RECAP & ANALYSIS:   Once again, Blood Prison has shown why they are among the elite haunts, not just in Ohio, but nationwide. From the moment you see the massive former penitentiary that houses Blood Prison, it's clear that this entire operation is a size and scope beyond what you'll find almost anywhere else. Packed with inmates, victims, soldiers, assassins, special effects, and giant props, Blood Prison is almost everything you could want from a haunted house.

This year the haunt was split into 4 sections, totaling a full 30 minutes in walk-through time. The first area started off with a creepy outdoor facade and home before leading you through a variety of haunted scenes with actors placed throughout. Right off the bat the authenticity of everything is simply off the charts. Piles of discarded rubble, dark turns, and creepy lighting everywhere adds to early disorientation and confusion. The creeps are around every turn as well. Due to the huge number of attendees people were sent through the haunt in large groups. This limited the number of jump scares and surprises, but the actors made up for it by singling people out of the line or grabbing you unexpectedly (if you had the touch pass). This section also included a walk through a series of very narrow and barely lit hallways where you could see some of the tiny cells that used to house the worst of the inmates. Extremely creepy, although I think they could have had a handful of actors in this area. It was the only part of the haunt that didn't include a large number of actors.

The second area was a World War II battlefield themed area, complete with a broken down tank and a crashed plane. The scope of these props was pretty amazing. Injured soldiers populated this area, eventually leading you into a sniper range. The third area was the evil carnival followed by the cemetery and morgue, and, again, the scope of the props plus the actors coming at you from all sides kept the experience feeling all too real. Even the lines between sections were part of the show, with loudspeakers playing crisis instructions in German and various signs and decorations adding to the realism. The final section moved back to a traditional haunted house structure, highlighted by an evil butcher as well as some areas of medical experiments.

As I always mention when talking about Blood Prison, the sheer size and scope are a huge part of what makes this haunt special. When you look up you don't see a drop ceiling or wires connecting lights and speakers. You're looking up 30+ feet into darkness, seeing nothing but dilapidated prison cells. There are shrubs growing through the railings at some points. The cells are legitimately disturbing, too small and dark to imagine living in, yet knowing that people were locked in these areas for months and years. Broken beds, broken toilets, and discarded prison trash that has been sitting for decades simply make this experience all too real.

I can't say that Blood Prison was PERFECT this year. There was a lack of scream out loud scary moments, mostly due to the fact that they were so popular that they had to send people through in large groups. The actors could have been more intense, as many of them were whispering or gently touching or petting folks as they passed. However, these are minor complaints. Blood Prison is always an amazing event, and this was absolutely the best year that I've been to. The haunt is longer, there are more actors, and they continue to take this amazing location and turn it into something spectacular. This is a must-see event every year, and 2021 was no exception.

(Reviewed by Jeff Mo)