Having attended Dr. Scary's last year my wife and I returned for another good scare. Our overall impression was that the haunt had been revised enough to create a fresh and even more intense experience. Read on to learn about the pros and cons.

The Cons.
First, the bad news. The entrance to the haunt is from a dark road onto a narrow private drive that leads through a campground. Two employees were posted at the entrance to sell admission tickets and direct visitors to the haunt. Neither of them wore reflective garments, carried flashlights or showed much situational awareness regarding traffic. They parked a golf cart nearby, thus restricting traffic even more. My advice is to go slow and watch out for pedestrians, as they are apt to step in front of your vehicle. The same problem arose when we reached the parking area for the haunt. Several people were standing in the way even as they directed us to pass by, which I declined to do until they stepped aside. Once again, none of them wore reflective gear or carried flashlights and there were plenty of children running about so be careful. In terms of safety, I considered the situation unacceptable for a public event.

The second problem was that even though we arrived at 7:38 PM and the event was scheduled to open at 7:30 PM, we waited until 8:20 PM when the event was finally ready to open. We were actually the first customers in line and Dr. Scary's was simply not ready. That lack of planning is irksome, especially considering we had the same experience last year.

The Pros.
If you are still reading this then I assume you are willing to tolerate the previous complaints. The haunt was well worth the wait and provided plenty of entertainment value, with 39 actors hidden inside ready to scare the devil out of us. There was plenty of spooky atmosphere, ambient sound effects, movie-like sets in each room, and the entire haunt was quite well designed. I enjoy haunted house events but generally laugh my way through them. Dr. Scary's has proven to be the most frightening of the haunts we have visited in recent years. The staff and other visitors have always been friendly and in spite of the intensity of the scares, it was a family-friendly atmosphere.