Lake Eerie Fearfest 2012 Review

Lake Eerie Fearfest (Sandusky, OH)
“Shoreside Scares and Shocks”
By Noah Wullkotte: Jollypumpkin@aol.com

2012 is the year Ghostly Manor has been re-branded as Lake Eerie Fearfest. There are now 5 different haunts. These are Ghostly Manor, Darkmare, Caged, Quarantine and Eerie Chateau. Ghostly Manor Thrill Center has an incredible facade that was introduced a few years ago. A stone castle has a dragon who’s busted through the other side and he breathes smoke. The facade isn’t as elaborate as it used to be. It doesn’t feature flashing lights synchronized to music or a propelling gargoyle, but it’s still arguably one of the best facades of any haunted attraction. The new entrance has customers entering a black building with a detailed facade. You’ll walk under a vampire skull with animated red eyes and there are impressive graphics of a lighthouse and shadow creatures.

Before you purchase a ticket, you’ll enter a short maze with a few actors, words of warning and various props. You’ll exit the building and enter a wide open area where there’s a ticket booth and the different haunts are visible. Lake Eerie Fearfest has plenty of concessions. Nachos and hot doges are $3, Monster Energy is $3, whole pizza is $9, Hot Cocoa is $1 and there are plenty of more food and drink options where that came from. Lake Eerie Fearfest also has plenty of apparel for fans of the event.

Ghostly Manor is the highest quality haunt at Lake Eerie Fearfest. It features dark corridors, crypts, a haunted nursery, a funhouse with an electrocuted clown, a dungeon with a massive Imapler monster and more. You might even run into a couple of severed heads. Please wipe the maggots off. Ghostly Manor has changed a bit and has too many body bags that feel empty. The décor and set design is great, but there are too many dark hallways where there’s very little action. The total length is 14 minutes.

Darkmare is a simple Dark Maze with a couple of actors, air cannons and a bright flash of light. It’s uneventful and it would be more intense if there were twists, turns and dead ends. It’s just too simple of a maze to have any real impact on customers. It lasts under 4 minutes.

Caged is a modified version of  Ghostly Gauntlet. There’s plenty of fog, lunatics and mayhem. Actors try to misdirect you and you’ll eventually venture outside where ghouls hide behind cornstalks. You’ll reenter the inside portion before you’ll be able to exit Caged. The course is very easy. Caged could benefit from additional actors and possibly a few creative scenes to make the haunt more memorable. It can be a disorienting and intense experience for some. You’ll be out in under 4 minutes.

Quarantine and Eerie Chateau are the final haunts at Lake Eerie Fearfest. There’s no specific order you have to tour each haunt, but we recommend you start with the strongest haunt “Ghostly Manor” and end with the weakest haunt “Darkmare”.

Quarantine’s façade is decorated with skeleton prisoners who are dying for their great escape. Criminals have escaped their cells inside Quarantine and the medical staff has gone berserk. This is an off the wall haunt with a gory butcher scene, a rat stuck in a can, a victim with scissors in their eyes and much more. The experience is under 4 minutes.

Eerie Chateau is a 4 minute haunt where you’ll be cursed in an Egyptian Temple, view scary portraits, become an experiment in a dark laboratory, enter an animal trophy room and more. Some of the haunt is too dark and it’s a little hard to tell what you’re looking at. The rooms are a little random in nature, but Eerie Chateau is one of the strongest performing haunts at Lake Eerie Fearfest and has many qualities that make Ghostly Manor so entertaining.

Outside of the haunts are different props you can look at. My favorite was the Sleeping Giant. A giant appears to be knocked out from exhaustion when suddenly he rises from his slumber. Darkmare and Caged are fun attractions, but they’re too easy and don’t last long enough. This is the first year Ghostly Manor Thrill Center has included so many attractions and they are bound to improve with time. Ghostly Manor is still fun, but there’s some room for improvement with the other attractions. There’s too much dead space in Darkmare and Caged. This is one of the major reasons why the length is an 8 instead of a 9.

When you’re finished with all the haunts at Lake Eerie Fearfest, you’ll enter the Ghostly Manor Thrill Center where there’s tons of entertainment options at your disposal. This is a great venue for teens and families. If you’re too scared of the haunts at Lake Eerie Fearfest, you can enjoy their large skating rink, play some games, or play a little mini golf inside Wizard’s Journey, an interactive blacklight mini golf course.

Ghostly Manor Thrill Center is home to Oho’s only XD 3D Theater with movies like Canyon 3D Coaster, Haunted Mine, Aqua Ride, Cosmic Coaster and the brand new Snow Ride. Ticket prices start at $7 per movie. T-Shirts, novelty items and more is available at the Ghostly Gifts Store. There are plenty of concessions available at the snack bar.

Tickets for Lake Eerie Fearfest are $15 for Ghostly Manor, $25 for all 5 attractions, $25 for a Ghostly Manor Fast Pass and $35 for an all attraction Fast Pass. Keep your ticket for $1 off skating or mini golf. After the Halloween season has ended, Ghostly Manor will be getting ready for Christmas. Their synchronized Christmas extravaganza will blow you away and so will the other family fun events. So, please consider Ghostly Manor Thrill Center when Christmas time comes around.

Lake Eerie Fearfest has some areas that need to be addressed, but it’s still a great value for all of the different entertainment options that are available at the facility. You can skate, get scared, play some games, watch some movies and have fun.