Scream Acres Review (2018)

With a wide variety of creepy crawlies available at Scream Acres, there’s a lot of monsters to interact with even on a Sunday night. Our experience through the house had some front of group heavy moments, but the actors on the walking trail and along the hayride made sure to spread the fear throughout the entire group. There is not a lot of dialogue from the Scream Acres monsters. Where dialogue is used, it is very effective though, and we had a great time quipping with the dark robed figure outside of the end of the walking trail. The skull-faced monster inside the house was the perfect mixture of intimidating and quick-witted. The Freak Show brought high energy fear spread from the front of the trailer to the back, and the Hillbillies used a perfect combination of misdirection and chainsaws to keep the screams coming. Our team would also love to give a shout out to the hard-working monster in the woods who seemed to have night vision by the way he stalked our group. All cast members seem to love their craft and the art of the scare, which is always a delight to see!

Because of the wide variety of characters, costuming at Scream Acres is variable and ever-changing. The team does a great job of making sure that monsters are dressed appropriately for their scenes. Our visit happened to be on an October night when it was in the eighties, so we were especially impressed that the monsters standing close to the pyrotechnics were still wearing their masks tucked despite the heat. Where makeup is used it’s complete and fitting with the character, and where masks are used they are fitting and also in line with the monster being portrayed. Costumes tend to vary in complexity, but for some of the more detailed characters, there are a lot of impressive getups that help them to achieve their goal of making people scream.

The signs for Scream Acres start indicating the direction of the haunt and attracting guests miles away from the actual attraction. Parking is easy to find and the lot is kept staffed. Lighting within the parking lot and at the entrance of the haunt is very good. Scream Acres staff is highly professional and friendly, and more than willing to talk with a guest about any concerns or complaints. Their hayride is set up to be comfortable with safe benches in the trailer bed and no hay in the bed which makes the ride physically more comfortable. Safety measures like a guide rope have been added to the walking trail to better protect customers from getting lost forever in the woods. There are still some roots to watch out for on the trail, but Scream Acres has done a great job of creating a clearly designated and safe path to the finish line.

One of the criteria that our site looks at when it comes to special effects is the bleed of sound effects from one scene or room of a haunted attraction to another. Scream Acres has done something brilliant here by not only controlling the dreaded sound bleed but utilizing it so that where sound bleed cannot be controlled in an outdoor location, it blends into the next scene or adds tension and a sense of danger to the spaces in between scenes. There was an actor who combined both costuming and special effects to create the sense of a giant spider crawling out of the darkness before terrorizing the trailer that was not only impressive but fairly unique as well. Scream Acres also has an incredible array of pyrotechnics on display, as well as beautiful lighting and sound quality. The finale of their walking trail portion has been updated and revamped into another world from the one you entered the haunt in. New details, lighting, and sound make the trail something to behold.

Scream Acres’ hayride and walking trail do an incredible job of spreading scares evenly amongst parties. The haunt staff is very good at avoiding any sort of conga line, which controls the size of a group so that it’s easier for actors, props, animatronics, and special effects to efficiently scare everyone in the scene. The monsters here are also excellent at using distractions to divert attention away from the next surprise scare. Careful attention paid by cast allows them to focus on and target members of the group that seem especially affected by the scenes around them, and the combination of techniques and acting results in a lot of screams from the patrons coming through. Our team was especially impressed with the combination of all of these techniques in the Hillbillies scene, especially when it came to the actors’ performances.