Final Scores – By Category:

Cast (20% of Final Score): 8.35

Costuming (10% of Final Score): 9.55

Customer Service (10% of Final Score): 9.73

Immersion (10% of Final Score): 9.5

Special Effects (15% of Final Score): 9.53

Scare Factor (20% of Final Score): 8.98

Entertainment & Value (15% of Final Score): 9.75

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Final Scores – By Attraction:

Hillbilly Mayhem: 9.24

Picture this: You’re driving to visit a haunted attraction for the first time and the GPS sends you into a residential neighborhood. There’s a slightly disconcerning feeling pulling into the quiet street all the while looking for a 5,000-square-foot haunt and thinking “This can’t be right, we have to be lost”. We assure you, you’re not! You’ve just uncovered Pemberton Haunters, an unexpected gem hiding in a haunt enthusiast’s backyard. Located off Exit 14 on I-4, Pemberton Haunters has earned the title of Tampa’s goriest house, and it’s rightfully deserved.

We caught up with owner Rich S. while we were there to ask a few questions, and uncovered some crazy fun facts:

– It takes thirteen weeks to set up Pemberton Haunters. Hurricane Helene made it difficult this year, but, with many overnights and continuous work, they opened the attraction on time.
– The haunted house is built from the ground up each season and nothing remains set up year-round! As soon as the haunt season is over, the attraction is broken down and placed into multiple shipping crates, and stored in various locations throughout Rich’s home.
– A giant tent is erected behind the facade of the haunted house to hold the attraction. This means haunt goers are always undercover throughout the experience.
– This is the last year the attraction will live in Rich’s backyard. Unfortunately, the neighborhood is kicking them out. The good news is that they’ve already begun identifying a new space.
– Admission to the haunt has been all donation-based over the past 13 years. For their fourteenth year, they’re charging $10 to enter, and the money goes directly into the move for to their new location. They have a brand new website this year too.

We’ve been trying to make it to Pemberton Haunters for several years and are kicking ourselves for not getting there any sooner. This haunted house surprised us in every way possible and we were speechless at the exit. Do yourself a favor and add Pemberton Haunters to your list this year. You’ll thank us when you do, and you will have bragging rights of getting to experience the haunt in its original home one last time.

Note: On behalf of Team Floridead, we want to extend our support to Pemberton Haunters as they recover from the impact of Hurricane Milton. Pemberton Haunters will be closed until October 18th while they make the necessary repairs to reopen once again. Be sure to follow their social media channels and website for updates. We look forward to seeing them reopen stronger than ever!

The cast at Pemberton Haunters were fully immersed in their roles, making the entire experience much more engaging. While waiting in line, four queue actors continuously interacted with each guest, building a playful and eerie hillbilly family dynamic that set the tone before we even entered. Once inside, the house was well-staffed and never felt like anyone was missing. If there was one area we felt could benefit from an additional actor, it would be the closet scene. The experience of feeling your way through thick, dark clothes is already unsettling, and a second actor would amplify the tension.

What stood out most was how the majority of the cast avoided basic phrases like “Boo” or “Get out.” Instead, they stayed in character, asking us unsettling, in-theme questions. For example, in the closet scene, the actor asked if we liked their clothes instead of going for a simple jump scare. In the dining room, we were invited to sit for dinner because the character didn’t want to eat alone. And in the grand foyer, an actress hanging from the chandelier, bent over with a rat in hand, eerily welcomed us with, “It’s about time you showed up. He’s going to gouge your eyes out and feed them to my rats!” Fantastic job to each cast member for making our experience so great!

The costuming at Pemberton Haunters’ “Hillbilly Mayhem” was a balanced combination of masks, prosthetics, and makeup that brought the hillbillies and their victims to life both inside the house and in the courtyard. Mr. Pemberton himself was a standout, wearing a form-fitting mask that seamlessly blended into his shirt, with makeup around his eyes to further merge with the mask. A gruesome necklace made of fingers and bones hung from his neck, and he carried a pitchfork with a severed head while a skinned face dangled from his belt. Small tufts of hair sprouted from his mask, and his teeth were sunken so deep into his face that his lips no longer seemed to exist. Other family members, like one wearing a hog bone mask and another with a pale white face, marked by a bloody “X” on her forehead, looked just as sinister and incredibly detailed.

Other highlights included a chainsaw-wielding character donning a menacing cow mask with horns and the actors in the swamp scene who hid in ghillie suits, blending into the brush and light effects for perfectly timed scares. Victims were drenched in layers of thick, caked blood, adding a more textured, realistic makeup design. The dining room featured an actress whose costume and mask were so expertly matched to the surrounding props that we initially mistook her for a static figure, only to be shocked when she came to life.

The entire team at Pemberton Haunters was so gracious, you would have thought we were related to each other. As a family and friends-run haunted house, you can feel the love and passion that goes into bringing the haunt to life each year. The ladies at the gift shop greeted us with huge smiles and ensured our check-in was seamless. The house attendant took some time to point out finer details before sending us into the attraction, like the significance of the house number on the facade.

Parking is complimentary and available on the street in front of the house itself. We attended on media night so we are unsure of how busy it gets and if parking attendants are available. Regardless, give yourself a few extra minutes to find a parking spot and walk to the entrance of Pemberton Haunters. As mentioned above, their website is new this year and contains all the information you need to make it a successful night. Our only recommendation for the website is to add a description/backstory of the haunt so that guests can build up their anticipation early.

Finally, bring bug spray! The mosquitos were bad the night we went, but we’ll consider it our battle wounds and be thankful we weren’t murdered by the hillbillies instead.

P.S. – They have two different t-shirts, koozies, keychains, hats, shot glasses, and water tumblers available at The Outhouse Shop! Make sure to stop by and check it out. Remember, all money earned this year will be invested into the move to their new location, so shop away!

As soon as you step into Pemberton Haunters’ realm, you’ll immediately forget you’re in someone’s backyard. The courtyard offers a few surprises, including several queue actors, a photo op, and a gift shop, all in addition to the behemoth haunted house itself. The queue actors were incredibly interactive, engaging with guests and each other in ways that immediately set the tone for the night.

Once inside, you’ll twist and turn through the haunt in ways you didn’t think were possible in a tent. Pemberton Haunters has expertly fused detailed sets with synchronized audio, lighting effects, and a stellar cast that ups the intensity from room to room, leading to a thrilling finale.

We’d love to learn more about the backstories of the hillbillies and see the storyline continue to develop in future years. It’s pure mayhem inside, and the maniacal hillbillies won’t let you forget it anytime soon!

Hillbilly Mayhem showcased a swamp scene unlike any we’ve encountered before. Instead of a straightforward path, black, waist-high walls created a maze-like experience, forcing us to navigate through the swamp. The swamp laser effect hit our upper torsos, which created an even more disorienting atmosphere and made it challenging to find our way out—in a thrilling way. To top it off, some unexpected visitors, both human and inhuman, stalked and attacked us throughout, making it our favorite swamp scene of the year.

The house also featured one of the longest and tightest claustrophobia tunnels we’ve ever experienced. While we were laughing the entire time, we swore there was no end in sight, turning this seemingly endless tunnel into a highlight of the haunt.

Pemberton Haunters combines classic scare tactics like boo holes and drop walls, enhanced special lighting and prop effects, and positions actors above and below you to create a well-rounded scare experience. The house builds in intensity as you progress through, and once you reach the closet sequence, becomes a back-to-back scare assault. Our only recommendation is to fine-tune some of the actors’ phrases during the scares. We heard a ‘roar’ at one point, which, while highly entertaining, didn’t quite fit the house’s theme.

Our favorite scare of the night came near the finale when an innocent victim burst out from the right, screaming for help while urging us to flee. Before we could react, a chainsaw roared to life on the left, pushing us forward just as a car, headlights glaring, drove towards us with its horn blaring. This triple-threat scare catapulted us into the swamp, leading to a final chase through cornstalks with yet another chainsaw-wielding attacker. Even though we barely escaped the hillbillies, we immediately jumped back in line so we could experience the finale a second time.

General admission tickets cost $10 for one admission through the haunted house. For $20, you can purchase a VIP ticket, which is good for one skip-the-line admission through the haunted house. Want to go through the house a second time? Pemberton is selling additional walkthroughs, but only in-person at the gate. The courtyard opens at 7:00 PM and the haunted house opens at 7:30 PM.

For only $10, Pemberton Haunters is a steal. It took us 7 minutes to walk through the attraction, which means $1 dollar will get you 42 seconds of scares. It’s a close 1:1 ratio of scares per dollar spent and, if you factor in the interactions in the courtyard, you easily exceed the 1:1 ratio.