The Last Ride Haunted House and Hayride Review (2026)

Finding information before leaving home is a little more challenging than it needs to be. While Last Ride’s Facebook page does contain the most vital information such as dates, times, price, and payment methods, it’s spread out amongst several posts. These things are usually found on a haunt’s website, but there appears to be an error every time I try to load it. Fortunately, the website does load on mobile. Unfortunately, there is no additional information to be found there.

Arriving on site, there are parking attendants both in the street and in the lot directing traffic, not to mention this is the only place with this many lights on the street. We are deep in the woods, after all. Leaving the property did present a bit of a challenge, however. As I was pulling out into the street, there was traffic coming towards me and it was quite the squeeze to get two vehicles past each other on this very narrow road. This was only an issue because of the cars parked on the road directly in front of the haunt. While I do have a smaller car and was able to make this work, I do not think this would work with pickups or SUVs. I also know that there is a second gate by which vehicles are meant to exit the parking lot, but there was a truck blocking that path at the time. Another thing to note is that the parking lot is small, so arriving early in the evening is the strategic move.

Tickets are easily purchased inside a very well-lit barn, and guests can pay with cash or card. I noticed a very small sign as I was headed up to the ticket booth that read “this is an interactive haunt”. There was no context for this, or any description for that matter. What they mean is that this haunt is full contact. The actors can and absolutely will touch you, drag you, make you dance, and possibly even stab you very aggressively with a rubber stage knife. Anyone considering this haunt should plan accordingly.

With my ticket in hand, it was time to get my spook on. There are three attractions at Last Ride, and guests can experience them in any order they like. With that being said, I found it a tad bit easier to do the Hayride before getting in line for the trail, as the exit from the wagon drops guests right in front of the trail queue. Queue flow for the house and trail attractions is fairly well managed, although the night I attended there were not huge crowds. The house seems to aim for two groups inside at any given time, and a new group is sent in as the previous group reaches the halfway point. The trail had a group of about 10-15 sent in at the same time, and while it does create a unique experience, and seems rather necessary for the first major scene, I found myself trying to ditch the obnoxious people behind me. The hayride is a fairly standard flow, filling the wagon with around 20-30 people at a time, waiting about 20 minutes between groups. This could be greatly improved by adding an additional wagon to the circuit.

Last Ride is not an attraction we would consider especially immersive. There are certainly immersive elements, but overall the theme and story in all three attractions are quite loose. My first attraction of the night was the haunted house. If I had to describe the theme, it would be “dark is scary”. Most of this attraction is shrouded in darkness making navigation quite the challenge as there are several narrow passageways, and scenes of seemingly random themes are given a minimal amount of light. Some of the memorable areas are the jail cell with the crazed convict, the reptile room with several live animals, and the “13 Ghosts” containment cell. Beyond these scenes is an endless maze of black-painted plywood walls.

The hayride is not much different in terms of theme. Our first stop was outside the famous Michael Myers house, and the facade looked quite accurate to the film, albeit a little smaller than life-size. Scenes from “Halloween” were projected on a white sheet and the slasher stalked the wagon for fresh victims. From here, the wagon heads into a mish-mash of scenes that all had their own themes, but did not have any sort of continuity from one to the next. These included a cult scene with skull and robe clad demons, an alien abduction scene, and my personal favorite – the clown rave. Yes, you read that right. It’s a straight up dance party with DJ Clown, and he’s blasting all the top clown-core dance hits. This scene is fully kitted out with the best sound system on the property and a full light show with fog and bubble machines. And the best part? Guests are encouraged to dance while all of this is happening.

The trail is slightly more immersive in the sense that the first 2-3 scenes are somewhat tied together thematically. We enter through a sort of village that’s infested with zombies or some other moaning, groaning creatures. Characters in military-like outfits usher us into a fenced paddock and all of a sudden, we’re in the purge. One guest was picked from the group and handed a rubber knife and told she had to “kill” someone in the next 10 seconds or they would “kill” her, and they even demonstrated what a kill should look like. On me. It turns out that I don’t have cat-like reflexes anymore as I was “stabbed” and pushed quite hard into the fence without any warning whatsoever. I suppose this is what the sign by the ticket booth meant when it said this haunt was “interactive”. From here it’s another smattering of scenes without any real story elements between them. One scene features a real ambulance that a clown lives in? I think? It wasn’t very clear why the ambulance or the clown was there. In all fairness, heading into this scene there is a lit-up sign over the pathway that reads “Psycho Klown”.

This is by and large, a low-tech haunt. That’s not to say there’s no sensory effects, but they are not very abundant. The hayride features some large animatronics like the alien and Nosferatu, and the rave scene has its own light show synchronized to the music. There are lighting effects throughout the other attractions as well, but it does feel like a majority of the budget and attention has gone to the hayride in this regard. The haunted house is extremely dark for a majority of its run, and lighting effects such as strobes are used sparingly. The “13 Ghosts” scene features an interesting light effect where a black light is shone around the edges of a glass panel, making the sigils appear to glow. The clown scene on the trail also features black lights and UV-reactive paint, making colors really pop all around you, which is a nice touch and definitely a good baseline for a carnival-like area.

As with lighting, sound effects are mostly centered around the hayride. Multiple scenes have music blasting from large speakers helping to liven the atmosphere. Inside the house, there seems to be maybe one or two scenes with any sort of sound system, and one of them is blasting death metal so loud it can be heard in every scene. While I am a fan of face-melting metal music, it’s not always the best choice for every haunt scene. This is very much the case on the trail, with the clown scene being one of the most prominent scenes, playing music through the area.

Scenic design is an area in which there is some obvious effort and improvement happening. The hayride has several building facades and it’s clear what they’re meant to be. The beginning of the trail also has some intentional design elements, placing guests in a sort of town or village, and the medical scene following the purge section has the beginnings of a well-built scene. The finale section on the trail houses rusty playground equipment and old children’s toys, perhaps alluding to a junkyard or some other place lost in time, but there wasn’t quite enough for me to really grasp the intended setting.

Almost as varied as the scenes are the characters. Every single scene has its own unique characters lurking about, and for the most part, nobody really seems out of place. Except for Chucky. I’m not sure if this actor is a queue actor or someone meant to be in a scene, but I first encountered them inside the house attraction, making the character feel out of place as there weren’t any “Child’s Play” related scenes that I can think of. After exiting the house, I saw Chucky a few more times in the queue areas where at least he’s a little more fitting. The actor carries a prop knife that they use to lightly shank unsuspecting guests and pose for pictures, and the costume isn’t bad quality, but it’s definitely off-the-shelf from a costume supplier with no real customization or modification that I could see.

Inside the house, most actors seemed to wear masks from what I could tell in the dimly lit areas, although it was very difficult to see any details of costumes due to the darkness and the number of actors is admittedly quite light. That is except for one scene near the end. Haunt-goers in the Central New York area may remember a home haunt called Raven Haven that featured live reptiles and all manner of other creepy crawlies like cockroaches – in an incredible twist of fate, a small part of that haunt has been brought back to life at Last Ride. One of the people who used to run Raven Haven named Diana, has a scene inside the house. She has multiple snakes, a tarantula, and a real-life cockroach that I got to hold. I didn’t even realize it was a real cockroach until I was holding the thing, and I have to say – I think I’ve had my fill of holding a cockroach for the rest of my life. I don’t really know what her character is supposed to be, although she did have some detailed makeup and a flowy sort of costume. She also didn’t really get into character in terms of personality, but rather, was very calm and personable, which I think is one hundred percent necessary when handling live animals inside a haunt.

The hayride fortunately had some scenes where costumes were clearly visible. Michael Myers in the first scene is as exactly as you remember him from the films – a boiler suit and white mask. It’s not the most creative or original costume, but it was absolutely him. The alien character wears a silver space suit and mask, the clowns primarily wear makeup and bright colors, which is a nice change of pace as I don’t get to see many clowns with makeup rather than masks. Not every costume is as detailed, though. In one scene that I can only describe as the zipline scene, an actor boards the wagon wearing a mask and straight jacket. The “back” of the straight jacket had some printing on it that indicated the character was from an asylum or prison, but the actor wore dark jeans rather than pants that matched the rest of the costume. The straight jacket was also completely untied, worn backwards, and the sleeves were far too short. If you don’t know, the closure on a straight jacket is to be on the wearer’s back to prevent an escape, and the sleeves are meant to extend far past the hands so that they can be affixed to the buckle system. This is also the attraction with the most actors. Every scene has at least one actor with most having two or more, and it feels full without being crowded.

The trail is more of the same. Characters fit their scenes, and the energy they have is exceptional. In fact, the energy from almost every actor in every attraction is outstanding, except for the chainsaw guy on the hayride that sort of lazily “sawed” the wagon in a few places. Costumes are fairly basic, except for the clown in the black light scene. The clown had what looked like a very high-end mask that moved with the actor to allow them to talk, and they wore a black and white checkered jumpsuit that just screamed “horror clown”. The purge actors mostly wore tactical gear like load-bearing vests, masks, and prop weapons. These people were the most convincing in my opinion.

Something I should note is that actors in every attraction gratuitously use adult language. I don’t think this detracts from the atmosphere they’re trying to create, but something to be aware of for families that may want to bring their children.

Is it scary? Well, that depends on what scares you. It’s intense, for sure and the hayride is definitely the leader in that regard. There are multiple scenes where actors board the wagon and start dragging guests to the middle by their ankles, all this while music blares through the speakers and a strobe light obscures their movement. The energy these actors must have to do this every 20 minutes or so is insane, and I know I certainly wouldn’t be able to keep up. We also saw a wider variety of scares on the hayride, ranging from standard jump scares to physical contact, creeping intimidation, and even a zipline scare.

The house is definitely more jump-scare-driven, with the reptile room being the exception. Snakes, cockroaches, and tarantulas are all very real fears for people, and this room will put you face to face with them. The trail is mostly the same, but instead of actors jumping out from a hiding spot, they’re out in the open almost daring you to get closer. The trail was also the most predictable when it comes to scares, because you can see the actors as you approach, and it’s pretty obvious they’re going to do something to try and scare you. The house doesn’t have this problem; as I previously mentioned, it is extremely dark, so predicting any of the scares is nearly impossible. The hayride is a mixture of both worlds, where you know that there will be some sort of scare in each scene, but you don’t know what or how intense.

The finales clearly try to give guests a satisfying end to the attraction, but increasing the intensity could make the closing moments more impactful and leave guests running for the exit. The house ends with the “13 Ghosts” scene and the actor inside the containment cell manages to escape and gives a well-timed jump scare. The trail finale featured a child actor wearing a skull mask and black robe, while they bounced around on a playground rocking horse screaming “I’ll kill you!” While I’m sure it seemed intimidating or scary to some people, I found it to be more cute and a little funny than anything. The hayride finale is missing the mark because it’s not the clown rave. The actual finale scene is a complete loss in my mind, and I take detailed notes. I remember it either being the zipline scene or the scene with the Nosferatu animatronic. Both had jump scares and character interaction that was similar to what we experienced in earlier scenes. Either way, the most memorable scene is the dance party, and a good finale is memorable if nothing else.

In 2026, tickets came to a total of $45 for a three attraction combo ticket. Two attraction combos are $35 and single attraction tickets are $20. My count of time inside the attractions is up to 30 minutes, giving us 0.67 minutes per dollar, which lines up with what I experienced this season. It’s easy to make a night of it, too. If you’re feeling hungry or thirsty, there are hot dogs, sausages, and pulled pork sandwiches available for purchase, and they’re grilled to order. There’s also a well-stocked gift shop carrying all the haunt essentials like t-shirts, hats, and horror collectibles. If you want to snap a selfie for the ‘gram there are some brightly lit areas purpose-built for such an occasion.

It is my understanding that Last Ride is under new ownership in recent years, and it’s clear they are putting in the work to make improvements and have the drive to make this haunt one of a kind. I genuinely hope that the crew is able to see their vision come to life, and I really think this could one day become the haunt that the CNY area has been looking for.