Wisconsin Fear Fest Review (2024)

WFF has a decent amount of cast members for only being in its second year of operation. We hope to see this number grow as they prepare for their third season in 2025.

Carnival Chaos: In this crazy clown-filled funhouse, we saw a good amount of characters as we walked through. Each character we came across fit into their clown character role. These characters did well at interacting with us. Some characters had good dialogue while others honked horns and flew at us on a bungee. These characters also had a good variety of behaviors as we made our way through. We saw crazy manic laughter, rapid movements, and even a character that was walking at us upside down in a bridge position. Each character seemed to have their own crazy clown personality that kept them different from each other but still stuck with the clown theme of the haunt.

Cellblock 13: This manic prison had a decent amount of characters. We think there could be some improvements made by adding a few more cast members to fill some dead space we noticed as we walked through. These characters were aggressive in their dialogue, which made the haunt feel more chaotic. These characters were more verbally interactive than physically interactive, but still interacted with us in a good way. We would like to see some more character movement in this haunt. Overall, the variety of character behavior could be improved. We’d like to see more variety in behavior from characters to help captivate a fully immersive experience.

Slaughter Shack: This haunt was in between Carnival and Cellblock13 in regards to the number of characters. While there was some dead space, most of this haunt had characters filling most of the haunt, but it could benefit from a few more characters. These characters did well in their scenes to make it feel like you were going to be chased through this slaughter shack. The characters were both verbally and physically interactive but leaned more towards the interactive side. This, paired with more dialogue, would make these character behaviors well-rounded and complete.

Carnival Chaos: In this haunt, you’ll see a variety of different clown costumes throughout. These costumes fit the theme of this haunt. We saw a lot of makeup over masks. This makeup did well at representing crazy clowns, but we like to see some masks in haunts with low lighting. Low lighting often causes makeup details to be lost. We thought these costumes were fitting for their respective scenes.

Cellblock 13: In this haunt the characters were dressed exactly like how you’d expect prisoners and guards to be dressed. These orange jumpsuits and guard outfits were very appropriate for this haunt but we would like to see just a little more detail put in. Adding a prison name or inmate number to these jumpsuits would give a personalized feel to the common prison jumpsuit. As for the makeup, we’d like to see a little bit more detail added to these characters. More hollowed-out bags under the eyes, some cuts from a prison fight, or even fake bruising would tie the makeup looks together a bit more.

Slaughter Shack: Inside this haunt, it was hard to follow the theme of the costumes. We saw a lot of the characters wearing normal clothing with a mask on or a hoodie and jeans with no mask. We would like to see a more distinct flow to what these costumes are supposed to be. The masks we saw also weren’t all that detailed. We saw a good amount of plain masks with no details. As stated before, these costumes did not make sense to us and did not accurately portray being in a slaughter shack. These areas could be improved upon to raise the score in this category.

Queue Actors: At WFF, the lines for the haunts are all in the same general area so each line did not have its own queue actors. We saw 2 roaming queue actors. These 2 queue actors were very detailed from head to toe. Both actors were wearing detailed masks that tied into their costumes and were very believable. Our favorite queue actor was the clown who was running around with spark gloves sliding at customers along with the giant scissors prop that he carried around.

When heading to WFF, it can be a bit tricky if you search Road America in most phone map apps. The reason is that you must enter from Gate 4 off of county Road J. This is clearly listed on the website, but be sure to check where Gate 4 is as Road America is a very large location with multiple entrances. Once you do get close to Gate 4, there are some signs along the roads in spots that are not very well-lit nor easy to read, but you may see them and aid in finding the right spot. Gate 4, is clearly lit with signage to ensure you are in the right location as well as a staff member that will explain where to go to get to the designated parking area. Parking is level and well-lit as well as being directed by staff in yellow jackets and light sticks into a designated spot.

When on the grounds, it was fairly easy to navigate. At first, we were not sure where to go because we purchased tickets online in advance and were not sure if we had to redeem them for physical tickets like other haunts at times. This is not the case, as if you purchase online, you can go straight to each attraction or any of the add-ons you may have. Each haunt and attraction had signage to clearly show where to go for each line, and it was easy to navigate. However, between all three haunts, there were more sections than not that seemed confusing about where to go to stay on the correct path during the attraction. There are areas that are not fully blocked off where actors may come out of or to areas that are paths to backstage that could be entered through if you take the wrong way.

The staff here all seemed to be nice to anyone we talked to. No one was super outgoing or mean, but they were just nice to speak with and answered any questions we had. Some staff even talked about the haunts or extra information that was nice to hear or even where to go when we first arrived. We did not see any form of EMTs or security on the grounds but did not feel any sense of danger from any of the haunts or while even being on the premises. As it is nice to see a clear form of security at events like this, we could easily spot the staff operating the haunt or haunt entrances being in orange jackets and even having staff on the back of their clothes.

When planning to attend, we recommend checking out the official WFF website. On the website, you can easily find operation dates, times, tickets, location, and even a FAQ page. When browsing the website, you can easily find all the general information you need to find before visiting the location, with some other information that it is rain or shine and is easy to navigate their website. There could be some more information from a gallery, history, attraction descriptions, and other info to indulge guests even more, but it does a good job overall. Another good spot to check for information is browsing WFF’s Facebook Page & Instagram, where they post during the season.

On our visit date, WFF was a bit dead for being November 1st and after the passing of Halloween. The vibe was not full of energy because the number of guests was little to non-existent. It created our own personal vibe, and it felt like we had a place to ourselves. It was super fun and eerie because we were at a haunted scream park. While waiting, we got to see a couple of queue actors roam around and entertain guests, and fog filled the grounds, paired with good music to set the scene. WFF also had a large warming tent that helped warm up on the chilly night we visited. On top of that, we did see plenty of tables and burn barrels for fires when the crowds get large. Overall, WFF did well in creating a good vibe before hitting any of the attractions, and our team is curious about what it is like in the midway when there are much larger crowds in the main time of haunt season.

Our team decided not to score in the storyline category for WFF. There was no story given to us before we entered nor online to read up on before we arrived. We suggest giving a storyline or even adding a decent description online to each haunt on location to help guests better get an idea of what they may encounter when visiting. By not having any descriptions about the haunts, it gives its own creepy vibe, and you can only imagine what the haunt may be like, and you won’t find out fully until you come to visit for yourself.

Inside, each haunt varied on how detailed and immersive they were. Carnival Chaos did a good job in creating a clown house setting, and it’s an extra bonus for using a typical large tent that already fits the vibe of a fun house. More times than not, we felt there could be more detail in the haunt or even tidying up sections from seeing a generic clown poster on a black wall with strips of black tape holding it up. We think there are other ways to hang posters in a more clean way along with adding more to keep the theme alive.

Cellblock 13 did well in having prison bars against the black walls to help tie more into the haunt, but there were still more areas than not that could add more detail. Another thing we came across when first entering this haunt was that we could go left or right and saw two large cargo containers empty and no guard to block this area off. Our group briefly walked in, thinking we had to pass through, but that was not the case. By adding more detail to this haunt, we think it could improve the overall atmosphere, but regardless, we still felt we were in a prison setting during the duration we walked through.

Slaughter Shack was by far the most immersive. The amount of detail we saw in most rooms was exceptional for the type of haunt WFF is. From seeing some detailed hallways and kitchen scenes, we know the team here can improve the other two haunts to this level. As this was not the worst we have seen, nothing was too out of place between all haunts but there are areas that could be heavily more detailed in capturing the haunts’ respective theme much better.

After completing each main haunt, you are spat back into the large midway area. Here, you can get in line for the other haunts you may have not completed yet after finishing the first attraction. When in the main midway area by the haunt entrances, you will find queue actors roaming, the warming tent, and tables with burn barrels. If you do wander a bit more to the side, this is where you can find food stands, gift shops, meet and greets and the extra entertainment options offered. Overall, this midway area is a great tool in WFF’s back pocket, but you do need to do some walking around to be able to see what they all have to offer.

One of our favorite categories at any haunt is special effects. WFF had a good amount of effects overall on the size and operation of the haunts. Certain effects stood out more than others while not every haunt on the grounds was filled with them compared to others.

Carnival Chaos: Once stepping inside the carnival setting, we were immediately greeted by a vortex tunnel. This effect is one of our group’s favorite to find at haunts, and this specific tunnel was one of the better ones we have seen for how fast it was spinning, throwing off our balance. We also encountered some good lightning effects from purple strobe hallways filled with smoke and red hallways blocking our view of the cast waiting for us to fall victim to their scare. While inside, the haunt had music playing that did fit the vibe of the haunt while certain areas were hard to hear over other sections. A very unique effect we saw was a cast member using a bungee cord system to lunge out at our group. This is something we wish more haunts incorporate, as many others do not utilize this type of effect. When walking through, we also noticed a good amount of animatronics throughout, from swinging clowns, puppet clowns, and a clown knife animatronic to a few others. A few of these did seem randomly placed and not very well effective, but they were still good to have compared to leaving the blank space. Some cast in this haunt also had some good props from a spark cane and portable horn props.

Cellblock 13: As we attempted to escape the prison, we felt rushed in a good way by using buzzers and alarms throughout this attraction. The use of these sounds helped tie together the setting, giving a sense of panic and the red lights blaring while you navigate the haunt. The use of these alarms was good but could use a few more in areas to also fix a few that seemed to not be working properly like the rest. As the alarms were good, we felt more variety of sound effects could be added to enhance this haunt. The set design was nothing too special, with a lot of black walls, but it was at least accompanied by prison cell bars to help keep the theme. There were also a few blood splatter walls, which broke it up, but I felt there could have been more detail throughout. We did not find many animatronics during this haunt, the most notable being a large, eclectic chair that was loud and intense. There were some props located during the haunt, from what looked to be an inmate who hung themselves inside a cell or random mannequins placed throughout with jumpsuits. The cast in this had some good props to use for their role, from items attempting to barter with us to trade or the use of loud horns held in hand. This haunt also had an inflatable wall-type effect where, this time, you had to crouch to walk under to pass through. Adding some more special effects from more fog, strobes, illusions, lasers, and others would enhance this haunt.

Slaughter Shack: This haunt had some good sounds, but a vast majority of the speakers were easy to see and could have been blended better into the area around the attraction. We also encountered some sounds from different props, such as chainsaws, horn beeps from the tractor inside, and others. The design of this haunt was far above compared to the others. We were impressed with the detail from the walls being creative or other aspects than just a black wall found more common in the other two haunts. This haunt also had an okay amount of props and animatronics. There was a great body hanging animatronic along with others even having a good small body figure animatronic coming at you from above that caught us off guard. Slaughter Shack also had the most overall special effects in this haunt, from using air whips, strobes, fog, an inflatable wall tunnel, and a large chainsaw puppet scene to even a good dense laser swamp at the end.

There could be many more scene designs between the three haunts. During Carnival Chaos & Cellblock 13, we could not help but see this area lacking significantly compared to Slaughter Shack. We also think that the number of larger special effects or even animatronics could be more divided among each haunt to create a more well-rounded lineup in this category, if not added to the ones that are lacking.

The scares we came across overall were hit or miss. If you do get scared easily we are sure you will get spooked more than what we encountered. Each haunt had a good amount of attempts on our group walking through that did not get us, but each haunt had at least 1 scare per member, which was a solid scare. The times we did get scared were from a lot of jump scares or props we did not see coming. For example, the bungee cord cast member lunged at Jack as soon as we entered the room catching him off guard to Derek getting a good scare from the upside-down body figure animatronic perfectly placed in Slaughter Shack. Between all three haunts, it felt that there were more stares than scares at times with dialogue only being found in a handful of cases. The ones who did were entertaining and fit the role they played.

During our time through the attractions, most of the scares came to our front leader. At times, we had a few trailing actors to get the member in the rear, or there were scenes where an actor would come from the side to hit the whole group and mainly the middle member. A clown in the carnival haunt was unique as we saw her standing in a bridge pose, but did not do much with our group other than just her pose walking past. We think adding some more types of scare attempts could enhance this category from more actors coming at you from above, or crawling/lunging at you below. The scares were also predictable at times, more often than not, but once again, there were a few solid scares from actors or props that really caught us off guard. The larger set paths helped diminish the scares of not being in much tighter walkways more often than not.

When talking about finales, this section was also a hit or miss. Slaughter Shack had a few good final rooms with air whips, fog, and strobes, but the final section was a good dense laser swamp. This is always a nice finale to see, but when we walked through, we saw no actors or anything to accompany this effect. Carnival Chaos also did not have much of a finale. It was hard to say what we would consider to be the finale as the bungee cord scene and hallways were towards the end, but nothing crazy special to end the haunt on a bang. Cellblock 13 had a similar finale environment as the eclectic chair scene animatronic, which was towards the end with another room or so to follow, with nothing that stood out to finish strong.

During our visit, we spent a total of 1.5 hours on the grounds. This included going through the main 3 haunts along with checking out some of the other things WFF has to offer. The time to complete Slaughter Shack was 6.5 minutes. Cellblock 13 took us 7 minutes, while the longest haunt for us was Carnival Chaos at 7.5 minutes. With the General Admission ticket price of $29 and total walkthrough time being 21 minutes, this gives WFF a $0.72 minute per dollar rating. With this rate, it is not the best at being below $1, but it is still a decent rating overall. As always, the time to complete each haunt can vary depending on your group’s speed.

While you visit be sure to consider adding some additional add-on attractions to enhance your visit. Almost all of these add-ons cost but they have a wide variety to choose from. WFF has 2 mini escape rooms, a paintball shooting gallery, gel ball shooting, axe throwing, and even a rage experience option. These are some of the most extra add-ons we have come across at a singular haunt location, and it is a nice sight to see by having extra things to do to enhance your stay on the grounds compared to hitting the main three haunts and leaving.

WFF also even offers additional entertainment options throughout the season. For the 2024 season, C.J. Graham, who played Jason Voorhees, was on the grounds for a few nights to meet guests and sign autographs. They also brought in Paul Taylor, who had played “Pinhead” in Hellraiser Judgement. Doing this is very unique that we have not seen other haunts do and can be really appreciated by horror movie fans. On top of bringing in actors from movies, they also have live music on select nights or even bring in a motocross stunt team to perform.

When talking about ticket prices, be sure to buy online in advance to save money. General Admission costs $29. With the purchase of general admission, you can add on a single mini escape room, rage experience, or even axe throwing for an extra $5 per add-on. You can also even add on the paintball shooting gallery or gel ball shooter for an extra $10 each. WFF also has a Speed pass option for those who prefer to have shorter wait times for the main attractions. The Speed pass costs $44, and you have the option to pick and choose the extra paid-on add-ons as well. If you wanna do most of the add-ons, we would suggest buying the General Admission Bundle for $53 or the Speed pass bundle for $68, which includes a majority of the extra add-ons in one set price.

All in all, WFF has many options for all types of guests. Being that the Midway Mayhem is free and you only pay for what you want to endure, it is a nice twist for those who may be too scared to enter the main haunts but still want to attend with a group and enjoy some other entertainment. WFF has a lot of potential, and our team is excited to see where the next few years take them and elevate the location into bigger and better things. We would definitely recommend checking out the location and, over the following years, continue to see the growth to what we can see as a top attraction in the state over time with the dedication we have seen during our visit.