Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill
Website: www.kimskrypt.com
Location of Attraction: Spring Grove, PA
Date of Review: 9/17/2021
Total Number of Attractions Available: 4
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 8.5/10
Entertainment & Food Rating: 9/10
Atmosphere Rating: 9/10
Overall Costume & Makeup Rating: 8/10
Overall Cast & Crew Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8/10
Overall Feedback: Housed on 60+ acres in Spring Grove Pennsylvania is Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill, which has quickly become one of Pennsylvania’s premier Haunted Attraction Scream Parks! Featuring four attractions and an expansive midway, Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill provides a full evenings worth of blood-curdling scares and spooky fun! Over the past few years Kim and her team have been hard at work updating and upgrading their attractions. The Terror Trail & Haunted Mill attractions have basically been reconstructed from start to finish over the past two seasons. Most recently, Kim and her crew completed a massive overhaul of changes in the Horror of Menges Mill attraction. So clearly there’s always something new and thrilling to experience with a visit to Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill.
We arrived onsite at Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill around 8pm on Friday September 17th, their opening evening for the 2021 season. There’s no shortage of entertainment outside of the attractions at Kim’s Krypt! Exhilarating music can be heard belting through the midway from the moment you pull into the parking lot. Be sure to check out the 5 minute zombie escape room ($5), coffin/hearse rides ($5-$10), frightfully fun midway games, and the newly expanded gift shop! Several food vendors & the snack shack will be onsite to cater to all your cravings. Can’t forget to mention the several scare actors roaming the midway area interacting with guests and providing frights before reaching an attraction. Heck, we encountered Jason Vorhees and a crazed inmate that we call “Zappy” just steps from our vehicles… There is NO safe zone at Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill, if you’re on the property you will likely be a target for a spine-tingling scare. Special shout-out to Trixie, Cookie, & Kim who are iconic staples in the midway area at Kim’s Krypt!
Tickets can be purchased online or onsite for the 2021 season. General admission tickets are a bit on the pricey side at $50, but this does include four decent length attractions totaling about 60 minutes of true in-attraction time - so you do get your money's worth! Fast pass tickets are available for an additional $30, which may prove to be of value during peak haunt season when the attraction lines become absurdly long. We snagged our general admission tickets and then set off to begin the evening's festivities!
House of Eyes: Located in a decrepit old barn with documented paranormal activity, you can’t ask for a more sinister setting for a haunted attraction. Within seconds of entering the attraction you’re immersed into an eerie and dark atmosphere. We’ve never been overly wowed by the set design throughout this attraction, primarily because it’s a bit bland & dated, but it’s still effective and has its share of surprises. Be prepared to encounter scare actors from all directions, as they often appear out of nowhere to deliver a scare. Drop panels, air cannons, and audio & visual effects were effectively utilized to keep things interesting while traveling through several of the dark passageways. Even some of our most stoic members were recipients of a spine-tingling scare! The actors played off the animatronics and utilized them as a distraction. When we least expected it they’d pounce on us to deliver a scare. Special kudos to the scare actor with the rabid possum mask in the kitchen & dining room scenes! We’d love to see the House of Eyes be the next attraction to be shown some love in regards to updating & upgrading the set design. Despite not being the most aesthetically pleasing attraction at Kim’s Krypt, the House of Eyes still provides a thrilling 10 minutes of in attraction experience.
Terror Trail: Recently the Terror Trail sustained extensive damage due to flooding from Hurricane Ida, but have no fear, the Kim’s Krypt team pulled together to get the Terror Trail back in action for the 2021 season. Terror Trail snakes along the Oil Creek in the dark and eerie woods. Guests should be prepared for a solid 20 minutes of pure insanity during their journey through the Terror Trail. You’ll traverse through two dozen or more different scenes, including a haunted mineshaft, voodoo shack, camp crystal lake, toxic wasteland, hillbilly distillery, junkyard, insane asylum, and much more!! Easily our favorite scenes/sections were the eerie and unnerving cemetery along with the sinister and demented asylum! We can’t forget to mention the monstrous 12ft skeleton creatures lurking along the Terror Trail, boy were they astonishing. Unfortunately there was a notable shortage of scare actors throughout the Terror Trail, which often left empty scenes with no actors to bring them to life. We do give major kudos to the scare actors that were roaming about the Terror Trail as they were energized and eager to provide a hair-raising startle! As always, the final scene is executed to true perfection, sending customers fleeing for their lives as they race for the exit!
Haunted Mill: The Haunted Mill couldn’t have a more unnerving setting as it’s housed in the 1783 Grist Mill. Patrons should be prepared to experience four floors of horrifying scares, adding up to nearly 20 minutes of in attraction experience! The Kim’s Krypt team completed a massive overhaul of changes within the Haunted Mill in 2020, essentially stripping the attraction bare and starting fresh! For 2021 there’s once again more updates & upgrades to numerous scenes, making the Haunted Mill more nerve-wracking and frightening than ever before! Just moments inside the decrepit mill you descend into the dark and eerie depths of the basement. A portion of the basement has been converted into a beautifully crafted catacomb/crypt, which left us in awe as we traversed through. Some of our other favorite scenes were the mineshaft, execution chairs, mad scientist lab, and the long strobe tunnel! Beware Otis, the crazed axe-slinging spook roaming the strobe tunnel who’s anxiously awaiting his next victims! Freddy Krueger made an appearance throughout several scenes, providing animated and petrifying engagements. Drop panels, air cannons, audio/visual effects, and animatronics were effectively utilized throughout the Haunted Mill to make for a thrilling and fearsome journey. Scare actors were sprinkled throughout the attraction, leaving effective moments of dead space which created notable suspense as we feared the anticipation of a spine-tingling startle. The Haunted Mill continues to become more lively, intense, & horrifying each year!
Horror of Menges Mill: After being closed during the 2020 season, the Horror of Menges Mill attraction is back, more exhilarating and spine-chilling than ever before! Nearly 75% of the attraction has been completely dismantled and reconstructed, making for nearly an all-new experience. Before even entering the attraction you’ll be greeted by the monstrous ~15ft dragon animatronic, which sets the tone for the action-packed and blood-curdling experience that lies ahead. The Horror of Menges Mill features by far the most aesthetically pleasing and high-tech set design out of all the attractions at Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill. Scene after scene we were continually shocked by the effectiveness of the various props and animatronics utilized to create an unsettling journey. We felt on edge throughout this action packed attraction, often leaving us susceptible to spine-tingling startles! By far the most stunning scene was easily the dragons den, featuring several monstrous dragon animatronics towering above us. The scare actors throughout the Horror of Menges Mill were frightfully flawless; often relentless in their attacks and provided an extremely interactive and engaging experience! We could ramble on for days about our electrifying and spine-chilling experience, but will refrain from doing so to avoid ruining the element of surprise for those of you who end up visiting this season. The Horror of Menges Mill was unanimously voted our squad's favorite attraction of the evening, and may even find itself amongst the top of our yearly award for “Best Indoor Walkthrough Attractions”.
Amongst the other PA Haunted Attraction Scream Parks, Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with! Each and every year we are pleasantly surprised by the substantial amount of updates & upgrades to the attractions. It’s safe to say that you’ll never encounter the same experience twice when visiting year to year at Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill. Despite being notably short on scare actors (as have many other haunts this season), those that were staffed the evening we attended were spot on and well immersed in their roles, possessing frightening skits and utilizing improv to deliver an entertaining and nerve-wracking experience. We continue to see notable improvements each year in the costuming and makeup department, which helps to further immerse haunt goers into the experience. For 2021 Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill possesses FOUR attractions of PURE TERROR that are sure to please any and all haunt goers. For those of you who haven’t visited Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill before, or may have written this haunt off due to poor past experiences, we strongly recommend a return visit as they’ve really upped their game! Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill has quickly become a must-see Haunted Attraction Scream Park, so what are you waiting for? Head over to Spring Grove PA to experience the unnerving, hair-raising, and downright spine-tingling Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill!
Individual Attraction Ratings:
Attraction Name: House of Eyes
Overall Attraction Rating: 7/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 7/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 7/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 7/10
Attraction Name: Terror Trail
Overall Attraction Rating: 8/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 8/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 8.5/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 7/10
Attraction Name: Haunted Mill
Overall Attraction Rating: 8.5/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 8.5/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 9/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8.5/10
Attraction Name: Horror of Menges Mill
Overall Attraction Rating: 9.5/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 9.5/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 9.5/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 9/10
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