Hersheypark Dark Nights - 2025
- Chandler Clouser
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
🎢 Hersheypark Dark Nights - 2025
Date: 9/12/2025
Location: Hershey, PA
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Hersheypark Dark Nights is an immersive Halloween experience blending top-tier haunted houses, scare zones, and the excitement of riding coasters under the night sky!
This year’s lineup included five fully realized attractions:
Kill ‘N Fill Garage (New for 2025)
Twisted Carnevil
Estate of Evil
Haunted Coal Mine
Auntie Mortem’s Abattoir
And four unrelenting scare zones:
Midway of Misery
Fallout Zone
Path of Shadows (New for 2025)
Darkstones Hollow
Entertainment & Atmosphere: 10/10
Hersheypark, an amusement park extravaganza by day, transforms into a Halloween playground during Dark Nights, and the exhilarating atmosphere is hard to top. Fog, elegant lighting, themed food & drinks, four differently themed scare zones, and the park’s nearly limitless amenities give guests plenty to explore between haunts. One of the coolest features? You can go through the attractions as many times as you’d like—so if you fall in love with one, have at it!
Beyond the houses, four scare zones gave additional opportunities for frights, though their energy varied. More consistent activity in these areas would help maintain momentum between houses. For thrills of a different kind, our crew hopped on Lightning Racer between haunts—and let’s just say the dark nighttime ride was no break from the adrenaline. We were flying! The Decayed Brigade’s Slidershow Showcase is a true crowd-pleaser, capping the night with an exhilarating sliding stunt performance.
Costume & Makeup: 8.5/10
Each character possessed life-like costuming and makeup which only further helped to immerse us into the scenes. Whether it was a character dressed to blend into a car wash or a gal with a dart in her forehead, no shortage of high-quality special FX work here! Some characters had a bit of sweat-worn makeup by night's end, but that’s to be expected with warmer temps!
Cast & Crew: 8/10
The biggest critique of the night: not enough actors. Several houses had slow zones where little happened, and some performers mirrored one another’s tactics rather than offering variety & creativity in their engagements. The characters who leaned into dialogue or interacted directly with guests really stood out—we’d love to see that style, skit-based or improv-based, encouraged across the board. We also assume that more spooks will be joining the Dark Nights cast as the season progresses.
Set Design & Special Effects: 9/10
This is where Hersheypark shines—each house delivered immersive scenic work, intense audio/visual effects, and world-class sound design. From the garage props stocked with authentic 80s magazines to the gas station build, the scenic detail was top notch. The Coal Mine’s improved lighting balance made its design really shine—not to mention the attraction wasn't as fogged-out like last year, affording us the opportunity to take in all the little details. Each of the attractions featured strong multi-sensory immersion—lighting, audio, and even smells that brought the world to life. Twisted Carnevil brought back childhood horrors, as we had to navigate an unrelenting mirror maze (doink!). The new sauna room in Estate of Evil was well executed, minus the cast being fried to a crisp! And good ole Auntie Mortem’s always fills our fix for blood & gore—we also appreciate the “interactive” components where your group might be split & sent through separate passageways.
Fright & Thrill Factor: 7.5/10
While the sets and atmosphere brought intensity, the scares themselves leaned more towards predictable in nature for seasoned haunt goers. A stronger mix of startles, dialogue-driven scenes, and intimate, in-your-face interactions would raise the fear factor. Don’t get us wrong, we still had our fair share of jump scares & Auntie Mortem’s certainly maintains an intense atmosphere from start to finish.
Sharpening the Scare:
Staffing: A challenge everywhere… we’d like to see more characters sprinkled throughout the attractions & scare zones. We feel this would further help immersion & lessen the slow/dead space.
Actor Training: Encourage more dialogue, improvisation, and creativity. This kind of individuality and interactivity further immerses guests into the experience.
Queue Entertainment: Consider adding actors in the queue lines to engage guests while waiting. Keeps energy up and makes the downtime fun, especially during busier nights where wait-times can become lengthy.
Security Presence: We 100% understand and support the need for security presence throughout attractions. If possible, consider disguising or blending security into the environment and be mindful of how flashlights can break immersion.
Special Effects: Not necessarily a weakness once darkness falls, however, ideally further closing off light leaks in the Haunted Coal Mine would allow for stronger immersion, especially early evening when daylight is still upon us.
Photo Ops & Branding: More Dark Nights–specific photo opportunities across the park would boost guest engagement and social sharing. We loved “The Descent” photo-op right by the main gates—and we saw many others also partaking in this!
Additional Entertainment: Implementing a "monster release" or "monster parade" would be a unique way to commence each evening of haunting! Adding in stage shows would be another way to expand upon the spooky amenities outside of the attractions.
Overall Notes:
Hersheypark Dark Nights has quickly cemented itself as one of the strongest amusement-park haunts in the region. The sets are impressive, the atmosphere is electric, and the ability to pair haunted houses with world-class coasters makes for a unique Halloween themed night out. In just 4 short years, Dark Nights has us convinced that they’re on their way to rising as a top-tier national haunt event! While not the scariest haunt around, it’s a stellar blend of thrills, atmosphere, and spooky entertainment. Hersheypark Dark Night’s is definitely Fright Review Squad approved and we look forward to checking back for years to come!