Sweet Dreams Scare House Review (2019)

The cast of Sweet Dreams is diverse and delightful. They feature a wide variety of nightmare-inducing characters, including a Lullaby Siren who sung a sweet song that lured us deeper into the haunt, Jessie the Junk Girl who wanted to share her wares and treasures with passing guests, and Tips the Clown whose sharp wit leads to delightfully cutting dialogue.

For those guests opting for the R show, they can anticipate coarse language and cutting insults. There is also a good bit of physical interaction. For example, our team members experienced being put into both a barrel and a refrigerator, having their hair pulled, ‘tickle fights’, being carried away from the group, and so much more.

The cast does a great job of adapting their dialogue and responses to the reactions of the guests. Too, they seem to enjoy getting physically active with their props and surroundings. That can mean anything from popping out of hidden doors and panels to using their props and sets to get into their visitor’s heads.

With Sweet Dreams being a mostly outdoor trail style haunt, there are some ingenious costuming choices that allow the cast freedom of movement as well as comfort in the wide variety of elements that make up the regular haunt season in South Carolina. With the full contact option, there are times that the cast is heavily exerting themselves in what can be strenuous heat, yet despite all the physical activity the costumes, makeup, and masks all held up well.

It was particularly enjoyable to see how well each scene incorporated careful costume choices to enhance the guests’ experience. In some places, there were angry home-owners or cannibalistic mountain men, but others held vengeful priests, mourning spirits, or excitable clowns.

Sweet Dreams has done a lot of work to make their attraction even more visible and easy to find. They’ve invested in signage and vehicles to promote their haunt, as well as staff to help guide vehicles in their parking lot. Staff is easily spotted because they’re either in costume or in gear that has the haunt’s name on it. They’re all very responsive and eager to help ensure their guests have the most entertaining experience possible.

They’ve even recently invested in a small bus to help with transportation from their overflow lot to the main area so that guests can save their energy for fleeing from the creepy delights inside.

Since it is an outdoor trail, it’s recommended to wear closed-toe shoes and clothing that’s both appropriate for the weather and something that you don’t mind getting dirty. If you’re opting for the full contact show, be aware that you may need to tuck in necklaces or articles of clothing that are easily caught on things.

From the moment that guests arrive in the parking lot, which also doubles as both a portion of the waiting line and the exit point for the trail, it is easy to tell that a fun time awaits. The sound of screaming and chainsaws roar through the night, and there are some fun little photo ops available, including their ‘Free Candy’ van and hearse. Guests will also have the chance to experience a little piece of the haunt in the line, as some of the queue actors also happen to be active actors in the haunt as well. One of our members was both scared and excited to find one of her tormentors from the line pop-up inside the haunt ready to pick her up and carry her away from the group!

The staff has been working hard at making their haunt a fun and unique place to visit. Special attention to detail has been paid to the balance of visual detail and the rest of the senses. This is only improved upon by opting for the R-rated upgrade because it brings a physicality to their haunt that so few other places tread! Sweet Dreams has worked hard at making sure their scenes are immersive and well decorated and they’ve done a great job at doing some innovative and unexpected things, but it would be amiss to not praise their actors yet again for carrying the show. In some places, it’s possible to detect a hint of different odors that only help to bring visitors physically into the spaces that these creeps and monsters are inhabiting. Definitely a haunt with that old-school haunt vibe, the sets and props are largely built on-site by the crew themselves. This year, they’ve added even more creepy locations to their trail.

We find that the R-rated, full contact, upgrade amps the guests’ experience up and increases the fear that the crew at Sweet Dreams brings. The actors are great at making sure that no one feels left out as they hit the group from all sides. That said, there are times that it’s a bit obvious where the next scare is coming from. Despite that, they do a great job of going beyond expectations and keeping their guests guessing as to what’s going to happen next. Mingling with some of the physical effects, some actors are able to seemingly appear from out of nowhere, ready to deliver a sudden scare. Others, like the Lullaby Siren, do their best to simply create a creepy and disturbing atmosphere that set our hair raising. Like all good southern haunts, Sweet Dreams works at ensuring their guests have a heart pounding exit, escorted by the growl of chainsaws and homicidal maniacs.

While the standard show at Sweet Dreams is a great one, we simply have to recommend the full contact experience for visitors who are looking for that next level of fear in a haunted experience. That won’t be to everyone’s taste, of course, but it is an event that we look forward to year after year.

The actors and staff at Sweet Dreams push themselves to the max to provide as much bang as they can for their entrance fee, but the entertainment isn’t just inside the attraction! The queue entertainment (Cyanide Suspension and a fire eater on the evening that the team visited) works hard at interacting with waiting guests and making sure that none of the time spent waiting is dull.

While they have room to grow, and we fully expect them to do so in the years to come, Sweet Dreams has done an amazing job at filling their space with stellar sets and amazing actors, so there’s not a dull moment anywhere at Sweet Dreams Scare House.