Hersheypark’s Dark Nights is suitable mid-tier haunt
The second stop of the season was a place I hadn’t stepped foot in since middle school: Hersheypark in central PA. Compared to other parks, I always viewed Hershey in the same vein as Disneyworld, as in it being limited to kid-friendly entertainment. So, when I learned they followed in the tradition of Dorney, Six Flags and others via constructing haunted houses for the Fall season, I was pleasantly surprised. Like Shocktoberfest, this year marks my first visit to the event. I will not be comparing this year’s experience to prior years for obvious reasons.
Hershey’s Dark Nights events consists of five indoor haunts — Estate of Evil, Kill & Fill Garage, Twisted Carnevil, Auntie Mortem’s Abattoir, and Curse of the Tommyknockers — as well as five scare zones, similar to Universal’s HHN. I’ll be limiting this review to the five haunted houses only.
The weakest link was Twisted Carnevil, and I’ll admit, that ranking is biased. I am simply fatigued with clown and carnival-themed scares. Every single haunt I’ve ever been to had a clown-themed attraction, and if not that, they had a clown-themed scene. As far as I’m concerned, until someone does something truly unique with it, the theme ran its course twenty years ago. That said, Carnevil was not a bad haunt. There were a few unique scenes — most notably the tattoo parlor and cannon stunt — that placed it above the sweeping majority of similarly themed haunts. The bulk of its set design, though, was much weaker than the rest of the lineup. Black curtains, glow paint, and checkered rooms made up most of the walkthrough, which gave guests very little to look at as they made their way through.
Estate of Evil had astronomically better set design than Carnevil. Its crown jewels were the horse stables at the start and the gorgeous lightning hallway right after, complete with flickering sconces and a window animation at its end. The sauna was another highlight, less because of its props and more because of the clever sound design and catching me off-guard. The brief outdoor portion, however, was much weaker in presentation, ditching the detailed sets of the interior for green mesh and black fencing you could see the outside of the haunt through.
I had the same issue with the Abattoir that I did with Carnevil. I just don’t think the slaughterhouse theme is interesting. Like Carnevil, the Abattoir had strokes of genuine creativity — in this case the delousing chamber — that bumped it above its competition at other haunts, though that was less due to outstanding quality and more because every other slaughterhouse haunt I’ve experienced failed to do anything original. The theme issue, though, was cancelled out by everything else the Abattoir did right. This was the most sensory of the five haunts. Guests were forced to push and squeeze past props, breathe in nauseating scents, and navigate fog-choked corridors also packed with props. The use of space and sight deprivation made for a significantly more intense and scary experience than either of the former two haunts. It also featured two of the most frightening and visually interesting costumes of the five haunts.
Curse of the Tommyknockers was second best only because of its first half, which wasn’t nearly as strong as its second. Among the otherwise strong set design, the plastic skeletons just looked goofy. The elevator gimmick, while fitting, wasn’t anywhere near as impressive as others I’ve encountered in haunts elsewhere. The use of lighting to suggest downward motion was clever, but the room lacked the sound design and vibration needed to properly simulate the sensation of plummeting into the earth. Everything after the elevator was fantastic, especially the scene in which fog and lightning were used to mimic TNT explosions. Of the five, I thought this haunt utilized lighting best, striking a consistent balance between pitch darkness and eye-catching color that gave actors just enough gloom to work with.
Kill & Fill Garage was on par with legendary haunts like Field of Screams and Pennhurst in terms of sheer quality. It was that good. The attention to detail was insane. Every inch of the haunt’s interior had something to look at, a quality that made its scares all the more effective due to the distraction those details caused. Actors caught me off guard numerous times because I was so busy taking in everything around me. Where the previous haunts embellished their topics, most of Kill & Fill felt like stepping out of the park entirely and into an authentic chop shop. That level of immersion is something only a few haunts in the country can manage.
Finally, I cannot stress this enough: DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP. Do this before you arrive. Though the park does offer handheld paper maps, they are nowhere near as useful as the digital GPS the park also offers. Through the app’s map you can view your location at all times and toggle Dark Nights mode to remove all attractions besides the haunts. More importantly, you should arrive at the park before it opens, preferably twenty minutes earlier. This will allow you to get through the first one or two lines quickly before crowds arrive. Fast Track is an option, but is quite expensive, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you don’t want to deal with lines.
In short, while the bulk of the event doesn’t quite reach the heights of the state’s absolute best haunts, Dark Nights is still well worth the price of admission. Just make sure you get there early.
