Haunted Forest at Panic Point — Attraction in Wake Forest

Visited Panic Point last night to check out the latest and newest things they upgraded too. I worked with panic point few years ago and left for personal reasons. I will break down how I experience everything. I'm an honest person when it comes to the haunt industry and I look for actor skills, talent skills and over all the entertainment. So let's start off with the basics, so on a Saturday night it's very busy so parking can be very challenging, which is normal. I do like the fact you do not need to pay for parking. That is a huge plus. Second the line to get tickets went smoothly somewhat, I want get into much details with that, but it went well. Third the midway seems more like a circus show, which seem different but odd at the same time. Wasn't sure what the plan was for that, anyways the lines were packed so I definitely was glad I got the VIP ticket. I was not waiting 2 hours or more to wait in line. Which again that's a normal time to wait on a Friday or Saturday night. So one of the negative things I wasn't a fan of, which few of the other customers around me complained heavy about how you meet up with other groups while your trying to experience the haunt, you will already see the scary because of the people in front of you, which seem pointless to be scared if you saw the scary happen in front of you. So definitely a time system in place or something to stop that from happening. The other thing is I caught few actors just lacking off with their scares, like they seem not wanting to be there or they were bored, not sure. Not all attractions I went throughout were like that, but mostly all the attractions I ran into other groups. Now I'm very into how the characters make up look and let me be super honest, the make up looked very cheaply done, like it was rush or the make up artist didn't care. I was very disappointed with that. Being a creative person I want the make up and characters to match the theme, also DONT TELL A CUSTOMER to get out or leave, that is one thing as an actor to never say, again be your character and come up with dialog with your scene and character. Again more effort in the acting please. Now stalkers in the corn was a joy, the actors did a fantastic job in there! They played their roles very well! The hayride was a very very disappointing experience, seems like every year they slowly give up with that. The scene was boring, the acting was decent, but they ruin the zombie experience for me! As I'm a huge zombie lover, they plan the zombie theme very poorly, the make up wasn't even zombie horror, it wasn't worth it. Again its a haunted attraction, not a movie set, totally understand that, but playing over $50 or more to experience this haunt, I'll have to say, it's not worth it, it seems like they gave up on a lot and they didn't want to put in the work. Maybe it's time for a change of mind and scenery? Just my opinion. Customer service was good, the ticket takers were nice, besides I'm lost at the VIP line as few of them didn't really pay attention to the VIP line. But again it was a busy nice. Personality it seems like there needs to be more training on acting, make sure the scene is full finished, as I notice some scenes were unfinished but overall it was an okay performance and experience, if they want to grow they have a lot of work to do. Again was it worth the hour drive to see and feel the haunt experience, yes, but I would like a better experience if things were different, with the actors and crew to make sure everything is better, and also please remove the circus theme, if your going to have a circus theme, make sure it's horror theme not happy or happy go theme. Thank you Panic Point for the experience and hopefully you will take my review and advice seriously. I enjoyed my time working there and I hope...

Freakin' awesome!!!! Most reviews did not reflect our awesome experience! We loved the efficient and very organized parking and easy access to get into the Haunted Forest from the parking lot. I went with my 14yo. We went on a Sunday and VIP was worth every penny because they had dedicated VIP check-in, and VIP lanes for every experience. It was wild to see no one in the VIP lane, but next to it there were 50+ people in the regular lane. We were told later by a few people that they waited 20-40 minutes to get into each experience in the regular lane. We experienced Killers In The Corn first that took an awesome 25 minutes. The actors were very experienced and their costumes were spectacular and on point. At one point, in the darkest of dark areas and with my focus in front of me I did not know that Jason was behind me and breathing warm air on my neck. I never screamed so loud and ran passed the few people in front of us in our group like I was on fire. Freaky and creepy!!! When we finished, my child was done and had to decompress from the awesome scary experience. We relaxed at the bonfires and decided to go home, because it was just too scary to continue :). The concession workers told us the other experiences were scarier, so it made our decision easy to leave. Next year we'll try two experiences :))).

PROS: Parking is organized; entire Haunted Forest was designed perfectly and with a lot of thought and perfect placement of props and actors; admissions was easy to get through; VIP is worth every penny; bathrooms were clean every time we used them with fully stocked TP; actors in full costume were in the Haunted Forest center ready for pics and engaged with everybody; bonfire pits were awesome to warm up from and have lighting after being in the dark areas; VIP at every experience was worth every penny because as said before we did not wait at all; the overall design was on point with amazing thought put into everything from parking your car, to the experience itself. Well done!!!

RECOMMENDATIONS: We wished they had sensor battery or lithium charged lighting in each bathroom stall, because it's very dark in each stall; sanitizer outside the stalls would be very nice; healthier food option would be nice too, such as high protein bars/drinks, fresh made popcorn, warm apple cider, and a coffee/tea concession would be amazing! Not sure if they had swag there or not, but I recommend it to be located next to admissions for people to buy before they enter or when they exit, such as cold weather items like zipper hoodies; long sleeve shirts; and scarfs all with the logo on them. In thinking of other events we have enjoyed in the Triangle, they could offer higher priced VIP that get limited edition items in a swag bag (swag bag designed w/logo; logo designed lanyard with VIP card access; T-shirt w/logo, etc.).

Thank you for the best experience we've have had in a long time for the...

I went last year in 2023 for the first time and fell in love with the PRODUCTION of it all. So much detail, care and creativity went into this attraction. I had a friend who worked here and told me that as actors the number one thing they focus on is, “if we can’t scare you, we make you laugh.” As someone who does not like being scared in the slightest, Panic Point is still one of my favorite places in North Carolina. I laughed belly laughs and re-told stories all throughout the year begging everyone I encountered to go when October came around. Some of the bad reviews I read are about people not being scared, and even if I was someone who didn’t scare easily, I would still find the whole spectacle impressive. With so many different scenes it won’t take you 30 minutes to get through and then you’re done like most haunted houses. You’ll spend hours here, there are games and dance parties, a bonfire, good music, food, circus performers and a magic show. For a lil ol town in North Carolina this is definitely the talk of the town for a reason. It might be a little pricey but I personally don’t mind because I want to support the artistic vision and see it grow to be even more spectacular. My favorite moment from this past year was when we were going through one of the scenes that had intense strobing lights. My best friend who has mild epilepsy had her face buried in my back to avoid an episode. One of the actors said in their zombie voice “look at me!” (Made sense it looked like she was scared and they were just trying to scare her more) I said “she’s epileptic” and that actor turned to one of the people who was in our group and said still in character, in a creepy deep voice, without missing a beat, “tell her I’m sorry!” It was both so hilarious and sincere. It was great to see the actors remaining in character while recognizing the situation. If you were that actor thank you for being human and zombie simultaneously, and for making us laugh. I’m hoping that for those really intense strobe light scenes they find a way to have a path where those who have epilepsy can walk around it. There are a lot of flickering lights throughout all the scenes but only a few were really really bad. Luckily my friend had no issue, but it does make me think about other epileptic people who want to attend. That would be my only critique, and that I wish it was open more days than just the weekends but I understand most of the actors are high schoolers. The hay ride from this year was better than last year, the haunted forest is the scariest and anyone who is going on a Sunday and wants to go to every attraction might want to consider getting the fast pass since they close earlier on Sundays. Hopefully this helps those who want to attend and the staff :) thanks Panic Point you’ll be hearing from me again next year! Keep up...