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Summary:
Statesville Haunted Prison:
Even before you enter
the attraction, they made you feel like a prisoner by herding
you from staging area to staging area. Before entering the
haunted house, patrons were moved from a covered tent to a
chain-link fence cage, then to a dark area with bars on the
windows. Some harsh and insulting language is used by the
staff, so keep in mind that this attraction is not meant for
young children. Their intro scene is the same one they
have been using for a number of years now. If you have
never seen it before, it's outstanding; however, after seeing it
for a few years straight, it loses some of its impact.
Throughout the
attraction they assaulted your senses with multiple strobe
lights, loud sound effects and fog. A number of the scenes
followed the general prison theme. In one area you had to
duck down to get through a tilted hallway, while being taunted
by actors behind barred windows. One of their new effects
is called "claustrophobia", which is a pair of inflated air bags
where you have to squeeze your way through. It definitely
gave me a claustrophobic feeling! The main scenes that
really stood out at Statesville were the Insane Asylum and the
clown area.
I really enjoyed the
Insane Asylum part of the attraction, with its white walls,
strobe lights and fog-filled hallways. Wandering
throughout the area were actors wearing white clothing and
straight jackets. Throughout the scene, there were
Plexiglas floors with strobe lights flashing from underneath, as
well as transparent enclosures that allowed the actors to follow
you along, as you worked your way through the scene.
They really did an
outstanding job of remodeling the red/white checkerboard clown
area, making it bigger and better than last year. Numerous
strobe lights were used throughout the scene to disorient you.
There were more clowns than you could shake a stick at and they
were grabbing at you from up
above, reaching over walls and attacking from every
direction. They even had a red/white checkerboard
version of the "claustrophobia" effect I mentioned earlier
in this review. One of the parts of the clown area that
really stood out was the red/mirror checkerboard room. One
of the walls had a
red/mirror checkerboard pattern; however, when I looped around
the other side of the wall, I could see that it wasn't
really a regular wall; they made clever use of a two way
mirror. You could actually see the previous scene by
looking in-between the red painted squares on the two way mirror.
That was very creative.
For the most part, all
of the actors had high-energy performances and stayed in
character. They had costumes that fit the scenes they were
in and they did a good job with make-up, too. Overall,
actor performance was on target. Even though I attended
on a week day, they were still very well staffed. There
was an ample amount of actors in most of the scenes.
Unfortunately, due to all of the fog and strobe lights, it is
possible to miss some of their great performances, if you aren't
paying close attention.
City
of the Dead:
The detailed mausoleum
facade helped set the mood, before you even enter the
attraction. There was a great intro scene, which ended in
a huge 12 foot tall animatronic monster walking toward the
crowd. After that, the tour continued through various
areas with zombie-like creatures, body parts, bones, tombstones
and other props that fit in with the main theme of the
attraction. I liked the tree mirror maze, with its
realistic, textured trees. The cave scene was also
well-done. The walls were textured like stone and there
were some great sound effects, as well as creepy mood lighting.
The raised graveyard also looked great, featuring cross-shaped
grave markers that glowed under black light. There were a
lot of actors in this attraction and in some areas there were
probably too many. In a couple of the scenes, they
were nearly bumping into each other, as they jumped out of their
hiding places. Most of the actors in this attraction were
fairly short, making them less intimidating than many of their
Statesville Prison counterparts; however, they were all very
eager to jump out and try to get a scare.
The Statesville crew put
on a great show this year. Of the two attractions, I liked
the Statesville Haunted Prison the best, because of its higher
intensity, good acting and the fact that is the larger of the
two attractions. Unfortunately this year they raised the
admission price to $30 per person, which really affected the
"bang for your buck" factor for this event. While they put on a
good show, $30 is just too much to pay, for this or any
other haunted attraction.
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