Chaos, confusion, disorientation, confusion and more chaos is probably the best way to describe this haunt. It is intentionally designed to break the traditional structure of a haunt in a way. You still follow along a course, but it’s not the typical point A to B to C type of thing where here’s a path, then a house, then a path, it’s not really structure at all. That is actually its greatest feature and strength in that from place to place you don’t know what each structure holds. There is really no way to know what to expect or what is coming next, what is going on, how long each section is going to be as they vary in size. I felt totally disoriented, particularly in the front half.
There are two sections to this haunt. The first section takes approximately 25-30 minutes to go through once through the queue line. The queue line consists of music, varied characters, an enormous animatronic pumpkin, and gun shots being fired off randomly from somewhere unknown on the property. You have to walk through a wooded trail just to get to the front gate of the haunt. Trail of Terror is an enclosed area that basically utilizes the trees to the max. If there’s a tree, you’re going to go in it, around it, through it, or it will be part of a structure in some way shape or form.
Once you get through the queue line, you enter and get initial instruction on what to do. You start off in a smaller group. I feel like the groups were split and dispersed well. You never felt like you caught up to another group, nor did you feel that another group was catching up to you until you neared the end. It’s hard to remember the areas individually because of the set up. They ranged in size and setup but one flowed into the next.
There was a full size school bus that was used as a long walk through to a building. Upon approach of this bus, my spidey senses started tingling. Typically a bus in a haunt means a feeling of confinement and usually nothing good ever happens.
The second section of the haunt takes around the same time to go through, however it feels shorter than the first. There were bigger walk troughs and bigger structures. There were also some more recognizable structures in this half. This includes the classic house from the first ‘Halloween’ movie, a nod to stranger things, as well as some other movie related connections. There was definitely a coolness factor of being able to walk through the set of the ‘Halloween’ house. The details were amazing, however the length of time it takes to walk through the house takes away from the intensity level and confusion that was felt on the first half of the haunt. The trail over all has been detailed incredibly. Each scene was well thought out and planned to feel real. You feel like you have been transported to another world. In speaking with the owner, I learned that each year they change out 65-75 percent of the scenes to keep things fresh. The sets looked like they were well worn in, as if they have been there for 10 years. It’s like they only need to tweak things and change out the scenes. It’s all set out in the middle of the woods, decorated well, extremely disorienting, and just awesome looking.
It was just an amazing experience where I just felt completely disjointed, and really didn’t know what was coming next. The amount of work and effort that is put into this haunt was amplified when finding out that it’s not-for-profit. This is truly a mix of the love of the haunt, and a love of the people. They have raised millions of dollars in the years that they have been in business, that all go to local charities. After the bills have been paid, everything else is given to charity. The value of the haunt is at least double what you pay. You never really know what’s coming next, you may think you do, but you don’t. With all of these things, it really explains why this haunt is so well attended.
