Twisted Haunted Yard Review (2019)

Speaking of kids, TWISTED HAUNTED YARD is one of the few haunts where kids are part of the scare team, because of the unique setup of the attraction, being mostly made up of friends and family of the owners. Because of this, the types of Characters seen encompass a wide variety, making for interesting opportunities (including creepy children in a graveyard, and kids used as ‘attack minions’ in a garage scene). As we went through the attraction at the top of their night, some of the kids had a top of night lollipop which they were still sucking on (possibly worrisome for Safety, and also distracting from scaring), but understandable for kids of such a young age. There’s a mix of dialogue between well themed and concisely delivered script (man standing on the bed of a truck in the garage), to generic phrases over used in the attraction to loosely match the theme but not deliver much story (‘What are you doing here’, ‘Get Outta Here’, ‘Mama’s not gonna like you being here’).

TWISTED HAUNTED YARD says exactly what it is, an elaborate yard haunt, so this takes place in the backyard of a residential house, with parking and arrival in the front and side yards. A large tree looms over the front yard, and while it provides a spooky appearance, it could be further enhanced by some colored lights shining upwards to create an icon for the attraction. There is, however a sign, and the multitude of cars help you know you are in the right place. There isn’t much more to the haunt than the attraction due to it being a yard haunt, but there are some themed props and set pieces that add to the atmosphere. Because of the setup, it is easy to hear everything going on in the attraction, especially special effects, allowing Guests to prepare for the scares within. With a simple sound system and themed music, some of these sounds could be camouflaged and leave more elements a surprised during Guests’ walk through.

Again, the theme for this year’s trail is swamp/backwoods themes. Several scenic pieces and setups are well themed including a cabin, graveyard, and garage scene. The haunt uses black plastic walls to define the path, and though themed with spray painted phrases, these were more theme-appropriate in the carnival theme two years ago (though understandable and functional for an economic and effective way to define the path of the haunt, for sure). The scenes that are fully realized are well done and appropriate to the theme, most notably the garage scene which provides impressive scale compared to the other reasonable sized scenes.