| THE HAUNTED CAVE:
A pair of cemetery plots rest quietly alongside
the decent down the steep hill towards the entrance to Lewisburg's
Haunted
Cave. Buried a hundred feet beneath the ground in an abandoned
old limestone mine lies one of the most frightening haunts on the face
of the Earth! A Gatekeeper guards the entrance to the intimidating
subterranean, while an astounding
Mortician politely offers his
services just in case some members of your group don't survive the experience!
While waiting to enter, an apparent electrical malfunction briefly interrupts
power to the lights, until a maintenance technician equipped with a fire
extinguisher comes to the rescue! Navigating a wooden bridge-like
walkway leads deep into the darkened cavern, where lightning flashes, thunder
clasps, and sudden surprises emerge from the surrounding waters.
Hidden ghouls reach out and gently touch and grab at you as the intimidating
journey forces you to fight your way through brush that's overgrown the
walkway. Mystifying fog, and flames highlight a visit to a spooky
old graveyard, where coffins deliver more surprises, spooks reach down
grasping at you from above, a near collision with a hit and run driver
is narrowly avoided, and illuminated jack-o-lanterns light the way.
Irate monsters, skeletons and flying ghosts haunt the eerie boneyard, where
an undead soul is propelled forward out of an upright casket, and screams
bloody murder as she's projected practically directly into your path!
Coffins mysteriously open and close on their own, gravediggers loudly slam
down their shovels, gunshots ring out from a disgruntled
Undertaker,
upset that you're trespassing on his hallowed ground, and a victim runs
past screaming in agony because his hands have been set on fire!!
Caged prisoners desperately plea for help, while a Jailer-like character
attempts to bag and capture a member of your group, intending to incarcerate
him with the other hostages. Living walls are encountered through
a darkened maze that yields to another of the fence-like variety.
A crazed loony repeatedly misdirects you into several fog-filled dead ends,
until the one and only escape delivers you into the presence of The
Devil himself, seated on an elevated throne amid powerful blasts
of fire shooting up all around him! The Demon
King's voice amplifies and echoes throughout the cave, as The
Prince of Darkness happily welcomes you to Hell, and introduces
you to four possible paths of escape. One leads to a successful
getaway, providing you can locate an obscured route, while others return
you back to Lucifer's abode, where the Fallen Archangel wickedly
laughs and taunts at your predicament, and leads you into more temptation!
Wire mazes, strobes, unnerving sounds, and more fog confuse and disorient
the bravest of souls, while intimidating chainsaws, sparks, a spinning
vortex, and a multitude of surprises overwhelm your emotions, as you desperately
seek to uncover that lone beaten path that allows you to escape Satan's
abomination, and The Lewisburg Haunted Cave!
Analysis:
LENGTH - 10, 30 minutes, and possibly more depending
on the amount of time required to complete the various entrapments.
ACTORS - 9+, Just a tremendous job by the entire cast,
featuring energetically loud screams, and interacting dialogue throughout.
Adding the dimension of touch makes the experience that much more realistic.
Actually being contacted by some of the characters totally destroys one's
already frail sense of stability. Increased aggressiveness in the
right spots could raise the score even higher, although they'd have to
be careful not to go overboard when nudging someone in order not to offend,
or provoke a retaliatory response. Devil is by far the best.
SCARINESS - 9+, Quite an intense atmosphere in a legitimately
spooky environment. Bewildering strobes; loud, frightening music,
sounds, and screams; agitated creatures, and subtle touching, combine to
assault all your senses.
DESIGN - 9½, Lengthy, dark, and genuinely scary,
except for one failed attempt at humor (selling body parts for $1.99/lb)
that seems to be the downfall of more and more otherwise frightening attractions.
Queue line activities are a nice addition. Particularly like the
maze that repeatedly results in multiple confrontations with possibly the
best climax in the business - that ungodly encounter with Satan The
Devil.
PROPS - 9, Cemeteries are magnificent with a nice compliment
of animatronics. Use of fire is most effective, and realistically
impressive.
VALUE - 9+, A $1 price increase from a year ago, raises
the cost of admission to $9 with their website coupon. For that investment,
you're treated to one of the region's finest haunts.
RATING: 9+, The Cave has become one
of the best, most unique haunted attractions in the State of Ohio!
Introduction of some of this year's most impressive technological advances
(shock walls, claustrophobia) could possibly solidify Lewisburg's Cave
as our HAUNT OF THE YEAR! If you plan on visiting only a handful
of haunts this season, or haven't been there in a few years, don't miss
The
Haunted Cave! Getting in is easy, getting out may KILL you! |
