if there was a storyline or a reason behind the scene flow, but it was still fun regardless.
Circus
This (also temporary) haunt was well-lit and used to its advantage to showcase its circus theme. The majority of the haunt was also painted and decorated plywood walls, but some tall cattle gates gave it more texture. There were several different painting themes used throughout to separate one section from another. All of them had a circus or carnival type feel, like the classic red & white stripes, but distressed and grunged up. There was a section of jagged walls that made the area have a maze-like feel without having to actually get lost in one.
Some of the scenes, like the carnival games, fake bathrooms, air bladder tunnel, etc, gave the haunt some depth while keeping with the theme. It was like walking through an abandoned carnival or fairground.
Boulevard
Since these haunts are in a large exhibition hall, all the sounds from the midway and screams from all around fill the silence. It makes it difficult to really set the mood using ambiance or sound. Several sound effects were used in different rooms to try and help set the scene.
There were a few animatronics used throughout the haunt: some small creatures, a really cool zombie one, some slamming hotel doors, etc.
Additional special effects included lasers, fog, some key lighting spots, unique activated props, and flashing lights.
Circus
I didn’t notice too many special effects for this haunt; it relied mostly on its scene decor and actors to set its mood and scares.
There were some monkey sounds from a giant cymbal monkey, a car horn, flashing lights, etc. No large animatronics that I saw. There was what looked like a broken animatronic on the floor near the end, but I don’t know if it was supposed to look like that or it was being fixed. The air bladder tunnel wasn’t very long, but was used as a transition point from one room theme to another.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 6.5
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 7.5
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 7
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 6.5
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 6.25
Boulevard
This haunt used a ton of different scare tactics, and it was more than just popping up and yelling ‘Boo’! While there were some jump scares, there were also distractions, phobias of clowns and darkness, intimidations, a little blood and gore, victimizing, and camouflage, just to name a few.
The scares came from all directions, so nobody in your group is safe. There was one person in a full black bodysuit that crawled out of nowhere from the darkness. Very few scares were predictable and kept you on your toes.
The ending was good but also somewhat common, it had me and several other haunt goers running or speed walking out of the haunt. Some of the queue actors would even wait right outside just to scare the runners even more.
Circus
Since this haunt couldn’t use the darkness to its advantage, it had to get creative with its scares. While some scares were a little predictable since you could see the people as you walked near them, there were some jump scares, distractions, phobias of clowns, intimidations, victimizing, and camouflage. The best scare came from behind when you didn’t know someone was coming up behind you.
The scares came from all directions, so again, nobody in your group is safe.
The finale was a little uneventful. It really didn’t feel like there was a wrapping-up point; it just kind of ended and you walked out of the haunt.
The midway/festival part is free to go to and hang out in. Nightmare on the Boulevard costs 3 tokens ($15), Circus of Shadow is 2 tokens ($10), and the other midway attractions and concessions are 1-2 tokens ($5-$10).
I did get through Boulevard rather quickly, making it out alive in only 10 minutes. It advertises saying about 15-20 minutes. The same goes with Circus, I made it out in 5 minutes with them advertising 5-10 minutes. That being said, both of these trips I went in solo. I did try to take my time some, so actual run times may vary a little more with a group. That put the minutes per dollar for the haunts a little above average. I spent well over an hour there between the two haunts, activities, and hanging out and watching the scare actors chase people, so it depends on how you want to gauge that.
Overall, I feel the cost of the haunts is justified and is worth the time and money to check out.
1 Expocenter Drive, Topeka, Kansas 66612
