When I started reviewing haunted attractions in 2008, I did so because I was mad. I had gone to a few haunted attractions based on reviews I read online. A three hour drive and $80+ later taught me a hard lesson – many reviews that you find posted online are altered for nefarious purposes. I looked into it a bit more and it became clear to me that there are fake reviews posted on haunted attractions. Some are positive by the people who work there. Others are negative by people who work at competing haunts.
This is all BULLSHIT.
The way I see, it, fake review warfare is a great way to teach the general public that haunted attractions aren’t something the mainstream should bother with. Imagine if someone goes to a haunt or two based on positive reviews to find something stupid. They’ll think all haunts are stupid. This CANNOT stand. I decided then and there that it was my job to go to as many haunted attractions as I could each year and write about them. There are 2 reasons I am doing this:
1. I like haunted attractions.
2. I like haunted attractions.
One thing I have always stood for is honesty. I do not lie to my readers. Some of the attractions do invite me to review their attractions as a guest. When this happens, I’ll let you know that. I always love and appreciate the opportunity to work with and speak with haunt owners to get the creative story of their haunts. It helps me better highlight their attraction. However, readers should note that I make enough money to pay my own way into attractions without a problem, so my career is not dependent on free rides. My reviews aren’t affected by them, either.
Before the haunt owners get nervous, I have to also say that you’ll always get honesty and fairness from me. What I mean by “fairness” is that I will not give a low budget haunt a bad review and compare it to Universal Studios. I’ll give you the review in context. There are some AMAZING small haunts out there which are just as fun as the big haunts. Other haunts are new and just developing – I will note this and track their growth over time. Reviewing things is more complicated than “good” or “bad”. You have to really understand the type of haunt you are going to and the vision of the owner.
If there are any haunts you think I should be visiting, please let me know. (Right now I can only travel to NJ, PA, MD, CT, NY. FL and the nearby area unless you are awesome enough to pay for my travel.) If you want me to visit your attraction or interview you about your work, email me from the link above in the top bar.
I’ll have a landing page for all the haunts I have done with an alphabetical listing organized by state up in a few days.
If you want to see my experiences live as they unfold, follow me on Twitter, and note my newly-coined hashtag #OniHaunts.
2 responses to “The best and most honest haunted attraction reviews every year”
Grr!! You’re making me want to go to FrightFest this year, and I don’t know if I’ll have the time. Not sure if all Six Flags locations do it, or if they are similar enough to the one at Great America, but its been pretty good the few times I’ve gone. Finding people to go with is the daunting part. Good luck in your endeavour.
I think the all do it. Unfortunately, the one in NJ went down the tubes. We had such a bad experience at ours that we wrote them off. They oversell the park to dangerously crowded levels and and now charge extra to go into the trails on top of admission. The lines are 4 hours long which are too long for you to get on anything before it closes. SO much line jumping and chaos too… Bad times! Hope the one near you is better!