Features:
✓-Free Parking✓-Restrooms/Porta Potties On-Site✓-Food/Concessions✓-Gift Shop/Souvenirs✓-“Old-School” (Low Tech)✓-You will NOT be touched✓-Original Characters✓-Indoor/Outdoor Attraction✓-Family Friendly
How Do We Get These Scores?
Our Rating System
UPDATE FOR 2022: Our former “Atmosphere” and “Theme” categories have now been combined and renamed “Immersion.” Our intent with this is to give more appropriate credit to attractions that have shown a clear focus on achieving and maintaining better customer experiences (both inside and outside the attractions) and developing creative storylines.
Each of the category scores in this review are calculated using a weighted average of several questions that we rate on a scale of 1 to 10.
The following breakdown explains what these scores typically mean. All of our Teams use this as a reference for providing accurate ratings:
10: “Peak Performance”This score is treated as if it has a chastity belt on it. “10’s” are reserved for the best of the best; those that we feel could not possibly improve on what they’re doing.
9: “Innovative and Groundbreaking”It rocked! Nearly everything seemed to go as planned and it was one of the best we’ve ever seen! These guys are leaders in the industry, and attractions like this are truly hard to come by.
8: “Solid”A high score on our scale. They had a good handle on it and, overall, they knew how to use it well. Most attractions can learn from what these guys are doing.
6 to 7: “Good”We could tell that a good effort was made. However, we’ve seen this done much better at other places, or can detect areas where significant improvements can be made. This is about the top end of what we’d call “Family Friendly.”
5: “Average / Fair”Compared to the competition, they weren’t the best, but definitely not the worst. Scares and Special Effects in this range are usually considered “Family Friendly.”
3 to 4: “Below Average”We could see that a clear attempt was made, but most other professional attractions are doing a much better job at this.
1 to 2: “Poor”It appeared that very little time, thought or effort was contributed to this aspect.
0 (Zero): “Non-Existent”No apparent effort was made to make this a significant contributor to the attraction.
Afterword:This rating system is standardized across all of The Scare Factor’s official haunt review teams. However, keep in mind there will always be minor differences between Teams, as we all have varying levels of experience. Regardless, we do our best to remain true to our core values, which is to promote all haunted attractions!Perhaps the biggest thing to remember is: sometimes the score – in and of itself – doesn’t tell the whole story about an attraction’s merits. This is why we provide detailed explanations for each category… to help you better understand how and why we chose the score/s that we did.We do our best to not let feelings or emotions rule our judgement, while also viewing the attraction through the lens of the typical haunt-goer. But, because all reviews with ratings are inherently subjective, this is nearly impossible to completely prevent. Though, when in doubt, we tend to give slightly lower scores than our original “gut feelings” to account for this, and also give the attraction more room to improve over time.We also do our best to be fair and consistent across all of the haunts that we review. We know that you’ll be looking at these scores and comparing them to other attractions, so we hope this review helps you out in that aspect.Do you have some feedback about our review system? Contact Us Here to let us know what you think!
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Final Score: 6.45
How Did We Get This Score?
Final Scores:
(15% of Final Score) Cast: 6.21
(15% of Final Score) Costuming: 6.91
(10% of Final Score) Customer Service: 7.69
(10% of Final Score) Atmosphere: 7.88
(15% of Final Score) Special Effects: 5.48
(5% of Final Score) Theme:
(15% of Final Score) Scare Factor: 5.16
(5% of Final Score) Entertainment & Value: 6.75
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Summary:
Past Tense After Dark is a cider mill gone spooky for October. This attraction consists of a haunted hayride, haunted house, and corn maze.
On the night of our visit, the corn maze did not have any actors due to being short-staffed, so this haunt was not considered in our scoring.
PTAD has more than enough room and activities to hold your attention for an evening of family fun. These haunts have an ‘old-school-‘ type feel, providing you with scares for all ages. With family activities during the day, this is a good haunt to take the first-timer to experience.
House of Horrors: 7.18
The Hayride of Despair: 5.71
Cast: 6.21
How Did We Get This Score?
Cast Scores (15% of Final Score):
(20% of Cast Score) Did it seem like there were enough actors?: 5.45Explanation:
House: 7.9
Hayride: 3
(30% of Cast Score) How creative, believable and convincing were the actors?: 7Explanation:
House: 8
Hayride: 6
(20% of Cast Score) How interactive were the actors (verbally and physically)?: 5.25Explanation:
House: 6.5
Hayride: 4
(15% of Cast Score) How creatively & appropriately did they use dialogue?: 6.1Explanation:
House: 6.3
Hayride: 5.9
(15% of Cast Score) Was there a good variety of characters?: 7Explanation:House: 8.5
Hayride: 5.5
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A majority of the cast that was present seemed young, but they were enthusiastic about their characters. Some were less convincing than others, but they get an A for effort.
We feel that PTAD could’ve use a few more bodies to keep the hayride moving along at a better pace as well. The hayride portion had quite a few lulls, and the scenes seemed to be few and far between. The best part of a hayride is the potential for people popping out of the corn, as it is the perfect camouflage. However, presumably also due to being short-staffed, PTAD wasn’t able to use the gift of the corn to its fullest potential. We feel that more actors hiding in the corn and the scenes would have made for a much more enjoyable hayride.
Notable mentions for the hayride across the board were the two clowns who put on a great show together. They weren’t so much “scary,” but at least it was entertaining and they had good banter between each other. Also, the hillbilly girl made her way onto the hayride and chose the ideal victims to spend some time getting to know. Again, not so much scary, but a little on the weird/creepy side, for sure!
The haunted house had a good number of actors, but there were some quiet areas that probably could have benefited from having a few more monster on tap as well. You always know a devoted actor when they climb up to the ceiling of a barn to hide and then jump down behind you at the perfect moment. Kudos, my scary friend!
Inside the haunted house, more clowns roamed about and gave us a joke that had us in stitches! A chained victim provided quite the scare and had great timing – my personal favorite. The dialogue, though, seemed stagnant and the same phrases were repeated for most of the time.
House of Horrors: 7.5
The Hayride of Despair: 4.91
Costuming: 6.91
How Did We Get This Score?
Costuming Scores (15% of Final Score):
(15% of Costuming Score) How complete / finished did the costumes appear to be?: 7.25Explanation:
House: 7
Hayride: 7.5
(25% of Costuming Score) How creative / detailed were the costumes?: 5.75Explanation:
House: 6.5
Hayride: 5
(20% of Costuming Score) Was their makeup creative? Detailed? Realistic?: 7Explanation:
House: 6
Hayride: 8
(15% of Costuming Score) How effectively did they use masks (if used)?: 6Explanation:
House: 6
Hayride: 6
(25% of Costuming Score) How appropriate were the costumes for their scene/s & theme/s?: 8.35Explanation:House: 8.2
Hayride: 8.5
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A handful of the actors had decent costumes put together. A majority of them, however, were simply dark street clothes with some makeup. A werewolf mask attached to a body wearing a standard shirt and pants did give us a startle due to the speed at which he ran at our group. The two clowns on the hayride probably were the best outfitted with original costumes and hair and makeup.
House of Horrors: 6.83
The Hayride of Despair: 7
Customer Service: 7.69
How Did We Get This Score?
Customer Service Scores (10% of Final Score):
(25% of CS Score) How easy was it to locate the attraction, park, and navigate the premises?: 7.5
(30% of CS Score) How safe was the attraction?: 8.5Explanation:
We are pretty sure one of the youngsters working the haunt used one of the dark enclosed areas as a smoke break room throughout the night because the pungent smell of cigarette smoke hit us like a ton of bricks. We aren’t firefighters, but I am pretty sure that is a fire hazard within those walls.
(25% of CS Score) How professional, helpful and friendly were the staff members?: 8
(20% of CS Score) How easy was it to find their information before* arrival?: 6.3Explanation:
Some website info is missing. Ticket link at bottom leads to their 2016 event. FAQ page may have been helpful.
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Driving along the country roads of Lapeer, the haunt is nestled into the countryside and easy to miss, as we didn’t see any signs by the road or other means of welcoming guests. Parking is abundant; we parked in the middle of the venue and the activities are around the outside. One single ticket booth is set up between the activities near the back of the venue.
The staff was courteous and there to do their job. The most pleasant staff person was the gentleman in the store who served us our yummy donuts and cider.
Their website is slightly outdated, with some pages missing information, specifically the FAQ page (which may have been helpful for us). The website is also somewhat misleading by claiming the corn maze is ‘haunted,’ which may not be the case every night.
Atmosphere: 7.88
How Did We Get This Score?
Atmosphere Scores (10% of Final Score):
(60% of Atmosphere Score) How obvious was it that you were at a haunted house before entering?: 7.8
(40% of Atmosphere Score) How well did the atmosphere prepare you for what you experienced inside?: 8
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PTAD is a bustling environment, with the tractor pulling the hayrides consistently coming through, and people coming and going from the on-site restaurant in the cider mill to the store where you can purchase goodies of cider, donuts, pies, and ice cream, not to mention the haunted house and corn maze. There is no lack of things to do and see. The classic cider mill vibe, combined with being surrounded by corn stalks, brings you into the moment of enjoying the fall season, and the screams from the haunted house carry throughout the night.
The clowns from the hayride interacted with those waiting in line for the haunted house and provided entertainment. A portion of the haunted house was a short walk around the building, wherein a few actor scares occurred. This is directly next to the queue line and blocked by a fence, but every scream that happened was audible. Additionally, the finale of the haunted house was in plain view, and people often came sprinting out of the doorway with two actors screaming after them.
Special Effects: 5.48
How Did We Get This Score?
Special Effects Scores (15% of Final Score):
(20% of SFX Score) How effective were the sound effects?: 5.05Explanation:
House: 6.1
Hayride: 4
(20% of SFX Score) How creative / original were the scenes & props?: 5.15Explanation:
House: 6.8
Hayride: 3.5
(20% of SFX Score) How well were the scenes detailed?: 5.1Explanation:
House: 7.2
Hayride: 3
(25% of SFX Score) How well did they achieve & maintain the suspension of disbelief?: 5.95Explanation:
House: 7.9
Hayride: 4
(15% of SFX Score) How effective were the SFX at providing scares / entertainment?: 6.2Explanation:House: 7.4
Hayride: 5
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The special effects within the haunted house portion were actually better than we anticipated. A lot of special effects were packed into this haunt. It baffled our reviewing minds how they fit all of them inside the building. Mostly having the old school scares of loud noises and lighting effects, this haunt does have a few tricks up their sleeves as well. A spinning vortex is one notable mention.
The decor within the themed rooms of spiders, clowns, and a bedroom scene were detailed well and created entertaining scenes to walk through. A completely blacked out room successfully disoriented us and left us vulnerable for the upcoming scares.
The hayride had a couple of scenes you pass through, including an electrocution, a hillbilly’s home, clowns, and a deranged man eating a fresh human carcass. But, the hayride was mostly driving past a scene and an actor running at the hayride for a brief moment in time. Again, we feel there were missed opportunities with not using the corn surrounding the hayride more often.
House of Horrors: 7.11
The Hayride of Despair: 3.85
Theme: N/A
How Did We Get This Score?
Theme Scores (5% of Final Score):
(30% of Theme Score) Could you tell what the theme was?:
(50% of Theme Score) How well was the theme carried throughout the attraction/s?:
(20% of Theme Score) How well does their location authenticate the theme?:
This score is left “N/A” when we believe the haunt is trying to target a random variety of themes or phobias, rather than a single overarching “Theme” or “storyline.”
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We didn’t notice an overall theme at Past Tense After Dark that the attractions followed when we went through.
Scare Factor: 5.16
How Did We Get This Score?
Scare Factor Scores (15% of Final Score):
(30% of Scare Factor Score) How scary was it?: 5.2Explanation:
House: 6.9
Hayride: 3.5
(15% of Scare Factor Score) How well did they provide scares to the entire group?: 6Explanation:
House: 7
Hayride: 5
(25% of Scare Factor Score) How predictable were the scares?: 5.5Explanation:
House: 7
Hayride: 4
(15% of Scare Factor Score) How well did they provide a wide variety of scares?: 3.95Explanation:
House: 5.9
Hayride: 2
(15% of Scare Factor Score) How strong was the ending / finale?: 4.9Explanation:
House: 7.8
Hayride: 2
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Overall, PTAD was moreso entertaining than scary, but the haunted house portion provided us with some startling jumps and some good quality actor scares as well. Seemingly not found very often in the haunts we visit, PTAD had a successful finale that, as we witnessed, caused more than one person to run screaming from the building. That always scores points in our book!
House of Horrors: 6.93
The Hayride of Despair: 3.4
Entertainment & Value: 6.75
How Did We Get This Score?
Entertainment & Value Factor Scores (15% of Final Score):
(30% of E&V Score) How satisfied were you with the entertainment received during the main attraction/s?: 7
(25% of E&V Score) How satisfied were you with the entertainment that’s available with* the ticket price, excluding the main attraction/s?: 3
(30% of E&V Score) How appropriate is/are the ticket price/s?: 9.5
(15% of E&V Score) Have they effectively used their available space?: 7
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Our group took 13 minutes to make it through the haunted house and 13 minutes on the hayride. If you choose to try out the corn maze, it only took us 8 minutes to find our way out, but we heard many people state they were lost in the corn maze for lengthy amounts of time, so our team must have been guided by the stars that night!
The combo ticket for all three attractions is only $20, while the haunted house by itself is $12 and the corn maze and hayride are $6 individually. There was no VIP/speed pass type tickets available for purchase which could be something the haunt looks into as the haunted house line did become a pretty long wait time. The hayride holds a lot of people, packed in quite tightly, but that line goes by quickly due to the large capacity of each trip. While in the corn maze, we only ran into one other group and there was no wait. The price of the attractions seems exceptionally reasonable for the amount of time you can spend on the cider mills’ grounds. The minutes per dollar score for the haunted house was 1.08, for the corn maze was 1.33 and for the hayride was 2.17. Overall for all three was a score of 1.7; this is very high for the area.
Combo Ticket – $20
Haunted house only – $12
Hayride only – $6
Corn Maze only – $6
How Did We Get These Scores
Our Rating System
Each of the category scores in this review are calculated using a weighted average of several questions that we rate on a scale of 1 to 10.
The following breakdown explains what these scores typically mean. All of our Teams use this as a reference for providing accurate ratings:
10: “Peak Performance”This score is treated as if it has a chastity belt on it. “10’s” are reserved for the best of the best; those that we feel could not possibly improve on what they’re doing.
9: “Innovative and Groundbreaking”It rocked! Nearly everything seemed to go as planned and it was one of the best we’ve ever seen! These guys are leaders in the industry, and attractions like this are truly hard to come by.
8: “Solid”A high score on our scale. They had a good handle on it and, overall, they knew how to use it well. Most attractions can learn from what these guys are doing.
6 to 7: “Good”We could tell that a good effort was made. However, we’ve seen this done much better at other places, or can detect areas where significant improvements can be made. This is about the top end of what we’d call “Family Friendly.”
5: “Average / Fair”Compared to the competition, they weren’t the best, but definitely not the worst. Scares and Special Effects in this range are usually considered “Family Friendly.”
3 to 4: “Below Average”We could see that a clear attempt was made, but most other professional attractions are doing a much better job at this.
1 to 2: “Poor”It appeared that very little time, thought or effort was contributed to this aspect.
0 (Zero): “Non-Existent”No apparent effort was made to make this a significant contributor to the attraction.
Afterword:This rating system is standardized across all of The Scare Factor’s official haunt review teams. However, keep in mind there will always be minor differences between Teams, as we all have varying levels of experience. Regardless, we do our best to remain true to our core values, which is to promote all haunted attractions!Perhaps the biggest thing to remember is: sometimes the score – in and of itself – doesn’t tell the whole story about an attraction’s merits. This is why we provide detailed explanations for each category… to help you better understand how and why we chose the score/s that we did.We do our best to not let feelings or emotions rule our judgement, while also viewing the attraction through the lens of the typical haunt-goer. But, because all reviews with ratings are inherently subjective, this is nearly impossible to completely prevent. Though, when in doubt, we tend to give slightly lower scores than our original “gut feelings” to account for this, and also give the attraction more room to improve over time.We also do our best to be fair and consistent across all of the haunts that we review. We know that you’ll be looking at these scores and comparing them to other attractions, so we hope this review helps you out in that aspect.Do you have some feedback about our review system? Contact Us Here to let us know what you think!
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