Mount Healthy Haunted Hall (Cincinnati, OH)
“Fairy Tales, Fairly Deadly”
By Noah Wullkotte: jollypumpkin@aol.com
A small graveyard leads to a building that’s guarded by a dragon. An old witch with rotten teeth and an appetite for children welcomes you to Mount Healthy Haunted Hall. Characters are hiding and even those caskets aren’t safe. This is Cincinnati’s longest running haunt. 28 years is a long time to be scaring a community and this season’s theme is Fairy Tales, Fairly Deadly. Some of the Fairy Tales I recognized right away and then there were scenes that had me scratching my head.
The Three Little Pigs features actors dressed as pigs sitting in electric chairs. An actor will ask if you want to sit down so you can feel a jolt of electricity. Alice in Wonderland has Alice puking her guts out as the White Rabbit asks you to solve a riddle. I don’t think this year’s theme was as scary or memorable compared to themes used in previous years. There were some standout characters like the elevator operator who paced back and forth as the homemade elevator moved. The witch from Hansel and Gretel did a fabulous job and was very creepy. She’ll take your ticket. The actor that somewhat resembled Beetlejuice did a decent job as he offered us some belly button jam. The characters in the pumpkin patch did a good job as well.
The acting is inconsistent at Mount Healthy Haunted. This is an all volunteer haunt and some of the young actors rely too much on screaming or making strange sounds. They need better direction. Mount Healthy Haunted Hall has one of the most effective vortex tunnels we see all season. It could be brighter, but it’s pretty wide and felt like it was actually spinning.
Mount Healthy Haunted Hall takes place inside and outside. You’ll cross paths with a variety of monsters including a troll who guards a bridge, Satan, Alice who chases customers with her gas powered chainsaw and many others. This is a haunt that’s well known for their Dark Maze. It’s one of the most difficult around. You’ll be ducking, crawling and fitting through tight spaces in order to find the exit. Total tour time is 22 minutes. The actual scenes took us around 12 minutes to complete, but it took us another10 minutes to escape the dark maze.
This is a somewhat fun haunt, but the theme didn’t do much for me. Some of the scenes were just confusing. If I have to wonder why a scene is scary or what I’m looking at then there’s a big issue. The genie missing his hands and letting us look at his store was just bizarre. A few scenes were a little humorous, but not scary. The scariest part of Mount Healthy Haunted Hall is of course the Dark Maze. It can be a little nerve wrecking as you try to find your way out.
Tickets are $10 per person and you get $2 off admission with a canned good donation. A Fast Pass to skip the line is $15. Bring 2 cans of Soup on Soupy Sundays for $5 off admission. Other canned goods get a $2 discount. Click here to get $3 off, or $5 off with a canned good donation during their first weekend. There are various concessions available such as popcorn, hot dogs, hot chocolate and more. Proceeds benefit t the Madonna Council Knights of Columbus and other charities.
Length-9 Design-5 Props/Animatronics-5 Acting-6 Scare Effect-6
Final Stab: 6.2
www.hauntedhallinfo.com