| 2007
OHIO VALLEY HAUNTS MULTI - VENUE HAUNT OF THE YEAR! |
| INDUSTRIAL
NIGHTMARE |
|
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| OVERALL
RATING: 9½ |
| Reviewed
9/29 & 10/11/07 |
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| click
logo above to visit their website |
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| LOCATION
& ADMISSION INFO: |
| 835 Spring
St./ Jeffersonville, IN 47131 |
| $17 for
Ind.
Nightmare and
Dementions |
| $15 for
Pitch
Black (includes Cage Maze) |
| $25 Combo
Ticket (includes ALL Haunts) |
| $2 Thurs./Sun.
coupon on their website |
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| REVIEW |
| INDUSTRIAL NIGHTMARE:
The
Haunt offers a comparable beginning to past years, with a short, dark maze
leading to the queue line area. Housed in a museum-like environment,
authentic recreations from various horror movies feature realistic likenesses
of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Frankenstein, etc.
Count
Dracula's red eyes illuminate signaling your imminent entrance through
the double doors, and into Industrial Nightmare. First up
is a mad scientist's laboratory, adorned with every electronic gadget imaginable.
Strapped to an operating table of sorts, "Frankenstein" begins thrashing
about violently, setting up a startling surprise! Similarities
to past seasons end here, as from this point forward, basically the entire
haunt has been rebuilt with fresh, new, scarier scenes! Presumably
dead bodies shake, and emit smoke, a headless torso convulses in agony
from its recent decapitation, while other corpses suddenly sit up on their
own. Toxic waste barrels, and a regurgitation scene line the narrowed
corridors, and a bathroom stall encounter delivers a horrific surprise!
In the bowels of the facility resides an enormous, animated, Impaler-like
swamp monster, and another creature attacking from the surrounding waters.
The SURPRISE OF THE YEAR lies just ahead in the Industrial Nightmare
swamp! Exiting the quagmire leads to convincing reconstructions from
various horror movies. The theme from Halloween creepily sets
the stage for Michael Myers to unleash an attack from inside a legitimate
looking wood cabin. Sparks, lasers, air gun blasts, and plentiful
characters are still to come, one of whom profoundly shouts nerve-racking
warnings like, "You're gonna die!!!" An interactive feature waits
just ahead, as ringing the doorbell outside another genuine structure produces
an added surprise, then step inside for an up close and personal confrontation
with the ax wielding Jason Voorhees! Additional silver screen rendezvous
involve Freddie Krueger in a realistically fabricated boiler room,
and Pinhead near the escape from Industrial Nightmare.
Analysis:
LENGTH - 9, Stopped the clock a little past the 15 minute
mark. Experience seemed to last a little longer.
ACTORS - 9½, Energy levels are way up in comparison
to just a few years ago, which is the Haunted Network style.
SCARINESS - 9+, Substantially scarier than ever before.
Obviously, horror film reenactments have been done previously, but never
quite like this. The structures are precise replicas from the films
themselves, right down to their meticulous detailing. Characters
too look as though they stepped directly off the set. Multiple surprises
go without saying. Soundtrack could be a little louder in spots,
and the finish isn't strong enough. Rabid cast will tear you to shreads!
DESIGN - 9½, Considerably different this season,
with pleasant abandonment of the industrial theme taking place as the haunt
progresses. Retaining the maze entrance to the museum housed queue
line is appropriate, and relating those scenes to realistic recreations
in the haunt itself is a nice touch, and exemplifies great creative effort
on the part of the new (as of '06) owners. Surprise of the year is
awesomely impressive, and a credit to their ingenuity! The finish
lacks an exhilarating climax.
PROPS - 9½, Lots of animated mechanical scares.
Surprise of the year is by far the best. Movie scene structures are
equally as impressive.
VALUE - 9+, $17on it's own makes it one of the highest
priced attractions around, but includes Dementions as an added bonus,
so not all that unreasonable. Take advantage of the combo ticket,
or coupon whenever possible.
RATING: 9½, Refreshingly different,
and containing numerous surprises you're unlikely to experience anyplace
else. One can only imagine where they go from here, as The Mother
of all Haunts
is about to blast the shot heard round the world... or
at least througho
ut the industry. Ohio Valley Haunts has never awarded
a perfect 10, but if the 2008 season began tomorrow, we wouldn't be surprised
if history were made here! If you've soured on Industrial
Nightmare from past experiences, give it another shot. You won't
be disappointed! |
| DEMENTIONS:
Completely
rebuilt from scratch, Dementions' new location is directly alongside
Industrial
Nightmare, and is included with paid admission to the aforementioned
attraction. Clowns and red-eyed skeletons initiate you into the deranged
experience, where a terrifying engagement with The Puppet Master from
the Saw movies unexpectedly sends you plunging "downward" in an
intensified, music blaring, prolonged elevator entrapment that persists
until the doors finally open, sending you into "The Ring of Fire"
- a fast spinning vortex. Distraught happenings continue when walls
come crashing in around you, and lead to a double MAJOR surprise, followed
by an encounter with a twisted Pig Butcher, who's just slaughtered
a couple of humans, and hung their carved up torsos from meat hooks!
Scary music, mazes, chainsaws, and caskets introduce another demented adventure,
haunted by a maniacal gravedigger, who suddenly appears out of nowhere!
An abominable, blood soaked Christmas scene sheds new light on the holidays,
as the celebration showcases an evil, ax wielding Santa, in the presence
of falling snow. Rudolph's been massacred, and his stuffed head now
hangs on display like a trophy above the corrupt Claus' fireplace!
Sing along with the carolers, "That's the way the old s*it happens!
Fa, la, la, la, laaaa, la, la, la, la!!!" Think you've seen it all?
Not quite, as evil clowns, a sexy bathtub scene, tortures and executions
all deliver their own brands of demented horrors, building up to a multiple
chain-saw chase out of Dementions.
Analysis:
LENGTH - 8½, 15 minutes.
ACTORS - 9+, A little slow early on, but great intensity
and uniqueness from Saw on. Chainsaw madmen are aggressively
relentless, making it seem like there's a dozen or so of 'em!
SCARINESS - 9+, Scenes are appallingly fearsome, in a
sick, demented way. Accompanying soundtrack is loud, and compliments
the various abominations perfectly.
DESIGN - 9½, Moved out of the basement to its
new home neighboring Industrial Nightmare. Completely redone,
with newer, ghastlier scenes, and many more characters than ever before.
PROPS - 9+, Good mix of static and mechanical props.
Elevator and MAJOR surprises stand above the rest.
VALUE - 10, Included free of charge with paid admission
to Industrial Nightmare.
RATING: 9+, Great compliment to the Industrial
Nightmare complex. Very aptly named, as the horrors presented
here are, in a word Demented! |
| PITCH
BLACK (includes CAGE MAZE): As its
name implies, Pitch Black is a totally dark maze featuring numerous,
deep dead ends, and shocking surprises - literally! Relocated to
the basement of the Industrial Nightmare complex, the mazes have
been completely rebuilt this year, with a mysterious entrance that descends
into the depths of the facility Emotions spiral to near fever pitch,
as you wander around aimlessly in the darkness. Accompanying sounds
are deafening at times, and hardly noticeable at others, which only adds
to your discomfort. With only faint glimpses of light here and there,
all you can do is feel your way along. Meanwhile, monsters grab at
your legs, and serve up random startles without warning, and you never
know where they come from because you simply cannot see! Nervousness
sets in almost immediately, then increases in intensity, and finally soars
to near panic levels the longer you're lost in the maze. Several
unexpected happenings accompany the futility of your efforts in the form
of spraying mist, last season's SURPRISE OF THE YEAR, and another NEW surprise
you gotta see to believe! Eventually progressing to the one and only
exit of Pitch Black leads directly into Cage Maze, a fog-filled,
fence entanglement, also consisting of a multitude of dead ends, as well
as loops. Highly agitated characters energetically leap and climb
on the fences, all the while taunting, "You ain't leavin' here!"
and, "You ain't gettin' outta here...EVER! I promise you, you'll
never make it out!" Their distractions, along with bumping into other
lost souls, and combined with your own emotional unrest don't make things
any easier. Maybe they're right. Perhaps you won't ever make
it out of Cage Maze - alive!
Analysis:
LENGTH - 10, Upwards of 30 minutes, and easily longer
depending on how lucky you are navigating the mazes. One group reported
being "in there" for 45 minutes!
ACTORS - 9, Not many in Pitch Black, but not totally
fair to hold that tremendously against them since its an extended elaboration
of the dark maze concept. Cage Maze fiends are simply out
of this world, and the ranting, taunting lunatic outshines them all!
SCARINESS - 9+, It's your own emotions that provide most
of the scares. The characters, mazes, and sounds just help them along.
DESIGN - 9½, Completely redone, and only one way
out of Pitch Black! Cage Maze seemed a little foggier
last year. Can't get much better than this though, but trust me,
they will!
PROPS - N/A, They're mazes, thus contain few props by
design.
VALUE - 8, A bit on the expensive side at $15, unless
you look at it from the standpoint of two separate attractions (Pitch
Black and Cage Maze), and a $3 price increase from '06.
Take advantage of the coupon or combo ticket if you can.
RATING: 9, A long, unique attraction, designed
and brought to you by the one and only Haunted Network - as if I
had to tell you! |
INDUSTRIAL NIGHTMARE COMPLEX -
OVERALL EXPERIENCE: A lot of hard work evidenced
here, as all three haunts have either been completely or partially moved
or redesigned. Combining
Industrial Nightmare
&
Dementions
would
result in near perfection. Some of the most ingenious ideas of the
season rest inside these walls, as some of the latest technology is carried
one step further, and used in ways even their developers could never have
imagined! Congregating all these brilliant attractions at a single
location positively impacts its overall performance. Make sure
you schedule a visit to
Industrial Nightmare this Halloween season!
OVERALL RATING: 9½ |
