Night Fright Haunted Trail-“Be Scared Shirtless”
There is no better time of the year than the fall season. The Leaves are beginning to fall, the temperatures are changing and people are gearing up to visit haunts across the country. It really can’t get any better than this. Friday night we decided to head out to New Carlisle Ohio for a haunted trail we had never been to. We had heard great things about this haunt, but weren’t sure what to exactly expect. We were ready to have the shirts scared off us and for the most part we had a great time, but left wanting more. This is the review of Night Fright Haunted Trail at Silver Lake Beach.
Length-9: Night Fright Haunted Trail can take anywhere from 20-25 minutes to go through. There are moments where there is complete silence with little happening, but most of this haunt is action packed.
Design-7: Night Fright Haunted Trail contains a variety of scenes that cater to many people. These include a moonshine shack, carnival tent, a large dark maze, mysterious graveyard, haunted school bus and much more to quench your thirst for the sick and twisted. If you are new in experiencing haunted trails for the first time you’ll be impressed by the amount of different scenes Night Fright Haunted Trail offers, but there just isn’t enough originality compared to other haunted trails in Ohio.
There needs to be a more consistent flow from scene to scene instead of going from one drastically different room to the next without having anything but dark space between some of the rooms. Night Fright Haunted Trail could be an incredibly designed haunted trail if a few improvements were made to the design.
Props/Animatronics-7: I commend Night Fright Haunted Trail for making the majority of their props. This sets them apart from many places because if you are making your own props it becomes difficult for other haunts to duplicate. Props include flying corpses, barf barrel ghouls, rising skeletons, a possessed snake and much more. Because most of the moving props aren’t electric, they must be activated by actors or other means and this creates a unique experience in how they are set off. There were a few instances where we were able to see the extension cords or wires leading to some of the animatronics, but this was far and few between.
Acting-6: There must be nearly 30 actors or more roaming around this haunted trail. But most actors you’ll come in contact with rely on cheap rubber masks which doesn’t help in creating realistic characters. Makeup or prosthetics would help many of the actors be able to better interact with customers instead of having their face covered with a thick mask. Towards the end of the haunt while we went through the large dark maze, many of the actors were rude and broke character because we were going the wrong way. Moments like this help people remember that this is a haunted trail they payed for instead of an experience that should be believable.
Scare Effect-6: As I said before this is a lengthy haunted trail and has some tense moments leading up to scenes. There are actors who may not catch you off guard, but some scenes are very creepy. One in particular is the haunted graveyard. There are so many corpses flying every which way you turn that it’s hard to predict what is going to happen next. As the season goes on I’m certain that the actors timing will get better and scenes will have a better flow to them. This will help in creating a more sinister and spooky atmosphere.
Customer Service: Parking is completely free and the lot is very safe. There aren’t too many conessions available at the ticket booth, but your primary focus is the haunt anyway. The staff is very friendly, but a few of the actors towards the end of the haunt were rather rude. Overall we had an enjoyable experience.
Fright Value: $11 is a bit high for a haunted trail with many budget props and not very many original concepts. If a couple dollars are knocked off the ticket price Night Fright Haunted Trail could be worth its price for admission. Please make sure to print out the $1 off ticket at www.silverlakebeach.com/haunted.
Final Stab-7:0: This isn’t a bad haunted trail whatsoever. There just needs to be some changes made to make it more original and scary. Makeup and prosthetics need to be used more on characters while a few of the actors need to take their job more seriously. Most likely many of the actors are volunteer, but people are paying good money to go through this haunt. With enough changes made this could become a classic haunted trail that people come from far away to visit. This is a decent haunted trail, but could be incredible.