Skreamers — Attraction in Ottawa

Tonight my daughter and I went to Skreamers, we were having fun until we went through the 2nd haunted house (entrance facing outhouses). The whole time you walk through either of the haunted houses there is someone following you barking at you to go faster, hurry up and stay with your group (literally on repeat, constantly!!) but they try to make it sound creepy which is fine except after a while you realize they are legit trying to get people through as fast as possible to keep the line moving. There's no time to look at any of the scary stuff going on because 1. The ground/floor is super uneven and you're looking down trying not to trip or break an ankle. 2. The employee behind you is rushing you through like the place is on fire.

Anyway, that applies to both haunted houses but made me write this review is the experience with an employee (young tall female with blonde shoulder length hair in pigtails, wearing white lab coat) working in the 2nd haunted house who was following us. She was straight-up callous, thoughtless and rude. In our group there were 2 guests in their 40s or 50s who were leading the way. When we got to one area they didn't know where to go so the horrible above mentioned employee behind me says "you need to go under the wall" (indicating this opening only about 3 feet high that we will have to crawl on our hands and knees to get through). The guest in front is like "oh no I have a bad knee" and is clearly uncomfortable YET the horrible employee behind me remains silent & lets both her and her husband crawl through on the uneven cement floor anyway. As soon as they're through the employee goes "haha just kidding the door opens!" and shows us that this poor couple didn't have to have crawled at all! So now, thanks to the crawling caused by the employee we've fallen a bit behind their already extremely rushed schedule. So of course the employee ups the pace of yelling at us to hurry. I explain I'm trying to but I'm also trying not to trip and if I go any faster I will legit be jogging in the dark on the uneven floor and I don't want to hurt myself. Now I am hurrying so much that I'm literally pushed up against the person in front of me. The employee continues to bark at us to hurry then she turns off her playful spooky voice and suddenly starts barking in her serious (this is not part of the act) voice "MAM! YOU HAVE TO HURRY UP!!!". I'm like "I'm trying, but I'm just afraid to trip" she says, and this is verbatim "I DON'T CARE. YOU NEED TO GO FASTER. YOU NEED TO HURRY.". I say "seriously? I'm literally pressed up against the person ahead of me, to go any faster I would have to step on them". She yells "PEOPLE IN FRONT YOU NEED TO GO FASTER!!". That's when we reached the end. The middle-aged couple from our group headed straight to the parking lot, clearly upset. For us it just kind of ruined our whole outing.

We won't be going back again, which is too bad because there are some employees who do a fantastic job and we've been visiting the farm and Skreamers for years. Unfortunately the callousness of one employee...

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

To the owner of Skreamers, I sincerely hope you take the time to read this review, as you have with others, and refrain from trying to justify the issues I’m about to mention. Instead, I urge you to learn from the feedback. Your overall Google rating of 3.5 speaks for itself—it’s a clear sign that there’s a consistent failure in providing a quality experience.

I went to Skreamers last night, hoping for a fun Halloween event, but it turned out to be one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. The teenage volunteer staff seemed to think that being rude equates to being scary, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Throughout the haunted houses, there was one staff member in particular who really ruined the experience. She was wearing a white lab coat and had shoulder-length pigtails, and spent the entire time obnoxiously yelling at us to “move faster” and “stay with the group.” Her sarcastic comments completely took us out of the haunted atmosphere. We barely had a chance to see or enjoy the surroundings because she was constantly rushing us through. It was as if the experience itself didn’t matter—only keeping us moving did.

On top of that, the event was littered with endless rules that were repeated before each of the three attractions. I understand safety, but this was overkill. It felt like an example of how overly cautious and soft society has become, which took away from the fun and thrill of what should have been a scary, immersive experience.

The worst part was the tractor-pulled wagon ride. The staff member running this part was once again sarcastic, making the whole ride unbearable. Instead of focusing on scaring us, she spent most of the time repeating ridiculous rules. The forest we rode through was pitch black—you couldn’t see a thing. I’ve read another review where the owner said lighting up the forest would make it less scary, but that’s just lazy. Proper, eerie lighting can add to the atmosphere and isn’t hard to do if you know what you’re doing.

To top it all off, the wagon ride ended in a maze made of chicken wire, which was completely see-through. When we reached the end, a staff member blocked the exit and wouldn’t let us through, making us think we were in the wrong spot. We had to backtrack to the beginning, only to see that they were letting other people out. It was frustrating and felt like a waste of time.

Overall, the staff were rude and didn’t seem to care about making it a genuinely scary experience. Since they’re volunteers, it felt like they had no real investment in doing their jobs well. If you’re thinking about going, don’t waste your $25. This event was poorly run, and the attitude of the staff made it much worse than it needed to be.

If these issues—particularly the staff’s behavior—aren’t resolved, I will actively spread the word about this event’s incompetence well before next year, making sure no one wastes their time or money on what is supposed to be a...

I volunteered at screamers I was one of the clown wanderers along with doing the wagon ride tours most of the other "actors" are actually very rude. I had dislocated my shoulder after one of the wagons I was guiding snapped in half tilting upwards the maintnence is that poor as most of the other carts are retired for a day after being deemed unsafe then brought right back out to the public the next day one of which the actors called the scoliosis wagon which was almost bent it half that is the one that almost broke my shoulder even in the barn we where warned on our first day to not touch the walls as their are exposed rusted nails and missing or damaged floor boards that can snap off their was a huge population of rats and bats living in the top barn and many of the propd where destroyed and unworking. After returning back to work after I dislocated my shoulder I was belittled by other workers and the people running it and told I was not putting in enough effort and slacking off and told that if I could not comit to my position in skreamers I should not be in the park. Mind you this was after I left to go get my shoulder re sat into its socket at CHEO after one of their wagons snapped and basically threw me into the air. On another note with the flare gun the person holding it is NOT. Properly trained as I had a incedent while guiding and was almost hit in the back of the head by the flare gun shot. For a place you are volunteering for FREE and a place that donates to charity? It is horribly. Run. Do better. In ottawa it is almost always maditory to have a police check and criminal record check skreamers has none any actor which iv seen MANY that outright disrespects or harrases the people paying to come are let off with a slap on the wrist and the bullying at this park is extreme many actors quitting and never coming back. This is not me blaming screamers as I know many of these issues are not their fault but they should take into concideration what I have said as I will not be returning due to the treatment that me and my friends have experienced...