Trail of Terror — Attraction in Jackson Township

I've been here a couple times over the years and while I appreciate some of the costumes, honestly I think this is more of a "drop your teenagers off for a date night" vs an actually scary place.

It's similar to other Haunted places where you pay for admission and then you are in a "town" setting where there are multiple places to eat and a bon fire to hang out at. I do like that they always have karaoke, so if you are feeling bold, you can sing or the host will if no one is signed up.

Your entrance fee covers the Maze of Mayhem and the Trail of Terror. They are both a bit disappointing and you'll end up waiting in line longer than you'll spend in the Haunt, but the Maze at least looks a bit cool. Unfortunately it's very linear so you are forced to walk through single file so depending on the size of your group, mostly the front or back people get the scares. The Trail is outside (along with the lines, so definitely dress for the weather), and it's roughly half a mile (there and back) so it takes about 15 minutes to walk through. This is definitely the weaker attraction. There are also three or so trailer haunts that take you about 2 minutes to go through, where it's just a bunch of props with one live person there to jump out at the end.

They have a ton of other things going on - all for a price. There's a barcrawl ($20 and the bar tents are all in the same area so not much of a crawl, but drinking is fun), there's Zombie Paintball, Axe Throwing Games, and an Escape Room ($5 and a bit run down but still kinda fun). They also sell 3D glasses for $1 that supposedly enhances the haunt, but I'm not really sure how (to be fair, I've never bought them).

There are definitely much better Haunts in the Twin Cities, but if you live in the area, it's a cheap way (if you get the Groupon) to spend a night. Another perk is that your ticket never commits you to a day, so if you end up changing your plans, you...

Honestly, I dont' think it's quite as bad as other people are saying, not to say it's great but there is def WAY worse out there despite this basically being rated lower than any other haunted house in the area.

This place at least has a long fairly decent haunted house that takes about 20 minutes to go through. The theme is Hotel 666 but I didn't really get a hotel theme, just random rooms really and a lot of dark black hallways. Actors were not the most effective they could have been. You reach a point where it leads outside and you think it's over but you go back inside and there's still quite a bit left.

The Howling Pines woods walk was also about 20 minutes, but you didn't get the advertised "isolation" due to going alongside the rest of the event and near the parking lot with it's large stadium style lights. I'm used to the much better woods walk at Scream Town which features more buildings, sets and actors, and is truly isolated.

The 5 trailers...I was preparing myself for the worst but they were better and larger than I thought they'd be. The Crystal Cavern one was actually pretty darn good and had a great finale, but the rest were just ok. We shouldn't have led with the best one! I will point out that the teenage girls admitting people into the trailers were not very professional. I'm not a big fan of how they list them all out as separate attractions making it seem like there's much more to do, they tend to do the same thing for Ren Fest too...literally listing every tiny attraction to make it seem like there's countless things to do when there's not.

I've seen a lot of people complain about long lines but the longest we waiting for anything was about 10 minutes. Not bad at all really. All in all I'd say it was pretty average, not great, but not awful. If you want really awful, go to Nightmare Hallow-Scream Park...then you'll WISH you were...

I went in super excited thinking it would be more scary than Valleyscare, ended up being a total flop.

There was only one point where I was scared, it was in the walk through the woods. This was disappointing because I payed to be scared more than once and that did not happen. Also, the actors don’t focus on everyone that comes in! The people in front of us were being scared while my family and I were left ignored, this is not how it should be. I didn’t pay to see random strangers get scared.

We looked around to see what else we could do and nothing looked exciting; so we left early because we felt we were wasting our time.

Honestly the best part was watching the mechanical bull ride but for being at a haunted house attraction, this is not a good thing. The Krusty haunted house was cool in scenery but lasted about two seconds and no actors approached us to be scared. The actors and workers legitimately seemed like they didn’t want to be there. I shouldn’t have to feel like a burden to a place I payed to be at.

The loud honking in the walk in the woods was annoying and honestly shows desperation in scare tactics. The food was overpriced but what can I say that’s how it is but what was disappointing is that the food variety was not very good.

Overall this experience was disappointing and since it was my brother in laws idea to come, he literally apologized for suggesting the idea due to how lame it is. A suggestion: be well prepared next time, have workers that are enthusiastic and make you feel welcome, HAVE MORE THINGS TO DO, invest in better decorations, more variety of food, and if none of these change then the least you can do is lower the price because honestly I wish I could have gotten...