Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Reaper’s Revenge
Website: www.reapersrevenge.net
Location of Attraction: Scranton Pennsylvania
Date of Review: Saturday September 29th 2018
Total Number of Attractions Available: FOUR!
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 10/10!
Entertainment and Food Rating: 9/10!
Atmosphere Rating: 10/10!
Overall Costume and Make Up Rating: 10/10!
Overall Cast and Crew Rating: 10/10!
Overall Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 10/10!
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 9.5/10!
Overall Feedback: Sinister, horrifying, spine-tingling, nerve-wracking and petrifying are just some of the words that come to mind when we think about our experience at Reaper’s Revenge! In both 2016 and 2017 Reaper’s Revenge was voted our squads favorite and scariest haunted attraction! Reaper’s Revenge once again brought the scares to a whole new level and we can’t help but say it is likely that Reaper’s Revenge will once again receive our favorite haunted attraction of the year award! We arrived at Reaper’s Revenge around 9:00pm on a Saturday evening and boy were they popping! As you approach the ticket booth your heart begins to race in excitement of what the night has in store! All the way from the parking lot you can hear the screams from guests and the emergency paging sirens from the attraction Sector 13! This provides an instant energy that gets you in the mood to be scared out of your skin and that energy is carried perfectly through your entire experience! Reaper’s Revenge provides a solid 90+ minutes of entertainment so you’ll definitely have an evenings worth of vicious chills and thrills! Be prepared as you’ll have one long initial wait but once aboard the hay wagon you experience the four attractions in order with very minimal wait time between each attraction. On the evening we attended the general admission wait time was about a solid 2 hours according to the event staff. Fortunately we opted for the VIP admission and only had about a 20-30 minute wait. New for 2018 Reaper’s Revenge added Hillbilly Karaoke to keep the folks in the general admission line entertained. From what we’ve heard, the Hillbilly Karaoke is a huge success. Once aboard the hay wagon you’ll have at least a 90 minute experience. Guests will complete the four attractions in order; Haunted Hayride, Lost Carnival, Pitch Black and Sector 13! As you pull up to the first set on the hayride Reaper’s Revenge throws a little bit of everything your way. Fog, pyrotechnics, massive animatronics and of course the first of many scares to come! It was at that moment we knew we were in for a special treat. Back for 2018 you’ll encounter some of America’s favorite horror film characters. Beware of Jason Voorhees, The Ring, Michael Myers and more as they are indeed lurking in the darkness of the woods. From there you’ll encounter just a little bit of everything from zombies to Alice in Wonderland! Scene after scene we were drooling in amazement of the phenomenally crafted set designs. Something truly unique about Reaper’s Revenge is how they craft their set designs. Even as you pull away from each scene watching out the back of the wagon gives guests an equally striking visual as the rest of the scene. The actors you’ll encounter are truly out to terrorize the guests; they are clearly passionate about delivering a top notch show! Actors often froze, held position, or continued to create creepy fully-in-character movements the entire time they were in view. We specifically remember The Ring character continuing to walk back to her well in a disorienting and purely uncomfortable looking way! Reaper’s Revenge did make some changes to the Haunted Hayride for 2018. A 500 foot long stretch of laser light show including the brand new Alice in Wonderland scene are by far the highlights of the new additions to the hayride. Reaper’s Revenge also does a great job of incorporating the natural elements of being in the woods into their set designs. The 50+ foot tall pumpkin creatures swaying in the trees left us in awe. Eventually the hay wagon will stumble upon a security station where guests are kicked off the hay wagon. The security scene transitions guests from the Haunted Hayride to the Lost Carnival. We won’t give away any spoilers but the security scene is by far one of our squads favorite scenes anywhere in the haunt industry! Lost Carnival is exactly as it sounds… a carnival lost in the middle of the dark woods. You’ll encounter everything from carnival rides (ferris wheel, carousel, roller coaster) to carnival games to horrifying clowns to a disorienting fun house and so much more. The actors throughout this attraction are very interactive and do a phenomenal job engaging with the guests. Around each corner is another set of surprises that are surely to please any haunt goer. Not a single flaw could be found anywhere in this attraction. It’s truly tough to put into words how amazing Lost Carnival is but just know that you’ll be in for quite the show at this carnival. At the completion of Lost Carnival guests will wait briefly to board the hay wagon once again. It is at this point that you’ll finish out the last few scenes of the hayride. The final few scenes of the Haunted Hayride are truly action packed and thrilling. The last scene of the Haunted Hayride is purely a flawless finale. Again, we won’t reveal any spoilers but make sure to hold on as the final scene takes you for a wild and thrilling ride! Once departing the Haunted Hayride guests will now enter the line for Pitch Black. Over the off season between the 2016 and 2017 haunt seasons Reaper’s Revenge completely redid Pitch Black. Last season we voted Pitch Black as hands down the scariest attraction our squad has ever done. Well, Pitch Black once again delivered a thrilling experience from start to end. Pitch Black is indeed that - completely dark - and utilizes an impressive mixture of wall texture, unexpected suspended objects, disorienting floor slants, vibrating walls, moisture and moving floor pieces. These are mixed in with actors touching your legs, hair and face - unexpectedly, and frequently. To begin Pitch Black, guests will board a small and unsound looking elevator. This elevator ride does a remarkable job of getting guests adrenalized for the rest of attraction. Once the elevator doors open it’s nothing but complete darkness and purely terrifying chaos from that point forward. Pitch Black incorporates the element of loud sounds to disorient their guests. The volume of these sounds are so loud it literally vibrates the floors and walls. Within seconds the noise instantly becomes irritating and messes with your mind; this makes you quite frankly ready to get the heck out of the attraction. But of course it isn’t that easy. As you twist and turn through the dark and tight passages you begin to fear that you may never make it out. Actors have perfect placement and mastered their timing to deliver numerous spine-tingling scares. From start to end your nerves are on edge which makes you highly susceptible to being on the receiving end of numerous scares. Pitch Black hands down terrorized our group and left us short of breath. We aren’t going to lie, we needed to take a few moments prior to heading for the final attraction. Once our squad got ourselves mentally and physically back together we headed for the last attraction of the evening; Sector 13! As you approach Sector 13 you can’t help but question what the heck you are about to encounter. Sector 13 is the last bridge to the relatively normal Western US as the Eastern half of the US has suffered a huge bio-nuclear attack. If you make it through Sector 13 than you survived the nuclear attack. However, the cannibalistic mutants that you will encounter definitely do not make escaping very easy. The first few scenes of Sector 13 are security related and we were definitely intimidated by the intensity of the security guards. You truly felt as if this was real life and if you didn’t follow commands from the guards, you would be tossed to the mutants! After going through the decontamination process all hell breaks loose! Crazed and malicious actors were the highlight of the attraction - they weren’t afraid to get up in your face, interact, and bring the laughs and scares! They never once let the sinister intensity skip a beat. We literally feared for our lives every second during our journey through Sector 13. Guests were often separated from their group, cornered and even incorporated into the show. Just as you think you’ve successfully survived Sector 13 the final scene catches you off guard and delivers one final perfectly crafted bloodcurdling scare. All we can say is good luck trying to make it out of Sector 13 with all your limbs intact! So to recap our experience… awaiting you at Reaper’s Revenge is four TOP NOTCH attractions! Actors, costuming/makeup, props, animatronics, set designs, etc. are all mind-boggling and truly phenomenal! It’s so very clear that Reaper’s Revenge really puts a lot of time and energy into their actors! They are downright some of the best actors we’ve ever witnessed at a haunted attraction. You won’t just find a few standout actors as every single actor is just as good as the other. Boy do they have some damn good costume and makeup artists on staff. We were really blown away by the realisticness of the costumes and makeup. When it comes to props, animatronics, sound effects, pyrotechnics, etc. you’d think you were on the set of a Hollywood movie! We would be straight up lying if we said Reaper’s Revenge isn’t scary. Were sure they have more than a handful of customers that piss themselves every night! As a whole our squad doesn’t scare easily but scaring us came easy for Reaper’s Revenge. We witnessed grown men and women screaming and sobbing in utter fear! Not only do they provide a frightening experience but also an entertaining experience featuring the perfect combination of scares and laughs! At the completion of the four attractions you can grab some munchies and kick back by the fire pit and discuss the craziness you just endured! 2018 is just Reaper’s Revenge 10th year in operation. In just 10 years Reaper’s Revenge has crafted a marvelous and horrifying show; a show/experience that haunts with over 20+ years of experience still dream of achieving. Our squad members traveled anywhere from 2-5 hours to attend Reaper’s Revenge and it’s more than worth the drive! We personally would have no second guesses in whether to refer someone a few states away to come visit Reaper’s Revenge! If you’re a haunt lover and have never visited Reaper’s Revenge you are missing out big time! Reaper’s Revenge is an innovative and downright top notch haunted attraction featuring vicious chills and thrills!! We give you no choice but to come pay Reaper’s Revenge a visit this season… we know you’ll have blast!
Individual Attraction Review:
Attraction Name: Haunted Hayride
Overall Attraction Rating: 10/10!
Cast and Crew Rating: 10/10!
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 10/10!
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 9/10!
Attraction Name: Lost Carnival
Overall Attraction Rating: 10/10!
Cast and Crew Rating: 10/10!
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 10/10!
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 9/10!
Attraction Name: Pitch Black
Overall Attraction Rating: 10/10!
Cast and Crew Rating: 10/10!
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 10/10!
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 10/10!
Attraction Name: Sector 13
Overall Attraction Rating: 10/10!
Cast and Crew Rating: 10/10!
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 10/10!
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 9.5/10!