With almost a decade of experience under their belt, Wood Creek Hollow is back in action, this time in a new location. Starting as a backyard trail at a Halloween party 9 years ago, this haunt has evolved to incorporate a trail, hayride, and haunted maze.
Unfortunately, the hayride and maze are not available in 2025 due to the venue change. The trail attraction, named Psycho Path, showcases iconic Hollywood villains such as Leatherface, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger.
This year, Wood Creek is only running one attraction, called Psycho Path. Because of this, the cast is somewhat lean, placing enough actors inside the haunt to make each scene run smoothly. Any fewer actors and there would be dead zones; however, a few more bodies peppered in wouldn’t hurt, and could add some more dynamics to the existing scenes.
Typically, when we talk about a variety of characters in these reviews, we’re primarily looking at the variety of personalities. At Wood Creek, there really is a variety of different characters as each scene takes us to different horror movies, each with their own star villains. The actor playing the original Michael Myers is really nailing the quiet and foreboding nature of the masked killer, despite me trying my best to make him laugh.
Some actors are very loud, boasting a lot of great energy, and others are very quiet. This tracks for the traditional silent characters like Jason, Art the Clown, and Michael Myers. Ghostface from the Scream franchise has been known to talk, and we do hear an actor putting on their best Ghostface voice. The trouble is that they’re very quiet, and I think were I not standing next to that actor, I would not have heard the line at all. On the other hand, the victims of the famous killers are very loud and are doing a great job of being believable characters within each scene’s theme.
As this haunt focuses on established movie characters, the costuming stays true to this theme. The opening scene takes us right into the Bates Motel from the horror classic, Psycho. We meet Norman Bates at the front desk, and as we venture further inside, “Mrs. Bates” makes an appearance from the shower. Of course, any true fan of Psycho will know that Norman’s mother is just Norman in drag, and the scene at Wood Creek remains faithful to this by allowing a quick costume “change” by the actor playing Norman.
In other scenes, we encountered the likes of Art the Clown, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger, all of whom were wearing their respective masks. The exception being Freddy, which I think may have been a facial prosthetic, but could have been a mask with a movable mouth. One thing that stood out to me was that the actors playing Jason and Art had some small imperfections with their masks. The Jason mask is a full head mask that uses a neck cowl, which was not tucked into the actor’s shirt, taking some immersion away from the character. Art the Clown, on the other hand, was much neater and tidier in this department, but the split along the back of the mask that allows the wearer to easily put it on was clearly visible and moving when the actor moved. An easy fix for this would be some Velcro along the two sides to help keep them together and maintain the ease of putting the mask on.
A notable costume seen in the finale is Leatherface, featuring a screen-accurate necktie and signature suit. The actor moved through the scene rather briskly, so I could only catch glimpses of the mask, making it hard to study any amount of detail in it.
Something I quite enjoyed about all the characters depicted is that iconic weapons are present where applicable. Jason with the machete, Michael Myers with a chef’s knife, Leatherface with his chainsaw, and Freddy with his “claws”. It’s easy to miss these details, and the characters would seem very out of place with the wrong tools.
Although Wood Creek Hollow does not have a website that I could find, their Facebook page does contain all the information a visitor will need before heading out. As you would expect, the address, dates, and tickets are found very quickly. Additional information is found by going to the “event” pages for each night the haunt is open. There, I was able to always find their age policy (18+ or with an adult age 21 or older), hours of operation, info about additional entertainment, and some security-related items. ADA information is not explicitly stated, but it is an outdoor trail on a farm, and it’s not exactly wheelchair accessible. The only things missing here are the touching policy (you will be touched, there is a waiver to sign), and rainout information as it is an outdoor haunt. We do get a sort of theme overview, but there is no backstory listed anywhere.
The non-acting staff are by far some of the friendliest people I’ve come across at a haunt ever. The ticket taker for Psycho Path clearly has a naturally bubbly personality, and it shows as she entertains guests waiting their turn to enter the attraction. Wood Creek is also an LGBTQ friendly haunt, as noted by the prominent display of a pride flag as you enter from the parking lot. This is something I love to see, especially in rural areas where this support is not as common.
Safety is something guests will never have to think about at Wood Creek, as the path inside the haunt is quite wide, allowing groups of two or three to walk side by side. It’s also well-lit, allowing guests to see where they’re going at any time.
As soon as guests get out of their vehicles, there is an autumn festival vibe all around, with string lights, Halloween decorations, and fire pits all just inside the main gate. As this is a new location for Wood Creek Hollow, the festivities are spread out around a large field with the main attraction in the back. The Halloween vibe helps to set the stage for Psycho Path with queue actors sneaking up on guests and putting them in the mood to have a good time while on site.
Inside the attraction, there’s not really a story being told as much as there is an overall theme. The theme is horror movie villains, and the scenes where we meet each one is designed to fit their worlds. The opening scene introduces us to Norman Bates inside the Bates Motel. This gives us a nice segue from the real world outside to the world in which these iconic monsters live. The immersion isn’t totally perfect, as there are some scenes that suggest an indoor environment, but there is no roof, and it’s still a chilly October night. Visually, though, the idea comes across and helps to pull the whole scene together.
Effects are rather sparse as the entirety of the haunt is running on generators. Speaking with the owner, I learned that the electric company has not gotten this location connected yet, so anything requiring electricity must be run by alternative means. Hopefully, they can get hooked up soon, so that more effects can be added in. The majority of what we experienced came in the form of lights and sounds. Approaching Michael Myers’ house, we saw a light effect on the outside that added some color to the scene, and we heard a very quiet Halloween theme playing from a speaker somewhere. It was loud enough that I heard it, but the volume could come up some more to add immersion to the scene.
On the other hand, in the opening scene, we heard the famous strings from Psycho as the scare comes, and the volume in that spot is loud enough to add to the scene without being too loud. Throughout the rest of the scenes, there were occasions where ambient sound was used to good effect, and others where there was nothing other than the actors. Again, this is due to the limited electrical capabilities on site, and hopefully it will be remedied soon.
One of the best-looking sets is the Michael Myers house, which has an accurate front facade and comes complete with the Strode Realty sign. There is what I assume to be an accurate interior, although I don’t remember what the inside is supposed to look like. This is something I noticed in each of the scenes – the attention to detail when it comes to screen accuracy. Fans of these films would immediately notice if a set was not correct, and I really love the dedication here.
21. How scary was it? (35% of score): 7.5
22. How well did they provide scares to everyone in the group? (15% of score): 8
23. How predictable were the scares? (25% of score): 7.75
24. How well did they provide a wide variety (types) of scares? (10% of score): 8.5
25. How strong was the ending / finale? (15% of score): 8
As many readers may know, I am not scared easily. There were two actors that caught me off guard at Wood Creek Hollow. The first being the actor who ran out of the tent in the Camp Crystal Lake scene, and the second being the actor who popped up from behind the fence right before the finale scene. Both are exemplary models of non-traditional hiding spots that significantly lower everybody’s ability to predict the coming scare. Other scares are slightly more predictable but still offer a surprise in their delivery. The scare in the opening scene came from the opposite side that I was expecting, and Freddy seemed to teleport to wherever he wanted to get a good startle from distracted guests.
One of the benefits of using movie characters is that many people have pre-existing fears of them, allowing lower energy intimidation scares to have more effect. This is obvious with Michael Myers, who does his best to take your soul with his cold, dead stare. Other scares come from various angles, ensuring that everybody in a group will take the brunt of a scare at some point. The balance of different scares that range from simple jump scares to distraction and intimidation really help to keep things interesting throughout the experience.
The finale gives us a classic chainsaw ambush from the original man-with-a-chainsaw, Leatherface. The scene is loud, opening with a screaming victim who tries to run away, and finishes with Leatherface slinging her over his shoulder and chasing patrons out of the door with a revving chainsaw swipe. This is an excellent way to cap off the attraction, and it puts guests in the mood to buy up all the “I survived” merch in the gift shop.
The cost of a general admission ticket is $20 and can be purchased online or in person at the ticket booth. Please note that all guests will have to sign a waiver, as this is a touch haunt. My walk-through time totaled 8 minutes, and this gives us a minute-per-dollar calculation of 0.4. Considering the recent venue change and the fact that everything needs to run on generators, this is completely understandable.
Other than Psycho Path, guests will find a fire pit to warm up, a brand new gift shop, a movie screen, local artist vendors, and a food truck. The food truck does change week to week, so it is advisable to check Facebook ahead of time to see what will be available. The queue actors are also extraordinarily entertaining, interacting with guests at every opportunity. One of them is a clown named Happy, it’s even written on his shirt. This did not stop me from calling him “Hoppy”, which led to a fun Abbot and Costello-style back and forth between us. The other is a very tall grim reaper that took away too much enjoyment out of taking hats off guests’ heads and holding them up where they couldn’t reach. This was not only a playful interaction for the guests involved, but also for anybody who might be watching them.
Wood Creek Hollow has a solid foundation and the experience to build a destination haunt. I, for one, am looking forward to future runs of this show when more attractions are added, and the only limitation will be available space to build everything they could possibly want.
3986 Wood Creek Road, Rome, New York 13440
