HellsGate Haunted House — Attraction in Lockport

I wanted to love this haunt so bad. It was not what I thought it would be. I watched the videos on youtube ahead of time and was super excited to take my 15 year old and her friends to this haunt. The issues had nothing to do with their actual decor, scare tactics and haunting vibes.

We were being rushed and moved like cattle through the entire experience. From start to finish. From the parking lot to the last step out of the haunted house. I've never felt so rushed and stressed out at a haunted house experience. I wanted so badly to absorb more of what was around me. I wanted to soak up what I was seeing and what I was not seeing. We arrived at the parking lot around 8:00 and didn't leave until 11:45ish. The line to get printed tickets seemed a bit unnecessary. Maybe they do that to break up the line a bit, distract people, and keep people slightly busy before entering the massive line that has minimal things to do or see. People in line appeared bored. The tent was lit too well and there was nothing scary or creepy about the line part. The few guys in masks could have been scary, but they weren't scaring people much. They barely gave people attention and or tried to scare people. I was with my 15 year old daughter and her 4 friends. Only one girl screamed one time while waiting in line this year. They were screaming non-stop and were-super scared last year at a different haunted house. That was a very disappointing feeling. If there was more entertainment or creepy vibes like dimmed lightning, scary dudes running around from different angles, then the wait in the long line would have been more tolerable. Our adrenaline rush & excitement were super high in the beginning, and the last 30 mins in line was when we ran dry.

After waiting in a very long line with minimal entertainment, we started the woods part of the haunt. We were moving fast. It definitely was very cool. BUT There were only a few scares throughout the woods part because the lights were too bright and our group was too close to the people in front of us. The openness of the pathway didn't work so well either. It was too spacey. We kept seeing the tail-end of the scares from the group in front of us and knew where all the guys and animatronics were hiding. The woods were cool, but could have been way better with more darkness, smaller spaces to walk through, and less things to actually look at. Just walking in woods at night with nothing but trees and your imagination is scary.

The woods part felt pretty speedy but the haunted mansion part was unbelievably fast paced. I did not like being rushed, and constantly told to keep moving. I tried to look all around and wanted so badly to soak up all the details. What I did see, was extremely impressive. It's sad to see them rush people along so fast when they put so much work into the scary details and effort into making things look so creepy. Being rushed, made me feel stressed and not happy. I wanted to be scared. I wanted to see all the gory, horrific, and creative touches they had in every single corner and square inch. I wanted the creepiness to slowly take over my imagination. Things moved so fast, my mind had no time to wonder or imagine what could be around a corner. My eyes could barely grasp what I was looking at most of the time. The scares barely felt scary because of the sense of urgency to keep moving. Sadly, it felt like their end goal was not to scare and entertain but to rush more people in super quick so more money could be made. ☹️

The decorations, details of the inside of the mansion were absolutely award-winning though. This haunt had so much potential. I think they forgot that the point of it all is too scare people, or at least give them a good time. Not to stress them out and rush them.

Sorry Hellsgate. I wanted to love it so badly.

Maybe a limit on ticket sales is necessary. Don't let money or greed cloud your judgement. Haunted houses should be fun and scary!! These haunts could be so much better without causing a stressed-out...

I woke up the day after the haunt sad. I was so pumped to go. I talked my family and husband into going with me saying this was the best of the best.

Line after line after line. The busses picking you up to bring you to the haunt?!? Sounds fun right? Spooky? Not at all. Just a quite long bus ride there and back. Just when you think you are done with lines getting off the bus you are out into another line. A line for what you may ask? To get the ticket you already prepaid for. And then guess what? Another line!!! Jam packed under a tent with terrible music. “Who let the dogs out?!?” Cmon!

Well at least the scare actors will be working the crowd right?! Nope. ONE actor. A clown. He stood as far away as possible so everyone else could see him and every once in a while he would twerk. Yup you read that right. ONE scare actor. Weekend night. Under the tent for hours. In that line under the tent you are shoulder to shoulder with people next to you. 3.5 hrs and now we get to enter the haunt!!

The woods leading to the haunt was fun. We waited so long our excitement when over so finally it was starting back up again. But it was short lived when they jammed group after group so you saw all the scare actors scaring the group ahead of you. We even tried to slow down just a tad and had two groups on our heels.

Then we finally get to the house! More lines!! Yup. The. We get in the house. More lines!!! I’m not kidding. I’ve never seen so many lines in my life.

Now for the house. I’m not going to complain at all about what it looks like. They put there all into decorating it. Each room is great. But guess what!?! You can even see them because you are being rushed through them!! There are scare actors in the house with flash lights telling you to “hurry up! Keep moving!” I would truly appreciate if these actors could train the DMV staff. They rushed us so incredibly fast and pulled us out of the moment our whole group just wanted to walk out the exits.

You guys put SOOOO much time into this and for what?? So you can have people run through your haunt?! So sad.

But don’t worry. There is a line before the exit when walking through the gift shop.. they make sure you go slow through there.

Our group of seven walked out to the buses to return back to our cars in silence. What a waste of a night. For how much we spent we should have had dinner at a restaurant and actually enjoyed our night.

I truly question these reviews on here. And only a few on fb from 2024? Sus.

I feel...

Wow, wow... Hiya, I'm Ripley, I'm from Philidelphia moving to Chicago next year.

Tonight was my first time at this haunt, and I was BLOWN away! The sets, the actors, the story, how efficient and organized everything was, where do I begin. I'll admit we got a little lost finding the parking lot, but the GPS fixed that

As soon as we got there though it only took a short while to get in line and on a bus. The process was smooth. The spooky vibes were IMMACULATE, as were the music and the actors roaming around and interacting with the crowd. FANTASTIC. Getting through the line to the entrance was quick and streamlined. The actors even came in the line to keep it fun and the excitement flowing!

About the haunt, because the amount of LOVE and TALENT put into this event is amazing, you can really feel the story coming alive as you walk through this place. In every nook and cranny, there is lore and scares. The buildings and set pieces are beautiful to look at. The detail put into the set is incredible. The old haunted house tricks used to make you feel claustrophobic and confined.

The house was just a wonder to look at on its own, I wanted to go through this place over and over just to find everything. You can tell everyone LOVES what they do.

Everyone was so interactive and fun! I'm not used to getting really scared, but they got me a good few times. My jaw hurts from how much I smiled tonight! Each person MADE their character unique, and the improvement was fantastic.

After exiting, I got to interact with so many amazing and talented people, all whom deserve a raise! I think me and Buna accidentally became besties. Everyone was just so fun and nice, even while playing monsters. It really made my night. I think my favorite parts of the whole walk-through were the cemetery, doll room, and dragons. The anamatronics were placed so well. It made everything feel even more alive. (I'll never get over how cool those dragons were.)

I can go on and on, and there's so many questions I have for the owner and the actors.

My birthday is this Halloween, and this was the greatest present ever. I'm coming back every year as many times as I can. Thank you all for probably one of the best...