Scarevania Haunted House Review (2013)

Around 50 volunteer actors give Scarevania the intensity that it’s become known for by our review group! This number kept the energy level high inside the haunt, but the outside area still seemed much calmer in comparison. Before the season began, a couple of the veteran actors put on their own acting class for the newbies so that everyone was up to speed before opening night. A few of these actors were verbally interactive with our group, but over half of the scenes inside were filled with piercing screams, growls, demands and seemingly-genuine pleas for help which offered little chance for a verbal exchange. Nonetheless, there were a wide variety of characters at Scarevania and the most interactive were Frances D. Pickles, members of the satanic cult and the sinful actress outside by the camper. Other characters worthy of mention for their performances were the German doctor and his victim, ‘Jessica’ with squeaky but creepy giggle, and the chainsaw assailants. There are a few more that we’d like to mention, but we won’t so we don’t risk giving away their locations.

The costumes we found in Scarevania are typically purchased from thrift stores and distressed or otherwise modified to fit each character’s needs. However, a few of them are custom-designed in-house for the more iconic characters, such as ‘Pickles,’ doll-face, the German doctor, the Lucifer worshiper, croc-face, and the sinful actress mentioned earlier; but some of the actors make their own costumes as well! Once again, there were lots of unique costumes at this attraction, but the only ways we can think to describe them would more than likely give away their locations, so we’ll let you discover them for yourselves! Makeup is applied by Brian and one helper and consists of (lots of) blood and (obviously) some gruesome makeup besides the masks that are used. Speaking of masks, those found at Scarevania are excellently-detailed, custom-made and can also be attributed to Pumpkin Pulp Productions. Most of the masks were found in the second half, outside the attraction, but there were some inside the house as well. The score in this category is less-than-perfect because several of the actors were similarly-dressed and some of the masks, though very detailed and creative, could’ve been used more effectively in making the actors more intimidating. However, most of the characters fit with the haunt’s theme and their respective scenes.

Scarevania’s custom-painted truck still lets customers know where to pull in and parking is still free! New to the queue area this year are a couple of carnival style concession stands (complete with that tantalizing, carnival-food smell), more lighting for the queue area, and a couple of freak show clowns by the names of Punchy and Munchy that play with fire for crowd entertainment, despite what their mothers have told them! Returning features are a partially-covered queue line, t-shirts for sale, and other roaming actors for keeping people waiting in line on their toes! Security personnel were on site keeping the people running from the chainsaws from accidentally running into the fire show, as well as their normal security duties of course. Extremely friendly staff members were also available to answer any questions we had. A couple of things that we failed to see that could be beneficial are some flaggers directing incoming customer vehicles to the best parking spots and more lighting for the parking area as well. On a final note, be aware that there is some uneven ground at Scarevania, primarily through the outside portion of the attraction, so watch your step as you’re running from the things that go bump in the night!

We smelled fair food, saw flames shoot into the night sky, and heard the sounds of carnival-type music, chainsaws, and people cheering and screaming as soon as we started walking towards the ticket booth at Scarevania, which immediately told us we were at a freak-show/carnival-based haunted attraction. There were also lots of Pumpkin Pulp Productions’ unique props and signs adorning the outside of the building, which told us that this place was going to be different than any other attraction we visit. After we were told the rules in the first room, intense rock music filled the air, along with screams, crazy laughter and growls, which kept our eyes at the size of golf balls while we were in the inside portion of the haunt. However, this incredible atmosphere was counteracted to an extent when we went through the outside portion. No music was heard and the actors had much quieter voices, except for one who let out a scream and then, of course, the chainsaws that we heard before we started. If the energy level in this outside portion was higher, like it is with the inside, the score in this category would be higher as well.

One of Scarevania’s strong points is the ability to create and effectively use their own custom-made props and provide detailed, sinister and demented scenes for their actors. This haunt normally doesn’t use animatronics, but they’ve introduced one this year that’s equally as original as the rest of their props and will be sure to ‘turn heads’ when it gets noticed! Expect to see a few more-common special effects like bloody walls, gore, and cobwebs in certain areas, but there will also be many original things going on that, once again, we don’t want to ruin for you. However, some of the things that we CAN say are at Scarevania are real flames, a power tool, drop panel, a wavy bridge, and chainsaws. Even though the special effects themselves were equally-detailed and original, the score in this category is lowered because the characters in the outside portion of the attraction failed to use them as effectively as they could have. It seemed as though the characters could’ve been in several different kinds of scenes and still created the same scares by the way they chose their actions and dialogue. Working more closely with the scenes and special effects will help draw customers deeper into the performances.

Although the queue area and first room of the attraction are set up very much like the ‘freak show’ that most of us think of with lots of ‘freaky,’ cartoony pictures of oddities and abnormal creatures, the rest of Scarevania doesn’t offer your typical circus-sideshow kind of event. The owner gets in character (Frances D. Pickles) and on stage and lays down the rules for you, his freaky audience, before you enter. But that’s where it stops. After that, it’s his own brand of freak show with strange oddities and tormenting acts of violence that can only be described as products of his own dementia! You MUST visit Scarevania to truly appreciate the originality and darkness that is capitalized by the creativity of the staff behind the scenes. After you do that, you’ll know why this attraction has one of the highest theme scores in our review territory. Even though each of the characters and scenes are unique in their own ways, the score in this category gets dropped slightly, but only by default, because several similar ones can be seen at other attractions, like the doctor, cult members, the gory bathroom scene and the chainsaw attack.

Several excellent hiding spots were noticed in Scarevania; there were times when the actors seemed to come out of the woodwork! Scare levels ranged from low-volume, creepy, evil laughs and drop panel startles to more-common screams, demands, demented acts of violence, a chainsaw ambush and the occasional, well-executed distraction! Some of the characters meddled with the lives of their victims before our eyes, several of which looked like we had arrived too late to see while they were alive. As mentioned in earlier categories, the atmosphere, special effects and characters in the inside portion of the haunt held a steadily-high energy level, which allowed for many startles for our review group because we had so much to take in for the short time that we toured the haunt. But because so many of the startles and scares were delivered as screams and demands from the actors, we had to lower the score in this category because of the lack of diversity. It kept our review team’s mental defenses up, which in turn made the scares easier to predict. This proved to be the Achilles’ heel of the inside haunt for our review group, while the lower-energy half that was the outside portion had a few not-as-enthusiastic characters that decreased their intimidation and believability factors (also lowering the score). But don’t get us wrong, Scarevania is an intense attraction, minute for minute, and just because we didn’t jump around every corner doesn’t mean that you won’t run out of there with an empty stomach or needing a change of underwear!

Scarevania is one of the lowest-priced attractions in our review area with $12 ticket prices. Our group took 13 minutes to tour the attraction from the time we set foot in the door to when we all cleared the last scene, putting this haunt at just over 1 minute of entertainment per dollar spent, which is typical for most haunted houses. The main downfall to this score is the short amount of time that it takes to go through. 13 minutes is good for the ticket price, but the level of entertainment, while also very good, keeps customers coming back begging for more! But here’s a little inside scoop for you… There’s rumor that Scarevania could be expanding for the 2014 haunt season! Lastly and before you leave, be sure to pick up one of their t-shirts as a souvenir. If you ‘wanna see something really scary,’ then ‘come let [them] scare you this October!’