Final Scores – By Category:

Cast (20% of Final Score): 6.48

Costuming (10% of Final Score): 6.52

Customer Service (10% of Final Score): 9.5

Immersion (10% of Final Score): 7.3

Special Effects (15% of Final Score): 7.4

Scare Factor (20% of Final Score): 6.8

Entertainment & Value (15% of Final Score): 6.58

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Final Scores – By Attraction:

Attraction 1: 7.09

Have you ever had an apprehensive feeling while entering a place where you don’t quite know what to expect? That’s what you’ll find at the Nightmares on the Rogue, as you descend from the streets of downtown Medford, OR, into the Haunted Mines. Considering that this attraction is in its first season, this haunt feels more seasoned than it actually is.

We were greeted with the sound of a piano playing ragtime, interspersed with broadcasts welcoming everyone to the mine tour. Our tour of the mine twisted and turned a few times as we went through the haunt experience. The tour ended back next to where we began. The proximity to another haunted house could make for a good evening out in the Medford area.

Note: This review will use Nightmares on the Rogue and Haunted Mines interchangeably. We are referring to the same attraction.

The actors had great energy throughout the whole haunt. We were greeted by a miner who provided us with the history of the mines, as well as warned us about the dangers we were about to face. An alarm went off alerting us that part of the mine collapsed. Our miner went from being jovial to panicked. He kept calling out for Wilbur but no one was answering. As a last resort, he rushed us into the mines to find Wilbur somewhere in its depths. It did a lot to drive the narrative and theme of the attraction as we entered the haunt proper.

Many of the actors played the role of victims in a great tragedy rather than threatening you with violence and harm. This led to many pleas for aid or warnings as we continued towards something menacing ahead. I’ll give great accolades to the actors for having great pipes. The sheer volume of screaming that occurred in their attempt to scare us was immense.

Beyond screaming at us, the cast also would present us with some narrative-driven dialogue. They recounted the horrors that befell them and their fellow miners. While scenes transition from the mines to other locations, the actors handled the timing for their scares well.

The costuming of all the characters was complete with a few exceptions where non-costume elements were visible. There were also a few characters where the masks were not always tucked in or a bit of makeup could be added to better blend the mask with the actor. The costumes fit the character within the different scenes. The few exceptions that we noticed could have been the transition between scenes versus an issue with costuming.

We were able to quickly find the haunt after entering the address into the GPS. As a heads up, the haunt is located in downtown Medford and only street parking is available. The night that we visited was one of the busiest nights of the year so parking was challenging. But, we found a spot a couple of blocks away which worked out perfectly for us and wasn’t out of the way. The haunt is co-located with another haunt, so we just had to follow the signage to Nightmares on the Rogue.

All the staff that we encountered were friendly and helpful. The queue line was split into two sections (indoor/outdoor) entering the attraction. Staff were roaming around to help ensure the line kept flowing between the two sections.

The website was recently completely rebuilt. We are unsure what it was like before, but the current site is well laid out and easy to navigate. It could be helpful if a FAQ was added, but it would be nice to have, and not a necessity.

Due to the location of this haunt, the outdoor line had very little atmosphere except for a few large signs posted on the building. The queue line actors did well to exhibit what terrors awaited us. In the indoor queue line, there was a great deal of work to sell the mine theme. Speakers played a radio tale preamble within the well decorated queue line section which added to our anticipation.

The main theme of this attraction was the haunted mines. Triggered by the mine collapse, specters that were once contained roamed throughout the mine. There were transitions from a mine, to a mansion, to a naval research vessel of some kind, then back to a mine. The transitions continued from there. It felt a bit like a fever dream rather than a solid storyline though the mine theme kept reappearing throughout. There weren’t obvious distractions from the outside world, such as exposed power cords or water bottles, that pulled us out of this immersion within the haunt. Once we got out of the first couple of scenes, we were well-spaced from the group ahead of us, largely due to the main characters that helped break up the conga line.

The haunt concluded with a photo op before exiting next to the entrance. This, again, was due to the location of the haunt and being unable to do much outside of the attraction. With that said, Haunted Mines worked to make the most of the space that they had.

The use of audio and visual effects was prevalent throughout the haunt. With old-timey music and a radio broadcast to start off the mines, we had great expectations for all the audio within the haunt. We weren’t disappointed with the ambient noise audibly filling in each scene. Plenty of lighting effects were used from mood lighting or just good use of light as a guide. It allowed for ease of navigation and attempted to enhance the immersion into the spaces we entered.

The use of fog machines and flat lasers acted as optical walls where we never quite knew what we were walking into. While fog effects were present, some of the rooms needed to be more enclosed to fill the space with fog to better execute the effect. This also might have been more of a subjective experience, as the fog effects could have changed from night to night.

Overall, the effects were blended into the well-constructed sets. Though the thematic transitions between were abrupt, the transitions were filled with custom details that kept pulling us back into the mine. Being critical, some of the scenes could have used more filler. However, it was very clear to us what each section was supposed to be. We appreciated the work that was put into crafting each scene and also wanted to acknowledge that this is the first season of this haunt. The filler that we mentioned will definitely accumulate over time.

This haunt was primarily actor-driven, with many characters warning us that we needed to escape or who were unfortunately trapped in a dangerous situation. There were quite a few narrative elements rather than relying on jump scares or animatronics. That’s not to say those scares didn’t exist through the haunt itself, they just were not the sole source of the scares. There was a great use of distractions that caught us off guard a few times. There also were many opportunities to interact with actors as opposed to having things happen before retreating out of sight.

A general admission ticket costs $18, and $25 for the Fast Pass. It took us about 13 minutes to complete our tour of the Haunted Mines. The minutes per dollar calculated out to .72 which is lower than the national average of one minute per dollar. However, it is around the same rate as other haunts that we visited in the Pacific Northwest this year.

The queue line actors did a great job constantly engaging customers which was fun to watch while we waited. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much entertainment included with the ticket price for the reasons we stated earlier. (It does sound like this will change in upcoming seasons.)

We were glad to be able to visit Nightmares on the Rouge and look forward to what will evolve in the years to come.