Nightmare Forest Review (2026)

The website is easy to navigate and very user-friendly. On the first page, you can find information about the haunt, dates, ticketing prices, FAQs, the ability to buy online tickets, directions, and contact links should you have more in-depth questions. The haunt has lights on the turnoff to help navigate the road and parking attendants to lead you to clear parking spaces. There was some confusion about where we parked; it was not clear where to go to find the ticketing booth, but after asking a readily available parking attendant, they were able to point us in the correct direction to a brightly colored, lighted path to the ticketing queue that is not visible from the back part of the parking lot.

The haunt is well maintained, clean, and welcoming! The midway is structured as a sideshow-style carnival. It features a lot of fun and on-theme games, fair-style food, and a fire pit, which was much needed on the chilly night we were there. Scare actors are wandering the midway, and while in line, there is a large screen showing different horror films; closer to the beginning of the haunt, there is a sideshow stage where they have different sideshow acts to entertain guests while queued, performed by Hawthorne’s Circus Bizarre! Ticketing is quick and easy; they take cash, card, and tap to pay. And while the line was daunting, even towards the end of the haunt’s hours, they did a great job getting the line moving very quickly. We had speed pass tickets and were in line for about five minutes.

Nightmare Forest sets the mood for their show right away: arriving groups must make their way down a small trail through the trees, dimly lit with spooky light and with music playing in the background. After purchasing tickets, we entered the Circus Bizarre, Nightmare’s large midway area. There was quite a bit to do! We browsed a museum of oddities, warmed up briefly by a fire pit, got spooked by a roaming leprechaun, and enjoyed the music and overall atmosphere. They had some props you could take photos with, or you could choose to purchase a professional group photo. Other optional, paid activities included midway games and concessions. The show wasn’t running when we got in line, but there was a sideshow stage for additional entertainment during select times.

This haunt’s claim to fame is horror movies, and we found many of them on the trail, ranging from popular picks like Terrifier, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Friday the 13th, to more obscure references, such as 13 Ghosts and Sinister. There was also a lot of originality – they had their own asylum, a western ghost town, an extensive (and rather chaotic) clown area, and other non-movie scenes. Once we finished the trail, we were smoothly sent back out into the midway.

Nightmare Forest was good about keeping immersion breakers like stray trash, exposed lights and speakers, and personal items away from groups’ line of sight. We did notice some scenes and special effects could use paint touch-ups and repairs, as they had visible wear and tear (with the full understanding that this is an outdoor attraction, and both customers and the elements can cause damage).

We start our journey off in the asylum. The scenes are disgustingly distressed and filled with creepy mannequins standing in for patients. The real patients are hiding amongst them, though, so keep an eye out for anything that’s moving! Sound design and lighting in these scenes are strong, though, which makes some later scenes, such as the ice cave, lacking some of those elements stand out. The movie scenes, though, were very detailed, and it was a fun mini game for our group to figure out which movie we were in as we were walking through.

There are some animatronics along the trail that were placed well, such as a patient in a wheelchair bum rushing us from a closet and the girl from the Ring. There were also some sensory details that we loved, such as the vibrating floors and the squishy vortex tunnel. We were also happy to see some large ‘actormatronics’, such as in the ice cave or in the carnival section, that made us jump.

Before we reached the actual woods, we had to pass through a cornfield – and right off the bat, we narrowly avoided the roaring blade of a chainsaw! Geez, we were having such a nice walk out there, too. Checking in to the asylum, we encountered a few patients practically bouncing off the walls. As we carefully made our way through an old West ghost town, we were halted by a grumpy gentleman demanding that we return a bar of gold that’d gone missing. Was he the sheriff? A bandit looking for missing loot?! Regardless, we swore it wasn’t us who stole it! Progressing into the movie portion of the trail, we soon found ourselves exploring the infamous Clown Cafe. Art the Clown seemed to be MIA, but we did see some other familiar faces taunting and scaring the group. All that walking eventually gave us quite an appetite, so we made sure to stop by Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Despite the mess (and blood splatters… and gore…) in there, the place was hopping – and so was the poor group member who found out, the hard way, that the stories about possessed robots were true!

Stumbling into the home of the Sawyer family, we were greeted by the matriarch. “Don’t mind my boy,” she cheerily said. “He don’t mean nothing ‘bout what he does. He’s just a lil’ misunderstood!” Yes, well, “misunderstood” didn’t hold any water with our group when ol’ Leatherface was trying to tear us up with his saw! In Scream, the Ghostface actor stalking around knew their scene well, coming around to strike from the other side when we weren’t expecting it. In the boiler room, Freddy Krueger got us good from a well-hidden boo hole. “You thought you could get away,” he sneered in the character’s signature growl. Nice!

Most of the cast used creature noises and dialogue that matched their characters. Many of them were not phased when we wound up with a big conga line shortly into our walkthrough, continuing to remain in-character and attempting to scare or mess with whoever they could. We did see a handful who looked awesome, but they kind of wandered around and didn’t seem to know how to handle all the people coming through their areas.

Most of the costumes and masks we saw were very good. Makeup ranged from simpler looks to more elaborate designs, depending on the character. We didn’t see a lot of characters who left us going, “Who or what are they supposed to be?”

Whether you’re a fan of original haunted houses or enjoy seeing your favorite horror movies brought to life, Nightmare Forest has got you covered. Across the different scenes, there was a wide variety of scares employed. Some actors stared at us menacingly, some engaged with us, some popped in to scare us and then disappeared. The groups that go through are larger, so plan on potentially getting paired up with other groups. This also leads to large groups for actors to manage and interact with, which sometimes leads to being distributed unevenly amongst the group. As we made our way toward the end of the trail, there was one person who made sure to get every single one of us – a chainsaw-wielding madman chased us through hanging sheets, which made for a surprisingly effective barrier when you’re suffering from fear zoomies!

General admission is $30, Speed Pass is $45, and VIP is $65. VIP completely skips the lines, can only be purchased in person at the ticket booth, and has limited numbers each night. They do charge a $2 fee for all card purchases. It took us 32 minutes to walk the entire trail, with a GA cost of $30; this makes your minute-per-dollar value 1.07. That is a great bang for your buck. Coupled with some very impressive set designs and characters, plus some fair games and enjoying a hot dog by the fire pit, you can have a great evening at the Nightmare Forest!

Happy 35 years of fear!