The Darkness Haunted House — Attraction in St. Louis

I think this was an okay experience, but honestly, just some simple changes would have made this wayyyy better.

It would have been a lot better if they hadn’t pushed us through as a group.

Letting each individual group in (who came to the location with the intention of going together) would have been way better of an experience. Even waiting one minute between each group would have been way better. Instead, we were paired with two separate groups of people. But, as you know, it’s a single file line. My son and I were right in the middle of the group.

My son and I were right behind a couple. There were a few times that I would have been scared, but the actors scared the couple most of the time because they were first in line. Most of the scares were not really a surprise because of that.

And there was a group of women behind us who kept running into my son. Literally running into him.

I just spent nearly $100 to do this experience with my son, and although it was interesting and fun at times, I didn’t feel like I got $100 worth of an experience due to what I mentioned.

Also, a few things that would have been better:

Repairs to the main animatronic demon guy (at the entrance). Kinda not able to get into the scared mode when you can see his “shoulders” ripped up and exposing foam and wire.

More smoke throughout the haunted house and not just near the end (it at least makes it to where you can’t really see, so even if you’re not scared by the actors or sandwiched in some random grouping you are at least a little on edge).

Ear plugs being offered at the beginning and suggested on the website… this place is LOUD at times, and that’s okay and expected, but there were 1-2 times I plugged my ears because it was literally too loud to be scary. It just hurt. If you have a kid with sensory issues I would definitely bring some ear plugs. My kid was covering his ears about half of the time. That part was a “my bad,” but I didn’t expect that I myself would want ear plugs, as I am generally okay with really loud sounds and listen to loud music and bass daily. The part that sticks out to me the most is the car honking.

The dizzying tunnel literally made me almost vomit. I wish I could have enjoyed that, but alas, my seasickness tendencies translated to this experience. I wish I could have bypassed that or at least ran through it (but I couldn’t, because my son and I were sandwiched in between a couple and...

So, I decided to be brave and visit The Darkness Haunted House. You know, the kind of brave where you tell yourself, “I got this,” but secretly hope your bladder doesn’t fail you. Walking into the place, I was greeted by a zombie who clearly hadn’t read the room because he growled in my face. I growled back... out of reflex. I guess that threw him off because he started laughing. Score one for me.

The journey began with a pitch-black corridor that felt like a life-size anxiety simulator. I reached out to grab my friend's arm for reassurance, only to discover I was tightly clutching some guy named Larry who had no idea how I got there either. Larry and I became fast friends, united by fear and bad directional instincts.

As I turned the corner, I stepped into a room with clowns. Now, I’m not terribly scared of clowns, but these weren’t your average birthday party types. One clown popped out of a box and whispered, “Wanna play?” I responded instinctively with, “Sure, but I call Uno!” I think I broke character for him because he just stared at me like I had missed the point of the whole scene.

The weirdest part, though, was this haunted hallway filled with animatronic bats. One of them swooped down, grazed my shoulder, and I screamed louder than a fire alarm. But then the bat stopped mid-air—probably stuck on some wire. So now I was face-to-face with this limp, motionless bat. I gave it a solid “Nice try!” and kept walking, pretending I didn’t have tears in my eyes.

The highlight? A room where it looked like a floor of lava was bubbling beneath my feet. I did the whole Indiana Jones leap to avoid falling in, only to realize the effect was an optical illusion. I looked back and saw Larry leisurely walking across like it was a park stroll. I tried to play it off cool, but we both knew I had panicked.

By the end, I was sure I had survived, only for the chainsaw guy to come running after me. I let out a scream that could probably shatter glass and bolted, only to run straight into the exit door like a cartoon character. I’m still not sure what hurt more—my pride or the bruise on my forehead.

All in all, I’d give my visit to The Darkness Haunted House a 10/10 for scares and a solid 12/10 for embarrassing moments. Would I go again? Absolutely. But next time, Larry’s buying...

Okay I know. Five stars? For a haunted house? Yes. Completely. I have never been a big fan of animatronics, nor 3D 'killer clowns' - but this place made me change my mind. It legitimately has the BEST animatronics I've ever seen. All of them were will placed and blended so that it wasn't cheesey. The 3D section was amazing. There were several times I couldn't tell if it was just the 3D or really there. At one point I cheated and took off the glasses and it was awesome even without the 3D, which was great since most places rely too heavily on the 3D and forget the rest.

Other awesomeness: the actors. OMG if a boss is reading this: they need a raise! They never once left character, which was impressive because the group in front of us was the slow type and thus we were stopped a few times waiting for them to work up some courage. The actors, despite us standing there, never left character. They kept to their shtick at all times. They darted between rooms to maximize the scares and seemed to notice when we saw them - which is good and here's why: by noticing that I saw them they stayed 'statuesque' until another group arrived behind us. Had they tried to jump at us, they would have blown it for the people behind us and not gotten either. They were great. Period.

The props made sense. Too often you see the caskets alongside an alien then a guy with a chainsaw.. not here. The themes were maintained room by room. In the 'temple of doom' you see ruins and old dusty skeletons. In the clown section everything is colorful and carnival themed. [There's lots more, but don't want to spoil.]

If you are debating which of the three to go to (Darkness, Abyss, or Creepyworld) choose the Darkness. We did all three and there was no contest. The Darkness was or...