New this year at The Haunted Hydro is The House of Shocks. It’s a steel maze that has been taken over by ghouls and creatures from another world. Will you survive or will it be so shocking that you die from fright? This is our review of The House of Shocks.
Length-7: This steel maze will take around 7 minutes to escape. Unfortunately there aren’t enough scenes that make up this haunt.
Design-7: The House of Shocks is a pretty standard maze to navigate. There are various scenes such as a mad scientist’s laboratory, nuclear waste land and more. This maze would be more difficult if there were more routes you could take. But unfortunately there aren’t and you’ll be out in no time.
Props/Animatronics-6: This haunted maze isn’t full of many animatronics or fancy props. But the ones that fill up rooms are decent enough to compliment the rooms they are in. The most impressive prop you’ll come across is the classic electric chair. But besides that there really isn’t much that will have you taking a second look. The addition of more detailed decor and props would help this haunt immensely.
Acting-7: The characters that occupy The House of Shocks stay in character the entire time, but there just aren’t enough of them in this rather short maze. The most impressive actor of the night is the half human, half pig creature who intimidates customers with a live stun gun before they enter the maze. We were a bit unsure if it was an actual stun gun, but we weren’t going to find out for ourselves.
Scare Effect-7: This isn’t exactly a hair raising haunt, but it can be a bit nerve wrecking trying to find your way out. You’ll have numerous actors trying to point you in the wrong direction and when you least expect it a creature will emerge.
Fright Value: $10 is expensive for a haunt that lasts less then 10 minutes. If more scenes were added and the intensity was bumped up a notch, then it may be worth the admission price. It would be interesting to see if this haunt is around next year or if another attraction takes its place at The Haunted Hydro. Make sure and purchase a combo ticket to enter both The Haunted Hydro and The House of Shocks for the mere price of $15.
Final Stab-6.8: We were expecting much more from this haunted maze. When we first heard the name “The House of Shocks” we were expecting much of this haunt to be shocking or be made up of shock strips that actually shock. But it just ended up being your typical maze that is predictable in nature.