Field of Screams Maryland — Attraction in Olney

I have been going to Field of Screams annually for a decade, and in the past few years particularly the attraction has gone extremely downhill. Despite having time tickets to supposedly deal with crowding, along with the addition of new ugly pavilions to wait in line in, they consistently sell tickets past capacity so that if you go on one of their busiest nights (Friday and Saturday, aka the days most people who have a job or attend school can actually stay out late enough to make FOS worth it), you will not only spend the majority of your time waiting in line, but the lines stretch out of the brand new pavilions supposedly built to house them and out into the field where the bonfires are, which causes a hazard as it is dark and it is easy for people to bump into each other and trip. We arrived at 8:15 for an 8:30 time ticket. We did the attractions in the exact order recommended on the sign, and got through the Haunted House in a reasonable amount of time all things considered. No complaints there. My main complaints are with the clear hunger for money the owners have. Over the last several years, not only have they started to sell tickets beyond what the attraction can reasonably actually handle, but they replaced the haunted hayride through the cornfield (something which was bundled with the price of the entire attraction) with a “carnival” that you have to pay extra money for, thus making the entire experience more expensive. This is already an expensive attraction, mind you. Besides that, the carnival games are difficult to win for very lackluster prizes — it took three of us to accumulate enough successes at any of the games to win a cheap beer can cozy. Overall it very much cheapened the experience and made it more money for a worse experience. Besides that, with the new line pavilions came screens that constantly advertise to the patrons, including ads for the winter lights show put on by the same company. These ads not only bombard the customers but detract from the experience of being at a haunted attraction during October, and if that wasn’t bad enough, last year they added a frankly enormous Christmas ornament decoration that sits smack dab in the middle of the entire attraction, huge and lit up with lights. It completely ruins the atmosphere, breaks any kind of fun Halloween immersion you might have had, and is also obnoxious, as it is impossible to ignore. That all being said the worst experience we had at FOS was with the Haunted Trail, what you might consider the main attraction at Field of Screams. Despite having a time ticket for 8:30, the sign to let us know we could even get in the extremely long line didn’t go up until past 10 pm. We got in line, which, again, wove out of the pavilion and into the grass of the field where the bonfires were. It was so crowded it was almost impossible to figure out where the line actually was, as there was almost no room to walk around. When I say that the actual space of the attraction cannot handle the amount of people they had sold tickets for, I am not exaggerating. We did not get to the front of the line until past midnight, after the attraction is supposed to already have CLOSED. As a result, not only were we exhausted and bored already just from standing in the line, but the majority-high-school-staff of actors were also exhausted. They clearly just wanted us to get through the trail and go home so they could go home, which, I don’t blame them, because again, the actors are mostly teenagers and the attraction was supposed to have already been closed. We were not even the last group to go through the trail. Field of Screams used to have two trails, which have now been combined into one — again, less experience for a larger cost — and despite being long trails through the woods, the path was jam-packed because of how many people were at the attraction that night. Scares therefore were pointless and ineffective because you could see the actors scaring everyone in front of you. FOS has NEVER been this bad in the past and we have always come...

I'm not one to write reviews, but felt FOSMD deserved one.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!! It was not worth over $70 per person... and here's why..

They have young kids navigating parking that all have a different idea of how they want you to park.

Security is rude and demanding. They yelled, and I mean yelled, at a poor lady in front of us because she had a purse. If you want to go to the bathroom, better use the real ones before you get in, otherwise you're sharing about 10 portajohns with the entire compound (this was the scariest part of the night).

Slaughter House is a joke. It lasted a few minutes and had a small amount of actors, which some have missed their chance to jump out. They send you in the house in big groups of 8-12, so if you're not first, you're missing any chance to get scared. Eventually once you're in the house, you either catch up to another group, or another group catches up to you. Eventually you're just in a big Conga line shuffling your feet through the house. And I'm never picky about the theming, but it was very plain.

Food options were okay. $6 for a cheeseburger was an ok price. Most of the food is stuff you'd get at a highschool football game concession stand. I paid $4 for an "Hot Extra chocolate" and it tasted like water.

And then there's the trail... it had so much potential. It really did. But it was missed. We were sent in, in a group of 16. 16!!!!!! Just like the house, if you're not first, then you're bored. Eventually, we caught up the the other group, and the group behind us caught up to us. There was maybe 40-60 of us just shuffling our feet through the trail. Actors stand in front of you and block the flow of traffic, which causes this. The decorations were cool, but it all seemed to be the same theme overall (bloody meat and cut-up bodies/pigs). Many stations had zero actors in them. The stations that did have actors, you saw them jump out at someone 12 feet ahead of you, and then that was it. Behind us, there was a family with, what had to have been an 8 year old, and he kept saying he was bored. Props to the Dragon part though, that was cool.

For 2 weeks I've been contemplating coming here, and would read all reviews. And all the 1-2 stars are saying the same thing... Big groups, bored, and missed opportunities. THESE BAD REVIEWS ARE TRUE!!! Maybe instead of making snarky responses to them, work on making your experience a better one. $73/person is NOT WORTH IT. If your contemplating on coming here, please save your money and go elsewhere. Do NOT let this place piggyback of the good name of Field of Screams PENNSYLVANIA. They are polar opportunities in terms of quality. Save your money patience and go to Mountville PA instead.

FOSMD, if you want to make a sparky response,...

I don’t normally write reviews but think this experience I had last night needs one.

We went to event last night and was very packed. I think they should put signs no bags or purses before walking to front. Maybe missed the fine print with booking online.

It was the first time taking my son to experience this and the first event haunted trail was fun and adventurous. Definitely wear good shoes for walking and beware of unlevel ground and floors. Lots of jump scares. Lines were long as expected. We got some snacks afterwards which had many selections of food and drinks. Lots of fire pits to warm up as it did get colder.

The line for the slaughterhouse was long so we decided to go to the carnival games. The ring and Bean bag toss was doable but the brain toss was hard. It was still fun to kill some time however I expected better prizes. They gave a phone holder and a phone card holder. Last time I came they gave nice bags. Ax throwing was fun. Harder than it looks.

So we finally get to the slaughter house line and still long. There is a Photo Booth while u wait in line. I think they should have done that separately as it probably caused the line to be unnecessarily long.

It was late around 11:30 so we are thinking now actors wants to go home and we don’t hear much screaming for about an hour. So we finally get through and literally took us like less than 10 mins. No chainsaw people coming after you and a couple of turns in the house and that’s it. Very disappointing. I’ve been to this before and they definitely short changed how they set up the slaughter house.

And they used to have the haunted hay ride and that was always good and they opted out of it this year! I thought maybe the extra long haunted trail would compensate that but it would have been much better if they had the 3rd event on the lot and lines would not be as long. And a different scare experience…So disappointing!!! Plus the fees were much higher compared to what I have paid in past so I felt a bit short changed. Please steelhead, get the quality set up and scare back like you used to...