Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Scary Rotten Farms
Website: www.scaryrottenfarms.com
Location of Attraction: Brick Township, New Jersey
Date of Review: Saturday October 5th 2019
Total Number of Attractions Available: THREE
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 7/10
Entertainment and Food Rating: 6/10
Atmosphere Rating: 7/10
Overall Costume and Make Up Rating: 7/10
Overall Cast and Crew Rating: 6.5/10
Overall Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 7/10
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 6/10
Overall Feedback: It's the first Saturday in October and we are venturing out to Northern New Jersey for a 2-in-1 review night. We had several haunts to choose from in this area and elected to pay a first time visit to Scary Rotten Farms and Nightmare at Gravity Hill. To begin our evening we visited Scary Rotten Farms. Located in Brick Township New Jersey at Berry Fresh Farms, Scary Rotten Farms certainly has a unique property. As we pulled into the parking lot around 7pm, a rather large crowd was on hand. We immediately could tell we were at a plant farm as dozens of mums were laying around and several large greenhouses were intertwined with the attractions. We're not going to lie, our expectations weren't very high in regards to the experience we thought we were going to receive. Well boy were we pleasantly surprised with our experience. The midway area at Scary Rotten Farms was rather small. Primarily featuring the ticket booth, a food vendor and several roaming scare actors. There was certainly an exciting buzz swirling in the air at the haunt. All the guests seemed extremely excited to experience Scary Rotten Farms, which was great to see.
To kick off our evening we headed for Sinister Sneed's Chaotic Carnival of Chaos. Long story short, this attraction was pure CHAOS, in a good way! Just seconds into the attraction we received our first of many startles to come. Scene after scene we were impressed with the uniqueness of the set design. We could definitely tell someone took a lot of time to think out this attraction and then tons of hours to bring it to life. Hand made props throughout the attraction made for a refreshing experience. The scare actors encountered were SCREAMTASTIC! Special shout-out to the clown on stilts, he scared the crap out of several of our members! They ALL possessed high energy and clearly wanted to scare the crap out of people. We enjoyed the mixture of skits and pop scares by the actors, some delivered startles and others had us belly laughing. We were thoroughly impressed by the length of this attraction! We several times thought we were nearing the end but then we'd encounter another handful of scenes. All in all, we were exscreamly happy with our experience in the Chaotic Carnival of Chaos! It would turn out to be our favorite attraction of the evening.
Next up we ventured to the backside of the Scary Rotten Farms property for Blackended: The Plaque. As we approached the gates of this attraction we could over hear the ticket taker setting the mood and theme for the attraction. She wished us luck as she sent us forth into the town of Ravenshire, which unfortunately was being taken over by the PLAGUE! After such a thrilling experience in the previous attraction we had high hopes this attraction would keep the momentum going. Unfortunately, we weren't overly impressed by the experience received during this attraction. The set design was a bit more simplistic in this attraction vs the previous one. But still possessed the same great unique qualities. Again, we encountered tons of scenes and props that we've never seen elsewhere. The biggest downfall of the attraction was the scare actors. Too many of the scare actors were utilizing the common haunt lines "get out", "what are you doing here?", "do you want to play?", etc. We also remember encountering several actors whom were just hitting random items with bats in hopes the sound would generate a pop scare - this method/tactic was not very successful. We would love to see these actors make the experience more personal for the guests by utilizing improv to personally attack the patrons. The attractions at Scary Rotten Farms are very actor driven, so we'd really like to see them engage more with the patrons. Like the Chaotic Carnival we were pleased with the length of the attraction; although Blackened: The Plague possessed several large areas of dead space and an overall less thrilling experience. Blackened: The Plaque definitely has the foundation to become a solid attraction but for now, they have some things to work on.
To finish out Scary Rotten Farms we ventured to Twisted Tales; a fairy tale themed attraction with a horrifying twist. We've encountered a similar attraction to this one, located at Valley of Fear in PA, who executes the fairy tale theme perfectly. Like the other two attractions at Scary Rotten Farms, Twisted Tales featured many well put together scenes plastered full of handmade props. We truly felt as if we were venturing through a fairy tale book as we stumbled upon each and every scene. No complaints with the set design. Unfortunately most of the scare actors fell short in portraying their characters appropriately. If it wasn't for the detailed set design, we wouldn't have known what several of the fairy tales were. Special shout-out to Little Bo Peep and the Three Little Pigs; these guys were spot-on with their performances. If Scary Rotten Farms can help all their Twisted Tales scare actors develop skits correlating to their fairy tale the overall experience would be significantly improved upon. But all in all Twisted Tales still provided a solid mix of laughs and startles.
Across the board at Scary Rotten Farms we were impressed with the unique nature of the haunt! Costuming and makeup was well done and believable. Several really unique masks were encountered on our journey. In terms of overall scare/thrill factor, we feel Scary Rotten Farms is suitable for most of the family. For the experience we received we do feel that $40 for the three attractions is a bit steep, but that is just our opinion. If you're in the area definitely pay Scary Rotten Farms a visit. We feel most haunt enthusiasts will enjoy the experience they offer. If you visit them make sure to tell them Fright Review Squad sent you their way! Happy Hauntings Everyone!
Individual Attraction Review:
Attraction Name: Sinister Sneed’s Chaotic Carnival of Chaos
Overall Attraction Rating: 8/10
Cast and Crew Rating: 8/10
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 8/10
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 7/10
Attraction Name: Blackened: The Plague
Overall Attraction Rating: 5.5/10
Cast and Crew Rating: 5/10
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 6/10
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 5/10
Attraction Name: Twisted Tales
Overall Attraction Rating: 6.5/10
Cast and Crew Rating: 6/10
Props, Animatronics and Set Design Rating: 7/10
Attraction Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 6/10