RECAP:  The annual Fall Festival is back in town every Thursday through Sunday outside the infamous Dent Schoolhouse! The festively decorated sector consists of a seasonal photo-op and booths offering various carnival-like activities including costume contests, pumpkin carving, bobbing for apples, and so on.  Cornstalks and scarecrows contribute to the décor while introducing a gigantic “Kurbis” monster peering downward from an elevated perch, and various roaming entertainers.

Spooky sounds and the flashing caution lights from an abandoned school bus beckon entrance into 3-time OVH Haunt of the Year, the Dent Schoolhouse! An immediate living-statue surprise awaits in advance of an entirely re-done first floor experience! Highlights include a paranormal desk maze, tilting bookcases, CGIs, and many other new enhancements. Topping the list are a mechanical teacher seen paddling a disobedient, underachieving pupil, and a live, screaming, overhead zip line/ceiling-flyer attack! 

Descent into the deplorable basement is compromised by hanged, path-blocking bodies dangling from above as the course navigates its way through dimly-lit archways that give rise to a number of unseen assaults by killer clowns emerging from all angles and directions! Red lights flash and horns honk in conjunction with these pranksters jumping out of dark passageways and harassing advancement.  Soon, a diabolical doctor, armed with an oversized syringe makes her presence known encouraging bypassers to stay and take their medicine. “Come on! Bend over! You know you want it,” she exclaims, as continuance discovers a ghostly, living chair, and recently-carved pumpkins, the illumination of which chaperone the route beyond enormous, animated spiders and cobweb covered, chained caskets!  Short-circuiting electricity, strange creatures coming out of walls, and an oversized, carnivorous insect swallowing a person whole all must be avoided, then it's onto an unrighteous ceremony where a devilish creature levitates a possessed girl high into the air before a face-to-face run-in with a 12 foot tall “Impaler!”  Gushing water flows through a cistern of large sewer pipes that hide a surprise or two before circus music signals entrance into a demented carnival area inhabited by practical jokers that laugh wickedly, and invite you to eat from a cotton candy, human cocoon.

Still to come is a walk-in freezer preserving human remains, a giant saw splitting a human torso in two, and a squealing, snorting pig springing forth out of a barrel. Squeezing through a garbage dump of cadavers and dismembered body parts soon accesses a ghostly prom, a smoldering electrocution, an exploding toilet, a smoke-filled boiler room, and the reanimation of Frankenstein at the hands of Dr. Dent's death-defying Experiment DS6!  Pneumatic monsters go on the assault in advance of a large, man-eating python slithering down from above to encircle its mortal prey, lift her off the ground, and choke the life right out of her!

Escape outdoors unearths a fog-filled school bus maze, where a ghoul onboard one of the buses chastises, “6 feet… 6 feet,” then threatens, ”I’ll bury you 6 feet under!” (good play on words turning his social distancing reminder into a death sentence!)  From there, it’s onto a startling, oversized rodent infringement, a cage-like fence maze, and a viciously barking dog guarding the escape from The Dent Schoolhouse!

ANALYSIS:  Practically the entire first floor has been outstandingly redesigned.  Darkness and dim, professional lighting abound, combining to make the experience creepier than ever before, and creating all new, spooky scenes and scares.  Loud, frightening soundtrack fills the air at all times complimenting the adventure to the utmost degree.  Elaborate costumes made on-site are everywhere.  Many include a number of custom-made, full or partial prosthetic masks, the predecessors of which have been utilized at Dent for several years now, separating them by leaps and bounds from most of the competition.  This year, these “masks” are even more advanced in the sense that they completely hide facial coverings worn for protection due to safety concerns pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The attraction itself is famous for its highly detailed scenes that include a surplus of props too numerable to mention.  Most visually effective scares include new, live, ceiling-flyer/zip line character, levitation, mechanical teacher spanking student, python lifting up a live victim, snake actor-tronic, sparking circuit boxes, smoking electrocution, mechanical rat, Impaler, and the haunted aspect created throughout by flickering lights, vibrating lockers, etc.

Stand-out actors include the aforementioned ceiling flyer, devil & levitating girl, diabolical doctor, Clown flaunting his lights and toys, ghoul on bus, and python victim!

Chainsaw chase-out is conspicuous by its absence. Garbage dump is no longer claustrophobic due to Covid-19 safety precautions. Queen City Slaughter Yard is also closed this season due the coronavirus and only serves as part of the queue line on busy nights.

Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance online.  They WILL sell out!

The Dent Schoolhouse is taking every precaution possible to keep guests safe during these uncertain times by mandating masks among customers AND employees, taking longer between groups for better separation, social distancing queue lines, limiting ticket sales, increasing security, etc.  Hats off to their efforts!  They’re the best we’ve seen thus far!