Pantophobia is the fear of everything, and also a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil. This is a small attraction with just one attraction, their Hayride, but it’s marketing shows a storytelling and character development ability beyond the haunt’s current capabilities. The YouTube video on their website and page is very well done. It really draws you into the main character of Cyrus Grain, a serial killer in a wasteland, western dystopian type theme of desolation and decay.
The sets and the costumes are well done, and enhance the theme which is all centered around the Return of Cyrus and his murderous rampage, but the stars of this haunt are it’s actors. They really have to do some heavy, heavy lifting to overcome the limits of the location, and they were up to the challenge. They come at you with enthusiasm, dedication, and murderous intent. The return of Cyrus himself is the highlight and is very well setup.
I did have some concern over the actors walking alongside the wagon as it was moving and jumping on the sides. This is fine if not in motion, but my concern over potential injury for them took me out of the moment a few times. There were a couple of times when the actors came on the wagon, and I think they should do more of that, and have actors on at every scene where they are not up on a stage above the level of the wagon to present a better threat, and a safer situation for the actors.
The downside is that there is just the hayride but they do have hopes of expanding into an indoor haunt in a greenhouse. As great as the property owners are, this haunt just needs a better location or to do a better job of hiding the real world elements all around it. In order to make the trail long enough they have designed a path to get down to a heavily wooded area at the back of the property, which is where the ride is at its best. The trouble is that you would go through a cool set or scene, like the girls in the graveyard, and then look it’s a brightly lit condo building, and that happened repeatedly at the beginning and end of the ride. I don’t know what you do with that, but it really takes away from the immersion of what is a really good story and an excellent effort by the cast.
For the price of the ticket, it’s hard to justify based on one attraction, and the parking is so limited it seems that it is probably a good thing if they have limited crowds attending per hour. Pantophobia is a good haunt when it has the terrain to work with, but desperately needs a better location to reach it’s full potential, and is definitely worth watching going forward as they grow.
