Brighton Asylum — Attraction in Passaic

I’m a long time Brighton Asylum visitor, and it amazes me how each year the haunt gets better and better. Brighton Asylum has this incredible ability to transform your imagination and bring your biggest fears to life. The props are Hollywood quality, the actors actually care about their performance, and the intake coordinators work hard to move everyone through on time and keep the flow of people organized.

This year was honestly one of the scariest experiences I’ve had. One thing to note, never follow too close behind the party ahead of you, it ruins the moment. Luckily we didn’t have that problem at all. We never knew what was lurking around each corner. Some of the new additions are the creepiest scenes I’ve witnessed. The amount of time and effort put into the haunt is exceptional and deserves 5 stars all on its own.

The actors don’t break character. You can try, but they’ll keep being the character they play. It’s like breaking down the 4th wall and interacting with your fears. The adrenaline rush you feel while navigating this humongous house of horrors is unreal. Regardless if you scare easy or don’t let anything bother you, Brighton Asylum will have you jumping left and right as each actor perfectly times the best moment to catch you off guard. I honestly love this place and have been to all of the major haunts in our area. That one in Philly has nothing on Brighton Asylum. I’m genuinely afraid when I move through the rooms. It’s hard to illicit genuine fear. Not jump scares, but actual fear. That’s exactly what Brighton Asylum does. And they do it better than anyone else I’ve seen.

During peak hours I recommend getting the fast pass, it’s worth it. Wait times can be long because of how popular the haunt is. I wouldn’t care if GA + Fast Pass was $150 per person, I’d still go, that’s how good it is. Trust me on this, you won’t be disappointed. Plus that adrenaline rush you get at Brighton vs a random farm with a cornfield and hayride is completely different. You almost can’t compare it. This is a legit haunted attraction that will scare you to your core.

Not only do they have the haunt, but they also have escape rooms, hatchet throwing, a memorabilia museum, a nice little gift shop, and some other cool events you’ll see posted on their website.

The escape room was a lot of fun, we did the “Subway”. The room was often times difficult to solve certain puzzles, and always required teamwork. That’s exactly how an escape room should be. Great experience during the Halloween season and all year round. 10 out of 10.

So if you’re in the mood for a night of fun & fear, Brighton is...

My review will be comprised of mostly facts of things I experienced on my trip to Brighton parking was really easy to find we honestly just parked on the street about 10 minutes away the parking attendants were helpful they told us where to go when we got to the facility me and my boyfriend got there right before it was busy and we were finished in about 40 minutes (we also had fast passes) -the atmosphere was electric there were a few actors that entertain you before you get in and they do a great job at setting the tone (shout out to the trick or treat guy and the asylum patient with the grey hair) when we left there were a lot of people there in tight lines (not the best social distancing but everyone wore masks and there was a temp check) -there were multiple staff checkpoints where they stop your party and put space between you and the party in front of you unfortunately the groups still ended up close to one another but this may be because the group in front of us was slowed down by the group in front of them there were large gaps in space between actors with mostly props and things like that which my boyfriend liked but wasn’t personally my cup of tea.

All of the love I have for this experience really came from the actors. They scared the sh*t out of me but really made it fun at the same time. I hope all of them are getting paid what they deserve because they honestly make the entire experience. The sets were mostly nice but I wish there was more thematic difference between each of the haunted houses. They all just looked dark and spooky I couldn’t really tell which was supposed to be which. I was personally left wanting a bit more and I think that was just because I wanted to experience more of the actors because interacting with them made this experience so fun. I think this place is neither as bad or as good as people make it out to be and I think if they continue to add characters both inside and outside it will really elevate this experience to another level. I don’t think this would have been worth a 3 hour wait though. Bottom line I had a lot of fun when the actors were around and overall the haunted house was well done I definitely agree that COVID regulations could be more strongly enforced especially since the experience itself would benefit from more space...

READ THE ENTIRE THING. My boyfriend and I have done many escape rooms and have been to this place one other time so we decided to come back. We arrived early and were allowed to come in early which was nice. Additionally, the game guide was nice and gave us a good run down on the room. HOWEVER. once we started the escape rooms; things didn’t take long to go wrong. We noticed there was something that didn’t seem to be working. Obviously, things happen, so we weren’t super overworked about that because we assumed someone would respond and help us out. However,nobody answered, and when I went out of the room to ask for help; nobody was there. I had to yell for someone which was frustrating because in all other escape rooms, the guide is standing by. Additionally, it is in a dark warehouse so I had no idea where to find anybody. Eventually, the guide came over and said he’d bypass the thing that didn’t work for us and give us 10 more minutes. That was nice of him. At the end, we finished the room and when we exited the door, nobody was there. We were unsure of where to go. Once we found someone (this person was not our game guide), she asked how we liked the room. We gave an honest opinion of how something was broken, thinking this is helpful for a place to know for the next group. However, this woman responded rudely saying “well actually, I saw you guys pulling really hard on the chains; and they were working before. So I hope we can fix them…” she then proceeded to explain how if you pull these chains too hard they can break and said it as if we caused this to happen HOWEVER. In other words escape rooms we’ve done; you HAVE to pull things fairly hard for them to work. Nobody told us that we were supposed to not pull them hard. It felt like she was trying to avoid admitting that their room was the problem. Truly unprofessional. I do not think I will recommend this place to anyone, and I am disappointed that I had this experience because my boyfriend and I love escape rooms and typically love the game guides...