Asylum 49 — Attraction in Tooele

I am giving Asylum 49 one star because there were only a few positives that we encountered on our trip there. We learned they only took cash, which meant we needed to go to the ATM. The worker in charge of the line held our place until we came back with cash. And we had a lot of fun in the waiting area—it was cool and creepy and the line actors did a great job sneaking up and scaring us. It got us excited about going through the actual haunt. And some areas in the haunt had a creepy look and feel. BUT… We had a group of 8 (7 adults and 1 teenager) and we all were pretty disappointed with our experience. We did regular non-contact, but apparently the actors mainly focus on those who want the full contact experience because we had little attention paid to us. Sure, we didn't pay for them to throw us around, but that definitely didn't mean that we didn't want to be scared. There were long stretches where there were no actors at all (just gory props). And when we did encounter actors, they did little if anything to try to scare us, even though the room was setup perfectly for a great jump scare. Good haunted houses scenes set up distractions so a scare from somewhere else gets you. That wasn’t the case here. I only jumped once! So many missed opportunities that could have made it better. (It's possible they could have been short-handed that night, but not likely since this was on a busy Saturday night.) They should have two sets of actors--one group focused on the no-touch people and another for the full-contact people, with a little crossover to help each other out when needed. I get that they want to focus on those who want to REALLY be scared, but there ARE people who don't love being touched yet still want to enjoy a good haunted house. We paid extra to skip the line, so $80 for just my husband and me! I didn't get scared EXCEPT WHEN WE WERE IN THE WAITING LINE. And the whole haunt felt surprisingly short, given its price and popularity. Asylum 49 is known to be "the scariest" in Utah, but I guess that’s only if you do full-contact. We started out feeling excitement and anticipation but that turned into feeling bored and grossed out. It is super gory through the entire haunt for almost no reason other than to just be gory. At first the gory props helped make the atmosphere creepy but it got old pretty quickly because (like I said above) hardly anything HAPPENED. Nothing or nobody did much to scare us! The room that had bodies sewn together to form a human centipede wasn't scary, it was just weird and gross. Also, at one point, I ran into this pig head thing that was dangling there (I honestly didn't see it, I only felt it.) Not like a soft prop head; it felt like something REALLY hard and sharp. My husband touched it and said it felt like it could have been a real pig head skull. It hurt when I hit it and it came dangerously close to my eye. There were several places where you have to step up or down (like when you walk through some of the doorways) that were dark and not illuminated or otherwise marked for safety purposes. One member of our party fell down when he couldn’t see the step and hurt himself because it wasn't marked. (Yes I want haunted houses to be dark, but you still need to be made aware of dangerous slip/trip/fall areas.) I’m afraid I won’t return to Asylum 49 in the future. Unless you want to do the full-contact, I think you will be wasting your money. It was too focused on gross gory props/scenes and less on scaring people. I’ve been to amateur home haunts that had more scares than Asylum 49 did. It’s a shame! I was really excited to check this one off my bucket list. We loved Nightmare on 13th, Dead City, and even Castle of Chaos (which is not quite as good as it used to be but still better than Asylum 49). At those haunts, you actually SCREAM, JUMP, and feel anxious about what’s around the next corner. You never know which “prop” might turn out to be real. Not the case at Asylum 49 unfortunately. Don't waste your...

I will preface this by saying I am a haunt lover and go to a few every year. But normally skip this one as it’s nearly an hour from where I live. But I made the journey this year because of all the rumors. I am here to tell you the rumors are wrong. TLDR: Don’t go. But if you must, get the stat pass and keep your expectations low. This is my Afternoon Tea review: The good, the bad, and the ugly. The good: The line actors were pretty engaging and fun. They weren’t just sneaking up and jump scaring, and were also forcing strangers to interact with each other which was something I hadn’t seen before, and enjoyed it! There were also the twins inside that were speaking in unison the entire time. Both very creepy and very impressive! The tickets were cheaper than most other haunted houses in the valley by $5-$10. None of the actors I was close to smelled of B.O. The bad: There was some sort of stage show themed as a surgery that seemed really cool, but none of us could see it. Even though groups were let into the haunt in small batches, it turned into one big line relatively quick, since there were hardly any actors to keep groups separated. This also meant this haunt heavily relied on animatronics. Stacking multiple in one location, then having long gaps of no actors or animatronics. There were also a lot of maze areas. Other than the actors I listed above, the actors all seemed inexperienced and unguided. One person just laid on a bed and screamed non stop. They probably felt horrible by the end of the night due to the constant hyperventilation they caused themselves. If you’re reading this, it’s not your fault. You just need better guidance. There were multiple spots where there were steps that were not marked, so I tripped a few times. No one was manning the 3D glasses box before entering the clown area. Due to this I didn’t even know there were supposed to be 3D glasses until after the haunt when a friend commented that they saw another group stop to grab some, but the box they were in was empty. -the ugly- My group pre purchased tickets, which did not call for a time slot selection like most other haunts do. We arrived to the gate @ 8pm (give or take a few minutes) and entered the line for the haunt. The line didn’t look long, about half the capacity of the area. It was unbelievably slow moving. There were several times where my group was concerned by how long we stood in one place. I also witnessed another group complaining about this to an actor. (Leave the actors alone, this isn’t their fault and they can’t do anything about it) We did not enter the haunt until 10:30pm (give or take a few minutes). THIS MEANS WE STOOD IN LINE FOR 2 AND A HALF HOURS! I haven’t even waited in line that long to get on a ride at Disneyland in peak season. I could have watched Pulp Fiction and still been in line after the credits. There are also no restrooms beyond the entry gate, and they do not allow reentry. Expecting people to wait over 2 hours and not use the restroom is crazy. The haunted house itself only took us 30 minutes to walk through. I purchased the full touch experience and wore the glow stick necklace the entire time. I was only grabbed by 1 of the actors in line, had my hair touched 2 or 3 times in the haunt. Then my face was grabbed and shook by the guy in the ghillie suit. That was it. By the time we were half way through the haunt, I wasn’t having fun anymore and was ready to be back in my car. As a whole this was not a great experience. Even if I had purchased the Stat pass, it still wouldn’t have been a great experience. If you’re still reading this, spend the little bit more and go to any of the other big name haunts. You will have a much...

With a reputation as the scariest haunted house in Utah, I would expect A LOT more. We went as a group of 6, one person with a light touch pass.

Initially the queue line is not well organized and it was extremely easy for others to cut in front of our group. The line was 3+ hours long and employees were passing out silent disco headphones without disclosing the $10-$15 cost. Vocally encouraging people to take them. (Luckily we noticed and avoided them)

After finally getting to the indoor queue line, the scare actors were OKAY. There wasn't much interaction with patrons and more interaction with the chainlink fence separating the line... As most haunted houses do, they waited a bit after the group before us to avoid clogging up the haunted house. However, after about 2 rooms, we ran into the group before us and the group behind us ran into us. Making the "jumpscares" much less scary and individualistic. Now moving as a combined group of about 10-12 people, we were rarely jumpscared. Most jumpscares were lights and animatronic controlled. Extremely disappointed to see scare actors - the few that there were - barely interact with the group in front of us with FULL TOUCH EXPERIENCE passes. No one was separated, I even heard them vocally complain about barely even being touched !

The theme felt off and was mostly full of not so scary props. Disappointed to find that the hospital/asylum theme is not consistent. Some rooms were well done and visually appealing. The chainsaw part was pretty school and actually got people screaming; But just like the haunted house itself, that fear was short lived. The haunted house ended in about 30 minutes and left me wanting A LOT more.

Overall: long drive, long wait, not many scare actors, expensive, touch passes aren't worth it, inconsistent theme, and DISSATISFIED. Who pays $30+ to be scared by animatronics and wooden or metal bits and pieces + lights ??

I really wouldn't waste your time and hit up something else like Fear Factory, which I was much...