Scavenged Souls Home Haunt
Date of Visit: October, 2024
Visited By: Team Skulleton Crew
Deep in the quiet Bradshaw Park subdivision in Woodstock, Georgia, there is a creative home haunt celebration of the Halloween season. Scavenged Souls is celebrating its 8th season as a popular neighborhood home haunt. It is easy to see why there was a long line on the night of our visit.
The owners dedicate 8-10 months each year to prepare for the haunt, changing its theme to keep the experience fresh and new for returning visitors. This year’s theme was Carnival, and the cast and scenes certainly fit this theme. While many traditional haunts like to say they have a theme or storyline, unfortunately, they do not maintain it throughout the haunt. Scavenged Souls doubles down on their theme! Each room was filled with carnival props. Some of their more traditional rooms were amped up… like the fluorescent pool noodle maze, filled with twice the normal amount of noodles and a few body bags, which was not only refreshing to see but challenging to navigate! All in good, haunting fun.
Scavenged Souls collects canned food donations for two local food pantries, making your entry fee a generous contribution to the community. With as many as 2400 visitors in a season, the impact of food contribution can be quite significant. The haunt also accepts financial contributions through GoFundMe and Venmo to help continue making improvements. If you are looking for a fun haunt that offers frights for all ages, check out Scavenged Souls.
Walking down from the parking area at the neighborhood pool, we were greeted by Officer Shartso. He answered our questions and gave us the basic info without breaking from his clown cop character. Shartso pulled out a pair of underpants, claiming someone had left them behind inside the haunt. After a bit more clowning around, Shartso pointed us toward the entrance to the queue.
While taking in the colorful lights, fog-filled bubbles, and blasting smoke effects of the haunt entrance, our attention was quickly drawn to an awkward, leggy clown character that we called ‘The Tall Guy.’ This fellow didn’t let his stilts slow him down as he worked the queue, managing to quickly sneak up and surprise individuals despite his 8-foot stature. He wore a burlap sack mask… over a very creepy skull mask and used a voice modulator to give his words eerie resonance! The Tall Guy was a hit with the patrons, and was happy to stop for a photo or two.
Need a refreshment? Driving up and down the street was a tiny ice cream truck, but the large clown driving was wearing a hat that read ‘I-scream.’ We just assumed that the red splotches on his white vest were raspberry sauce. (That couldn’t be blood, right?) if you asked for ice cream… he would just scream at you! So, nobody got any frozen treats, but a few were frozen in fear!
While waiting to venture into the haunt, the Ringmistress told us that the fog bubbles being released around us were filled with clown souls. After hearing a bombshell like that, of course, we had to burst a bubble or two and release the souls inside. Will those spirits show up in the wee hours of the morning to haunt us? We’d like to think we made spirit friends by freeing those clown souls.
And these were just the wandering queue entertainers. The dozens of actors inside the haunt were energetic and enthusiastic, too. There were plenty of clowns in both masks and well-painted makeup. Actors were of a variety of ages. It certainly took youthful energy for a very young clown to go totally ape, jumping on and off of circus-style crates as we passed through his tent.
The beautifully-dressed marionette girl looked just like a giant puppet hanging limply from her strings. Her makeup and movements definitely blurred the lines for us between human and marionette.
Another interesting costume was the black-and-white-clad clown inhabiting the black-and-white-striped room, which was a great choice for a monochromatic scene.
The clown behaviors were quite varied from loud and maniacal to silent and menacing, immediately letting us know that this Carnival was a bit off-the-rails. These weren’t the clowns that you want to hire for your 5-year old’s birthday party!
Scavenged Souls kept the Carnival theme consistent throughout the haunt. Every room was decked out with carnival/circus props in bright, if rather dingy colors! There was calliope music playing throughout to add to the atmosphere. Scavenged Souls used scents to enhance a couple of areas to further the carnival feel. We noticed that some clown had repainted one of the banners to read ‘CarnEVIL’… all too appropriate for this setting.
Scavaged Souls didn’t skimp on lighting effects. For a home (or pro) haunt we were impressed by all of their effects. The haunt started with a fast, flickering led lighted ‘vortex’ hallway when you first enter the striped curtains of the circus tent. This effect really drew us in and set the stage for what was to come. They used a lot of clever lighting throughout… except in their very confusing blackout maze. (We had small lights on our camera, but they weren’t much help to us trying to find our way out of there!). All in all Scavaged Souls used a lot of pro haunting tricks as well as a few clever new devices of their own design to create a very immersive walkthrough haunt.
Scavaged Souls fits several traditional jump scares and drop downs into your 9-minute scare-sperience. Given this year’s theme, if deranged clowns are your phobia, Scavaged Souls will capitalize on your scare quota. The clowns clearly had fun at our expense as we tried to exit the wrong door or worked to navigate our way through hanging obstacles.
While there are certainly characters and scenes that appear a little blood-spattered, we didn’t notice a lot of gore in the haunt. This choice is likely a consideration of the fact that the haunt is meant for guests of all ages, and Scavaged Souls opts to make the haunt a fun fright-fest for kids of all ages, and they do have a no-scare walkthrough at the beginning of each night to let even more enjoy the experience!
Our team had fun with the disorienting dark maze toward the end of the haunt. Even though we split up, we kept wandering in circles… All the while being laughed at by a clown… Finally, we spotted the exit, only to hear the cranking of chainsaws. As we turned to run from the chainsaw-wielding clowns, a bunch of hanging body bags provided obstacles to our final escape.
Scavaged Souls’ website suggests that guests park near the neighborhood pool, which has a lot that can hold 25 – 30 vehicles. We were fortunate to find a spot in the lot on the busy Friday night of our visit. Cars were also parked along the drive leading to this lot. Officer Shartso did double duty as he helped to point traffic to the right spots and manage the parking situation while clowning around with the incoming guests.
Restrooms are available in the pool parking area, so if nature calls before you visit the haunt, stop by there before heading to the queue. And if you have an accident inside the haunt, Officer Shartso might have a spare pair of undies for you!
Scavaged Souls has set up a great photo op near the front of the queue line. Large or small groups can perch on the hay bales, and The Tall Guy will photo-bomb if he is nearby. The friendly crowd will likely hold your group’s spot in line while you hop over the ropes for a quick, memorable photo.
If you become a fan of Scavaged Souls, the website has a merch store where you can find t-shirts, hoodies and hats.
Also, be sure to check out our YouTube walkthrough video HERE!
