On October 3rd, 2026, kicking off the 2026 haunt season, we have a haunt that is brand new to us. We had never been to this park at all during the fall, but after about four years of endless email requests, we decided to partake. For everyone who’s a first time reader, “Fear Tiers” is a set of articles put together by numerous Haunt Indutry aficionados, with ten plus years of experience making some of the world’s most famous haunted attractions. Taking on everything and anything on a fan-request basis, and reviewing it to let you know how it stacks up to industry standards!

After a quick pit stop to eat something after our journey to Pittsburgh, and after the very kind food worker dropped everything we ordered on the ground, we made our way to what was being blasted in our inbox as the “best and scariest” haunt the park had to offer. In only it’s second year of existence at this park, “Detached” has clearly, almost immediately become the fan favorite.

Detached – Overall Ranking 8/10

Alright, what we got here, is kind of a modern classic “Pinocchio unstrung” (yes, the old Knott’s Scary Farm maze) theme. This is one of two houses I was looking forward to because I enjoy the different themes – like, no more zombies and vampires and clowns, were getting into the world of puppet making…..but it turns out they’re using human parts basically. So this was actually a cool vibe and we did put it as the top house at the park (guess the people were right), but it did only come in at 8 pooped pants out of 10 (bare with us, we’re still working on what we’re calling the ranking system numbers) it was very well done/put together, and brought a kind of mix between a decent looking slaughterhouse, while keeping the outer appearance reminding you that it’s a woodworkers shop and theater.

The part that brought the ranking down from perfect was honestly the randomness. There were portions in it that didn’t really make much sense. For example, there were a few halls where they kinda just threw stuff on the transitional entry way they thought went with the theme. Like, there was a “backstage” area, out of an alley way, in which you went back in to the alley way, to another “backstage” curtain to the stage scene. Same can be said with some characters and props. For example, Jason Vorhees was in this house (machete and all), and there was a glowing alien looking boy trapped in the top of a corner by a pitchfork that went through him. Literally no Idea how else to explain that section.

mAlice in Wonderland UNLEASHED – Overall Ranking 5.5/10

Another one I was looking forward to, again because of the oddity and originality of the theming. Again, very good theming, I didn’t get specifications on why wonderland turned into this horrorland, but that doesn’t matter wonderland is weird as all hell anyway so it works – It also had a very good length to it as compared to most park haunts – this was brought down severly because there were sections of themed halls with turns and curves…. with absolutley no actors in them at all. Like, even at the end, there was the obligatory “well, the doors over there but we ran out of ideas, so heres a long splatter painted wall to go from where we wanted to stop to the actual door”.

I feel like there could be endless amounts of randomness/extreme disorienting haunt effects (they had a few with the laser fog lake) that could’ve made this so much more extreme, especially with how much room they had in there, and it would’ve made sense because wonderland is such a random place in general, but there was just a bunch of emptyness.

Shady Grove Memorial Hospital – Overall Grade 3/10

Alright, Sadly I have to say, we reached one of the worst Haunts in the area. we didn’t even take into account the screaming children that were left alone that we got stuck with during our walkthrough (because that’s not their fault), but even with a highlighted targeted group of reactionary people, this house missed the mark.

So, the “Hospital” theme was only every few rooms, and the bulk of the house was grey halls with drop windows and hospital related signs. On top of that, it was like inside of a pavillion, so there was no outside facade or theming other than the sign on a metal pole, like you walked into an opening in a black painted wood panel box. Just to top it off, it was inherently short, so straight up this one was a nothing burger, the highest ranking anyone was willing to give it was a 3 (the verbage was “that wouldn’t top a 3/10 max”) and we don’t like being too difficult, so we just gave it a 3 for the costumes.

VooDoo Bayou – Overall Ranking 7.5/10

This one actually packed an unexpected punch – we’re used to Cedar Point’s modern “Blood on the Bayou” (which has been horrible on that Millenium island), and various other parks’ Corn or Bayou mazes that are set in the entirety of the park’s drained water ride layout that are usually short and don’t have too much to offer.

THIS was awesome though! Not just in length and theme, but the actor at the beginning sold the story so well with his marionette, the immersive-ness and the way they used the props to make the rock walls of the water ride seem like they’ve always been part of the bayou, and they have this insane blackout tunnel leading into this indoor section (with a fun suprise inside!), this one was all there, the only reason it got a 7.5 was because it was clearly taking itself more as an “experince” with just a few scares, and a lot of just interactive characters.

Kennyville Cemetery – Overall Ranking 5.5/10

I really wanted to rank this as high as possible because of what they did with it. In essence, this was kind of a reconfigured scare zone, which usually don’t rank too high, but they took this to another level converting this walking area of the park into a one way haunted attraction, and full blown graveyard featuring tombs, escaped caskets, a mausoleum, and even a full morgue. It did only amount to a five though, because all in all it was just a prop filled/themed area with more dead space (literally 😉 ), but it was one of the best and coolest outdoor walkthroughs I’ve been through, with quite a few perfectly timed jumpscares!

Final Rankings:

Overall, out of a possible 50 points (the whole number of attractions we went through multiplied by ten), Phantom Fall Fest received a 29.5/50, but we’d say we think it is a perfect “C” grade Haunt with simple scares, that fits perfectly in with what the park is trying to do with its half scary and half family fun vibe!

NOTE: Dark Shadows was closed, and we did not pay for the upcharge attractions (Dark at the Ark & Ghostwood Estate: Open House).