The 715 Haunted House Review (2018)

7-1-5 is made up of a great group of talented and haunt-loving individuals that keep coming back every year. The fun thing is that most of them come back as the same characters, which goes to show their dedication to their roles. Almost all of them have their own posters and their very own sections in the haunt specific to those characters.

In past years a good portion of the characters at the 7-1-5 were clowns although, the haunt itself is not specifically a clown-themed’ attraction. It feels more like the movie Cabin In The Woods let loose a bunch of original and classic monsters in this little space. The clowns just seem to be winning the battle. This year I could only spot maybe four clowns who were born to be the creepy, crazy clowns they are. I can’t quite remember how many clowns I’m used to seeing at the 7-1-5, honestly, they may have just done such a good job at bringing the clown atmosphere to life that it felt like they had more.

This year the mix of characters was beautiful. They had tortured souls pinned up against the walls and crazy morticians slicing up body parts to play with. Since it’s 2018, they had a Nun! The 7-1-5 Haunted House was the 14th attraction I visited this year, all but 2 of those attractions had a nun and truthfully speaking, the 7-1-5 had the best one! She (or he) towered over everyone with a mean, grungy voice spewing the craziest latin phrases. I’m no Latin expert but I heard ‘Valac’ in the words they were speaking so I’m assuming the rest of their speech was more than just random sounds that only sounded Latin. It really freaked us out actually.

We walked by a few static props that were obviously static since they had chains and ropes holding them up. The first one we saw was a Freddy Krueger with his glove hovering over everyone like he was going to attack. My initial thought was it’s still real because I know I’ve seen a Freddy character there before. Naturally, our guard gets dropped a little when we see the next character standing with a chainsaw chained to the ceiling ‘ big mistake. After being attacked by chainsaws at every attraction every night I feel like I could drink gasoline at this point I’m so used to them. So when I say this chainsaw maniac is a freak, I mean every word of it. He swung that thing all over the place, hitting the walls, sparks flying, we could see the big holes in the thick plywood made by this guy. He wasn’t fooling around, he was out to hurt something!

I was fortunate enough to go through two times that night. I noticed quite a few differences in the way that the characters approached different types of guests. The one that stood out to me the most was a little girl in her play area. This was the first time I went solo and as a reviewer, I’m quiet and trying to take everything in. She acted along with that attitude and was super creepy and slow, trying to play peek-a-boo with me. The second time I went through I followed a small group of teens who couldn’t get far enough away from her as they all screamed at the first sight of her face. Instead of the quiet little playful girl crawling on the floor, she turned into the raging screamer who jumped up and reached for their faces! It was magical.

Anyone who has visited the 7-1-5 before will remember their iconic Clown. If you ask me I think he is mostly known for his nightmare-inducing laughter. Although, he brings a presence that I have yet to see at any attraction. The way his hands twitch with his eyes open as wide as possible, and that smile too. A face and body language that screams he can’t get enough of the sweet smell of murder, it’s almost like an addict being told they can get what they want if they hold a smile on their face for the whole night. It ends up looking more like a half smile-half grinding teeth that want to be sunk into the nearest batch of flesh he can find.

Wrapping up the show was one of my favorites, the tall devil character who gets me every year. I always know he’s somewhere in the haunt and he’ll more than likely be directly over me when I find out. This year was a treat because he got to wrap up the show by chasing the victims through the exit. On stilts, this guy can use the ceiling as a back scratcher, and he’s chasing groups of people down a hallway. There’s so much talent and dedication through and through.

Much like their variety of characters, the 7-1-5 has a good mix of costumes. I’ve always appreciated the mix of styles as well. It plays along with the theme quite nicely. Not all clowns are from the same circus just like not all tortured souls suffer the same fate. The costumes actually look like they are from different areas of the world.

The majority of the cast is in masks. More often than not, the masks are of high-quality and extreme detail with almost a flesh-like appearance to them. They could all speak in these masks with no material in the way of their mouths to block out their dialogue.

The makeup that was done on their Nun was extra creepy. Many nuns I have seen this year have done nothing more than give a threatening stare as I walk by them with no more than some blood on their face. The 7-1-5’s nun had black bleeding eyes and black blood running down its chin. The whole face was based with a white, crackling look where the blood wasn’t running. Yellow teeth, white eyes, and an authentic nun habit (that’s apparently what a religious uniform is called) made this the best nun I have ever seen! I never thought I would ever write a sentence like that in my life.

These guys have been fortunate enough to go pro with nothing more than a small crew of dedicated people. Their location has been somewhat of an issue in the past few years since they were relocated to an area that most would assume is off limits. The first few years of going pro they were located in one of the main shopping area buildings facing the giant parking lot. Since 2015, they have been located in a small office space behind the main frontal shopping district. Although the area they are in is clearly designed so that it could be a shoppable space, not many people naturally would think they go to this area.

A few years ago they set up these incredible character poster banners on the street lights leading guests into the back. These banners are still up and can be spotted relatively well so long as guests actually go around the buildings initially.

There is no mistaking where the haunt is when guests get to the back side of the parking area. The ticket booth looks like a giant shipping crate. Next to it is a haunted tree with a slasher character propped against it.

The fog runs wild out of the front door when it opens and the entire parking lot can see it rising into the sky. It’s one of the best feelings to hear all the friendly chatter amongst the guests waiting in line come to a sudden stop. They watch the effect, some scream bloody murder, and pause for a second as if they just realized they might not make it out alive.

Inside the attraction, I’ve always appreciated the amazing lighting choices. There aren’t many spots in the haunt that are low light, just colored light at the perfect angles to give the scene and the characters a life of its own. A hanging prop made to look like it could be a real actor is only lit from behind so you can’t see the face. A strong blue light illuminates the faces of the real actors when they step into it at the perfect time when everyone is curious to see what they look like. It’s just an amazing job with lights all over the haunt.

Before the 7-1-5 became a pro haunt, they were a public home haunt for many years. The name of the 7-1-5 is carried down from that home haunt, which arguably might be the longest running haunt in New England. Just to be clear, the name does not reflect the theme of the haunt, in case any of you thought these three numbers were supposed to mean something more.

The theme of this haunt is brilliant. It begins with an introduction to a character on the screen. Apparently, the 7-1-5 is just disguised as a haunted attraction. A priest has been stationed at this location to fight back the evil spirits of Hell. A portal to Hell has been discovered and the priest cannot contain the spirits much longer. The spirits eventually overpower him and rise to inherit the souls of the actors in the haunt. Now they are even crazier and more sadistic than any regular haunted house actor and it shows in a big way.

Compared to other haunts in the area, it is true that the 7-1-5 is much shorter in length. This apparently has had no effect on how frightened most of the customers have been this year. My second time through the attraction left the group I was with crawling on the pavement outside trying to escape back to their vehicles.

I have seen a few haunts around the country implementing a ‘chicken’ counter, or the guests who had to quit and run out. I arrived at the opening minute and witnessed the very first group walk into the attraction. It must have been no more than twenty seconds before the whole group ran right back out of the door and into the parking lot. For a while, it was not uncommon to see at least one person come back out of the door. I don’t want to spoil what happens in the very first room but the fact is that you don’t need to go through the 7-1-5 to find out how scary it is, just watch what happens in the parking lot.

I will say that there is an unexpected element at play. I don’t know which works better, but it seems to me that, at some of these attractions, people are much more frightened by the things they aren’t thinking of. For instance; there is something magically horrifying about being on the side of a building where the least amount of attention has been paid. There’s something much more threatening about being at an attraction that doesn’t have hundreds of thousands of people around you and there’s also something about those blacked-out windows and the glass door. We can’t hear anything inside the haunt from the outside. Every once in a while, a character will quickly open the door and scare the first people in the waiting line for one second. The sounds shooting out of that small opening with the fog smoke spewing out and suddenly closing to silence again – that is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Admission into the 7-1-5 is $18. The time it took to go through the attraction is averaged to 10 minutes. The minutes per dollar value is a .56 meaning for every dollar you spend you get a good overflowing 30 seconds of entertainment.

Now usually I’m more inclined to appreciate the haunts out there that aim for $1 = 1 Minute or more. Many of the other attractions I go to can easily accomplish this without putting too much effort into the actual entertainment aspect. The 7-1-5 is restricted to a small space that might be around 1200 square feet. And they use every inch of what they have for the attraction. The final scene has always been a chase down a hallway that the entire building can use, so they cannot decorate or store anything in that hallway. But it’s an extra 15 feet, so they’ll put it to the best use that they can! The type of entertainment they provided in that short 10 minutes is full- and in-your-face craziness that I don’t often see at many other attractions.

It isn’t an uncommon story to hear that a haunted attraction got its roots by being a home haunt or an elaborate Halloween party. More often than not, I find that the main reason why these people decided to start a professional attraction is because someone told them they can’t do it at their house anymore, and Halloween is treated more like an unhealthy addiction. The 7-1-5 Haunted House is a family of Halloween addicts who were never put down by anyone. They just got together one year and said, ‘Going pro makes so much sense it hurts,’ and the rest is history. They put on the best show they can possibly make every single year and, in years to come, they will be a New England tradition for many families and friends and couples all over. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for keeping the true spirit of this season alive!