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This attraction was reviewed on September 13, 2019 by Team Zombillies.

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Final Score: 5.48

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Summary:

Horror has no season’ at Murder Mill! There’s a reason why Shaw Mill Works on Old Mill Road is now called Murder Mill. You see, old man Shaw makes his money ANY way he can. As guests, we were told that this was our first day at work at the Mill. When we asked what the pay was, they politely responded with, ‘Your lives!

Well, that doesn’t seem fair at all, now does it?

2019 is Murder Mill’s first year open. They did host a few off-season events earlier in the summer. We did visit this attraction very early in the evening on their opening night. If you’re looking for an old school fright, this one may be right up your alley.


Cast: 4.98

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The cast was spread out pretty well at the Mill, but there were some longer areas in between where we didn’t seem to have any significant encounters. We did see a lot of good opportunities not being used though, so these may have been simple cases of missing actors, which hopefully improves as the season progresses.

There wasn’t much diversity in their dialogue. The majority of them yelled, ‘Hey!’ ‘Get Out’ and, ‘Wanna play’ at us. There were a few more in-depth phrases used by the girl in the sheet hallway and the lady with the ax. The actors did have some playful bantering going on amongst one another that we could hear echoing through the scenes that enhanced their characters, but they didn’t say as much once we were face-to-face with them.

The actor (or “boss,” possibly) in the first room was the most memorable and verbally interactive character we came upon. There was also a female actress throwing papers in the air, evidently aggravated that we were in her space, and even more so when she screamed at us to ‘Get Out.’ Now maybe this is just us, but we aren’t sure why so many of these mill inhabitants were so set on telling us to get out when this was only our first day of work…?

We would also like to note that some of the characters sporting latex masks were trying to talk to us, but their voices were muffled by the masks. Unfortunately, we aren’t sure what these characters were trying to say to us.


Costuming: 4.85

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It was very hot on the night of our visit (about 90 degrees in September) so we’re sure some of the monsters may not have been wearing their full or normal costumes. We saw a variety of masks (mostly latex), bloody makeup, street clothes, and some no-shirters.

There were two doll masks that stood out to us, one was fully costumed but the other was wearing street shorts, which didn’t quite match the scene.

There were some victims in piles of dead body parts behind hazy plexiglass, so we couldn’t make out any details there. The “middle ground” in this category involved lightweight scrubs / medical outfits in what we presume to be the “first aid room” of the Mill (although, as big as the room was, it looked more like a triage center!).


Customer Service: 7.71

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From the road, the haunt was very hard to spot. Our GPS also tried to take us to a location behind the attraction so get your bird’s eye ready once you start getting close. We passed the entrance once and, when we turned around, we noticed a black sign by the road directing us to the parking area and an arrow sign that said ‘Haunted House’ on it. Neither sign had any sort of lights on them, so they were extremely hard to see in the dark. The only thing that actually let us know we were in the right location was the lighted food truck set up in the parking lot and the distant props and decor near the facade. Although, on this busy road and as dim as the lighting was, it wasn’t a good idea for us to take our eyes off the road long enough to spot them (hence, why we missed the entrance).

We didn’t see any parking flaggers, and cars were parked far enough apart that they were taking up multiple spots. We took the last parking spot available in the small lot next to the building, but there weren’t any guests in line’ Were these people that had become victims to the Mill and never escaped??

The ticket takers and door keeper were friendly enough, welcoming and letting us know this was a no-touch haunt; no other rules or insights were given. Inside the building, there was some uneven flooring and low ceilings, but they all seemed to be either marked, padded or easy to see.

Finding pertinent haunt information before arrival was fairly easy. It can be found on their website. They don’t have a Facebook ‘like’ page, but they do have a public group where they post haunt information, discounts, contests, etc.

Click Here To Go To Their Facebook Group

They also have several other social media accounts you can follow to receive updates. We didn’t see any easily accessible information about the haunt itself though, such as a FAQ page or other commonly-found details about the attraction.


Atmosphere: 6.65

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Upon arrival, it was super quiet outside the Mill. A few sounds escaped from within the building and there was some decor near the entrance to the haunt but it was hard to see due to very little lighting in that area. Initially, there wasn’t anything else going on to let us know we were at a haunted house until a group emerged from the exit with a mask-wearing ax-wielding fiend in tow behind them. He was dragging his REAL ax on the ground right behind them, clearly ready to strike! This had us wondering whether we were at the right location or if we were getting ready to be eyewitnesses to Mt. Washington’s next crime!

As we entered the haunt, a “Murder Mill” poster overhead and a “Shaw Mill Works” sign on the entrance hallway finally confirmed our location. This hallway was well decorated and definitely set our mood to enter! We were as ready as we thought we could be until we rounded the next corner, and that’s when the haunt began!


Special Effects: 5.29

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This was more of what we call an “old-school” haunt. The effects consisted of a variety of typical Halloween store items mixed with authentic mill items, strobes, and various scene decor.

We came across a lot of spider webs and bones. We were nearly chopped up by a giant saw blade and we got so lost in thick fog at times that we had to follow the only lights we could see. They utilized a unique severed head effect, as well as different uses for plexiglass.

Our journey led us through a medley of scenes including a doll room, a hospital/first aid area, a kitchen or human dining room, fluorescently-colored walls, an office, and others.

Sound effects were heard throughout, but they seemed to be mostly echoing in from other scenes. We could hear some effective lightning for quite some time and it got louder and louder as we progressed. We also heard some howling inside the mill, crickets, and an unsettling roaring.

A string-light black light did fall while we were walking through and we handed it to an actor who attempted to hang it back up in front of us.


Theme: 6.45

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The beginning was marvelous! After walking down the lumber-plated hallway mentioned earlier, we rounded a corner and were immediately yelled at! ‘You’re late, sit down!’ Uhm, okay…This was apparently our new boss, unbeknownst to us, and he was ready for us to be on the clock. He forewarned us of what was to come in the following scenes through the Mill. This was a very welcome touch, as we love a good Theme introduction. This was also the only area where we felt like there was really a theme while walking through. There were several scenes that made it obvious we were in a mill, but those faded in and out as we made our way through.

The full haunt’s story can be found on their website. In short, The Shaw family owned the Shaw Mill Works mill for generations. People in the town started going missing. In time, certain Shaw members were suspected of becoming cannibals. One year, the Mill caught fire, exposing the truth within. The bodies of all the missing persons were found among the burned rubbish. Remnants of flesh were found in the family’s oven and there was proof that the families’ pet rottweiler had been consuming remnants of human bodies.

The Mill is now referred to as The Murder Mill due to the death and destruction wreaked by the Shaw family. As we made our way through, the story wasn’t very apparent, but several characters may have been some of the original Shaw family members. We did see bits and pieces of the theme scattered throughout, alluding to the possibility that the family actually lived *inside the Mill’s building. Though, without reading the story beforehand, this may be difficult to pick up on, if that’s the case.


Scare Factor: 6.01

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We definitely fell victim to a few effective hiding spots during our first day of work at the Mill. It was pretty dark in a lot of areas, so it was easy for some of the cast to sneak out of sight. The scares are more old-school as well, consisting of banging on walls, a bit of demanding dialogue, waving weapons around, and several seemingly static prop surprises. We also experienced some disorientation via the strobe lights throughout.

They did hit on a variety of phobias as well, including snakes, clowns, the dark, and more. They did have one well-executed distraction that we fell victim to.

Watch your feet and heads when you reach the finale so they don’t get chopped off! However, we were informed when purchasing tickets that the normal man at the exit wasn’t at the haunt on the night of our visit, and he normally uses another sort of “device” to chop up his victims…


Entertainment & Value: 3.65

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Murder Mill advertised their ticket prices at $20.00 per person. They were running a special discount on the night we went through for $5.00 off by mentioning “horror has no season,” so we only paid $15.00.

From the time we entered the Mill until we escaped our beheadings, we were in the haunt for nearly 8 minutes. Bluntly put, for a first-year haunt of this caliber, this is a steep admission price. They are charging the same price as some of the more-established haunts within the Louisville market.

This puts their “minutes of entertainment per dollar spent” value at 0.53 for the admission price that we paid. When considering their full advertised price, that puts their MPD at 0.40 which is one of the lowest we’ve ever seen. The average for most haunted houses is about a dollar per minute or higher.

We were very excited to hit up a new haunted house in our area. They had a few unique surprises inside and we both jumped at least once!


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