NOTE: SIR HENRY’S HAUNTED TRAIL and OMINOUS DESCENT operated out of the same location again this year, named I4 PREMIER FEAR PARK. While these businesses are completely separate entities, they did naturally share some assets including the general scare grounds, site upgrades, the new laser tag and escape room offerings, and offered combo tickets including admission to both attractions.
OMINOUS DESCENT returns for their second season, now having much more time to establish their trail after the last minute build in 2017 due to hurricane damage. The team is back with a vengeance as the attraction is more aggressive, realistic, and scary as ever before. The attraction is over twice as long as it was in 2017, with much more detail and complexity included for the 2018 season. The creative team of OMINOUS DESCENT continues to prove themselves as strong designers, directors, and deliverers of fine entertainment and great scares.
OMINOUS DESCENT is home to some of the most dedicated and intense scare actors we have seen, featuring aggressive and committed scares with a strong follow through. It is rare that a performer will only get one scare out of a group, due to the clever design and strong direction for the performers.
The team at Ominous Descent once again was able to find the tallest men of Central Florida to act as maniacal henchmen in the attraction. From quick, agile, aggressive scares to slow-moving, looming, and ominous (for lack of a more appropriate word), characters are strong, passionate, and never break character or ease up on a scare.
Variety of Characters – (35% of score)
Complete, Finished Appearance – (30% of score)
Creative, Detailed Costumes – (20% of score)
Creative, Detailed, Realistic Makeup – (15% of score)
Costumes, makeup and masks perfectly fit the theme of this attraction. Every detail is paid attention to, including themed ‘attachment bands’ on masks, leaving no elastic to be seen. Costumes are realistically (and excessively) distressed, and masks make you wonder if they actually were attached to an animal at one point in time, since they are hyper realistic (and hyper intimidating as well). Leather, sweat, blood, and dirt combine to create a very realistic costuming experience, and it’s a miracle that Guests don’t run out of the trail looking the same way.
If Masks, Effective – (25% of score)
Costumes Appropriate for Scenes, Themes – (30% of score)
Easy to Find, Navigate – (25% of score)
Safety – (20% of score)
Customer Service at I4 PREMIER FEAR PARK is always the best. The ticket booth, food stand, and haunt workers are friendly, engaging, willing to help and go the extra mile to engage in conversation when appropriate. The haunt owners of both attractions are also extremely accommodating, friendly, and passionate for what they do, which gets carried through to their Guests, creating a very friendly atmosphere. Safety is also a top priority, and although these attractions take place in the middle of the woods, the team goes to great lengths to ensure safety on the trails including level pathways, and illumination of any potential hazards.
I4 PREMIER FEAR PARK features amenities including restrooms, and though they may be portable restrooms, they are by far the cleanest we have ever seen at a haunt. The ticket booths also have extra bug spray on hand for those buggy evenings, which are plentiful in the Florida forests.
Staff Professional, Helpful, Friendly – (25% of score)
Ease of Finding Info Before Arrival – (20% of score)
Obviously a Haunt Before Entering – (40% of score)
Prepared for Experience Inside – (15% of score)
I4 PREMIER FEAR PARK has spent extra time on improving the general atmosphere of the attraction for 2018. They have created an impressive entrance arch and fence, along with adding more atmosphere effects (more themed music and lighting) to create an enhanced atmosphere. They added a projection screen behind the SIR HENRY statue to display a loop of trailers and other videos for the haunted attractions, perfectly setting the mood and atmosphere for the location. With the fire pits and other great features of the scare grounds, I4 PREMIER FEAR PARK has worked hard to create a destination for a night out, rather than a couple haunted attractions to visit briefly.
Sound Effects Effective – (20% of score)
Creative, Original Scenes, Props – (30% of score)
Detailed Scenes – (30% of score)
Achieve, Maintain Suspension of Disbelief – (20% of score)
OMINOUS DESCENT has upped the stakes more than imagined with even more effects, detail, theming, and improved layout, creating an even more impressive level of effects than their extremely strong year in 2017. We hope to see that OMINOUS DESCENT continues to find new ways to do what they do best in haunts, including misdirection, entrapment, and using commonly used effects (laser swamp) in less than common applications. We are also excited to see the variety in different themes that OMINOUS DESCENT can provide as they expand in the future.
OMINOUS DESCENT does a great job of packing scenes with details, giving Guests so much to look at that an effect or scare is very well camouflaged.
SFX Effective at Scaring, Entertaining – (35% of score)
Could Tell What Theme Was Without Asking – (15% of score)
Theme Well Executed, Believable – (25% of score)
Location Authenticates Theme – (10% of score)
How Scary – (15% of score)
A strong theme is evident in the OMINOUS DESCENT trails. Though a specific backstory is posted at the entrance to the trail, even if not reading the description, the theme is clear though some details may not be caught without reading the specifics of the story.
This ‘middle of nowhere’ feel from the attraction is authentic as it is, in fact, located in the middle of nowhere. The team uses all of the natural landscaping to their benefit, creating attractions that send Guests deeper and deeper into the scary woods prior to returning back to the front.
Provide Scares to Entire Group – (50% of score)
How Predictable – (25% of score)
Variety of Scares – (25% of score)
Aggressive, relentless, and thorough. These are the words I would use to explain the scares found at OMINOUS DESCENT. Performers work from unsuspecting angles, scaring Guests multiple times while using the scenery as a jungle gym to climb and jump over props to achieve dynamic scares, as well as hitting and moving props and scenery to create noise-induced scares.
OMINOUS DESCENT is also scary by design, with the heavy use of fog, lighting, and winding pathways through rugged corrals and sheds, adding to the theme of a decrepit wasteland in the woods. Effects are well hidden and camouflaged among the scenes to provide true surprises and shock, adding to the strong performer-driven scares.
2305 Havendale Blvd NW, Winter, Florida 33881