Review Date: Friday, October 10th 2008

Time: 8:00pm


Atmosphere

The Fear Factory is located in a strip mall next to a lively bar. This location is not the best for a haunted attraction; however, it does allow the Fear Factory to get patrons interested as they pass by, and it provides a great place to have a few drinks afterward and chat about your experience. But having a haunt inside a strip mall is definitely not recommended, because it severely limits the possible build options and wait entertainment options. However, The Fear Factory still manages to provide a decent haunt regardless of the lack of spooky atmosphere outside.

Set Design/Detail/Floor Plan

I was pretty impressed with how The Fear Factory transformed a store front into a traditional haunt attraction. When you first walk in to purchase tickets, the black plastic tarps covering the walls is a little discouraging, but this feeling turns to excitement the moment you get into the first room. Great scenes populate the walk through, separated by dark hallways with hanging spider wire, window cut outs, and even some live actors ready to startle you while you make your way through the dark. We appreciate that The Fear Factor provides a little more than just a pitch black hall between scenes. The introduction room where you hear the rules is fully clothed in white mesh, and you must choose the right door to begin your adventure. The Fear Factory holds several great scenes, including a great drive-in screen with cars and a gravel floor, a surgical area with a screaming girl duct taped to a gurney, and a wonderful grave yard area full of the undead. My favorite scene is what appears to be a torture chamber complete with a twitching corpse, hanging and moaning in pain.

Live Actors (Performance/Enthusiasm/Costumes)

There were plenty of actors for the space provided. Each scene had at least one live body, and sometimes there were a few different characters in one scene. We loved having the startles in the dark areas where the actor was invisible, and even better startles when the actor appears to be just a prop, and then jumps up when you least expect it. The actors try to misdirect you while in the haunt too, and I am guessing this is to hopefully add more time to the overall walk through since it is fairly short. The path blocking is rather effective though, because we did find ourselves back-tracking to be sure that we did not miss the place we were supposed to go… but then we realized that we were going the right way to begin with. Thanks guys, you did a good job!

Admission Price vs. Length (Entertainment Value)

The Fear Factory admission price is $12.00, but it is $10 with a coupon, or $9 on Sundays. This is okay for price, but the haunt is right around 7-8 minutes, so it is slightly higher than the $1 per minute average. I think $10 is pretty fair for the entertainment value, though… So if you are in the area, this might be a good place to "warm up" at before heading out to the bigger haunts. And of course, you can stop by Duke's afterwards for a cold beer, too!

Overall Experience/Summary/Misc. Information

The Fear Factory did a great job for their first year, although they still have a few things to work on. I would like to see them grow bigger (longer) without sacrificing the current quality levels, and possibly look into a better location. However, if this location is a "done deal", there might be ways to better decorate the outside and waiting areas to provide a better haunt atmosphere. Once inside the haunt, the flow and attention to detail is good, and the actors really put out some good energy levels. I did leave wanting to see more, but because what they have is well done and I did not want it to end yet. I really look forward to seeing more scenes and additional details in future years, but so far, The Fear Factory has made an excellent start.



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