Sorry for the hiatus! My sociolinguistics class is going to kill me. I’ve been walking around like a zombie. Mrgh.
In any event – I wanted to review a haunt that I went to last weekend. My friend Steve and I have a tradition that we’ve kept up for the last five or more years. We both love Halloween and we both love going to haunted houses. Every year, we go camping with the Astronomy Club (we’re in the alumni chapter at the college we both went to) in the fall and in the summer. Well, this fall we happened to be at camp during Columbus Day Weekend – which just happened to be the biggest weekend at Nightmare Hayrides. Neither of us had ever been to this particular haunt before, but that made even more exciting.
Nightmare Hayrides boasts a haunted hayride, haunted barn and a corn maze. When we got there, it was packed! If you buy your ticket by 9:30 pm, they will continue to run the attractions until everyone who paid has gone through.
After buying tickets, we went through a haunted barn, and arrived at the hay ride. After the ride, we had to go through another maze/haunted barn before we were done. The set-up was pretty good. It meant that there wasn’t much waiting and down-time, which seems to plague most haunted attractions we’ve attended. There was always something to do and see. The first half of the barn had the spinning tunnel with colored lights that you go through on a metal bridge. As usual, I got gleefully disoriented and sort of fell out of the other side. In the haunted barn sections (which turned out to be a barn that was sectioned into two parts), people in masks followed you, or jumped out at you. In that way it was pretty standard.
The hayride left something to be desired. I found out that weekend that I prefer not to be touched by the actors at haunted attractions. They didn’t do anything wrong – but I think that the idea of almost being grabbed by a ghoul is scarier. There were a few stops along the hayride path, where we watched a vignette, or someone jumped on the hayride and “attacked” us. My favorite part was the tractor. This huge tractor came after the hayride and tried to ram us on both sides. For an added touch, there was a body attached to the front of the tractor. Sheer awesomeness!
Overall, for $15.00 it was a great time. It was a clear and cool night, and the apple cider afterward was the perfect ending. It’s worth going through, and it took longer than most haunted houses, which Steve and I have noted only take about 20 minutes to complete.
If you’ve been to Nightmare Hayrides – let me know what you think!
Chris Kaz
Where was that again dear? I know it was by camp is all.
deadaeris
It was in Ellicottville, New York. From camp, it took Steve and I maybe a half hour to drive there. It was actually pretty easy to find. I think it’s closer as the crow flies, but we went a roundabout way.