Scandia Family Fun Center is a chain of entertainment centers featuring arcades, miniature golf, and go-carts. During the month of October, their Sacramento location opens a haunted house, dubbed ‘The Wuss Maker.’ If any guest is too scared to finish the haunt, there are several ‘Wuss Doors’ for them to exit. By leaving early, that guest will be remembered as a ‘Wuss.’ Scandia keeps a running tally on how many wusses they’ve scared away. They average about 600 a season.
The Wuss Maker is a one single haunt and, though it is small, it packs a big punch because their actors come after guests in full force. An interesting note is that they only allow up to 2 guests per entry at a time.
The Wuss Maker has plenty of actors and there are no dead spots. Their cast comes full bore, making them some of the most aggressive performers we’ve ever seen. They all stayed in character and created an intense environment. They made some interactive moves with us by throwing an aluminum can across the floor in front of us and scaring from the opposite side. Also, an actress stopped us as she was climbing on the walls.
There wasn’t much dialogue; however, there were several characters that wouldn’t use dialogue, like Michael Myers and the psycho clowns. There were a variety of characters and, while most would ‘roar’ at us, others were silent. They tend to use pop scares the most, but they would also grab at your lower leg area, which really added to the experience.
The actors were all dressed in complete costumes. Nothing truly elaborate or extravagant, but the line actors were better dressed than the scare actors. The makeup was applied skillfully and used subtly. There were several masks worn, many from notable movie franchises like Halloween, Saw, Hellraiser, and The Purge. These costumes were appropriate for their scenes and themes.
Scandia Family Fun Center is easy to spot from the freeway, and they have enough signage to find parking, the ticket booth, and entry to the haunt. We found the haunt to be very safe with no trip hazards, and staff was available for emergencies. The staff were also very friendly and respectful. They do have a Wuss Maker website that is separate from the standard Scandia site that provides information, and their most notable social media presence is on Facebook, but are also on Instagram and Twitter.
It was quite obvious that Scandia Family Fun Center has a haunted house. Not only were there large banners, but there were also costumed line actors interacting with the guests. These were some of the best line actors we’ve seen because their enthusiasm was a great indicator to how intense the inside of the haunt would be.
The Wuss Maker had a low-volume soundtrack that was suspenseful. There wasn’t much detail, in terms of scenery. The haunt consisted of mostly black walls, with limited pools of light to lead the way, but there were sporadic scenes throughout. The clown room was the most decorated, lined with mirrors with black and white trim. At another part of the haunt, an actor stood behind a steel fence and created sparks by rubbing his glove across the steel rods. This was the most memorable special effect in the haunt. Everything worked well together to make a scary and entertaining experience.
SFX Effective at Scaring, Entertaining (35% of score): 8
Could Tell What Theme Was Without Asking (15% of score): 7.5
Theme Well Executed, Believable (25% of score): 8
Location Authenticates Theme (10% of score): 5
How Scary (15% of score): 8
The theme of the haunt is ‘Movie Monsters and Classic Scares,’ but they did have original characters as well. There isn’t much investment in extensive scenery, because it’s all about monsters emerging from the darkness. This is an actor-driven haunt, and one that makes no apologies for it.
The Wuss Maker scared us multiple times as we traveled through the haunt. The actors were high-octane intense and they were determined to send us out a Wuss Door, but we made it to the end. Since there were only the two of us in our group, they did tend to focus on the easier target (Debbie). They had perfect timing and were very unpredictable. The ending was strong, but the whole experience was strong.