The Gainesville Fear Garden — Local services in Gainesville

So, my group of friends (fiance, best friend and his girlfriend) attended this event last night (October 18th) as something new and fun to do in town for Halloween. I will preface this by saying that I had read all of their info on the site before telling my friends and coordinating buying tickets, because I wanted to be as informed as possible for what we were walking into.

In short, this attraction was very fun and pretty much everything I expected. Reading the reviews here it seems like a lot of naysayers were expecting Halloween Horror Nights. If you, the one reading this review, are also expecting Halloween Horror Nights (despite them mentioning on the website that this is much more psychological and nerdy than that), then prepare to be disappointed. Because Halloween Horror Nights this is not. This is not your typical slash and gush and bloody horror murder house. It’s a lot more cerebral than that.

That being said, there are some definite improvements that could be made to this attraction. As a group we came to a consensus that if this place was a TV show, it would very much be season one. Which, to be fair, this is their first year. Even if this was funded by the UF Psychology department, it’s quite likely that they had a very limited budget for something new and risky like this, explaining the cheap effects, but pricy tickets (even though the Newberry Corn Maze is charging around the same price) that many others are also complaining about. As someone who has relatives who work in the professional haunt industry, cheap effects don’t even really mean anything anyway, as you can make even dollar store props scary with the sort of sensory deprivation experience the Gainesville Fear Garden is going for.

The story itself is well done, needing only a little bit more work and immersion. The actors in the audio track were actually quite good and it’s clear they had a lot of passion and wanted to sell the story. My advice to the organizers is that if you want a bit more depth to the writing, hire on some experienced D&D dungeon masters. I think that would be perfect for the sort of atmosphere you’re going for. As for the immersion, I recommend blacking out the goggles themselves a little more. To be fair, everyone in our immediate friend group wore glasses, so already the goggles were going to fit weird on our faces. However, the sides of the goggles in particular, and the joining between the lenses and the plastic in the front, let some light and shadows through, and I could see the lights of either another group or an employee walking around us at some points. But that can be solved by either taking a can of spray paint or some black nail polish and really slathering it on the goggles, making sure to fill in those cracks where others could see. Foam pieces around the rims to make it flush with the face could help as well and also make them a bit more comfortable to wear. Or, better yet, black out the tent itself as well. This could also help with immersion for story elements, such as adding either strobes or high wattage lights to signify the “eye burning light” deeper in the “sinkhole” near the end of the story. Maybe not something that the audience needs to see, per se, but something they can at least feel, as high wattage lights do give off perceptible heat.

The only really important complaint I have is for the actor that was using the air blaster (a computer air duster, according to the employees I asked). Please do NOT hold it so close to peoples’ skin. The chemicals that cause the air blast react endothermically and you are going to burn someone. Both me and the other girl in our group have minor burns on our necks from someone discharging it very close to our skin.

Tl;dr: this was a fun experience and I will definitely come back next year. It needs work, but all in all it is a unique concept that I believe will only get...

The good: Unique ideas to scare and engage participants Incredibly helpful/friendly staff Feedback seems to be appreciated and implemented

The bad: The main event is a little on the short side The story is a little corny and under polished Speak easy doesnt have much in the way of food. There are often food trucks there, but its not something you should count on.

Dispite the bad parts I feel like the fear garden more than earns a 5 star rating. First when my wife and I arrived she was parched from walking. When we asked a worker if there was any way she could get some water they were like "oh yeah one second" and brought out ice cold bottled water for everyone. Most places would have charged us for the water and I wouldn't have griped about it, but this was a really cool thing to do and provides a good example for how nice the people there are. I put this first because to me the kindness of the people at an event is an essential part of my enjoyment of the event.

Beyond that, this isnt a highly polished experience. There are flaws and lots of room for improvement. But the people doing this are growing and improving the experience day to day. Its a really cool experience to feel the love and passion put into this, and to see the establishment of something that might become a big Gainesville Halloween event. For now there are parts of the experience to enjoy as intended and parts to enjoy because corny horror stuff is fun, but the whole thing has a strong feeling of passion and was well worth the cost of admission.

I'd say come if you want to support some really cool local people putting on a fun interactive show if you want an innovative horror experience and are willing to be on the ground floor of a flawed but rapidly improving experience if you enjoy slightly corny horror stories (mystery science theater fans)

On the other hand if you are looking for something extremely polished I think Id give these people a couple of years to iron out the kinks, or better yet come and go through and give them feedback and be a part of making this a more...

I visited the Fear Garden on opening night and with all opening nights there are a few glitches to work through. The people who put this on did an excellent job and it is a unique experience as I have done tons of haunted houses and escape rooms- and am into immersion. So- you sign in and wait in a cute little enclosed area until your team is called. Once you're called in you are given headphones with disposable cover bootie things - (very nice) and enter the tent. You watch a cute video that gives some safety guides and the premise of the story. Then they hand you some "blackout" glasses and tell you how you will go through the tent. You cannot see. Let me go ahead and give my personal advice here: - make sure your volume on the headset is turned all the way up. And feel confident that there are "guides" in there to help you along. - I was focusing so much on what I could not see that I missed some of the story. You want to hear everything going on in the headset for the full immersive effect. The story is great and you don't want to miss it. Do everything they say. It's all set up to give you a great experience. Once you are through the story tent you find yourself in another little enclosed area with great decor and a little bar. I highly recommend it. I gave 5 full stars because me, my son, and granddaughter all thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a wait and I see some people took stars off for that, but I understand that when you are starting something new, there are going to be issues. I am very excited to think of how the owners will improve upon this event. I really hope they stick it out and make it even better next year. I can see it becoming a fantastic...