Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Kersey Valley Spooky Woods
Website: www.spookywoods.com
Location of Attraction: Archdale North Carolina
Date of Review: 10/8/2022
Total Number of Attractions Available: 1
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 9/10
Entertainment & Food Rating: 10/10
Atmosphere Rating: 10/10
Overall Costume & Makeup Rating: 9/10
Overall Cast & Crew Rating: 7.5/10
Overall Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 9.5/10
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8/10
Overall Feedback: The Infamous Kersey Valley Spooky Woods offers a frightfully fun experience that’s sure to please even the most veteran haunt goers. Located in the dark & desolate woods of Archdale, North Carolina is Kersey Valley Attractions, a one stop shop that can easily provide a full day's worth of entertainment. While we only partook in the evening Spooky Woods experience, these folks also offer a plethora of daytime activities. Ziplines, axe throwing, laser tag, escape rooms, corn maize, you name it & they likely have it! No shortage of entertainment at Kersey Valley Attractions, truly something for the entire family!
Kersey Valley Spooky Woods was by far one of our most looked forward to stops on our 2022 Haunt Tour. We’ve heard rave reviews of the Spooky Woods experience and finally decided to visit them for ourselves. With it being a Saturday in October when visiting, this place was a madhouse, swarming with fellow haunt enthusiasts seeking some spooky fun! Ample parking is available but be forewarned it can take a good 20+ minutes to get into the general parking lot ($10). Preferred parking is available offering a much quicker in & out of the lot along with being notably closer to the attraction ($20). We were parked in the back lot & were shuttled over via a tractor ride. Be sure to leave all purses, bags, lighters, etc in your vehicle as you won’t be able to take them into the attraction. As we departed the shuttle we were immediately immersed into a lively atmosphere. The ominous glow of Spooky Woods could be seen in the near distance. Screams and the general buzz of the fellow patrons could be heard off in the distance.
If needing to purchase tickets onsite you’ll be funneled towards the ticket booth queue line, otherwise you’ll breeze through security & proceed forth into the midway. Purchasing tickets online would be wise, as it allows you to proceed right past the lengthy ticket booth line. General admission tickets vary in price based on the evening you attend, ranging from $30-$40. Fast Pass entry (minimum wait) is available for $55. Immediate access (no wait) is available for $75 and also includes a commemorative group photo. If you haven’t visited Spooky Woods yet this season, there’s still plenty of time as these folks run through Saturday November 5th!
Spooky Woods truly offers no shortage of entertainment outside of the attraction. Their midway is essentially a town filled with various merchandise booths, food vendors, countless roaming scare actors, a live DJ, and much more! There was an overwhelming amount of food options here, you’d literally gain 10lbs if you even remotely tried consuming everything they had to offer. The DJ was blasting a wide variety of music and did a stellar job of amping up the crowd & keeping everyone entertained. The roaming scare actors were plentiful & ranged from horror film characters (Jason, Michael, Freddy) to clowns to “The Mayor” and many others. These spooks were extremely energetic, interactive, and did a phenomenal job entertaining & startling guests outside the attraction.
Your Kersey Valley experience commences with a group photo prior to being sent into the decrepit Fox Family home. Just moments into the attraction here we knew we were going to be in for an incredibly immersive and visually stunning experience. The scenic design from top to bottom and start to finish was truly exquisite, possessing world-class special effects, incredibly life-like & immersive sets, & no shortage of details. Truly an aesthetically pleasing journey that left us mesmerized in amazement numerous times. The Town Graveyard was heavily fogged out, blurring our vision as we tried to dodge the man-eating zombies. We loved the thunderstorm effects utilized in the graveyard, incredibly life-like & would’ve amazed even the most experienced storm chaser. We stumbled our way through a cornfield that would periodically be lit up by simulated blasts of lightning. Restless souls lurked in the shadows throughout the cornfield, providing quick startle scares. A beautifully crafted mansion gave off unnerving vibes and housed within it a manic doctor who certainly has countless malpractice lawsuits! We traversed through what felt like a real life house fire, as thick fog nearly eliminated our eyesight, a red glow peered through the floorboards, crackling fire audio effects blaring overhead, and zombie-fied firefighters were roaming the halls! At one point we descended into a dark & decrepit mineshaft littered with unruly inhabitants. Evil old witches, rotting corpses in the funeral home, werewolves lurking in the woods, crypts/catacombs, & much more were encountered along this spooky fun adventure! The Beastro was serving up some gut-wrenching meals, likely the meat from victims that the butcher next door carved up. The Spooky Woods adventure eventually concluded with a disorienting trip through the vortex tunnel & out through the pumpkin patch, where fog & a laser light tunnel were used to effectively blind the quests allowing a chainsaw wielding maniac the perfect opportunity to deliver one final scare.
The characters encountered along our journey were a bit hit or miss. Most elected for the quick startle scare & then scurried back to the shadows. Some folks possessed engaging skits that added a layer of interactivity to the experience while others seemed a bit tired and offered minimal engagement. We do feel there were areas of dead space throughout our journey where additional spooks thrown in would help keep the adrenaline rush flowing. But unfortunately shortage of scare actors has been a common theme throughout the haunt industry. Therefore Spooky Woods did the best with the scare actors they did have & certainly made up for it where they could with their top-notch set designs! We can’t forget to compliment the Spooky Woods costuming & make-up team, as the spooks all possessed realistic costuming/make-up which helped to further immerse the audience into the experience.
To round out our experience at Kersey Valley Spooky Woods we snagged a few group photos at the various photo-ops along with snagging our group photo from the beginning of our experience. We perused the merchandise booth & snagged quite a few goodies - shirts, hoodies, beanies, & other trinkets!
Kersey Valley Spooky Woods certainly provides a frightfully fun experience that all haunt enthusiasts should experience at least once in their lifetime. Their world-class set design will leave you in pure amazement, as you feel fully immersed into dark & twisted horrors. We’d certainly visit Spooky Woods again the next time we’re in North Carolina. Job well done Spooky Woods team, y’all have truly mastered the art of providing a spooky fun experience! Happy Hauntings!