Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall 2014 Review

Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall (Cincinnati, OH)
“The Wonderful Wizard of Ooze!”
By Noah Wullkotte: Jollypumpkin@aol.com

Welcome to Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall. Dorothy, the Wicked Witch, the Scarecrow and Tin Man can be seen outside of the haunt as people anxiously wait to get inside. Poor Tin Man has had an accident and he’s missing his head. It’s the Wonderful Wizard of Ooze. This year, the monsters of the silver screen come to life as the Nosferatu Theater opens for business. Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall celebrates their 25th year of terror by playing tribute to some of the most well known horror movies around. Our favorite horror movie recreation has to be Frankenstein’s Laboratory. You become part of the action as you’re asked to pull the switch to help Frankenstein’s monster spring to life.

Most of the scenes have signs that tell which movie you’re about to experience. Because most of the cast is small in stature, some of the scenes aren’t as intense as they could be. The Freddy Krueger scene has the iconic killer, but the actor was about a foot shorter than I am and I’m only 5”7. Ghostface from Scream was also very small.

You’ll experience many horror favorites like Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Little Shop of Horrors, Stephen King’s It and much more. The actor playing Pennywise the Clown didn’t look like the evil clown from the classic horror movie. It just came off as cheesy instead of scary. Leatherface had his usual chainsaw and did his best to startle us.

You will enter scenes that revolve around classics like Dracula , The Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, The Wolf Man and more. Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall does a decent job at bringing these classics to life. But as I said earlier, Frankenstein’s Laboratory is the best.

Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall is well known for their large homemade vortex tunnel. They’re one of the first in the area to feature this popular prop and it’s one of the best around. Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall also has the Hellevator. An elevator operator can be seen hitting the sides of the wall as he terrorizes customers inside. Pick floor 13 and you’ll be taken straight to Hell. You’ll meet one of Satan’s minions later in the haunt as you duck underneath her throne.

There are some pretty neat scenes at Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall. You’ll definitely get wet as you walk under the outhouse and you might get lost in the infamous dark maze. Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall has one of the best designed dark mazes of any haunt you will go to. We were out in under 10 minutes, but some people might be stuck in there for a while if they don’t know the trick.

Tickets are $10 and $8 with a canned good donation. Fast Passes are available for $15. Bring in 2 cans of soup on Soupy Sundays to get in for only $5. You can’t beat that price. There are tasty concessions available. Cans of pop are 75 cents, popcorn and hot chocolate is 50 cents. The tour time was around 20 minutes, but could be longer depending on how long you’re stuck in the maze.

We really enjoyed this year’s theme, but it could have been executed better. Some of the characters just aren’t intimidating because of how small they are and some scenes could have had more detail. This is a great haunt to bring your family and is appropriate for all ages. It’s sponsored by the Madonna Knights of Columbus and assisted by youth organizations. Proceeds benefit these groups and charities. We’ve been touring Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall since we were very young and it just doesn’t feel like the Halloween season without Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall.