Scareview Grave Schoul Review (2024)

The cast was seemingly made of a broad range of ages. We specifically remember a young clown character no bigger than a typical ten-year-old zipping in and out to get at us multiple times. We also spotted a mini clown sticking to an area inside the carnival section of the haunt. There were a few places we traversed through the haunt with no actors, but there were also a few times we were met with a small gang of them all converging on us at the same time.

We did get screamed and yelled at quite a bit here. We were asked “What are you doing?” and told to get out, which we gladly obliged. We were invited to dinner, but from the looks of the burned skeleton still on its spike over the fire, we declined. Deranged cult members attempted to recruit us by any means necessary, and those dang clowns really love those hand-held car horns. We met a deranged doctor looking to do some work on someone, and they even offered to drive us home afterward, completely destroying my excuse for not getting the drill. We also passed some bangers hitting loudly against materials near them. We heard an actor or two using a different accent as they spoke to us. The stiltwalker did a great job maneuvering about the area filled with props.

Nearly all of the characters looked put together well and looked complete. Many had logical props and fit in very well with their scene. We did get a startling scream from a hidden actor who looked to be wearing street clothes, but they could have been portraying a guest who had been terrorized to the point of no return. We saw a stilt walker who somehow managed to hide from us only to breeze past us twice wearing appropriate clown pants that covered the stilts, and they were logically placed near the circus clown section. Chewie had a realistic pig mask, including an ear tag. We saw several well-designed, good-fitting masks and some simple makeup applications.

The first queue actor we saw had a complete costume from head to toe, with a nicely detailed mask with a light feature covering the mouthpiece. The fit was complete with a long trenchcoat. There was also a costumed clown actor wearing facepaint and a blinking mouthguard, a demon character with a painted red face and partial mask and full costume, and a grim reaper wearing a skull mask, black robe and scithe.

The schoolgirl costume was a logical choice for the actor stationed at the hall of babydolls and was also complete and believable. The clowns, being clowns, seemed to go a little rogue, and met us at different places throughout our journey. It was nice to see a different face and costume on each clown.

General information can be gleaned from the dedicated Facebook page, Scareview Grave Schoul, by looking at the featured posts. The posts tell they are all cash, and dates and times of operation. The address of the property can be found on Facebook, under the About section. For good measure, www.westside22.com/scareview, owned by West Side Fire & Rescue, provides a direct link to their Facebook page, just to be sure you get to the correct page. A Google search will provide the address and links to other sites that provide articles and reviews on Scareview. Particular information put out from the haunt for customers to get a quick question answered will have to come from the haunt’s Facebook page.

The property itself was easy to navigate. Volunteer staff directed traffic and guided us to a parking spot. The haunt is inside an abandoned, multi-story brick school building, owned by the fire department. The ticket booth and snack shack are directly in front of the haunt. The entrance to the haunt shifts to the right of the building. Customers will be climbing and descending stairs inside the haunt, so be prepared for that.

While we didn’t note any glaring safety concerns, there were some weak and soft places in the flooring at times.

All staff were very friendly, helpful, and professional. The haunt is marked family friendly. It does have simulated and broken body/body parts, screaming victims, and possibly some themes to keep in consideration, the occult for example.

The night we were there, we came across 4 different queue actors in full costume as well as a psychic. Music and some colored lighting also helped to set the scene. Once in line, entertainment relied on interaction with passing queue actors. There is no storyline, as the haunt is cut into sections with a variety of activities and tactics sprinkled between mazes and stairs within.

Inside the haunt, we met different characters, some who talked with us with some personalization and banter, while others stuck with a script or used screams. Others remained silent or used loud horns and chainsaws. We walked through places with no actors, and some places with powerful fog and lighting that confused us. We were met with animatronics that activated when we approached and got poppers and a couple of different laser/light shows. We heard some sounds coming through speakers in some places as well. All the actors were energetic and were clearly dedicated to their part in the haunt. The exit led us back to the ticketing and parking area with the same music and lighting as the entrance. Fire trucks are parked near the exit, a casual reminder as to the benefactors of this fundraising event.

Sounds of heavy metal in varying degrees of volume plays over quality speakers that increased our sense of danger and urgency. We also heard some children’s music box sound effects, old-time music, banjo music, and John Denver’s “Country Roads”. Sounds heard throughout Scareview include (but not limited to): yelling, banging, evil laughs, blood curling screams, poppers, alarms, car horns, sirens, crying, growling, and zappers. It was a really nice touch to hear water running in the shower scene.

There were sets that had some good detail. Entering the medical unit, we could see messages and streaks of bloodied hands on the walls. The occult room gave us a creepy vibe with the candlelit lighting and dark and mysterious altar, pews, and hooded figure. The creepy skeletons on the walls seemed to follow us with their red eyes. We entered a bayou house through the front porch through a storm door into a living room complete with furniture and wall decor. We really liked the stained glass window at the church scene. We knew we were going to a church once we spotted it. An interesting feature we also noticed was the nearly 7-foot-tall walk-thru from a demolition-inspired opening in a wall leading to another room.

Lighting included, but was not limited to: strobes, disco lights, lasers, flickering lights, and lights of several different colors throughout. There were spiral lights and dotted laser lights. At one point it was clear that a poor victim was trapped behind a door as we could see the fire shimmer around the door frame and the smoke was coming from around the door.

Other special effects noted but not limited to included: Fog, laser swamps, air cannons, and we also detected an earthy scent in the outdoor scene. A floating bridge and corn maze were used to throw off our senses. There is a particular scene where we were so thrown off that we couldn’t figure out how to get the door open! Several animatronics were noticed throughout, but the giant-robed man with wings really caught our eye. The circus area provided a sensory assault with hit after hit from animatronic, alarming sounds, or sharp, pulsing lighting.

This haunt has a lot of creativity throughout.

Scares generally fell under the pop or jump scare category. We dealt with actors jumping out at us from unseen hiding spots to yell, scream, get close to us, or honk their horns; props and animatronics suddenly moving, sparking, and making noise; and being bombarded with chainsaws multiple times throughout. We were shocked with air cannons and tons of alarms and air horns.
We walked through a spider egg section as well as a doll and clown section, playing into some phobias. Scary themes such as cult activity, cannibalism, and chaotic medical procedures were evident. Some halls were extremely dark or were thick with fog and we were also hit with some strobing effects, all taking away our sense of sight.

Confusion hit us when we entered the area with a ton of doors we had to try to find our way out of, all the more difficult when there’s a chainsaw after us! We found a room lined with mirrors, tricking us into believing for a second our reflections were actors out to get us. Blacklight areas and bright reactive paint also entertained. We entered a cryptid area featuring local legends where a decoy tricked us. We saw some actor-on-actor violence and victims begging for help. There were some bloody body parts here and there too.