Verona Field of Screams-“Let The Darkness Take Over”
It was a dark and mysterious night. The weather was rather warm for this time of the year, but a perfect night for haunts none the less. Tonight we were going to visit a first year haunt by the name of “Verona Field of Screams”. I was quite looking forward to this haunt, but would sadly be disappointed.
Length-7: Your adventure through the woods will take nearly 40 minutes, but the majority of this outdoor hayride is darkness with around 5 minutes worth of scenes thrown in. A haunt may take up to an hour to tour, but without scenes or rooms time means nothing.
Design-3: There is truly a lack of design when it comes to Verona Field of Screams. You will come across poorly conceived rooms and scenes that feel like they’ve been thrown together at the last minute. The first 15 minutes of your haunted ride consists of nothing, but sounds of crickets and complete darkness. Some scenes you’ll encounter are a hill billy shack, zombie graveyard, gorilla attack and a poorly utilized barn that has much potential with the given time and effort.
Props/Animatronics-3: The only memorable prop is a dimly lit bull dozer that will chase you while you venture into the woods. There is a lack of eye candy throughout many of the scenes and rooms.
Acting-3: Verona Field of Screams greatly suffers from a lack of actors and a large amount of money needs to be used for an acting coach. The people being utilized as actors are enthusiastic, but need some lines and motivation to be convincing.
Scare Effect-3: There aren’t any standout moments that will give you chills or make you jump. The scariest part of this haunt is the dead silence that takes up over 20 minutes of this hayride.
Fright Value: $10 is the average price you’ll come across with the majority of haunted hayrides. But at $10 Verona Field of Screams isn’t worth the price of admission. If the ticket price is cut in half and a $2 off coupon was thrown into the mix it may be worth a visit. But as of now I wouldn’t suggest you spending your hard earned money on this haunted hayride.
Final Stab-3.8: Here is a prime example of a haunt that has a huge amount of potential. The sheer amount of land that isn’t being used is staggering. If more scenes, professional actors and much more time and effort were put into this haunt it could be a classic. But as I see it, this is another haunt that needs to take a look at their competition to get some inspiration in improving their haunted hayride.