Trail of Terror Review (2024)

The cast numbers are up to one hundred-eighty a night, and reportedly they were down more than sixty on November 1st, when we visited; such is the risk of visiting any haunt after Halloween. Keep in mind, these are all volunteers. We’ve never heard of numbers like that for an all-volunteer troupe!

There were certainly holes here and there: no Freddy in the furnace area that clearly was meant for him, for instance, but the actor ranks did not seem all that thin to us. Maybe it was the mind-blowing series of sets and scenes piled one after the other that distracted us from a shortage of live people. And the actors who had stuck around meant business. They came in all shapes, sizes, and character types. They got in our way, talked to us in wild voices, croaked, sang, swung weapons, acted crazy or catatonic, and gave the evil eye.

A creep hanging out by a hearse asked if we liked the car and said we should talk to the Uber driver on the other side (we had to do a little trail trekking to reach the other side) if we wanted to take a ride in it. A carnival barker invited us to step “right this way”. One particularly ornery clown ordered us to get on the carnival bus. Art the Clown got a scare out of one of us, and pantomimed the hands-over-mouth tee-hee-hee motion, followed by a jabbed pointing finger at the scaredey cat; then side-eyed us slyly with a look both mischievous and sinister, as we slowly backed out of the room.

In the asylum, a nurse crooned a tune about “taking your pills all day long”, and a wheelchair-bound patient lovingly stroked the exposed brain of a severed, scalped head. While in the power plant, office functionary, Mabel Syrup, treated us to a tour of her desk, and a cranky utility worker covered a whole lot of ground in a large area. This laborer didn’t like a comment we made at their first appearance, so they ran up to us where we were on the catwalk above, threatened us, and told a couple off-color jokes. This actor brought a little bit of everything to bear, which is also what we could say about the whole cast.

Costuming was exceptional, featuring full outfits that were well detailed and accessorized. Everyone looked great, from the hulking Frankenstein’s monster and debonair Dracula in the entry queues, to chainsaw maniacs, pumpkin-heads, skull-heads, creep-tastic clowns, and movie slashers on the trail.

The Smurfs here resembled hateful, murderous forest spirits, rather than cute cartoon characters. A fortune teller sported a spider web design on their forehead. Remember the hearse creep from the Cast section? Well, we eventually found the Uber driver they were talking about on the other side of the car, and that melty-faced thing did not look like someone we’d want chauffeuring us around. We ran into some kind of human-sized rodent that might have been a mutated possum from the island of Dr. Moreau. Truly repellant.

Michael, Art, members of the Addams family, and the pyramid-heads and dark nurses from Silent Hill, visually mimicked their cinematic counterparts with spot-on precision. Mabel Syrup reminded us of a sitcom office worker with a bushy wig of white curls, pearl necklace, and pince-nez perched on her nose. The power plant workers matched gross faces with hard hats and jumpsuits. Living dolls appeared to be plasticine and porcelain-lacquered. We recoiled from pasty-faced nuns with mouths full of misshapen fangs arranged at odd angles. Everybody looked great.

Trail of Terror is located in Wallingford, Connecticut. The massive lines of cars and people left no doubt when we had arrived. Parking costs $10 cash. The official lot on the corner up the street is recommended, but we’ve heard it fills up on busy nights, so get there earlier, or try to scope out alternatives beforehand.

We saw clear signs for ticketing, and both general admission and fast pass lines. Security was visible on the premises and we moved through metal detecting.
This was one of the tougher times we’ve had with footing, as to be expected with nature and the uncontrollable terrain. There were numerous patches of uneven ground, rough edges that made for toe-stubbing opportunities, ramps up and down, and steps, as well as the generally disorienting and twisting pathways through many tight halls, and darkened, narrow structures. Be careful, wear proper footwear, and watch where you’re going – hard to do when everything else around you looks so good!

Trail of Terror presides over a detailed website and an extensive network of social media channels.

The entrance area was loaded with photo ops and props, a haunted mansion facade, and even a drive-in movie marquee welcoming us to the place. Queue actors made an appearance, and Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster helped direct foot traffic between scaring guests. An internal midway labeled ‘Grandma’s Midway’ marked the halfway point. It shined with a line of wooden structures of signs advertising kiosks like ‘The House of Scary Pies’, a short crowd control queue, and a strong jack-o’-lanterns visual theme, leading into the pumpkin distillery section.

Between the awe-inspiring sets and the intricate design of the walkthrough, we never knew what would be coming around the next corner; and there were lots of corners in this crazy quilt labyrinth of a walkthrough, as well as actors doing their thang. We found it quite easy to become immersed in the proceedings.

We ran into conga lines at times throughout, fortunately midway queue helped space us out more. If you go later in the season, you probably should resign yourself to being there with large crowds.

You can read some backstory on their website about pumpkin-headed spirits wreaking havoc, but we’re not sure any theme could prevail over the absolute riot of scenes. Plus, we don’t think there really was an attempt to make a coherent storyline, though not having one did not impede our enjoyment in any way, so we did not score for it.

The exit took us to the other side of the entrance, where the discerning customer could either enjoy a little after-dinner mint of a brief additional carnival area (more clowns, circus props, and the final bit involved a portion of crawling through a short tunnel), or choose to forgo it via a bypass.

We were not prepared for the scope, quality, and sheer volume of scenes, props, and effects. The nonstop parade of sensational sets had us stunned, staggered, and stupefied. Masterful positioning, elaborate detailing, and a highly skilled use of space led to an extraordinary presentation.

Reviewing the comment card for choosing your favorite area, we counted no less than twenty-seven scenes! We’ll note some of our favorite ones here. Early on, the clown area wowed us with a spinning big top canopy, moving kiddie rides, and a bus where we had to climb aboard, and walk through a funhouse-like series of slanted glowing beams set up akimbo to each other.

A perverse take on the Smurfs’ village played off some happy cartoon colors, against a lot of dingy grays and browns, accented by the blue beings’ mushroom houses. Figures of the classic Universal creatures (Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolfman, Mummy) made an appearance in the monster museum, and Godzilla’s scaly head reared over the high wall surrounding it.

The super creepy church full of malevolent nuns gave us an intense experience under the spell of its eerie lighting scheme. We took a fun, but kinda rough ride, down a bumpy slide. Starting off the second section after the midway, an extended series of terrifically novel scenes depicted a pumpkin distillery where melon-headed freaks brewed up seasonal spirits. The power plant had a real industrial feel with safety signage, metal fencing, and equipment all around.

The tremendous horror movie sets deserve a special callout. The Hannibal Lecter section showed Hannibal’s cell and Buffalo Bill’s lair. The counter in a pizza parlor scene inspired by Terrifier 2 held a pie that had been formed by what we can only describe as face dough, while blood-splattered Christmas sets represented the latest (third) movie. The best silver screen homage here might have been the Halloween house, where we had to stop and stare at the recreation of the scene with Judith Myers’ gravestone set, atop the bed where Annie lay in a pool of blood. Even The Haunting of Hill House was represented.

They did not lack in the audio experience, either. Music played everywhere, with their own soundtrack and audio effects. We heard distorted voices, dogs barking, sirens, bongos, can-of-beans noisemakers, chirruping insects, cawing birds, and Godzilla’s thunderous roar, among many other things.

It’s difficult to express in words the amazing sets and effects work, that must have taken an immense amount of effort, and truly displayed an ingenious creative spark and dedication to design and execution. We hope The Scare Factor can capture video here in the future. For now, we would direct you to YouTube recordings of past years to get an idea of the walkthrough, although we have to say it doesn’t even do justice to being there in person, and only scratches the surface of what’s on display. We found one from this year that also included a mayoral proclamation in honor of the 30th year in operation.

Seriously, Trail of Terror was simply incredible in the SFX department. We’d have to go back and look at all our other reviews to know for sure, but it’s likely this is the highest effects score we’ve ever given.

Tricky layouts with confined corridors, tight corners, and a sense of what-could-possibly-be-coming-up-next(?), resulted in feelings of unease and trepidation. The awful icky-ness of surroundings, and artfulness of design and staging, all played into a pervasive creepiness.

The church’s masterfully lit, foreboding trappings culminated in multiple nun attacks, including one standing at the exit wall who watched us come near while silently moving around their open, horrifically fanged mouth, before charging forward at us. We might have peed a little bit for that one, which probably was the biggest fright of the night.

We received several sizable jolts in the movie sections. The ‘it puts the lotion’ kidnapped senator’s daughter jumped out of the well screaming for help in Buffalo Bill’s house, to make our hearts skip a beat. Art the Clown had a perfect, yelp-inducing keep-still/is-it-a-prop(?) moment until making the big reveal at the last possible second. Michael appeared out of thin air to thud a knife into the wall, right next to our heads while we looked at Annie’s deathbed, and then came at us again out of the infamous closet where Laurie was trapped, for two huge scares.

Dolls imposingly barred our way forward, and it felt like they were peering right through us with their toy eyes. Angry Smurfs ran around threatening the trespassers in their village. Like many other aspects of this huge, diverse attraction, making an exhaustive catalog of all the fears and phobias, touched by Trail of Terror, would be a fool’s errand. So we’ll just stop here and say it was plenty scary!