The Fright Nights — Attraction in Town of De Witt

A great time held back by a lack of enthusiastic actors and the option to reduce how long you wait in line.

Last year, a group of friends and I went towards the end of the month and it was packed. We spent almost two hours outside, then another two hours waiting inside. By the time we actually got to experience anything, it was a little after 12am and we assumed that most of the actors left, with the rest just being worn out for the night.

This year, we decided to give it another shot. Going earlier in the month allowed us to spend only a few minutes waiting in line, but it revealed that our late run wasn't the issue with their actors. There just aren't enough for the amount of space we walk through, and even then, most only seemed to be there for the paycheck.

In all but one of the haunts, we'd walk up to a room where actors were just sitting around and talking to each other. The rest of the way through was mostly made up of actors who'd silently gaze at you from their post, with the occasional delayed jump or a cautious scream that wouldn't spook a stray.

The sole exception was Penny's Playhouse, which served as one of the most fun experiences I've had between the dozens of haunted attractions I've been to. After being introduced to the haunt by the sweetest clown you'll ever meet, you go through an experience with such lively, entertaining and interactive actors that you'll wish the rest could match their energy.

I've also got to give massive props to the staff who operate the cider and game stands at the end. The joy they brought me and my group almost made up...

I have anxiety, and sometimes I get panic attacks in overwhelming situations and need to leave because I feel like I can’t breathe or my mind starts racing to the point of extremely irrational thoughts. Unfortunately, I had a panic attack while inside one of the haunted houses, and I started begging the workers meant to scare me to let me leave because I wasn’t okay. Some workers ignored my request, I guess because they thought I was just scared like every other person. However, there was one worker in there who realized I wasn’t just experiencing nornal fear and helped me get out of there. He led me to an exit and walked ahead of me so the other workers would pop out at him, not me, and he could tell them not to scare me and that I was leaving. It was extremely helpful to me and really prevented my panic attack from getting any worse. In a situation like that, I was desperate for somebody to help me and this man really stepped up to the plate and did when nobody else wanted to. I wasn’t able to thank him because my focus was my panic attack and getting the hell out of there, and I have no idea who he was because he was wearing a mask, but I appreciated that act of kindness much more than he probably even knows. With anxiety disorder, its always scary for me to willingly put myself in such a vulnerable situation, and thanks to this man, I ended up feeling safe and was able to get out and calm myself down before it got even worse. So to that man, thank you, and to the place itself, please hire more people...

Fun event with a ton of potential to be amazing. Wait times were excessive, and there was a significant lack of scare actors. There are 5 individual themed "houses" and the main line takes you into the first house, which you go through, exit, and immediately enter the next house.

The 2-hour wait was asking a lot. Just over an hour of this wait was outside, and just under an hour spent in the queue was in the warehouse itself. It was nice that they space groups out into each house rather than a continous congo-line that is common at theme parks, but the spacing was so excessive that it greatly increased wait times and scare actors are often caught off guard talking to each other between groups because of this excessive spacing. If they cut the spacing in half, it would speed up the lines and still leave massive gaps. There's also a significant lack of scare actors. Most of the scenes leave you walking through it alone with just a few animatronics moving and making noise. These animatronics ranged from simple to complex, but didn't keep you "on edge" as you knew no one was around. The scare actors are well placed for ideal jump scares, but half were unenthusiastic and the other half are what actually made the experience fun. Overall, it felt like there needed to be 2-3 times the amount of scare actors that they employed.

With better line spacing and more actors, this would have been a pretty...