Terrorfying

After a seven-year stint of pirates who knew nothing other than spinning tunnels and jokes about “booty”, the masterminds of the Halloween Haunt at Valleyscare dreamed up something entirely different that would bring a stark contrast to the pirates we all knew and tried to love. This change came under the semblance of actors/actresses with cheesy british accents, an attempt at something called “steam-punk”, and a new Haunt we will now refer to as, “London Terror”.

Set in the depths of the Soak City, guests were greeted by a large sign that read “London Terror”, covering the Soak City that is located next to Looping Starship. As they approached the maze, the line led right up to a Med-Vac tent that laid the foundation for a theme-heavy, but sparsely prop-supported maze. Each and every room had a concept; an idea that inherently was good. After seeing some of the concept artwork for some of the rooms within the maze, we were initially really impressed with London Terror. However, the ultimate question that stuck in our minds was, Is this all going to come to fruition? Will it be impressive as they’re planning it to be? Our conclusion? Yeah, sort-of.

The rooms inside the maze were either hit-or-miss, and when they hit, we really mean that they hit it — they were great! However, the ones that missed (at least for us) were true downsides to the maze, and really detracted from our overall experience. For example:

Good Room: The Pub. Decent amount of themeing, could’ve been a little bit more detail, but nonetheless was a great addition to the maze.

Bad Room: The Police Station. It was a great room on paper and was supposed to look really great, but overall it felt short in detail and all-in-all we couldn’t even discern whether or not it was a court room or a police station.

Good Room: The Gas Station/Steam Station scene. The car, the props, the facade . . . everything was great, and the transition from inside to outside was great. Everything felt very “together” and well thought out.

Bad Room: The Watch Shop. Think of going into a clock store and walking through it in a matter of 4 seconds. That was this room.

So, as we explained, there were some high-points as well as some low-points. The transitions from indoors to outdoors and vice versa were good and bad at parts as well. We think that if there were more pronounced facades for each scene that the maze would’ve been miles better than it was. In addition, more detail and props would’ve been great throughout the entire maze and not just in some rooms — The maze seemed empty and lifeless in some parts, and then jam-packed with detail in others.

In essence, we’re kind of torn with London Terror. The potential is incredible, but the main question that left us worried is, Will we see this potentiality actualize? Carnage has traditionally been one of the last mazes constructed, and if we remember right, London was built pretty late as well. We know for a fact that it wasn’t completed on Opening Night of Haunt, though evidently all mazes had some tweaks after Opening Weekend. With that said, if the masterminds behind London started a bit earlier on construction and carried out the amazing ideas they had to begin with, we firmly believe London could be the maze at Haunt. The actors and actresses were all spot-on, and given their environment/space they had to work with, it was very impressive from a theatrical standpoint.

We truly do hope that London Terror will step up its game next year, and that it will fully become what it was created to be. All things considered though, for its first year, we give the Haunt staff a standing ovation at this marvel of a replacement. Well-done folks, well-done.

Atmosfear – 3/5 Skulls

Talent – 4.5/5 Skulls

Layout – 3/5 Skulls

Overall – 3.5/5 Skulls