2009 Event Reviews

Where to begin?
I attended Factory of Fear on Friday, October 2nd with two girlfriends of mine. I'll admit that we were skeptical of how FOF was going to scare us, given two of us have worked at various haunts throughout SE Wisconsin since we were in middle school, but we tried to keep an open mind and give the haunt a chance.
When we arrived we were greeted by a really nice woman working at the concession stand. She offered us popcorn, candy, coffee, or hot cocoa to keep us warm. We said "no thank you" and stood waiting for the line to move forward. As we were waiting some actors wandered through the waiting area- something I've noticed is becoming a common "teaser" among locations. One actor, however, was a boy who was clearly a minor. He wandered toward us not in character and talked with the woman working the concession stand about getting some Skittles, then went back into the haunt. The other two actors were young women who had wandered through us in order to get out of the building so they could take a smoke break- right in front of us, no less.
After a 15 or so minute wait by the concession stand, one of the managers mentioned to someone at the front of the line that we were waiting to enter because the crew had to fix some walls that had fallen. I can tell you that those words made me feel SO incredibly safe in the building! :-/
So once we were led to the ticket booth, it started to become a little better. The booth is at the bottom of some stairs, in a kinda tiny cramped hallway- which set the mood for the abandoned factory building that the haunt is located in.
Once we purchased our tickets, which were a whopping $12.50 each, we walked up the stairs and joined two women who were starting to freak out (they entertained me through most of the haunt because for some reason they were actually scared). We handed off our tickets and made our way through the door.
Upon first glance I thought the haunt was gong to be quite interesting- the path ways that they constructed are all spray painted with graffiti which sorta glows in the dark. right away we were greeted by a chilling carnival sound, and I was ready to be scared because I am terrified of clowns. To be honest, the room was painted and constructed well, but the guy in the clown mask tried to scare us before we even entered the room, which ruined the effect for me.
That's actually a recurring theme throughout the haunt- the actors continually tried to scare the first person in the room without waiting for the people at the end, therefore ruining the experience for everyone but the first person...and even then, the first person in our group and I laughed the entire way through the haunt.
One of my biggest problems with the house is the content- the whole haunt is based SOLELY on Hollywood scary movies (Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Grudge, IT, Night of the Living Dead), and didn't utilize the idea of mental scares as well as physical.
My BIGGEST problem with the house was that every member of my group was touched once, if not more times, by the actors. One of my friends was touched by the boy I mentioned earlier, I was touched by a woman on a gurney who was having her intestines ripped out, and my other friend was touched by someone in the dark who wasn't anyone else in our group.
At the end of the haunt there was a SMALL entry room where the exit door was, and a guy wearing a Michael Myers mask holding a chainsaw who (I assume) chases you into the parking lot- and the fact that the actor had a chainsaw in hand while we were passing through such a small room bothered me because I know that people tend to freak out from chainsaws, and having it in such a small space is quite dangerous.

This haunted house is one of the scariest I've been too. Very unique and definitely captures the thrill and grouesome ghoulishness of Halloween. A must see! What's great is there is even a discount if you bring food items which makes it an even better deal! I don't want to give away all of the surprises but there are definitely one of a kind scares that I have never found anywhere else! Literally almost made my wife pee her pants! There is also a family haunt at the same location so it is worth the extra trip to go to 2 haunts in the same spot. Covered waiting was nice because it was raining out and the wait time wasn't long at all.

This is one of the biggest haunted attractions in the Milwaukee area. There are 3 haunted houses at one location. You can buy a ticket to just one or hit all three of them for 30 dollars. It's quite a bit of money to see them all, but I felt it was worth it! There are so many props that the level of detail in the house is extraordinarily high. My group was impressed at the real dust that was used to create an eerie effect in a haunted library.

The three houses are all unique. One is more traditional with tons of actors, the second is dark and lots of mazes and pitch black parts, the third has a psycho hillbilly theme. The makeup and costumes were impressive all throughout. It is clear from the start this place has a large budget to be able to afford all the props, size/location, costumes, actors, and ambiance. They are even giving away cans of free tasty energy drink at the end if you do all three houses!

This is a very unique haunted house that seemed more like a scary circus fun house. Lots of clowns and sideshow freaks everywhere! This wasn't just a linear path haunted house, there were several mazes which were very enjoyable. One was a shifting exit maze where you were presented with over a dozen possible "doors" or exits. It was a challenge to find the correct way out! There was also a great mirror maze portion which produced a good effect in the dim light.
Very unique was a boat ride through an incredibly foggy tunnel. You could barely see what was coming at you!
A bonus was not one, but TWO vortexes. The last one was incredibly disorientating. There is a lot of cool aspects to this haunt, and it has the potential to be super scary for those who are afraid of clowns. If it takes a lot to scare you, you will still enjoy the fun house aspect. Be advised that waiting and parts of this haunted house are outdoors so be sure to dress warm.

For 12.00 was a pretty good house to go to. Wasn't the scariest but did have alot of fun with the workers. They were interactive which is always fun to have when you go through a haunted house. If you have your choice betweent the Splatterhaus and the Dominion I would definately choose the Dominion of Terror

This is a haunted house located in the basement of a LARGE pizza pub/diner. You buy a ticket and if there is a big line you can hang out at the premises until its your turn to enter the haunt.

The acting at this haunted house is top notch, all the way through. There are a lot of adults working here which is always more scary than teen and pre-teens booing at you. They really created a theme and stick with it. I would describe this theme as Experiment Gone Wrong in a Resident Evil sort of way. I was IMPRESSED! Soldiers throwing their lives away to try to save you from the monsters within, a major surprise involving a 12 foot alien creature, a realistic hellavator ride, and sneaky elements of surprise are a few examples of what is in store for patrons.
My favorite part of this attraction was the acting. The acting was top notch compared to bigger haunts with larger budgets. This is a very creative haunt and its clear the people who operate it love what they do and want happy customers.
I only gave this a 4/5 for fear. I am very hard to scare but I did scream once and had an incredibly fun time even if the fear factor wasn't as high as some other houses. This does however, make it appeal to wider audiences that are looking more to be scared in a fun way than to have to quit halfway through.

This was one of the best haunted houses I have been to in years (and I have been to a lot.) I went with my 15 year old daughter and her 15 year old friend (who had never been to a haunted house in her life.) My daughter and I both agreed that it was the best haunted house we have been to. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we had to work hard to keep the friend from exiting the haunted house early. She was TERRIFIED and had a look of genuine terror on her face the whole time! The actors were wonderful, and the many different scenes were well done. It was not one of those short 10 minute haunted houses, we were in there for 20 minutes. There were pitch black, claustrophobic parts (including 1 crawling part,) and a vortex that physically affected us all. We were going to go to another haunted house that night, but decided that the friend had been too traumatized by this one! Next weekend!

HUGE Disappointment!!!

If you only go to one haunted house make sure this is the one you go to!!! It is worth every penny and then some. It,s scary and fun! Went through it twice and it was just as good the second time as it was the first. We go to alot of them and this one is one of the best out there!!!!