Summary:

Statesville Haunted Prison:

From the moment you enter the Statesville grounds, you feel the haunted prison vibe, as you are herded in an orderly fashion from the queue line area to various cages and staging areas.  The tour through the haunted prison officially kicked off with an introduction provided by "The Warden".  It should be noted that they have done the same intro scene for several years now, so it might be time for a change. Those who have never seen it before will most likely find it very entertaining; however, for me personally I think it has lost a lot of its appeal, since I have seen it several years in a row.  They did enhance the scene, though, with a higher-quality soundtrack and some accent lighting.

After the intro was over, patrons made their way through three sections of the attraction: the prison, the insane asylum and the clown area.  The prison section consisted of strobe-lit rows of prison cells, with hanging bodies that you had to push out of the way.  Around every corner, there were actors popping out at you. The disgusting bathroom scene featured grimy walls, an "inmate" urinating in a trough and rows of feces-smeared toilets.  Near the end of the scene, there was a startle scare that I didn't see coming.  In the prison area, patrons also walked through a full-size bus with strobe lights, sparking special effects and loud rock music playing.    

After walking through the prison section, patrons were lined up to enter the insane asylum. As people waited in line, they were shown a creepy asylum video on the far wall. The insane asylum consisted of a number of areas, laid out in a zig-zag path.  Most of the asylum was accented with slow blinking yellow lights, to help set the mood and many of the walls were grimy, with holes punched in them. The most visually appealing area of the insane asylum had bodies hanging from hooks, a guy in a wheelchair with his brain exposed and various other twitching bodies. The up and down ramps in this area made the scene more fun to traverse.  

Of all the areas inside the haunted prison, I was impressed with the clown area the most. They had completely revamped this section since last year. One set of hallways consisted of Plexiglas walls with a red / transparent checkerboard pattern on them.  This provided a nice view of actors and other patrons walking in neighboring hallways.  There were also a couple of places where I wasn't sure if the clowns were real or just props, which just added to the confusion. My personal favorite part of the clown area was the endless hallway illusion. This path had walls with a red / mirror checkerboard pattern and was illuminated by a strobe light. The illusion was so effective that I actually ran into the end of the hallway. It looked like it went on forever.

The actors in Statesville Haunted Prison did a great job. Most of them had very high energy, lunging attacks.  This was effective most the time; however, a number of the scare attempts were loud banging sounds and inmates yelling in your year, which was more annoying than scary.  The insane asylum actors were very creepy and the actors in the clown area had high-energy performances and were basically bouncing off the walls.     

City of the Dead:

City of the dead was the smaller of the two attractions at Statesville.  It was also the tamest of the two.  The facade and the first few hallways of the attraction had been revamped to resemble a mine shaft, with old weathered wood and lanterns hanging in the corners. There was a new intro scene with a dark character that floated above your head, out on a platform.  At the end of the intro, there was a surprise attack that I didn't see coming. Throughout most of the attraction, textured "rock" walls resembled what you might see in an underground cave. The majority of City of the Dead was illuminated with black lights, and tribal music played in several areas, to add to the creepy atmosphere. While walking through the attraction, actors would reach out of alcoves, to scare you. In one area there were raised platforms, topped off with tombstones and grave markers. There was also an area where you had to duck down to get through to the next scene. In one of the last sections of City of the Dead, there was a coffin mirror maze that was illuminated by dim red LED lighting. As my group walk through, vampires made sneak attacks from behind the coffins.

Actors in the City of the Dead were a bit less intense than those in the main Statesville attraction. For the most part, the actors in this haunted house were not is distinctive as those in the haunted prison. Most of them spoke in gibberish and were wearing dark hooded cloaks, with makeup that glowed.  While many of the actors employed pop-out types scares, only some of the scare attempts were effective, because a lot of the actors were already in plain sight.  Other actors in the house were more creepy than scary, invading your personal space.

Kudos to the Statesville Haunted Prison crew. They really put on a good show this year. I really enjoyed the revamped clown area, as well as the new opening scenes in the City of the Dead. While this event is very entertaining, their ticket price is still excessive. Considering the length of the show and entertainment value provided, $30 is just way too much to pay, period!    

To find out more about this event, visit:

http://www.statesvillehauntedprison.com/