Haunted House Review: Indy ScreamPark
Posted on 11. Oct, 2010 by The Gimcracker in Miscellaniac
Fall is my favorite time of year for so many reasons. One of them is going to haunted houses in October. Why do I like haunted houses so much? You pay $10 to spend 2 minutes in a nasty building where high school kids jump out at you and the walls are smeared with red paint. That shouldn’t be appealing, but for some reason it is. We yearn for that feeling of fright that only the macabre can bring, which is why we love telling scary stories and tales like Sleep Hollow around a brisk fall campfire. Hot apple cider. Scarecrows. Pumpkin patches. Harvest moons. Boom – you are now in autumn mode.
I’ve been to some great haunted houses. The best one I’ve ever been to is the Mysterious Mansion in Gatlinburg TN. It’s a year-round haunted house, which means the fixtures are permanent instead of toted in just for the season. The place is very well thought out and offers some unique and terrifying thrills. Just look at this place:
The Mysterious Mansion is indeed one of the best in the country. Now, get ready to read about one of the worst.
Indy ScreamPark is a new park for 2010 as far as I am aware. It consists of 5 separate attractions as well as a “Monster Midway” that sells refreshments and offers a few Halloween midway type games. It is located in Anderson, Indiana, and takes place in a building that hosts paintball games during the rest of the year. One of the attractions is a unique 3D haunted house called Bedlam 3D. It was pretty original and well-themed. Wearing 3D glasses, you progress through the halls which are all painted with special blacklight-sensitive paint which also gives a trippy sense that everything is popping out at you.
The next attraction was a completely blacked-out maze called Kurayami, which features a really weird hall with walls made of pressurized air that completely squeezes you in, giving you a strong feeling of claustrophobia and suffocation that seemingly never ends until you finally emerge about 20 feet down the corridor. That is about where the good part of the experience ends. Instead of going through and critiquing every single element of Indy ScreamPark, I present a pros and cons list for your reading pleasure:
Pros
- They sell beer.
- They have one of those spinning hallways that completely throws you off your balance.
Cons
- Parking costs $5 which is not indicated anywhere on the website
- The total admission price for non-VIP is $25, regardless of how many of the attractions you visit.
- Although it says “Indy” ScreamPark, it is actually 45 minutes away in a different town called Anderson.
- There really is nothing haunted about it. All of the attractions simply feature gory killers ravaging female victims.
- Once you enter the green pavilion, you are forced to go through 3 of the 5 attractions, meaning you can’t pick and choose and experience each one at your leisure.
- Water costs $2 (no other source of water)
- The line for the Backwoods attraction (which completely sucked) was an hour and 15 minutes
- The Corn Maze was not a maze. It was simply a solitary path through a field of corn with no more than 3 people that jump out at you along the way. (We didn’t have time to visit this attraction – a friend informed me of this)
- VIP guests ($35 instead of $25) get to completely cut all other guests and are admitted into attractions at a rate of 2 VIP guests to 1 regular guest (even though regular guests still paid 25 freaking bucks to be there).
- Attempting to politely talk with employees about the problem of waiting in line yields a curt rebuttal, if any response at all.
- Very few animatronics, despite the website descriptions.
- Annoyingly-loud radio station blaring through PA speakers everywhere in the park.
- 15 minute wait just to park before entering (we got there early before the wait – a friend told me about the line later in the night).
Here’s an image of the “Monster Midway”, which as you can see is clearly nothing more than a couple of lousy tents setup on a gravel path:
I could go on and on. There was a complete lack of management and organization. There was no information on any of the attractions, and no indication as to how long waits were, or what the various attractions even were. I would highly recommend NOT EVER visiting this terrible park. We were so bummed after waiting in line for an hour and 15 minutes for the 4th attraction because we ran out of time to visit the corn maze. Our experience was not unique, scary, or fun. Needless to say the hour drive home was a downer. Please don’t give this terribly-run haunted house park any of your hard earned money. And if you decide to for some reason, get the VIP pass because you can save a few hours of your life. I’d say that’s worth the $10 extra.
Agreed. Can I just copy this post for my review? Thanks.
NO! I want to see you tear it up yourself!
Agreed, this was the worst haunted event I have ever been too, it is highly advertised and sounds great but was very lame. I would not reccomend anyone to spend their hard earned money here.
However, I do highly reccomend the Sanitarium in Elwood, half the price and is a great scare! Not just because someone jumps out and screams BOO! Very well thought out and creative!
I agree on all points. The marketing was very misleading. I will stick to the local Hanna Haunted Acres!
Glad I googled reviews for this park! I was actually considering going there with my family! Thanks so much for the review!
Yeah.. this place sucked. It was literally the most unimaginative, boring, lame "haunted" attraction I've ever been to.
Go to Scarevania Haunted house were the most original haunted house in indiana!!
Wow…this place sounds HORRIBLE!! We are going to a haunted house tonight and I was lookin at reviews online before we chose which to go to. Needless to say, after reading this review, we will NOT be attending this POS park! Thank's for the honest review!
I couldn't disagree with this review more. Just went here last night (a Friday night) around 8:30pm with my fiance, got a VIP ticket for 5 extra bucks, didn't wait longer than 2 minutes on any of the lines. General admission lines were longer but not too bad.
I have only two cons: The pitch black attraction wasn't as good as I hoped, but mainly because I was concerned about the people behind us running into us and how one of them was intent on ruining the attraction by using a cell phone to light it up because they were afraid. Folks, if you're not into being scared, don't come. Don't ruin it for everyone else.
The other con is that it seemed that only the people in the front of the group get the really good scares. This worked out good for us most of the time because we were VIP, but we wound up in an awkward place walking through the corn field so we didn't really get any good frights there.
Other than that, we both thought it was outstanding! The other two indoor attractions were TONS of fun and very well played by the actors. Even though its not real, even though you know you're not gonna get chainsawed, even though you know they can't touch you and even though you know theres just GOTTA be someone around that next corner, it still manages to scare the crap outta ya. Backwoods was just as good as I hoped too, maybe the best one there. Very well done! Kudos to the employees. They obviously love what they do and it shows.
This place is for fans of b-movie horror, survival horror video games and the like. For a brief moment you can feel like you're in the movie/game. Places like this are what you make it. If you go into it with a whiny, crappy, superior attitude then you're just going to ruin the experience for yourself and everyone within earshot of your bad attitude. It is what you make it. (Though, granted, your experience might be affected by your place in the group)
We drove an hour and 40 minutes to this place, spent an hour there and drove an hour and 40 minutes back and it was worth every traveling minute and every penny spent.
I just can't see paying to be scared.
One time in high school I went to a haunted house and hayride. At one point I was picked up (literally) by one of the haunteers. Once in his grasp, he started running, carrying me towards a nearby corn field. My friend punched him in the arm before he put me down (unharmed). I'm pretty sure I peed on him a little.
Gosh, I had successfully blocked that experience out for years until just now…
u people are fucking retarted
Just so everyone knows this attraction was awarded the best new haunted attraction in America. I believe the website that gives the awards are currant haunted attraction owners so they must know something. I actually couldn't disagree more with this review I think this place is one of the best haunted attractions in the whole state of Indiana. But thats just my opinion.
come back this year. kinda not fair to review something you did not completely experience. lot of new additions to the park.
[youtube jb8nqg3o7do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb8nqg3o7do youtube]
This place is so much better this year. The midway got re-done (it doesn't even look like the picture in the review) and the corn is a whole new haunt.
Just went to Indy Scream park drove 2 hours and was very very disappointed. The advertising did its job at getting me there. Not scary at all!!!!! I would not recommend wasting time or money.
I was extremely disappointed with this park. With all the billboards and advertisements, my dad and I really thought this park had a lot of potential. I agree with the article's author in that the park showed a complete lack of organization and professionalism. We had to pay to park (I've never been to another park where this was the case), waited in line for an hour, and the staff were so eager to shove people through that we ended up stuck in people traffic jams, the scares were ruined for us because their timing for groups was terrible, and twice during our visit the scarers came out of character to talk to each other.
This park is all looks but no substance. Don't waste your time or money.
What the heck, there are more cons than pros. This wouldn't sell…