Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Creamy Acres Night of Terror
Website: www.nightofterror.com
Location of Attraction: Mullica Hill NJ
Date of Review: Saturday September 22nd 2018
Total Number of Attractions Available: FOUR!
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 7.5
Entertainment and Food Rating: 6
Atmosphere Rating: 6
Overall Costume and Make Up Rating: 7.5
Overall Cast and Crew Rating: 7
Overall Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 9
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 7
Overall Feedback: Creamy Acres Night of Terror located in Mullica Hills New Jersey was one of our squads top five favorite haunted attractions during the 2017 haunt season. We were eager to visit them once again especially when we got wind of them adding a brand new attraction! Before heading to the haunt our squad met up for dinner in the small town of Mullica Hills. We grabbed some grub at David & Sons 322 BBQ! The staff was extremely friendly and the food was fricken DELICIOUS! Around dusk we loaded up and headed to the haunt. 12 reviewers were in action for Creamy Acres and over half of us had never visited this haunt before. We were excited to have some new eyes to check out this haunt. The main gathering area by the ticket booth features an awesome gift shop as well as Creamy Acres own food stand (the ice cream was REALLY good)! As you venture throughout the property you’ll find several other food trucks along with several photo booth backdrops. Creamy Acres has a rather large property and with all the attractions and food trucks being spread out it’s definitely difficult to keep an upbeat atmosphere throughout the entire property. We did not encounter any actors roaming about the midway area as well as no live entertainment or music. These said circumstances made for a bland atmosphere. Fortunately once you are in the attractions the mood quickly changes - but having a more upbeat atmosphere throughout the property would definitely improve the overall experience. We also kept in mind that it was only their second night of the season so we're sure as the season goes on their atmosphere will improve. To begin the evening we started with Dark Dreams, one of the three walk-through attractions. Then we headed off to Ride of Terror. Directly after completing Ride of Terror guests will venture through The Harvest. We then ended our evening with Slaughter Cave. Dark Dreams and Slaughter Cave are both your typical high energy attractions that pack scares for the entire group. Within seconds of entering these attractions our group received a high startle scare; it was at that point we knew we were in for a good experience. The actors in both of these attractions were all very in-tune with their scenes and possessed a frightening presence. The actors had perfect timing and placement. The set design throughout both attractions was very well done. Realistic scenes and props were utilized with a good mixture of animatronics thrown in as well. We would be focused on a animatronic and then BAM, an actor would deliver a good scare. Look out for drop panels in these attractions… they are hidden well and often caught our members off guard. The Harvest is Creamy Acres newest attraction added during the past offseason. Set design throughout this attraction stayed on par with each of the other three. Without giving much away, there were several impressive one of a kind scenes in The Harvest. The actors throughout The Harvest were more skit focused verse pop scare/startle focused. Unfortunately the actors weren’t quite as energized and committed compared to those in Dark Dreams and Slaughter Cave. The inconsistencies in the actors definitely impacted The Harvests’ scare factor and overall rating. A few sections of dead space also impacted our overall scoring. We again did keep in mind that it was opening weekend and a brand new attraction so were sure there are kinks to be worked out yet. The Ride of Terror was voted one of our squads top five hayrides from 2017! The hayride at Creamy Acres isn’t your traditional hayride in the sense that the wagon has benches for seating… no sitting in straw on this hayride. Ride of Terror is a solid 25 minute action packed journey. Very little dead/empty space will be found on your journey. As you depart one scene you quickly pull into the next keeping the energy upbeat and the customers engaged. Some downright incredible animatronics are scattered throughout the attraction; many of these said animatronics had us drooling in awe. Ride of Terror definitely possesses some unique scenes such as the bee/spider scene, gorilla scene and the sunken pirate ship in the spooky and murky pond. The actors came from all different angles leaving guests clueless to where the next scare is going to come from. At many of the scenes the actors boarded the way so they could torment the guests up close and personal. We loved the incorporation of pyrotechnics with the animatronics, some of these were really awesome such as the headless horseman and dragon! Across the board at Creamy Acres they were definitely short handed on actors although this has been a common theme at haunts over the past few seasons. For the most part the actors possessed quality makeup and costume but there were some actors with what seemed like very rushed makeup. We definitely feel Creamy Acres would be suitable for the entire family. Yes the attractions possess some pretty high startle scares at times but these are scattered throughout. In our eyes, the set design, props and animatronics alone are enough to warrant a visit to Creamy Acres. During the 2017 haunt season Creamy Acres nailed it and blew us away. We came into this season expecting the same experience but unfortunately we felt they didn’t quite meet our expectations. If the actors across the board step up their game, especially in The Harvest, Creamy Acres could definitely return to form. At the conclusion of our experience we chatted with Ron, owner of Creamy Acres, and he shared with us his struggles to find and retain actors. The haunt will be holding more actor auditions this week in hopes to bring aboard more spooks for the upcoming weekends. Ron also shared that they are still making some tweaks to the attractions and that The Harvest still has some fine tuning. In our eyes we do credit some of these inconsistencies to opening weekend kinks so hopefully the experience improves as the season progresses. Creamy Acres certainly has the potential to be a top haunt in our coverage area (PA, MD, NJ and DE) but they didn’t quite deliver that top notch experience that we had hoped for. Either way, if you’ve never visited Creamy Acres Night of Terror before it is certainly still worth a visit. Go give them a shot and when you do tell them Fright Review Squad sent you their way!
Individual Attraction Review:
Attraction Name: Dark Dreams
Overall Attraction Rating: 8
Cast and Crew Rating: 8
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 8.5
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8
Attraction Name: Ride of Terror
Overall Attraction Rating: 8
Cast and Crew Rating: 7
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 9
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 6
Attraction Name: The Harvest
Overall Attraction Rating: 7.5
Cast and Crew Rating: 6
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 8
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 7
Attraction Name: Slaughter Cave
Overall Attraction Rating: 8
Cast and Crew Rating: 8
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 8.5
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8