Nightmare on Edgewood Review (2016)

For starters, it must be mentioned that NoE was short-staffed on the night of our visit. However, many of the cast members that were there were pretty energetic and did a good job of covering the empty spots. The dentist in Abandoned was particularly ‘grabby’ and made sure one of our group members’ REAL oral hygienist had been doing a good job’ all while keeping a revved-up air tool within inches of her chompers’ just in case! She even made sure to drag our other reviewer away from the group so he didn’t get away unscathed. After encountering the doctors and the mortified victims, it became pretty clear to us early on in our tour that, even though these characters may not have their medical licenses, they were definitely not out of practice! The clowns of Karnival weren’t quite as intense, but by no means were they any less energetic. With appropriate, non-generic, clown dialogue and a good knowledge of their new scenes, several of them were able to ‘get us’ on more than one occasion! One of the most memorable was the one with half of his face eaten off from the toxic substances in his area; he was kind enough to introduce us to ‘Mr. Tickles,’ too. Condemned was a bit of a mixed bag. A few of the cast members were die-hard, committed and weren’t gonna let us get away without a scare. An example would be Freddy’s victim, who literally screamed the Nightmare on Elm Street jingle to us (1′ 2′ Freddy’s coming for you, etc.) as she came out from under the bed, latched onto both of our legs and even made us drag her across the floor before we could continue! Freddy knew his role pretty well too, by the way, and had the appropriate voice and dialogue for the job. The Creeper made a weird noise that we’d never heard him make before, but Jason was especially intimidating as he materialized out of his foggy scene and made sure to let our female group member know just how hard his’ machete’ was (by holding the blade up against her throat’ get your mind outta the gutter). Leatherface was also pretty intense with his chainsaw. With Grandpa Sawyer by his side, some residual fog and a back-lighting strobe, it made for a pretty impressive scene as we looked over our shoulders on our way to the exit!

While not the most elaborate costumes out there, each of the characters had very appropriate attire and their grunginess made for some pretty believable looks. The pig-faced character near the entrance of Abandoned was a bit odd in comparison to everyone else, but the rest of the patients and medical staff each matched their distressed scenes pretty well… sporting bloody lab coats, other high-quality masks, plenty of blood and wounds and ripped-up street clothes for an additional sense of realism on the victims. We noticed a few more good masks and makeup work in Karnival, too’ particularly the clown with the melted face (you don’t see that very often). As far as authenticity, NoE was able to procure their clown outfits from an actual shrine, so it doesn’t get much more realistic than this! A few of the characters in Condemned also use grungy, distressed and tattered street clothes for the ones that portray movie victims. However, each of the villains’ outfits looked pretty legit for the most part. The Creeper was complete with a realistic mask and duster, Freddy and Leatherface each had appropriate masks and costumes and Jason’s mask appeared to be a nice one as well’ although we could say his coveralls and skin looked pretty clean for having just crawled out of the bottom of a lake.

Just follow your GPS directions and look for the circling searchlight in the sky and you should find NoE with no problem. Plenty of signs and a parking attendant guided us to where we needed to be in their free and paved parking lot. If you’ve never been here before, just head around the right side of the ballfield towards the red lights. The ticket booth is very easy to spot and offers some NoE art that makes for a good photo ops. There’s also a fire pit and a small set of bleachers near the parking lot for those that get dropped off and are waiting for their ride to return. However, rain coverage is minimal, so be prepared to stand out in the weather during your visit to NoE. Shovel Man was out and about doing what he does best… scaring people with his shovel before they even make it to the queue line! A gift stand can be found in the queue area where you can purchase some awesome-looking haunt memorabilia, chips or drinks, so don’t forget to check that out while you’re there. Navigating all of the attractions was rather easy and the only questions we heard from customers were if the Last Ride or escape rooms were covered under VIP admission and they are not; they have a separate fee. Friendly staff members were at the entrance to each haunt, near the extra attractions, near the parking lot, at the ticket booth and at the concession/shirt stand in case you have any questions or concerns.

Upon first impression, NoE is located behind a well-lit baseball field where current R&B hits echoed all the way out to the parking lot. However, we noticed a string of red lights off in the distance and it was just obvious that something creepy was waiting for us behind that baseball fence! As we neared the ticket booth, Shovel Man made us very aware of his presence, which is where our anticipation to enter began. The green and blue-illuminated sign on the front of the Edgewood Sanitarium told us that it was game on! All three facades were nicely decorated this season, which helped set the tone for each attraction.

NoE is good at building many of their own effects and providing their customers with things they won’t see at many other attractions. A lot of spine-chilling and ear-piercing sounds accompanied the scenes as we escaped the grasp of those in the hospital, while the music that we heard in the Karnival was more upbeat. The horror movie-themed areas had appropriate music except for the very end, where all we heard were the growls of a chainsaw. It was obvious where we were in many of the scenes due to the theme-appropriate decor, including a flat-lined monitor, a narrowing hallway, a bus, patient x-rays, medical chairs and more. Some thick fog was encountered in several scenes and, in one, we just barely caught a glimpse of a towering Jason Voorhees before the fog completely engulfed him, forcing us to walk blindly in his direction! Some of the other effects we noticed during our journey include a never-ending hallway, a claustrophobic passageway, a makeup room, a little person room, air tools, vehicles, a bouncing floor, jittering clown jaws, strobes and a giant clown known as ‘Mr. Tickles.’ Be sure to watch out for him!

Three separate attractions at NoE equals three different themes you can experience at one location! Abandoned is a hospital that may appear empty at first’ but we assure you, it certainly is not! They say ‘some doctors and patients have refused to leave, whether they are living’ or dead!’ You will get to meet these doctors and victims, but will you make it out the exit… or will you become the next one strapped to their chair, begging the visiting customers to set you free? New for 2016 is Karnival, and they aren’t ‘clowning around’ in there this season. These clowns were dedicated to their roles of entertaining their guests, whether it be by slinging toxic waste on us or making us crawl through their hallways, they had something waiting for us around every corner! Last but not least is Condemned, a convicted house that is said to be the oldest on the block. This season, it will take you back far enough in time for you to become personally familiar with Leatherface, Freddy, Jason and even the Creeper! All of the characters we found seemed to match their respective haunts we found them in and had dialogue to match! We must say the clowns stuck to their theme the best as they entertained us all the way through their big top.

Touching. Did we say they can touch? We would be walking along, minding our own business in one of these haunts and bam! Someone would pull us back into the area we just came from or someone would be grabbing us or holding onto us! At one point, Jason had the metal blade of his machete on one of our throats, so they really aren’t messing around here! Good hiding spots were encountered in several areas that successfully caught our group off-guard, so be on the lookout in all directions at this place. Other types of frights we came across included intimidating characters, several distractions, disorienting fog, air tool threats, threatening dialogue and more. In areas, the sounds echoing within the walls alone made for a creepy setting, then add these crazy goons to the mix and you may find yourself watching your back until you are way past the exit! The clowns were good at showing themselves, then skipping up ahead of us so they could pop out later and nail us. Freddy surprised us with his appearance and, later, we were faced with the towering leatherface and his gas-guzzling tree cutter.

Admission to all three haunted attractions will cost you $25.00 this season, which is an increase from last year. If you visit NoE on a busy night, VIP passes can be purchased for $35.00 and will allow you to skip the long wait in line. It took our group around 16 and a half minutes total to escape all of the attractions. Generally, our time within the attractions here last longer, so we aren’t sure if the decrease in length may be from missing some interaction with characters that weren’t present that night’ or because we never did take a wrong turn in the clown area, but it looked like you could definitely get lost in there. The non-discounted ticket price puts this value at 0.66 minutes of entertainment received per dollar spent which is less than half of the 1.5 average that we calculated from the haunts we were able to visit last season. We did find a $2.00-off coupon on their website that’s in the form of a hidden ‘Easter egg,’ so good luck finding it! We also found discounted tickets on Groupon. Several other attractions can be experienced at NoE, including their Last Ride coffin simulator for $5.00 per person and either of their two mini escape rooms for $5.00 per person as well. The escape rooms are 6 minutes each this season and the one we tested our luck at was pretty difficult (and very fun)! NoE is one of the 4 haunts on the Indy Grimo limo tour, so if riding in style to haunted houses in a limo sounds like a good time to you, be sure to check that out. Nightmare on Edgewood advertises themselves as ‘Indy’s most intense haunted house’ and, to this date, they are still the most intense attraction that we have been to in the Indianapolis area! Remember, if you don’t like to be touched in a haunted house, this may not be the place for you.