2009 Hartford Jaycees Haunted House Event Reviews

First off, for a handfull of kids and preeteen girls this was probably an ok haunt. For anyone else.....there were some suprises but for the most part you could see everything coming from a mile away....swamp thing????? My son...(9 years old) thought it was pretty cool but this was only his second one. The property is really great, the house, barn and woods all have great potential and it appears there are some dedicated people who can really put this haunt over the top with a little more work. Here are my suggestions;

1. Get some scary charectors greeeting people coming and going through the wooded area on their way in and out of the park. I could see someone like Mike Myers or Jason coming out by your car as you drive in or out of the park.

2. Get a lot better at transitioning people from one area to the next. The scenes were pretty decent but all too often we stood around wondering if we were supposed to move on to the next room or not. The guys in the kitchen were great but they wondering how to move us along too.

3. Lose the air bag things...not scary...annoying.

4. The mechanical things are ok for a startle but they stayed out long enough for you to get a long look at them and realize how fake and lame they were.

5. Do something with the staging area. Once you leave the barn and end up in the tent, you almost lose the mood as it isnt in theme anymore.

I attend this event regularly and this year's version was a successful production.

It's appreciated that the producers take care to try to diversify the rooms within the house year to year. I did not sense a lot of repeat from previous years.

This event features one of the better wait areas as they have one seperate theater area where they run scary movies while visitors wait for their ticket number to be called. When I visited, an unedited version of "Saw II" was on screen.

The Jaycee's home also has one of the better appointed concession stands featuring a diverse array of Halloween themed candy options along with packaged cotton candy, hot dogs and popcorn.

There is a significant security presence at the event as well as several police officers.

There are four portable toilets outside of the main waiting area and a tent with benches where the groups are formed for entry into the attraction. If it is windy, it can get quite cool in the tent.

Your journey begins with a walk through a torch lit forest path. When I attended the forest itself was lightly staffed, but that was acceptable considering cold temperatures and rain.

Ordinarily, several staff lurk amongst the shadows waiting to spring on the visitors.

This year's version of the woods now features a small, covered bridge guarded by an actor who will impede your passage.

Next, you negotiate your way through the inside of a large tank, however, at one point you have to crawl, which isn't pleasant when people tromping through a wet woods have preceded you. That would best be elimiated in the future.

You then procede up the stairs to the house where you knock and are let inside the attraction.

The actors inside the Jaycee's House frequently have scripted narratives prior to the initiation of the scares. Actor's performances were strong and costuming and make up were effective, as well.

In addition to the actor's performances, the experience in the house is enhanced with the usage of various pop up, mechanized startles.

One of the annoyances of this year's haunt is a small area with a clown in a box featuring booming horn noises that are too loud for the small area this scare is conducted in.

Otherwise, the event gives a solid performance.

i just came from here i thought it was great, the only problem i had was that maybe they could cut the group size down to 5 not 7 then everyone could get a chance to see everything. the staff and ghouls were great and helped out when needed.

so we walked thru this really short path thru a bunch of trees and people just randomly jumped out screaming....not scary....then we had to knock on a door and this dude in makeup let us in and i think he was a vampire and was rambling about some vamipre stuff. had to squeeze thru these air filled things on the wall.bunch of loud noises and that was the only "scary" factor. a waste of 12 bucks

Excellent haunt. I didn't think they could top last year but I was wrong. It seems like they added more rooms in the old 3 story farm house. You start off walking through the torch lite woods and then across the bridge. Many special effects. I was never sure which direction to go. The whole house is one big maze. Actually let just your group go through; didn't make groups of 8 or 10 go through. So with smaller groups you can experience each room. Took over 20 minutes to go through.

This haunt totally rocks! I attended the 3 Hartford area haunted houses along with 11 of my friends and this one was the unanimous favorite. 4 of us also attended 3 in Milwaukee last weekend and this one topped the list of all six!

What rocks about this haunt is the following:

** Length: it took 19 minutes for our tour group of 6 to complete the haunted adventure. (this is nearly twice as long as the Milwaukee haunts!)

** Venue: A haunted forest complete with a terrifying tunnel of torment prelude your adventure through a 3 story house. The journey through the house takes you from a 3rd story balcony all the way to the bowels of the basement.

** Sets / Scenes / Props / FX: Both the haunted forest and house are crammed packed with props and special effects. If you have an eye for detail you'll be blown away with the elaborate decorations found throughout this haunt. ...in fact, the venue is almost packed full of props and sets to a fault as some of the rooms become a bit cramped with 6 adult bodies in the room. The house features several secret passages, trap doors, live actors, animated mannequins, holographic images and even a vortex.

** Actors' Performance: I wouldn't go so far as to say every acting performs blew my socks off but I'd certainly nominate the actor performing in the dining room for an Academy Award....definitely the best actor I've seen this year. Honorable mention also go to the clown and actor welcoming you to the house.

** Sound: Not once was I distracted by the sounds coming from an adjacent room during our tour. Given how many rooms are packed into this house that fact just blows my mind. All rooms appear to be well insulated and equipped with a more than adequate sound system to make you feel as if your group has been totally isolated from the outside world.