The Dent Schoolhouse — Local services in Green Township

Lets be honest here - unless you are a child or adult who is easily scared by depictions of plastic animatronic gore, Dent Schoolhouse is not that scary. Maybe it once was, but in the 2012 season it really isn't scary at all. They build up the atmosphere of this being a real haunted house both on their website and their psudo-documentary on the place they show while waiting in line, but when you actually go in, they completely throw the schoolhouse theme out the window and just try to pidgeonhole every "halloween horror movie" them ever invented into one building, with a new thing going on in every room.

As such, you go in expecting this legitimate and well-paced, well-crafted haunted house built on the foundations of a real haunted house case. However, the actual "haunt" itself is more like a messy mashup of every Haunted House animatronic and stereotype ever created. Despite being a school, you'll walk through one room where there's a loud car garage, implied to be owned by some crazy mechanic. You'll walk through another area and run into the "crazy doctor" exhibit. Another area will feature the inevitable "crazy clown carnival" segment. By far the goofiest area of the haunted house is when you are in a flooded basement and a large animatronic figure of a monster straight from the Doom games walks through a broken section of the wall. Really? This is supposed to be an authentic and scary haunted house? The "torture house" at the Renascence Fair at times has more scare factor than this place. It's just that when they throw every "haunted house" trope into one building, it really de-legitimizes the scare factor, and makes the whole thing feel insanely fake. Especially since most of the house doesn't have you "experience" anything first hand, you just walk past a table of animatronics, or an actor doing something "spooky" or "gorey"

That said, I must say this place easily has some of the most elaborate animatronics I've ever seen. As goofy as some of it is, as completely unrelated to the school-house theme most of it is, and despite the whole experience not really being that scary, walking through the haunted house was legitimately entertaining the whole way through. It was interesting and fun to see what situation would be depicted around the next corner, and seeing all the cool animatronics they had. They even had some moments in there where you'd have to walk through inflated cracks in the walls, and one section where you walk through a topsy-turvy tunnel. Use of mirrors was excellent too, with a few places in the house using mirrors to create twisted "endless hallways", something you'd expect to see in Silent Hill. It was an effect I've never really seen in a haunted house before.

The actors were okay. They didn't interact with you all that much beyond popping out of things, but the makeup was excellent enough.

Overall, it's was a fun time, and I feel worth the money just because it's cool to see just how much they fit into one attraction, making it fun to go through. But for me, I don't go to haunted houses expecting "fun", I go to them expecting to be scared. And this one isn't really...

Every year we try to go to something new. This year it was The Dentist Schoolhouse. First off, I was amazed where this was located around a very busy intersection. But the ability to park right next door to the location was $10. Are you were able to park at the Cincinnati children's hospital. Either way we decided to save 10 bucks. It's not that big of a walk. On approach the school was fantastically lit up. We were prompted where to go and what to do if we did not have tickets. We had our tickets printed from online. We had the fast pass which was about a 20 minute wait approximately. I was hearing the normal line was a 2-hour wait. And they also had a third option cut the line. Which would have been $10 more than the fastpass. We end up paying $53 a person. Which was very very worth it. As we proceeded into the haunted schoolhouse, and I mean right before you go in there's like a scary circus vive before you really go into the school itself. The props were fantastic. When we finally made it to the door there was four of us. We went in with two other people. But I must say the atmosphere and the props in the school was amazing. I don't want to give away anything from the inside. My only disappointment was that we started on the main floor. We went by the stairs that went upstairs. But we were prompted to go into the basement. So we were never on the second floor. We're on the main floor and in the basement area. Which the basement the original was freaky. Absolutely loved the atmosphere through the whole haunted adventure. Recommendation the only thing I will probably give away is if you go on a cold evening, please do not wear shorts. Because your last adventure through before you walk out is a wet bubble adventure. It was amazing it remind me of going to a bubble party I went to back in the day. It's just when we walked out my jeans were soaked. I loved all the opportunity to get photo ops at the end of the attraction. You got to check your photo that you took before you went into the house. Which I would recommend the digital photo. But if you don't have the extra money. Then just wait to the very end and you'll have plenty of time and things to take pictures with. What type posted some. I had so much many more pictures but I did not want to put friends and family on there without their permission. So I posted all the pictures I could that had no individuals in them. All in all I would recommend The Dent Schoolhouse to anyone that wants to have a good scare! One last thing please do not touch the props. Not that my buddy meant to do it. But somebody did say something to him. Of course going through the house there's things you can't avoid from touching. I'm just saying like if you're waiting outside before you go in. Just don't touch anything. No cameras on the inside of the school house. But with the photo ops before and after you're more welcome to use your camera. I'm sorry this review was long. But the staff and the attraction...

Unless they correct this later in the season, DO NOT purchase the "Front of the line" passes. They do not have a separate line or entrance for Front of the line. If you ask staff where to go for Front of the line, you will be directed to the Fast Pass line. There, you will wait and be alternated with the general admissions, even after presenting a Front of the line pass, and then you'll wait again in the photo/carnival area in the combined line. Save the additional $15 a person and just buy a Fast Pass. I'm also extremely annoyed that they will group you with others so you enter in groups of 7+. We asked if we could wait to go in with just us, but were told no. Absolutely nothing ruins a haunt faster than being stuck with jerks you don't know, or having too many people. We wound up sandwiched between idiots who liked to laugh at the actors and touch things, and a group with a kid who was terrified, so they made an effort to explain, out loud, why things weren't scary. The groups before and behind quickly smeared into one long train of over 15 people, ruining most of the effects, since those in the front would set off the jumps/shock scares, ruining them those in the back, and since the actors were busy attending to the back of the line, there was no follow through with the front. They also had no built in points during which they could trap or detain groups to correct the flow and pacing. The scenes and props were, as ever, absolutely stunning and deserving of being found on a movie set. Each piece and scene was consistently gorgeous, innovative, and creative. Makeup and costumes were high-quality. They had several things I'd never seen before, and the actors were masters of appearing where you least expect them. It's worth the shoddy experience just to see what they've made. Surprisingly, it's the second haunt, the Slaughterhouse, where they really shine this year. I enjoyed looking at the school house, but yelled myself hoarse and was creeped out in the slaughterhouse. Despite its simplicity, it was a far more attentive and personal terror experience, and was genuinely frightening. Just when you think you're safe, someone's snort puffs your hair and your blood runs icy when you realize that that one effed up character who just scared the pants off you has been following and you feel like prey. Nearly had palpations throughout the entire thing. Five stars and two thumbs up for the excellent Slaughterhouse actors and design, though they can be a little heavy on...