The Dent Schoolhouse 2012 Review

The Dent Schoolhouse: Cincinnati, OH (Dent)

** Descriptions May Contain Spoilers **

Bang for the buck
For a haunt of this caliber, we feel 20$ is totally worth it, however some may feel that this is a bit pricey. Discount tickets are available at local Arby’s, Dominos, or by bringing a Crush product to the ticket booth. Tickets can also be ordered and printed at home to skip the ticket line. Come early to avoid the lines, the house is blacked out enough to provide a great experience even with a little daylight left. I know some places offer corn mazes, hay rides, petting zoos or whatever with admission, but this place is a haunted house, and a good one. You can make an evening of it, watch the videos showing on the big screens while you wait in line (or skip the line), hang out and listen to WEBN-provided music while wandering haunt actors scare the crowd, and even catch special guests (as we did with the Ecto-1). So if a haunted house is what you want, this one is worth the price of admission. Especially if you take advantage of the discount days.

Rating: 10 – Excellent

Curb Appeal
Just waiting in line is enough to get the heart going. The windows are boarded up looking spooking, the rough wooden fence is menacing and Charlie can be seen peering out in the attic window. Ghouls wander through the queues preying on patrons that are not paying attention. A video of “history” of Charlie the groundskeeper and the Dent Schoolhouse plays on loop in the lines, which is very professional and really helps to amp up the audience. This theme carries throughout the haunt and helps the whole experience feel consistent. It doesn’t get much better than a legit old building decked out in spooky style. Plus there are those scare actors walking through the crowd to creep up on you unexpectedly. The schoolhouse itself is quite ominous with it’s boarded doors, secretive windows and its otherwise suspiciously innocent charm. This would make for a perfect setting for a picture with Charlie the Janitor!

Rating: 10 – Excellent

Scare Factor
The scares are varied from startling drop panels, live actors, animatronics and creepy stages. Between each room there is just enough time to get over the last scare, before the next one happens. We saw several groups clustering together, pulling their weakest link through the house, and several groups sprinting from the exit. There were tears from teenage girls. Pretty good variety of scares (creepy characters in various scenes who did a good job of interacting, dividing, and stalking, bugs and creepy-crawlies, creative animatronics, loud noises, clowns, tight places, characters jumping out, a chain saw, dark rooms, lots of unexpected pop-outs, a maze). For some, Dent may be outright terrifying. Those creeped out by ambient settings more than pop out scares would find it the most disturbing of all. I found myself more impressed and fascinated with the details in each scenario and overall ambiance of the place more than anything as I walked through.

Rating: 10.5 – FRIGHTMASTER

Actors/Professionalism
This is another area that really impressed us. The actors stick to character, are very interactive, are really into their roles (taunting, screaming, stalking), and some even seem to be really enjoying themselves, chasing visitors around and going the extra mile. They did a good job of managing the line and making the people standing around part of the show.

The actors have secret passages and are able to get you several times as you wander through the twists and turns. Although we did feel that the use of the drop down windows was a bit excessive, they still had the same “startling” effect. One of the actors was able to peel their own face off and wave the skin in your face. This was very convincing and creepy. The stuff nightmares are made of!

Rating: 9.5 – Excellent

Audio Effect
The audio was very good, and helps the atmosphere throughout. Some areas of the haunt were very loud. There was music where appropriate, and the moving props all made appropriate sounds. It was integrated so well that I didn’t think of it as an audio soundtrack. It was natural to the scene. Like the bus noises. Both the ambient sound and effect sounds were great. The Dent team isn’t afraid to crank the volume and it certainly accompanies the visuals well.

Rating: 9 – Excellent

Lighting
The lighting was dark enough to be creepy, but bright enough to let the excellent scenery really show. Dent also has a clever use of projectors to create effects of cockroaches pouring out of cracks in the wall in several places, spicing up empty hallways between the staged areas. Again, I believe it was done well because I didn’t notice any of it done poorly. The scenes were creepy. They were lit so you noticed what you were supposed to, and didn’t notice things that were “behind the scenes” and left plenty of dark corners for things to hide and jump out. The lighting is professional quality. The use of uplighting and backlighting is key to drawing an audience’s attention and Dent succeeds. The lighting fit each scene perfectly. There are times when you can see everything around you and better yet – times when you can’t. Normally I tend to think darker is better, however in Dent’s case, if it were darker we wouldn’t be able to appreciate all of the detail in each area.

Rating: 9.5 – Excellent

Overall rating: 10.5 – FRIGHTMASTER

Overall (Comments by Todd C. – HauntedHouseTour.com reviewer)
There are many reasons that The Dent Schoolhouse is one of the top rated haunts in the country; they pretty much get everything right. For a richer experience, I think it would be fun to take all of the exterior booths away from the schoolhouse’s vicinity to give patrons more of a feel that they’re those 1970s teenagers who are trespassing into malicious territory. Strange as it may sound, Disney is the king of all things themed and if Disney owned Dent, the line would be secluded and perhaps even clausterphobic, adding the feeling of dread before the journey even begins. Regardless, The Dent Schoolhouse stands out vastly among its peers. For those who love the macabre such as myself, it proves that one man’s nightmare can be another’s bloody paradise.

Overall (Comments by Teresa – HauntedHouseTour.com reviewer)
I think this is a really fun attraction. They should sell season passes. The actors and employees take the time to interact with the crowd and there are so many of them that everyone gets attention and a good laugh. I would like to see the option of purchasing “scare photos” in the future.

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