top of page

Valley of Fear - 2024

Writer's picture: Chandler ClouserChandler Clouser

šŸ˜ˆšŸ“ā€ā˜ ļø Our Visit to Valley of Fear šŸ“ā€ā˜ ļøšŸ˜ˆ

Date: 10/4/2024

Location: Feasterville, PA


Located about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of the states longest running haunted attraction scream parks, The Valley of Fear! These guys are ushering in their 34th year of providing FEAR for 2024! Our team last visited Valley of Fear during the 2021 haunt season, so we were overly eager & excited to finally return! For 2024 Valley of Fear is boasting nearly brand new attractions, as each of the three attractions has received major overhauls! Patrons will have the pleasure of experiencing three attractions - The Original Haunted Hayride, Miles Manor Haunted House & Escape Shipwreck Cove!Ā 


Friday October 4th arrived and our squad was eager and excited to return to the infamous Valley of Fear. We had tried to visit the Friday before & sadly Valley of Fear was rained out. Fortunately for us our friends at Laurelā€™s House of Horror (Maryland) were still open so we didnā€™t miss out on some spooky fun! Valley of Fear has been a staple in the haunt industry for 34 years now and with that longevity comes a massive fanbase. We strongly recommend visiting these folks earlier in the season or on a Thursday or Sunday. Come Fridays and Saturdays in October, Valley of Fear draws in massive crowds which can lengthen wait times. There is ample parking onsite just be prepared to pay the $5 parking fee (benefits Phoenix Club Youth Sports Teams). After over a week of rainy & dreary weather, we finally had a decent evening to enjoy a haunt! Partly cloudy skies and a cool breeze helped to immerse us in the haunt atmosphere!


After a short walk and journeying across the roadway, guests are funneled directly into the midway area at Valley of Fear. Right off the bat we noticed a BIG enhancement to the midway, and that is a Valley of Fear merchandise stand! Thatā€™s right, NEW for 2024, they FINALLY have merchandise! Youā€™ll find several Valley of Fear shirts, hoodies, blankets, and much more! Valley of Fear truly has a solid midway setup that provides a lively but relaxing environment for guests to enjoy while outside the attractions. A massive bonfire possessed ample seating around it along with the ability to purchase sā€™mores kits. Several food vendors and stands were serving up all sorts of scrumptious food offerings ranging from funnel cake to pulled pork sandwiches to italian/shaved ice. Several photo-op booths were available for your picture taking pleasure, our favorite was the massive pumpkin skeleton creature photo-op. Several roaming scare actors were making their rounds, engaging with guests and providing frights and laughs before even entering an attraction. HUGE shout-out to Beetlejuice, Karnage the Clown, & Toxic the Clown, all roaming spooks who were entertaining the masses! Canā€™t forget to mention the DJ who was doing an excellent job engaging with the crowd and had several dozen folks showing off their dance moves throughout the night. Heck, even a Ghostbusters replica was on display in the midway!


Based on the recommendations of Valley of Fear staff, we experienced the three attractions in the following order: The Original Haunted Hayride, Miles Manor Haunted House, and Escape Shipwreck Cove. After experiencing the three attractions for ourselves, weā€™d agree that this is the only order in which you should experience the attractions! The adrenaline was flowing from start to finish and the WOW factor continued to climb from attraction to attraction!


The Original Haunted Hayride - Prepare yourself for a 20-25 minute thrilling and action-packed haunted hayride experience! At Valley of Fear youā€™ll sit on the haywagon facing outwards with your legs dangling over the edge, which in our opinion further immerses you into the experience. Your hayride adventure commences in an eerie scene with startling audio & visual effects which effectively gave us a jolt of excitement as we set forth. The first half of the Haunted Hayride takes you through an immersive and thrilling horror movie marathon! Things commenced with not one, not two, but THREE Jason Vorheesā€™! Jason was relentless in his attacks, as his ā€œkillsā€ were quite violent and too questionably realistic! As we continued forth we encountered LeatherFace, Michael Myers, & Children of the Corn! Michael Myers featured two different scenes, 1 kicking it old school to the original movies and another kicking it to the newer Halloween Kills, specifically the opening scene where Michael appears in the doorway of the burning Strode house. Just like in the movie, Michael nonchalantly stepped off the porch and offed several firefighters! We encountered a whole slew of additional scenes including a demented Willy Wonka, graveyard with dancing zombies, the Terror Dome, and Carnival/Circus! The opening facade to the carnival was eerily crafted as you traversed under a large abandoned roller coaster! Our crew unanimously decided that the Willy Wonka scene was easily our favorite! Willy Wonka has always been a little weird, but Valley of Fear put a major DARK twist on this fellow, and we absolutely loved it! His animated gibberish and herky-jerky body jirations along with the ā€œTunnel of Terrorā€ effects from the movie certainly made for a memorable experience! The finale scene certainly came in at a close 2nd for favorite hayride scene, as the freakshow clowns came crackling & contorting out of their cases & violently assaulted the haywagon. Several of our members were left completely flabbergasted when Cheeks the Clown inflatable a balloon that was running through her nose & out her mouth, incredibly freakish!! Valley of Fear truly brought out all the stops & provided a refreshed and well sharpened hayride experience for 2024.Ā 


Miles Manor Haunted House - As we exited the hay wagon, staring us down in the nearby distance was the ominous Miles Manor Haunted House. This attraction featured a decrepit appearing and eerily crafted facade, which gave off a rather intimidating vibe! The Miles Manor Haunted House had previously been an attraction at Valley of Fear before a devastating fire destroyed the attraction several years back. But donā€™t worry, the evil has returned as the Miles Manor has risen from the ashes, giving the evil and demented spooks a place to call home again. The Miles Manor Haunted House features well designed scenes, with creepy scenery and decor that immerses you into the experience. We encountered a skilled cast throughout our journey in the Miles Manor, as these folks did an excellent job bringing the scenes to life and providing countless startles! We especially loved how interactive the cast was throughout our adventure; they made what couldā€™ve been a 5 minute walkthrough easily a 15 minute thrilling & chilling experience, all in credit to their innate ability to engage with our crew by using creepy dialogue! The two characters in the opening scene certainly set the tone for the mayhem that lied ahead. One of our members helped summon spirits with a Oujia board, yikes! Reverend Barry kicked us in shape in his ghostly church scene. To no surprise he sent FRS member Christy into the confessional & asked her to confess her sins! Then he proceeded to mark FRS member Stephanie and sent her fleeing through the rest of the haunt all by her lonesome! A series of dimly lit hallways coupled with props dangling from the ceiling sure made for a disorienting journey. Several inflatable squeeze tunnels were utilized in unique ways causing us to bend & twist in all different directions to navigate through.Ā  Just when we thought things couldnā€™t get any more disorienting we stumbled into the black curtain maze, which effectively had our crew all discombobulated leaving us susceptible to a well timed spine-tingling scare. We eventually stumbled our way through a series of clown-esque scenes and concluded with a trippy vortex tunnel! Miles Manor surely packs a punch for 2024, a much improved experience compared to our last visit in 2021! Beware the manic inhabitants in this haunted manor, otherwise you might just end up as one of them!Ā 


Escape Shipwreck Cove - Ahoy Matey! Do you have what it takes to safely escape the ghost of one-eyed Willie, or will he steal your soul in his pursuit of lost treasure? When we last visited Valley of Fear in 2021, at the time ā€œWillieā€™s Shipwreck Coveā€ was a completely brand new attraction. Sadly at the time they had just previously dealt with flooding which notably setback their build plans for the attraction, so we never truly got to experience the attraction how Valley of Fear had intended. Right off the bat we noticed a MASSIVE change. A beautifully crafted pirate ship towers easily 2-3 stories in the sky donning several skeleton creatures & eerie lantern lighting! A unique series of special effects commences and eventually youā€™re set forth into the Shipwreck Cove! It only took a few moments for us to feel fully immersed into the pirate-esque vibe, as ominous audio echoed throughout the dark woods. We were truly taken aback by the massive overhaul of changes since our last visit, this attraction is truly unrecognizable. Scene after scene we were left jaw-dropped, as the aesthetically pleasing and insanely detailed set design was truly remarkable! We traversed over a slew of bridges which hovered over the murky swamp. We snaked our way through the dark and eerie woods, venturing through several well themed and decorated shacks, and encountered numerous spooks who provided powerful engagements with our squad. A strobe-lit bamboo forest scene was incredibly trippy and quite unnerving, as spine-chilling audio was humming throughout. We also traversed ā€œbehind the scenesā€ as we snaked through several life-like pirate ships. The pirate theme was incredibly executed from start to finish, with not a singular hiccup during the adventure! From the scenes, to the soundtrack, to the actors' skits and costuming, everything was well executed making for a unique experience! Kudos to the cast for being on-point, yā€™all were lurking in the darkness waiting for the perfect moment to deliver that hair-raising startle. Our squad was truly BLOWN AWAY by Shipwreck Cove and rumor has it they still arenā€™t done making enhancements to this attraction!Ā 


After exiting Shipwreck Cove our squad ventured back towards the midway. We took some time to check out the midway offerings and snagged a bite to eat. The food from the BBQ truck was on point, we definitely recommend the pulled pork sandwich and tater tots - yum!! We also made sure to snag our commemorative group picture with a few of the roaming spooks. And of course we couldnā€™t miss out on snagging some Valley of Fear merchandise!! We eventually gathered around the bonfire and took a few moments to converse about our experience. Our entire squad was definitely in agreement that Valley of Fear delivered a phenomenal experience this season, far exceeding any previous visit in years past! Valley of Fear has always done an exceptional job with providing an entertaining and thrilling experience. They truly kicked things up in a MAJOR fashion for 2024, delivering no shortage of spooks and surprises. Valley of Fear has always been and likely always will be Fright Review Squad approved, and if you havenā€™t been out to visit them recently, this is the season you donā€™t want to miss! Without a doubt we know youā€™ll have an incredibly SPOOKY FUN experience!Ā 

190 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Kommentare


bottom of page