“Doctor Colin Sheppard’s Great Escape”
By Noah Wullkotte: Jollypumpkin@aol.com
This will be our first year experiencing the infamous Nightmare Haunted House and Terror on Tates Creek Road. They’re both located at Wicked World Scaregrounds in Lexington, KY. We didn’t really know what to expect from either haunt, but we knew we would have a good time either way. The first haunt we entered that night was Nightmare Haunted House, Wicked World’s best known attraction.
Nightmare Haunted House begins as you enter an old fashioned movie theater to watch a short film explaining the twisted history or Mercy Hospital and Nightmare Haunted House. A surprise awaits you in the haunted theater and you will meet Doctor Collin Sheppard, the haunt’s lead character. From there you’ll be transported into a world of ultimate malpractice while you walk the halls of Mercy Hospital. Mercy Hospital may be the most corrupt hospital in the nation with patients praying to escape and unspeakable acts of horror waiting for you around every corner.
The minds behind Nightmare Haunted House do a great job designing the haunt to look like an old abandoned hospital. Many of its walls look blood stained or as if they’ve been deteriorating over the years. You’ll experience an X-Ray Examining room, a dark boiler room, a morgue, a crematorium and more. There are a lot of surprises along the way like Nightmare Haunted House’s intense elevator ride with an elevator operator that’s from the pits of hell. You better hang on to the person you came with because, this is a very animated scene with the elevator’s cords snapping and the elevator plummeting out of control.
Nightmare Haunted House is full of sick and mentally deranged patients waiting to snap. The acting is quite good and some of the scenes are quite stunning. One room features a stone wall that has a small waterfall with flowing water. Off in the corner is a creepy organist that plays a little tune for his audience. Nightmare’s nursery is also very unusual. It includes babies behind what looks like a buffet style glass station and suddenly a baby doll pops up and hits the glass. There’s a lot of little things here and there that some people may not pick up on. This is the case with the freezer. Frozen bodies hang from the ceiling as the temperature decreases. It’s ice cold just like a real human meat locker. A lot of thought has been put into the haunt. When you are entering a few scenes, lights flicker off and on as if some evil spirit is playing with the electricity or something has terribly gone wrong with the lighting.
Nightmare Haunted House is a great little haunt that stands out among other attractions in the Lexington area because of its highly detailed hospital themed rooms and its unique elements. There are areas it could work on such as its length. The Haunt lasts under 15 minutes and some of the scenes are just too similar. The acting from some of the characters is great, but then there are some actors who are just mediocre. The best acting of the night goes to the insane asylum patient that devilishly laughs as she stands on a gurney.
We had officially survived Nightmare Haunted House and we were ready for Terror on Tates Creek Road. I had planned on taking pictures of each haunt, but unfortunately I had a girl hanging onto my back during the trail and a family behind me during Nightmare Haunted House. The girl was so petrified that at certain points of the haunted trail, she almost pulled me down to the ground as she had a firm grasp on my hoodie. I will never understand some people. Terror on Tates Creek Road begins with you entering a realistically designed cabin that has you waiting a few minutes in its queue line. The haunt is centered around an old carnival (aka Darkwood Carnival) that has been abandoned and tells the sad tale of Ivan the Barker.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much that’s memorable about this haunt. There are a lot of dead spots with only a couple scenes that stand out. The intro that features an old fashioned magic card machine is creative. It reminded me a little of the fortune teller machine in the movie “Big”. The rest of the haunt is themed poorly. Some of the scenes just seem like they were put together at the last second and don’t flow very well. The most impressive scene at Terror on Tates Creek Road is the tilting room that’s home to an evil clown. But, the rest of the haunt doesn’t deliver many scares and is nowhere near as entertaining as Nightmare Haunted House. It has a lot of potential, but right now it’s just a standard haunted trail.Nightmare Haunted House is $12 and $20 for a speed pass. Terror on Tates Creek Road is priced too high at $12 a ticket and $20 for a speed pass. You can purchase a combo ticket for $20 or a speed pass combo ticket for $30.
Honestly, Nightmare Haunted House is pretty damn good, but Terror on Tates Creek Road left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I hope changes are made to this haunted trail and it can eventually stand toe to toe with Nightmare Haunted House. Both haunts are fun, but Nightmare Haunted House is the true star at Wicked World Scare Grounds. It has great design, good acting and some unique scares.
Final Stab For Each Haunt
*Nightmare Haunted House
Length-8 Design-9 Props/Animatronics-8 Acting-8 Scare Effect-8 Final Stab: 8.2
*Terror on Tates Creek Road
Length-7 Design-6 Props/Animatronics-6 Acting-5 Scare Effect-6 Final Stab: 6.0
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