Michael Finamore

Review of Fright Kingdom

I went to Fright Kingdom with my son on 10/16. I...

I went to Fright Kingdom with my son on 10/16. If you re looking for a great haunted attraction this is the place to go. After you pay your entrance fee (I highly recommend VIP because you get unlimited runs through the attractions with no waiting for a group) you go into a main waiting room area. There s all kinds of scary attractions in there. There are actors dressed as monsters. One scary clown lady spoke with my son. That freaked him out a bit. Then he ran into another lady monster pushing a cart with a baby doll. She came up to him but didn t speak (she had no mouth). By the time I got him in front of the full size Jason and Freddy mannequin displays to get some photos, he was so freaked out he wanted to go home. So I called the wife and had her come down to get him. But the plan changed. :)

My son stayed with the people in the ticket counter (apparently there is a large freak out factor with the younger kids so they can stay there while the parents go through the attraction). I don t think it s SOP but they were really nice to do this for us. Then I grabbed my wife and she reluctantly accompanied me into the main attraction.

Originally we were going to go through ourselves but after some thought and my wife clutching onto me, we ended up going through with a six person group. That was the best decision ever. It is a scary attraction. If you ve got a heart condition I would not recommend going by yourself because you could be jump scared to death.

I m not going to give you the details so you won t get spoilers - but it was an AMAZING experience! Every attraction is different. The animatronics and creature effects were top notch. The makeup of the actors and actresses were top notch. Nobody broke character. I could tell that they really enjoyed their work and knew exactly what to do to make the experience a memorable one. And they knew when to ease up if someone was already scared out of their minds. :)

One thing I should warn you. The final attraction is brutal and it is pretty much pitch dark in there. There are staffers that will gently guide you through if you are lost. People do bail out on this last attraction. We lost our six person group and it was just me and my wife at one point. Then we ran into another group that was hopelessly lost and asked me to lead. Eventually I got them out due to sheer luck and nudging from the staff on how to escape.

The best part was when we got out we were greeted by our son who was with the owner of Fright Kingdom. Our son was concerned something might have happened to us because we were gone so long. :) I had a chance to talk with the guy and I could tell right away he is a big horror fan and really did his homework when he went to design this place. He said we were welcome to go back through the attraction again and would put us at the front of the line. We went back to the beginning but my son decided against it just before we were to go in with another group. Oh well, maybe he ll be up for it next year. I know I ll be going next year for sure! :)

I highly recommend checking this place out before it closes up for the season. Prepared to be scared in a safe environment by people who love their work.