Mohican Haunted Schoolhouse Review (2018)

The actors at Lessons in Fear are few but powerful. It seems that most haunts had trouble finding actors this season and, even though Lessons in Fear struggled through the same problem, the actors that they do have are incredible and delivered enough scares for a cast twice as large. As you make your way through the queue area of Slaughterville, which is a haunt in itself, consider yourself lucky if you don’t fall prey to the scarecrow’artfully brought to life by Wendy ‘Breezy’ Zody.

Inside the haunt, Richard Shupe portrays an Igor-esque hunchback who has no problem getting into your personal space and lingering there to keep you uncomfortable. In all honesty, we would love to give a shout out to every actor they had working there during our visit, as they all gave outstanding performances.

Lessons in Fear is very easy to find. GPS will take you straight to their address and they have a big, beautiful sign and shiny hearse out in front of their building. It was also delightful to see them cross-promoting with two other haunts in the area.

John, Flo and the entire Lessons In Fear crew are extremely friendly. We were welcomed by three of their security staff as we neared the building and had a fun conversation with them before heading to the ticket booth, where we spoke with John and Flo’s son, Jared. Jared is probably the most personable ticket booth attendant we have ever met. He always has a bright smile on his face and his friendly banter lulls you into a false sense of security prior to entering the haunt. There are porta-potties just outside of Slaughterville and they always have a movie playing on the screen at the Slaughterville Drive-In.

Lessons In Fear’s queue area, Slaughterville, is one of the most elaborate queues we have ever seen. It really is an extension of the haunt itself. It is beautifully decorated and filled with roaming characters like the Scarecrow and Junior Slaughter, a rather ominous character wearing a pig’s head who will stalk you through the vast expanse of corn stalks that fill the area.

With the horror movies playing on the screen, the subtle soundtrack filling the air and the overall feel of Slaughterville, you will be primed and ready to enter the actual haunt whether you run through it or stroll through and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

In their previous life as home haunters, John and Flo Gepperth amassed an impressive collection of scenic d������������������cor and homemade animatronics. When we say homemade, no doubt images of windshield wiper zombies and cauldron creeps flash through your head, but these are not those. John Gepperth is an extremely skilled animatronic artist who has flooded the haunt with his own creations. No doubt, any robotic monster you run into there is one you won’t find anywhere else. In one case, he even gives the patrons an opportunity to scare themselves (with a little encouragement from Igor). All of the special effects were timed well, and made Katie jump quite a few times.

Lessons in Fear utilizes a number of themes, one for each of the three floors of the attraction.

Contagion is a Laboratory gone berserk with an infectious zombie virus after some medical experiments gone wrong. Contagion Industries has been performing twisted experiments on babies, rats and anything else they can get their hands on, and a good number of their creations crawl through the corridors, hungry to infect anything that comes just a bit too close.

The Dead and Breakfast is a homey little getaway that has fallen into disrepair since the staff has since become fixated on the murder and dismemberment of visitors past. The Bride in her honeymoon suite assists in the chaos, lamenting her inability to keep a man as she storms around the remains of her many previous suitors.

Old School showcases the bones of the building’s original purpose by making use of the classrooms where an array of classic monsters have taken over to make use of the various classrooms for their own diabolical purposes. The science lab is especially stunning, as well as the art room, which makes excellent use of white walls as a canvas for the deranged artworks that seem to be taking on a life of their own.

Lessons in Fear took us about 35 minutes to walk through from start to finish, not including Slaughterville in the pre-show area. Their tickets are $18, and while they don’t offer fast passes, our wait time when we visited early in the evening was quite short. This gives patrons an excellent value, at nearly two minutes of entertainment per dollar. The haunt itself is packed to the gills with eye candy, so even if there might be a room or two without actors in it, the space doesn’t feel ‘dead’. If you find yourself in north central Ohio, it would certainly be a mistake to skip out on Lessons in Fear.