Hell’s Dungeon (Dayton, OH)
“Lord Rufus Reigns Supreme”
By Noah Wullkotte: jollypumpkin@aol.com
Welcome to the thrilling adventure of Hell’s Dungeon, a captivating realm teeming with mysterious creatures, crazed psychopaths, and spine-tingling encounters. This is City Blood’s review of a haunt that will surely entertain you.
Hell’s Dungeon is much easier to find this year. There’s a very visible light up sign, wavy inflatable guy, fog machine and a concessions trailer. It’s like a whole new haunt once you step inside. The place is beautifully decorated and the closer you get to the ticket booth, the more it resembles a dungeon.
Hell’s Dungeon consists of 3 sections. These are the Bayou, Asylum and the 3D Circus and Sideshow. You’ll meet Lord Rufus who welcomes you to the haunt. Beware of the rejects who will rip you to shreds. This is a lengthy haunt lasting 25 minutes, but if could be longer depending on your interaction with the various characters. There are very few dead spots where little is happening.
There are plenty of eye catching props you’ll encounter and some are massive. The large clown head and killer jack-o-lantern will catch you off guard. The electric chair and vortex tunnel were great. Who doesn’t love a spinning vortex that leads to the pits of Hell? You’ll also experience a shaking coffin, animated monkey, claustrophobia tunnel, an airplane and much much more. The saw cutting into a poor helpless man was disgusting. There are little details here and there that we appreciated. The box of pizza that said Hell’s Kitchen Pizza was very creative.
The actors are very enthusiastic. We didn’t encounter any that resorted to screaming or using lines like “What are you doing here” or “fresh meat”. They all seemed to be having fun scaring the life out of us. Our favorite actor was the girl who played a mental patient. She kept screaming about how she ripped her baby to shreds and burned the body. The elevator operator was pretty intimidating as he aimlessly stared at us. The girl in the classroom who through pieces of her book at us was a hoot and the chained up victim who can been seen later in the haunt had us feeling sorry for her.
You’ll encounter many interesting characters. There’s the bearded lady in the freak show, the half man half fly, a girl dressed as a doll, plenty of twisted clowns and so much more in the way of ghouls and monsters. The costuming is pretty good as well. We liked the creature that was covered in eyeballs and the towering robot that wanted to take out lives. One of the clowns got inches from hitting us with a mallet and it made me jump a mile high. The are also plenty of rednecks (aka Firewood Gang) and a ghostly bride that walks around the cemetery. Press the button in the circus to see a clown spring to life.
There’s something for everyone at Hell’s Dungeon. You’ll walk through a cemetery, a funeral parlor, classroom, decontamination chamber, spider’s lair, dentist’s room, Polk-a-dot room and so much more. We loved how much variety there was in the way of scenes. One of our favorites was the silly string room and the artwork in the 3D area was impressive to say the least.
The majority of the haunt doesn’t really have any music. Adding a soundtrack in some of the scenes would definitely enhance the experience. It was a little confusing as to where to go sometimes, but luckily there were actors pointing us in the right direction. We love it when haunts make changes year after year and that’s exactly what Hell’s Dungeon did. It’s more intense than ever and there’s something for everyone like I said earlier.
General admission is $26 which is a good value for a haunt that’s close to 30 minutes long. There are tasty and refreshing concessions available like corn dogs, french fries, chili cheese fries, chicken tenders, soda and more that can be found outside at Dave’s Dog House. There are socks, jewelry and more available when you exit. Also, don’t forget to pick up your group photo that was taken before the start of the haunt. The Lights on Trick or Treat Matinee takes place on Saturday, October 21st from 1-5pm. Hell’s Dungeon will be open one Sunday this year and that will be October 29th. Tickets are just $15 and it runs from 6pm-9pm. Christmas Clash: Krampus VS St. Nick is on December 15th and 16th from 8pm-11pm.
Hell’s Dungeon is frightfully fun and a great way to spend a night full of scares. Check them out this Halloween season!
Length-9 Design-7 Props-8 Acting-8 Scare Effect-8
Final Stab: 8.0
www.survivehellsdungeon.com