Kings Island Halloween Haunt: Mason, OH Holiday Horror: This is one of the two new haunts this year at Kings Island and was surprisingly good for a first year haunt. The rooms all kept with the holiday horror theme and were well populated with actors and grisly holiday themed scenes complete with a “rabid Easter Bunny” and a “Bad Santa”. The individual scenes were well decorated and the actors were very convincing. The only fault I could find with this haunt was it was maybe a little too well lit to really bring the fear factor into the visitor. Dim the lights and bring up the scare factor and this could be a Frightmaster contender! Watch for the Thanksgiving room – it is hilarious! Rating: 9.5 – Excellent Mysteria: This is the second of the new haunts this year at Kings Island and, in our opinion, was a total miss with both theme and scare factor. This is basically a chain link maze that is populated by actors in weird beige spandex body suits. It is too well lit, the actors are not scary or threatening. Some of them looked like they really didn’t know how to act when people walked through. I really didn’t know how to act either since it wasn’t scary, funny or interesting. This was a miss for me. Rating: 2.5 – Poor Slaughter House: This haunt is definitely not for the squeamish! Blood is counted by the gallons and body parts are numbered in the hundreds. The creepy characters within the rooms keep you moving along with a scream or just a grunt, all the while banging on pans, tables, limbs, whatever else they can get their bloody hands on. Well done haunt, if not a bit over the top with the excessive noise, still worth checking out. Rating: 10 – Excellent Urgent Scare:...

Hannah Haunted House: Indianapolis, IN I was very impressed with the Hannah House. As you entered the house you immediately went into the basement. There you met a little girl by herself holding a doll. She was extremely creepy, kept asking us things like, “Do you want to stay here?” and “Which way do you want to go?” in that chilling, child-like voice. It was very unexpected, which made it all the more scary. Standing outside the house and looking at it gives you the creeps. It is very eerie, even more so knowing that the house itself really is haunted. You definitely get the haunted feel when you’re outside of it as well as when you’re inside it. The actors were phenomenal for their first night. The vampires were very scary. Some of them were making noises mimicking the vampires of the movie 30 Days Of Night. The characters were convincing in some areas, but could use a bit more acting in others. In the first floor of the house you meet Alexander Hannah, the man who built the house. He was very convincing, but when you get up to the second story of the house and meet his wife, she is not so convincing. The vampires, the little girl and the clowns were very good. They also had different actors portraying things in the forest as you’re leaving and they chase you, which is a nice extra scare. Hannah Haunted House is a good scare and with a bit more creativity or thought (more into playing upon people’s fears of the dark and ghosts) they could potentially have a legendary haunt. All in all, they did pretty good with what they had to work with. *Review written by Stephanie, a friend of HauntedHouseTour.com Rating: 7 –...

USS Nightmare: Newport, KY The haunted boat was longer and more challenging this year than in the past. The captain has opened up two new areas of this creepy floating nightmare never before explored and it just increases the already longest haunt in the tri-state. The animatronics were excellent and the captain was there to invite you to “stop by for dinner and stay forever”. The tour takes upwards of 30 min so it’s well worth the price of admission. Everything about the boat is creepy, inside and out. We would have like to see maybe a few more actors inside and maybe a bit more dark time but still one of our tri-state favorites!!!! Beware! – this haunt will definitely give you nightmares!!!!! Rating: 9.5 – Excellent Visit their web site at...

Sandyland Acres: Petersburg, KY (NKY) 2011 Frightmaster Award Winner! (Best outdoor haunt) This is the fifth year for Gene and Brenda Webb’s excellent outdoor haunted hayride and it just keeps getting better and better each year. Located in the country on a lonely road in Petersburg, Ky, this outdoor haunted hayride has the perfect setting and the perfect theme. It’s “Children of the Corn”, “Jeepers Creepers”, and “Joyride” rolled into one terrifying trip. We won’t spoil it by giving away the details – just expect the unexpected. No – seriously! If you have not been to this haunt yet this year – GO! If you’ve already been – go again!! It is worth the drive and the best outdoor haunt in the tri-state!!!! Watch out for Freddy! He tends to appear when you least expect it! Rating: 10.5 – FRIGHTMASTER Farmers Revenge (Sandyland Acres indoor haunt) Farmers Revenge is an indoor haunted house/dark maze and the newest addition to the Sandyland Acres attraction. THIS is the way dark mazes in haunted houses should be designed! The walk-thru was dark – not just dimly lit, but “can’t-see-your-hand-in-front- of-your-face” dark. It was also quiet…..creepy….eerie…. then all of a sudden something slithers in front of your face! Just about the time the claustrophobia starts edging upwards into pure terror the maze opens up into a room where more scares await. There were enough dead-ends and fake doors to keep you disoriented and wishing that this nightmare would end! But after all – that’s what you came for and this haunt doesn’t disappoint!!! Great job for a first-year haunt Gene and Brenda!!!! We want to see more of this one next year…maybe a bit longer? We can’t get enough of a good haunt! Rating: 10 – Excellent Visit their web site at...

Cedar Point Halloweekends: Sandusky, OH 2010 Frightmaster Award Winner! GA Boeckling’s Eerie Estate: This is an old school haunted house that hides a dark secret! A lot of detail has gone into the design and decorations in this creepy old manor, from the low but effective lighting, “antique” furniture and even some of the former “residents” of the house who are are still lurking around. The character/audience interaction is the best I have seen anywhere with true dialogue with the actors talking to you and asking you questions as you walk through. There are many surprises in the old house with one of the most unique “gotchas” yet towards the end. Great shocks! Well put together haunt! Rating: 10.5 – FRIGHTMASTER Club Blood – Vampire Disco: This was a very high energy/low light/loud haunt with vampires and other “unworldly creatures” at every turn. The decor was a former toxic waste dump now used as a disco for vampires. Strobes and lasers made forward movement very unnerving as you couldn’t see what awaited you down the next hallway or tunnel. Good use of misdirection here with barrels getting you turned around. Rating: 9.5 – Excellent Dr. D. Mented’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane: This is a new addition to the Halloweekend haunts line-up, replacing the Mortuary U. from last year. The theme is an insane asylum where the patients have gone wild and taken over. The design calls for excellent use of lighting with strobes timed slower to permit movement by the actors across the room without being detected. You see them in one spot, then before you know it they are in your face! The mirror room was my personal favorite with 360 degree scares and high energy actors who made you feel that THEY were in control and all you wanted to do was find your way out!...

The Dent Schoolhouse: Cincinnati, OH (Dent) The Dent Haunted Schoolhouse ranks among the top 20 haunted attractions in the country in that it always delivers a quality haunt experience year after year. This year was no exception. You can’t miss this old schoolhouse on Harrison Ave. with it’s impending Gothic architecture, eerie red glow and frightening sounds emanating from it’s doors. There are numerous creepy characters walking the grounds to give you a fright while waiting in the queue lines, including Charlie the Janitor himself! Your journey through terror begins with a discerning walk through an old outdoor abandoned playground with a couple of frightful children following you and a very bad crypt keeper pushing you on. If you make it through the playground pass the rusted old schoolbus, you finally enter the old schoolhouse, where your true nightmare begins! The story goes that years ago a janitor named Charlie went crazy and killed many of the children attending this school and hid their bodies somewhere within the walls of the school. This is supposed to be a true legend since the building was actually used as a public school building in the 50’s. Whether true or urban legend, the school serves as a frightening backdrop for the scares that await inside it’s walls. The actors, especially Charlie the janitor and Damien Reaper, are very real and definitely in your face as you try to escape it’s winding maze of rooms, one more horrible than the next. The detail that goes into the design of this haunt continues to amaze us every year. We like the fact that it always manages to stay on the “haunted schoolhouse” theme (except for the clown room, but hey! who’s NOT afraid of creepy clowns?) and yet, adds something new every year so it doesn’t get stale. We especially liked the addition of...

Trail of Terror: Trail of Terror is an outdoor haunt with a Hillbillys gone crazy theme. The props included a lot of Hillbilly related essentials (milk jugs, port-o-lets and old washtubs). You wind your way down a dark path through the woods where you encounter several members of the deranged Hillbilly family. Some notable scenes were the dismembered dolls two creepy girls walking towards you singing a child’s tune. The old wash machines and abandoned cars gave this haunt a country feel but the lack of actors definitely hurt the scare effect. The chainsaws at the end were almost expected and would have maybe been a better addition to the middle of the haunt to add some scares as, although it was fairly dark, it was more like a relaxing stroll through the woods rather than a “Trail of Terror”. Rating: 6 – Good Carn-Evil: Carnevil is one of the better Monster Clown themed haunts that we have seen and overall is a lot of fun. If you can only go to one or two haunts at KI, this should be on your list. Although the theme is not quite original, the execution is well done largely due to the 3D effects and the great funhouse style characters. Highlights inlcude a neon dot room complete with “surprise” dot actors and a bearded lady and other traditional circus freak characters. The seedy Ringmaster/head Carney was the best actor I have seen yet in a haunt. Very convincing but just creepy enough without going over the top. Rating: 7.5 – Good Tombstone Terrortory: Tombstone Territory is a fun haunt both because the back-story is interesting and because it is outdoors. The haunt begins with a train ride through dark woods where we’re told the legend of Walley Sparks, a miner who struck it rich in the old West but then goes...

Land Of Illusion: Middletown, OH 3D Killer Klowns: This haunt used 3D glasses for the 3D effect, however, the glasses we were given were used previously and not in the best of shape. The scratched glasses made it hard to see a lot of the darker areas of the haunt but were still good at bringing out the 3D effect. This was a fairly short haunt but the amount of actors and creepy passages made up for it. The 3D spinning tunnels were fun! Rating: 9 – Excellent Middletown Haunted Trail: This was the original outdoor haunt that the Land of Illusions is known for. The length has been extended over the years and the design improved so that it is now one of the premier outdoor haunts in the tri-state. The trail takes over 20 min to walk (even at at a frighteningly fast pace) as you are constantly being scared by different creatures, both animal and human, walking along the dark, foggy path. The actors were very good and really played their parts. The make up and attention to detail in the different themed shacks was exceptional. The people at Land of Illusions have honed their craft of scaring people over the years and it definitely shows! You barely have time to catch your breath in between scares! The path eventually winds around and through several shanty’s with different themes and ultimately winds up at the entrance of the newest addition to the Land of Illusion – “The Nest”. Rating: 10.5 – FRIGHTMASTER The Nest: This is the newest addition to the Land of Illusion and, in our opinion, one of the more creative haunts we have seen in a long time. This haunt reminds me of the old Baxter Ave Morgue in Louisville in the sense that it was dark, eerie and creepy; almost silent inside....

USS Nightmare: Newport, KY We always look forward to our annual trip to the USS Nightmare which has proven over and over again that it is one of the leading haunts in the Tri-state. This year was no different. The theme of the USS Nightmare remains a haunted boat, but this year Allan and the crew threw some changes into the haunt that took us by surprise – LITERALLY! While keeping the animatronics to a minimum in just the right places and slightly increasing the number of actors (who, by the way, were some of the best we’ve seen so far!) and increasing dark areas, the boat has definitely moved ahead in the scare factor. The haunt is long, twisting, multi-themed (love the new infirmary area!) and full of “gotchas” and creepiness. There is some misdirection near the chain-link area, probably caused by the slow strobe and the semi-darkness. This, however, only added to a sense of panic as to which way to go next to escape! We had a “newbie” along with us on the review tour and the bloody usher at the door learned her name and then everyone inside the haunt called her by name as she went through. Nice personal touch although it was very creepy for her to hear her name called out by the ghoulies in the haunt. From the “Newbie’s Perspective” – She said it was scary but fun! All in all, the USS Nightmare really delivers the screams this year and with an overall length of 20 to 25 min walk-thru time and a cost of $16 – it delivers the value as well. Haunted House Tour highly recommends this haunt! Rating: 10 – Excellent Visit their web site at...

Sandyland Acres: Petersburg, KY (NKY) Sandyland Acres is always one of our favorite haunts for the fact that they build it from the ground up using whatever they have available. Don’t let that fool you into thinking this is your average “back yard haunt”! Brenda and Gene and the crew really put the scare factor into their haunt by using 360 degree scares, attention focus tactics, dark areas with chilling “gotcha” factors and great actors. Combine this with a great overall theme and a good “bang for the buck” with the $10 entrance fee and over 20 minute ride, you have an extremely good haunt that has been getting better every year. They have unique elements in their haunt that you don’t see anywhere else. We highly recommend Sandyland Acres as the best outdoor haunt in the Tri State! Rating: 10 – Excellent Visit their website at...