Final Scores – By Category:

Cast (20% of Final Score): 9.44

Costuming (10% of Final Score): 9.31

Customer Service (10% of Final Score): 9.08

Immersion (10% of Final Score): 9.04

Special Effects (15% of Final Score): 9.31

Scare Factor (20% of Final Score): 8.81

Entertainment & Value (15% of Final Score): 9.32

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Final Scores – By Attraction:

Attraction 1: 9.19

117 South Meridian Street in Jasonville, Indiana, has a long documented history. In 1914, Jasonville fought off a fire that touched ⅓ of the town. After 7 years, 117 South Meridian St. became a factory by Charles Industries, a telephone part company. The company faired well until 6 people went missing over the course of 40 years, and then it shut its doors for good. Rumors of people going missing lingered further for 20 more years. Whispers were heard that a beast, the cause of the ginormous fire in 1914, laid dormant under the concrete walls and behind the metal doors, waiting for the right opportunity to come out and torment the town again. In 2018, the beast rose, knowing it was time for action. More and more people went missing, drawing in special agents to investigate. The agents began to go missing and were believed to be captured by the beast and the evil creatures he brought with him.

Our mission? Rescue the agents captured in these walls.

We want to preface this by saying we chose the “touch” option.

These creatures are unworldly. When we walked in the door, we were met with faces and characters we had never seen before. It was as if this cast had been drug straight from hell.

We can’t even name the demented cast members who lingered throughout this haunt. The cast was created and designed uniquely to fit the part they played in.

We interacted with one character throughout the entire haunt, our tour guide, who we believed to be a special agent herself. She followed us through with her shaky hands and voice and spoke her opinions briefly. Only when we were utterly stumped did she riddle us through a way we could potentially move forward. “Make sure you look up and down and on ALL the walls.” We honestly don’t know who rescued who.

Eidola and the identical twins Iris and Verna, a particular monster gas mask guy, a doggy guy named Patricia, a few crazy-ass creepy clowns, a cook that served multiple purposes, a creature with tubes coming out of their face tagging along with a demented exam room assistant, a carnival ringmaster, a few lost souls, and even more filled our night and our minds with unexpected banter, and multiple versions and ways to get in our heads and keep us on our toes.

One potential cast member, Tag-a-long guy, acted as if he was separated from his group early on and walked with us to about the halfway point until he was taken to an unknown location. He popped up at the end, came out, and said, “You almost made it.” We are still unsure if he was a part of the cast. He wasn’t in any specific costume and didn’t wear any makeup, so the question still stands. Maybe that is a part of questioning what was happening, but who knows?!

The costumes and makeup are similar to the characters in that they were mainly created and designed inside the haunt itself. Every character we saw wore a different costume with different makeup applications. Even though they had many costumes, most outfits fit their respective themes.

Eidola’s face honestly looked cursed. The mask she wore was a highlight of the night. She came very close to our faces, and the details and work put into the mask were distinguished, to say the least. No skin could be seen through the mask, her mouth wasn’t visible, and her eyes searched our souls.

The cook, bloodied and dirty, had a face that we would have a hard time describing. He looked like he had just finished cooking the three-headed beast known as Cerberus. He was caught pulling up his mask a few times, and his head was bare behind the mask, taking away from his brilliant performance.

Multiple clowns and the carnival ringmaster haunted us throughout the night. There were no rooms that screamed circus, so the characters didn’t necessarily fit into any of the scenes throughout the haunt, but since there were multiple, it did make it seem as if they rose up from the underworld together. All of them had stellar makeup applications, and their costumes didn’t lack detail. If we had seen any of them walking down the street on Halloween, we would be running in the opposite direction!

117 South Meridian St. Jasonville, Indiana, popped up on the GPS and took us straight to the front doors. There was a small parking lot in front of the building to park in, and maybe some parking on the street. We could see it piling up quickly on busy nights. They do not have a website, but their Facebook page has all the information we needed for our visit. However, we did have to dig a little to find ticket prices and information like if it was a touch or no-touch haunt (They have both options available) or what kind of payment they take (cash only).

The haunt was dim in places and dark in others. For the most part, we walked through with no safety concerns. There was a tricky frame that poked out a little too far, and if it hadn’t been for one of our observant team members, we would have walked out with some serious bruises.

The staff had this “no place like home” vibe and treated us as if we were their family the moment we walked through the door. They quickly gave us any information we needed before, during, or after our walkthrough… except the secret codes and other surprises inside. As we left, one of the owners caught us and told us to “Get home safe!”

Unreal Nightmare is an indoor haunt with an indoor waiting area, and if it gets filled up, the line starts out the door. As you walk inside, on your left is a decorated room with a concession stand, a place to grab your tickets, and a glow bracelet/necklace if you are brave enough to opt for the touch option. In the room on the right, there are various benches for you to sit at and await your damnation; I am glad we weren’t claustrophobic because it was shoulder-to-shoulder. Our secrets were not safe by any means. Both rooms were filled with detail and decor from the ceiling to the floor, and this intense energy and anticipation gave us the fuel we needed to brave this horror-filled night.

Once inside, we were guided into a bag room. The light was dim, the lighting was bright white, and the walls were decorated with what looked to be white or clear tarps or bags. The character giving us the backstory seemed a little nervous, which is to be expected. This room is one where our team felt could’ve made a more significant impact if it intensified our anticipation instead of giving us a chance to breathe.

Breathing didn’t last very long, though. We were met head-on with chaos and torment as soon as we walked out of that door. We walked through various creatures, ready to make an evil impact on us and the world. Room to room, the details, effects, sounds, and tactics presented kept us thoroughly immersed. Not one moment of our experience, outside of that first room, did we feel like we had a chance to recoup and regroup.

At the end of the haunt, we were thrown out into the street on the side of the building, which had portapotties for anyone lucky enough to hold it in until then. Going from 110% madness and intensity to 0% on a quiet side street was a shell shock, but we were not upset. Finally, we could breathe.

From the “rules room” and into the first hallway, we walked down a long hallway with these creepy, soft, demonic voices leading us in the right direction. The voices haunted us later on, but this was the anticipation we needed before we were hit with the rest of the insanity. We were met with never-ending whispers that pierced our ears, disorienting, deafening, and distracting us from the main objective.

The grumbles and grunts from the cast were otherworldly. We walked into a room where an animatronic was hung from the ceiling, flailing around as if his intestines were the only thing holding him up. A dark figure stood as still as possible, and we believed it to be a cast member playing their part exceptionally well. Our eyes were fooled, and when this animatronic flung itself in our direction, we flew forward to get out of the way.

To complete our rescue mission, we had to dig through snack machines, drink coolers, and some sort of claw machine, not to mention crawling through file cabinets and walking through small and tight spaces, to move forward.

We walked through the remnants of the abandoned factory, including a locker room, a break room, and a kitchen. Most rooms had decor that matched the scene: dirty, dusty, and damaged. There was a lot of blood, and it didn’t look like the fake stuff we can buy at the store. We walked down a hallway where the walls surrounding us were wood with holes carved into them, giving a wasp-hive appearance. The scenes were filled with torment, torture, and various tactics to try and trick us into staying forever.

Trapped. Forever. That thought went through our minds repeatedly while walking through this haunt.

We walked into a room where cages and barrels surrounded us, and a guy with a gas mask walked in on a mission. Like we had interrupted his experimentation process on a victim tied up in ropes and chains. Our team was separated in the room, and some of our attention went to the victim, who desperately grabbed at our hands. The rest of us were trapped by the guy in the gas mask, backing us into a corner where we didn’t know what the next move needed to be. Surviving that room barely, we moved on.

Eidola and the twins that cursed her into an eternity of doom tormented us, trapping one of us on a chair, unable to find space to break free. One of the victims cried so hard that it almost caused our team collectively to have a panic attack. The cook brought out his pet, Patricia. Patricia walked over to us on all fours, and the cook demanded that we pet it. We reluctantly scratched Patricia on the head until it was time to retreat. We never would have thought that a haunted house would make us feel guilty, but walking away from Patricia almost brought us to tears. We hope that this sweet animal human creature isn’t being tortured too hard.

Then there were the clowns. The carnival guy came out with a bang, wanting to find out “what makes us tick.” Xander, the clown, took it upon himself to tease and torture us at various points of the haunt. Watch out for the holes in the walls—no matter how high or low, this clown knew his way around.

We spent over 5 minutes in 4 adjoining hallways, going around and around to find our way out. With multiple doors, deafening voices and noises, and super dim lighting, even our tour guide couldn’t help rescue us. We might not be physically trapped forever, but part of our minds are immeshed from this twisty, disorienting, and insidious experience.

The name of this haunt is spot on. Our team embraced unreal costumes and masks, makeup, cast, and designs. The creativity and craftsmanship were unreal, and the customer service was unreal in the best of ways. Adding an escape room aspect made this walkthrough unreal. In most of the rooms designed to have a code to escape, it took us minutes to even figure out that we should have been looking for a code. The creatures were very experienced at keeping us distracted.

Outside of the haunt, they had concessions, including some wicked apples. We recommend trying The Rotten Apple or The Mummy Apple. They also had drinks and other snacks available. You can play a unique game, but watch out for Xander if you do. Their merch consists of T-shirts, art, figurines, keychains, coffee mugs, and more, available for purchase.

It took our team 34 minutes and 55 seconds to escape physically. A general ticket costs $15, and a fast pass costs $30. Because this haunt is so intricate and unique, it takes longer than average to get to the front of the line, so we recommend getting a fast pass. With the general admission price, the minutes-per-dollar (MPD) comes out at 2.3. This is twice as much as recommended. Simply Unreal.

In the words of Xander, the clown…. “Goodbye…I Love You…”