The Hill Has Eyes — Local services in Franklin

One of the best haunted houses I've ever been to, bar none (haunted house is probably a bad term considering the whole tour is completely outdoors). I had so so much fun. If you need something awesome to do this Halloween season I don't think I could recommend this place any higher. It had EVERYTHING. This includes, but is not limited to... (SPOILER ALERT for anyone who wants to be surprised by the tour's attractions) a haunted trailer park with mutants, zombies, Satan's Church (we loved the priest), getting a bag put over your head and wandering around in the dark, a giant slide (complete with dancing bear), riding on a rickety old ski lift, a graveyard, many chainsaws, an inflatable anal exam (Yes, I said it), a haunted carnival, beer tents, bonfires and a ton of fantastic characters/amazing scenes to experience. (*SPOILER DONE) Hands down, the most fun I have ever had at a haunted house (and I've gone to at least one every year since I was 8) I traveled all the way from Madison to go to this so I also decided to buy the VIP tickets. This means we got to skip all the lines and go right to the front (I promise, it was worth every penny) Even without the lines the whole tour took us quite a while to walk through which was fantastic! Nothing felt rushed or lacking and overall I give it an A++ (Although I love them, this is something I rarely give to haunted houses) I actually want to go again, it was THAT good. This haunted house wasn't "terrifying" per se, but what haunted house is? You know you're not going to die or be touched by the actors in anyway and that's usually enough to keep me relatively unterrified. But scary? Yes, of course it was! I was definitely clinging to my boyfriend throughout most of the haunt and I even found myself screaming at a few points. But on the whole, it was just ridiculously fun. These guys are so into their characters! You will find NO "Boos", "Rawrs" or "Hisses" at this haunt. These guys are professionals with well thought out character names and backstories. You can just tell that they live and breathe the Halloween season and they've got the sort of creepy charisma coursing through their veins that you can only experience at a great haunted house like this. They were also very complimentary telling me that I smelled good (you just don't hear that enough, you know?) Small disclaimer: This is probably not a place for children for sure. Although I did notice the actors were very good at reading us before we got to them. (Side note: I'm 24 years old) They were able to measure our age and type of humor so it was a lot of fun to see them interact with us and joke around with us. At some points it really felt like we were in on the whole thing which was awesome (if that makes any sense) but they never fell out of character or took us out of the illusion (This is very hard to do without looking cheesy! I used to work at a haunted house as well, I know how it goes). But yeah, I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone under 15, unless you are with a parent and are mature enough to get that this stuff isn't real (just read through the haunt guidelines, I'm not sure what their age policy is) I also probably wouldn't recommend this to any closed minded parents or people who are easily and seriously offended by language, visuals and/or scenes as well. These are great actors who are just having a great time and living off the moment (and that's what I really like to see and what we want to encourage) So this haunt should be avoided by anyone who is preparing to rain on their parade and looking for things to complain about (why would you even come?)

SO, to conclude... I had an awesome time! I highly recommend it and I hope that my review really got you fired up to go. I'll definitely be coming back next year for another walk through.

P.S. Do yourself a favor and buy your tickets online ahead of time! It will save you a ton of waiting. Also, the haunt was actually sold out the night that I went so I'm really glad i decided to I order the VIP tickets off...

TLTR; Not scary, not enough actors, great set design, cool Party Pit.

The Pre-Game Umbrella Bar - My group got there about an hour before we could be let in, so we went to the Umbrella Bar to hang out. Was nice, good booze, friendly staff and decent prices.

The Party Pit - This was a lot of fun. The music and DJ were good, the merch was neat, and the way they announced things was nice. I did not like that you couldn't go back to the Pit after the haunts. I feel like you needed more time to eat, drink and have a good time. I also don't like that you're not allowed to go to the Pit after - this makes you have to buy their merch beforehand and carry it through the haunts. Not a good idea and the merch bar should be up by the Umbrella Bar so you can grab something after.

There also weren't enough actors working up the crowd. I feel like there weren't enough actors in general, especially with so much walking on trails.

Security and staff were fantastic, though.

The Haunts - So set design was, hands down, absolutely fantastic. I wish we weren't rushed through so much because I wanted to take it in a little more. They had a large puppet in each haunt and they were AMAZING and cool to watch, if you got to see them. Two out of the four we didn't see because the lights cut out and it was just too dark to see.

The length of each haunt was okay. Not too long, but almost a little short. There was no story, really, to each haunt but there were themed, which was neat. I really enjoyed the Hillbilly one and the last bit of haunt 4 with the Silent Hill esque nurse and the doctor. Gave me bit Outlast vibes.

There was a lot of downtime between scares, though, and I feel like there just wasn't enough actors in the entire haunt to keep up with building suspense.

The very last bit where they had everyone gather up for the ending scene was very disappointing. It didn't fit in with the theme, it was confusing at what was going on, there was no gunshot to match and the sound was all off. It waa very lack luster. A mass hanging or firing line would of been better.

Would be better if you would of stuck with the doctor theme to the very end.

The Actors- The actors were so-so. The costume design was fantastic on everyone and, again, the hillbillies (cannibals?) Were great.

I felt like there were a lot of actors that just kind of stood there and didn't work up a scare when they had the opportunity to do so.

I felt like they were understaffed, honestly.

The Scares- ....what Scares? Honestly, this was a very lucrative haunt. More funny than scary. I feel like there could of been better sound design to help build up the suspense.

Overall, a great beginner...

I was pretty disappointed, I get the place being busy and it being out of their control but we literally spent 4 hours here and the majority of it was waiting in line. Even once you get into the haunt, there is more line waiting after each section. It felt like each section was really short also especially the last one with the carnival clowns. I mean we waited because you have to take the ski lift up which is kinda neat I guess but its slow...so its a long line and wait again, only to get to the last haunt and literally walk through it in about 5 minutes if that, where there was I believe 3 clowns to scare us and none of them were hiding to startle us or anything like that. They just were there standing waiting and then tried to act scary which it wasn't. There was long gaps during the haunts where nothing was happening and you were just walking along. I don't feel like there was enough startle you factor, most of the time because of how it was spaced out you could easily see the scare coming up or know that there had to be one because you suddenly ran into a makeshift wall or something. It says 60 minutes and 45 acres but I do not at all believe we were actually in the haunts for a total of 60 minutes unless you count the waiting in line between the haunts. I wouldn't have minded the waiting in line had the haunts been better. Even the one part that seemed like it was neat and could be most scary where you get hoods put over your head...literally that whole walk ONE person tried to scare us. So it was just basically a lot of walking without being able to see well. My wife gets scared pretty easily and loves haunted houses every year, but she even barely got scared at all at this one. Still a really cool place, pretty cool concept but I can't say i'll be in any hurry to come back. Maybe they actors were tired towards the end because of how many people get pushed through I get it, but yeah...we got there at 7:30pm and did not leave until Midnight. So I bet they are tired by the time you...