The Massacre Haunted House Review (2023)

The cast at Massacre work together to provide great scares. Inside the attraction, there are plenty of growlers, talkers, and stalkers covering all scenes. Actors worked well to bring their scenes to life and used good judgment to bring out the most scares and interactions.

One example here is the actor in the round clown mask. This actor doesn’t provide any noise, and it works well in the sense of adding a creepy vibe to their performance. This a great example of less is more. Other portions with great acting include the nurse inside the hospital scene. They provided great dialogue in their scene with a raspy voice to bring their character to life. Similarly, the cries for help from victims in other scenes added depth to the scenes and made us want to help them in any way possible.

The cast at Massacre does a great job gauging the intensity needed for their respective scenes, which adds so much more to the overall experience.

The costume designs at Massacre are of high quality and make for some great characters. One of my all-time favorite costume designs happens to be here. The design is an all-white but dirty costume. Their character has a pointed hat and a lacey face hugger completed with rosary. This is completed with a dress to match and reads elegance, antique, and fear all in one. If you are familiar with the Post-mortem fairytale stylings of Mothmeister, the whole design feels inspired by their work. If you are not familiar with Mothmeister, look it up and enjoy the endless scrolling you will face, as all designs are breathtaking.

Other great designs are spread throughout the attraction. One mask that caught our attention inside was the Jack-in-the-Box evil clown mask. It looked like a dark-themed version of the old burger chain logo and took us by surprise as the actor was silent when in character.

The makeup application throughout the haunt was also applied professionally. The details added from the airbrush application allow all sorts of details, such as weary faces, and highlighted neon clown makeup, and also add depth to costuming with sprayed blood. There are plenty of details to look at if you aren’t covering your eyes from fear.

Massacre has plenty of online presence through social media accounts and a full website where you can purchase tickets and find a plethora of information. On our way to the haunt, we were able to see the spotlights in the sky from 3 miles away and knew exactly where to go. Once on the scene, parking is available on both sides of the haunt. There is a big tent for outside coverage and some inside queue space as well. Some of the space was sacrificed for the Torture Chamber experience, which is a welcoming sacrifice.

There is a checkpoint before entering the building. Security with metal detectors check for no weapons and such. This is another welcoming feature, as guests can be the most unpredictable parts of haunts. There is also plenty of staff around that can answer any questions and direct guests accordingly.

The queue starts outside in a tented area with plenty of actors around. This will lead to inside the building, which also offers a photo op and plenty of giant props to take pictures in front of. Queue actors are generous enough to give guests temporary tattoos in unorthodox places. The night we visited, we didn’t notice too many queue actors, but the new setup and addition to the torture chamber does take away a portion of the queue, so it makes sense in a way. After the haunt, we are led to a gift shop where you can pick up purchased pictures if purchased. There is also axe throwing and an optional escape room on sight, so there is plenty to do and hang out for.

There is no direct storyline for the haunt, but plenty of themed rooms exist. The rooms are obvious in what they are meant to be and make for some great scenes that feel very immersive between the details throughout, and the actors help add value to the scenes overall.

There are plenty of special effects throughout this attraction to speak of. For starters, the newly added torture chamber adds a wild beginning to a great experience. I do feel it’s worth mentioning more of this in the Scare Factor category in more detail, but the room itself includes music to give the ambiance of an old 40s-like hospital, and it feels as though it is. The long-arched hallway combined with the already mentioned sound truly works well together to complete a scene.

Another great scene to mention would be the underworld scene. It starts with a giant goat that will block the path and can/will ram into guests. The room has high walls that extend near the ceiling and has details that are high, such as skulls and candle lighting. There is a giant demon that sits in the room and is nearly as tall as the room itself. This leads to another room with a neon red “SIN” sign that works as a line control. The room after this is a newly designed hallway that has a great actor effect. The walls here look like red glowing firewalls and replicate what could be described as hell. There is a moment of panic here. However, it is best left to be experienced. The three rooms complete a whole scene that works well and is super memorable.

Another great scene is the vampiric cemetery. The overall building here is beautiful and looks like a cemetery at night, complete with mausoleums, fog, and tombs. There are a few glass-viewing coffins throughout with visible vampires inside, and make great props throughout the scene.

These, of course, are just a few examples of plenty of great scenes and effects throughout, and we will continue to mention more in the next category.

This haunt overall has some very well-timed scares. What creates this accuracy so well is the fact that they have gotten rid of a vast majority of their step pads in favor of sensors. This makes for a less predictable scare as there are no visual indications to help process potential scares (and it’s harder to avoid them). Combine this with well-timed actors, and it leads to some of the better scares we have had.

Spoiler Alert: The torture chamber experience was a good scare, given it was our first time in, and we had no idea what we were going to experience. We were seated in a room with about 8-10 seats on each side of the wall. The idea is there are simulated experimental happenings that we are victims of. We received a vaccine shot, were gassed, and rats entered the chamber as well as a drop. It makes for a great addition to Massacre.

Some details and tight spaces also play a great role in creating scares. There is a tight-cornered scene with hanging bodies inside burlap sacks. The room is hardly lit and tight to walk through, which helps create a sense of urgency to move on. The same can be said for the room with the robed figures just before the underworld room. There are complete figures above head level as well as wall-to-wall hooded figures throughout. It’s difficult to tell who may be real or a prop because the giveaway is the stand underneath required to hold the prop in place. However, they give a platform for the actor to stand on as well, so they blend in the room that much more. Overall, there are plenty of different types of scares throughout the haunt, and it can be difficult to pinpoint when they are going to happen.