In an effort to boost spooky spirits this October, we here at FTS plan to visit and review as many haunted attractions in our area as we can! First up is the monster haunted house in Lancaster PA Field of Screams.
Field of Screams contains three main haunted attractions: The Haunted Hayride, The Frightmare Asylum, and The Den of Darkness. In addition to the three main attractions, FoS offers up live entertainment, tons of yummy food vendors and games you can play. In a sense, FoS is the scariest carnival you’ve ever been to.
See our reactions to the main attractions and more below:
Jess: While the two haunted walk through attractions are pretty darn fun, the most notable and well done attraction is definitely the haunted hayride. Each scene along the attraction is well executed in spectacle and scare. You’re within the scene, half the time in a barn that eerily closes you in once you stop inside, so the actors surround you from behind making even the least jumpy person skittish when someone pops over your shoulder. I’m specifically freaked out by clowns and of course that’s one of the stops that traps you in a dark barn before bubbles come flowing down from the ceiling in a way that made the cutest of childhood whimsy menacing. My favorite was the definitely the Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired scene which involved lots of chainsaws buzzing at your back as you might expect but also very well done animal corpses hanging from the ceiling so that every time I lurched forward after getting scared from the actors behind me I came face to face with the gruesome set pieces. Even though it wasn’t completely revamped from the last time we came here two years ago, it still maintained freshness with smaller changes throughout and its ability (just like any good horror movie) to still freak you out even if the scares are somewhat familiar.
Rob: This attraction has probably the most showmanship out of the three. Each stop has a unique setting dealing with different fears and horror movie inspirations. Adding to the feeling of uneasiness is the fact that your back is exposed the entire time you’re on the cart. This attraction has the most energy and all of workers are very into their roles. This is true of the entire Field of Screams, but this ride stands out among them.
Lindsay: You might think that hayrides seem like one of the more basic attractions to put together and perform. Then you visit The Haunted Hayride at Field of Screams. What makes this hayride remarkable are not only the over-the-top set pieces including animatronics, a movie screen and a working Tesla coil, but it’s also the very specific attention to detail. Don’t ride this hayride if you’re not ready to get down and dirty because you will certainly be experiencing a lot of blood, branches and BOOMS as you’re periodically locked inside pitch black barns and forced to deal with the unknown. Side note: While the VIP pass is definitely worth the extra dough if you want to fly in and out in a jiffy, waiting in line at the Hayride is pretty damn fun thanks to the trivia contests and film clips.
Jess: Out of the four of us that went to check out Field of Screams I was certainly the easiest to frighten. I’m naturally jumpy but I love the scare so attractions like this are awesome in my book. The Asylum was also where I was the scared the most. Like most haunted houses you walk through a tight path through rooms and hallways dressed for scares. Of course I was the first to lead our small group which meant I had to deal with the first sight of scares. The actors were fully committed to staying in character and doing the usual targeting of whoever seemed to be actually freaked out (yep, that would be me with my hands covering my racing heart). The Asylum had the cool albeit not the most original take on the haunted house, specifically dealing with a hospital motif. While it might limit what you can do, they did a great job curating the attraction with as many different spins on the hospital setting as they could. It also included some great physically effecting set pieces such as a black and white checkered room with a strobe light blinking which is completely disorienting to walk through. Overall, the Asylum was the most fun for a scaredy-cat like me, even if it isn’t as cool to take in as the hayride.
Rob: The Asylum and the Den are similar, but both are great haunted houses. The Asylum is set up as a mental hospital filled with victims of deranged doctors. There is a bit of video in shown while you wait in line that gives you a loose backstory. Every room depicts some sort of strange medical experiment or butchering. If you are afraid of hospitals this attraction will give your heart a run for its money.
Lindsay: While the Den is my favorite (more on that later obviously) the Asylum is right up there in quality. As Rob mentioned it’s particularly effective if you have any aversion to medical horrors. Though the best thing about this house was easily the set design. The “asylum” is filled with touches of creepy, whether it’s the medical signs or needles or just the dirtiest operating room you could even imagine. The scenery is nightmarish by itself before the actors even enter the room.
Jess: The Den is the most straightforward and traditional of the haunted attractions. It takes the time to showcase all the usual haunted house scenes you expect and then throw in their own wacky creations such as a zombie meat counter filled with body parts and a creepy cashier who’s eager to do some business. While this didn’t have as much of the scare/jump factor of the Asylum or display of the hayride, it did have a few things that worked well. At a certain point a demanding creepy dude (for lack of a better term) forced half our party into a dark tunnel they had to crawl through and the other half into a door that opened up into a pitch black space that you had to feel your way through to find where to go. Somehow taking the simplest approach can produce some of the scariest effects. I immediately felt panicked to find my way before suddenly running into the rest of your party. Towards the end of the Den the path can diverge so that you aren’t on one set course anymore and your party could get separated which somehow just made things feel more real, like in a horror movie and someone turns around to find their companion is no longer right behind them.
Rob: The Den of Darkness holds the most iconic room in all of Field of Screams. It is a room painted in black and white checkers, inhabited my a man in a matching full body suit and a strobe light. The effect is amazing. This year, there was a couple of girls that seemed like something out of The Shining. They stared at me as I walked past them and were genuinely freaky. Later in the house, they were in another room and seemed to notice me specifically and started to stare immediately. It could have been a coincidence that they stared at me twice, but it was a nice touch that made me feel uneasy.
Lindsay: I would like to reiterate what Rob said about the black & white checkered room because it’s hands-down my favorite. It’s effective and original and doesn’t require any explanation why it would be in a “Den.” In fact most of the Den of Darkness is comprised of random variations of terror. It works well because you never really know what you will experience next. As Jess mentioned the crawling aspect previously, it should be noted that this ain’t your Grandma’s haunted house. Proceed with caution and expect to roll with the punches because you will be put through the ringer.
This post is part of the Countdown to Halloween blogathon, a month-long blogging marathon dedicated to honoring the Halloween season. For more information and a full list of participating sites, please visit www.countdowntohalloween.com.