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Review Date: Friday, Oct 14 @ 10:30pm
Meltdown (formerly Silo-X) is located in Mesquite, East of Dallas off Lawson Road between HWY I-20 and HWY 80. The parking lot is inside the Devils Bowl Speedway and there is plenty of paved parking unlike some other haunts where you are driving and parking on the gravel or dirt. Meltdown is opened weekends from sundown to midnight and is sponsored by 106.1 KISSFM. The owners have kept the original theme of Silo-X in his new Meltdown haunt and added a few new tricks as well. On staff is a crew of 28 to 30 actors a night and I must say these are the people who make the entire show. I also need to point out that Meltdown is the first fully handicap accessible (and fully wheelchair tested) haunted house I have ever been to. But don’t expect any easy stroll, the freaks and monsters have mercy on no one..
Scare Factor:8 out of 10
As you groove to the tunes of 106.1 outside the industrial smoking building you are eventually given the rules of the house and escorted inside. The escort ends with the door slamming behind you and you are alone in a smoke filled room left to fend for yourself, good luck finding the way out. Without giving too much away the 23,000 square foot compound which is half inside and half outside offers an excellent variety of mixed terror. This haunt is packed full of mutated clowns (who I must add will not help you find your way out if you are lost in the maze as I was), executioners, undead freaks, zombies, aliens, cannibals and saw wielding mad-men. They operate on a low-gore high-fright concept that works very well. The mental and audio terror is superb with screams, groans, taunting demons, and the sounds of
terror and despair throughout the whole place. A very good scare factor compared to the standard “boo” you get from other haunted attractions.
Set design / Props / FX: 7 out of 10
I liked the mixture of set designs this place had. With a name like Meltdown you may not expect some of the things this place has like an electric chair and the clown maze but it really works well. If the place was full of bloody white-coat lab zombies I believe it would have gotten a little old. The set up is more like you stepped into an irradiated land where the entire community has gone to hell and you are lucky to make it thru alive. There are parts of long black hallways that lead to some big prop rooms where the ghouls jump at you and other than the initial fright there isn’t much to them. Then there are some other choices sets that make this place really shine. The best ones were the alien autopsy, the shock cage, the military compound, the cannibals and my absolute favorite the cage-maze. However I must admit that they do have the best vertigo tunnel I have ever been on.
Live Actors: 10 out of 10
I have to give these fine people a score of 10. I have been to many, many haunted houses where the actors either don’t do anything or you get the “grrrrrr…” or the “boo” or “hah” fright effects, you get none of that here. Every actor is totally dedicated to the job they have. The executioner is menacing, the aliens are freaky and move and act like freaky aliens should. The zombies are brain-dead husks with only death and gore on their minds; like a good zombie should. The clowns are tweaky and have an evil humor about them. And the crew of mutated freaks in the cage-maze is absolutely perfect; they really have the concept of team-work-fright down to perfection. One hangs on the wall and slams around and drops down at you, another zombie walks around looking for some tasty parts to chop off, and my favorite actor hangs himself and flails around whipping the walls like a mad undead creature right out of some toxic waste accident. The banshees shriek blood curdling screams and the cannibals are out for blood with saws equip in hand to do the job. I must give a score of 10 to all the actors who do a fine performance of playing their roles to their most frightening potential.
Animatronics:
Meltdown does not rely heavily on animatronics to do their scaring but they don’t need to. There are a few really good ones like the electric chair scene and I would personally consider their .50cal machine gun in this category too. I did kind of wish a red strobe light or a red moonlight would have lit up on the gun as it fired at you but it was still very cool. In years to come they may invest in more animatronic scenes to enhance the haunt but they are still very effective without many of them.
Length:
Your entire trip thru Meltdown will take anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes depending on how fast you get thru the fog and maze areas and if you walk or run for your life. The waiting line is pretty quick and with a price tag of $15.00 per person the haunt is a good value for the length and quality of fear you receive.
Summary:
I give this place a total score of 7.5. The haunt keeps to its main theme with a little extra variety thrown in and the scenes and props are well thought out and put together. A few long black tunnels of nothing but the sounds of horror in the distance exist and animatronics fans will want to stay away. But it’s the actors who make this place as good as it is. With a full staff and the actors all working to their full potential on any given night this would be a great haunt to add to your Halloween itinerary this year.
Mesquite, TX
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Review Date: Friday, Oct 14 @ 10:30pm
Meltdown (formerly Silo-X) is located in Mesquite, East of Dallas off Lawson Road between HWY I-20 and HWY 80. The parking lot is inside the Devils Bowl Speedway and there is plenty of paved parking unlike some other haunts where you are driving and parking on the gravel or dirt. Meltdown is opened weekends from sundown to midnight and is sponsored by 106.1 KISSFM. The owners have kept the original theme of Silo-X in his new Meltdown haunt and added a few new tricks as well. On staff is a crew of 28 to 30 actors a night and I must say these are the people who make the entire show. I also need to point out that Meltdown is the first fully handicap accessible (and fully wheelchair tested) haunted house I have ever been to. But don’t expect any easy stroll, the freaks and monsters have mercy on no one..
Scare Factor:8 out of 10
As you groove to the tunes of 106.1 outside the industrial smoking building you are eventually given the rules of the house and escorted inside. The escort ends with the door slamming behind you and you are alone in a smoke filled room left to fend for yourself, good luck finding the way out. Without giving too much away the 23,000 square foot compound which is half inside and half outside offers an excellent variety of mixed terror. This haunt is packed full of mutated clowns (who I must add will not help you find your way out if you are lost in the maze as I was), executioners, undead freaks, zombies, aliens, cannibals and saw wielding mad-men. They operate on a low-gore high-fright concept that works very well. The mental and audio terror is superb with screams, groans, taunting demons, and the sounds of
terror and despair throughout the whole place. A very good scare factor compared to the standard “boo” you get from other haunted attractions.
Set design / Props / FX: 7 out of 10
I liked the mixture of set designs this place had. With a name like Meltdown you may not expect some of the things this place has like an electric chair and the clown maze but it really works well. If the place was full of bloody white-coat lab zombies I believe it would have gotten a little old. The set up is more like you stepped into an irradiated land where the entire community has gone to hell and you are lucky to make it thru alive. There are parts of long black hallways that lead to some big prop rooms where the ghouls jump at you and other than the initial fright there isn’t much to them. Then there are some other choices sets that make this place really shine. The best ones were the alien autopsy, the shock cage, the military compound, the cannibals and my absolute favorite the cage-maze. However I must admit that they do have the best vertigo tunnel I have ever been on.
Live Actors: 10 out of 10
I have to give these fine people a score of 10. I have been to many, many haunted houses where the actors either don’t do anything or you get the “grrrrrr…” or the “boo” or “hah” fright effects, you get none of that here. Every actor is totally dedicated to the job they have. The executioner is menacing, the aliens are freaky and move and act like freaky aliens should. The zombies are brain-dead husks with only death and gore on their minds; like a good zombie should. The clowns are tweaky and have an evil humor about them. And the crew of mutated freaks in the cage-maze is absolutely perfect; they really have the concept of team-work-fright down to perfection. One hangs on the wall and slams around and drops down at you, another zombie walks around looking for some tasty parts to chop off, and my favorite actor hangs himself and flails around whipping the walls like a mad undead creature right out of some toxic waste accident. The banshees shriek blood curdling screams and the cannibals are out for blood with saws equip in hand to do the job. I must give a score of 10 to all the actors who do a fine performance of playing their roles to their most frightening potential.
Animatronics:
Meltdown does not rely heavily on animatronics to do their scaring but they don’t need to. There are a few really good ones like the electric chair scene and I would personally consider their .50cal machine gun in this category too. I did kind of wish a red strobe light or a red moonlight would have lit up on the gun as it fired at you but it was still very cool. In years to come they may invest in more animatronic scenes to enhance the haunt but they are still very effective without many of them.
Length:
Your entire trip thru Meltdown will take anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes depending on how fast you get thru the fog and maze areas and if you walk or run for your life. The waiting line is pretty quick and with a price tag of $15.00 per person the haunt is a good value for the length and quality of fear you receive.
Summary:
I give this place a total score of 7.5. The haunt keeps to its main theme with a little extra variety thrown in and the scenes and props are well thought out and put together. A few long black tunnels of nothing but the sounds of horror in the distance exist and animatronics fans will want to stay away. But it’s the actors who make this place as good as it is. With a full staff and the actors all working to their full potential on any given night this would be a great haunt to add to your Halloween itinerary this year.
OVERALL SCORE:
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