Arx Mortis — Local services in Killen

Arx Mortis is a must see for every haunt season! The size of the indoor haunt alone is impressive with over 50,000 square feet of pure horror! Out of the many haunts I attend each year, this is one of the largest and most well-known. If you go on a Friday or Saturday night in October, it is well worth your money to purchase the Fast Pass upgrade for $10. I say this because so many people attend this haunt that without it you are looking at a very long wait. I attended on a Saturday and had to wait for about 2 hours before my ticket color was called. I should have got the fast pass, but everything good is worth waiting for right? Not to mention, Arx Mortis is equipped with plenty of fun options to explore during the wait such as laser tag, professional photo booth, and a 5-minute escape room. And they have a special group of characters that interact with the lines and wait areas to help amp you up for the experience.

Arx Mortis offers an additional purchase to go to "ghost hill" before entering the clinic. It is only $5 additional dollars and adds an extra 15-20 minutes to the haunt. We decided to try out Ghost Hill this year and that is where our scare experiences started. It was raining Saturday and ghost hill is located outdoors. Everyone who was sectioned off to go with us to Ghost Hill decided they did not want to walk in the rain so they skipped the Ghost Hill opportunity. This was fine with us, and we entered that section alone. We navigated the dark woods in the rain for about 15-20 minutes. There were very few actors strategically placed to scare us but it did not take much because the adrenaline from the rain and darkness was flowing. After you finish Ghost Hill, you enter directly into the Clinic portion of the Haunt. Since our group left us at Ghost Hill, we also got a very exclusive experience during the clinic since it was just us entering back in.

When you enter the clinic, it appears you are entering an insane asylum. You navigate through dark hallways and work your way through several different scenes. Every scene and actor has top-notch effects, makeup, and scare factor! Make the drive to Killen, AL , buy the fast pace & Ghost Hill, and enjoy over an...

Bought tickets online for family and friends to Arx Mortis, and arrived at opening time. Very, very crowded and they had to wait an hour just to get in.

I took our younger daughter to Frankenfest, which was a bit disappointing for what we paid ($20 for me, $15 for my 11-year-old). Everything seemed kind of run down and almost all the arcade games and rides were broken. The staff did not seem to want to be there and several didn't know answers to simple questions about activities. The best "included" parts (not an upgraded ticket) were the glow in the dark putt putt golf and the Forbidden Forest, which no one else seemed to be walking through.

It's probably best for the 7-and-under crowd.

After 2 hours, my family finally came out of Arx Mortis and, while I personally did not go through it, they said the quality of production was VERY good, but the anticipation of being scared was much more than the actual scare. That being said, my teenage daughter's friend who went with us, came out early because she got too scared AND I saw a young woman sitting on a bench who came out early was having to be given oxygen for 20 minutes while I waited.

So, your level of scare will be very dependent on anticipation, fear of darkness (NO glow items are allowed, they said that's cheating and they will take them from you) and how easily excitable you are.

The parking lot does not have ANY lights, so you may want to take a small flashlight (or phone flashlight) to navigate the field as you walk from your car in the dark and back. They are open until midnight and I noticed that, around 10:00 there was no line to get in and the parking lot was less crowded. So going later may be a better...

This place isn’t a haunted house. It’s like a Disney Ride except you’re walking through it. I was very disappointed. Very disorganized and lack of communication on where to go, what to do, which colors were called previously, and no tour guide once in. We kept getting turned around on which direction we were suppose to go. Then we caught up to the group in front of us and so did the one behind us so we ended up all clustered together. It was a wood walk trail and was so dark that you couldn’t hardly see anything. Normally darkness would be scary and they could have used that to their advantage but they didn’t. We hardly saw anybody on the wood trail. It was mainly just machines trying to “scare” you. The actors would stare at you before trying to scare you but by then the element of surprise was already ruined. They are strobe light crazy. So beware of this. We got so disoriented from them that we almost couldn’t make it out of some of the rooms. Strobe lights are fun with certain things but it was just annoying and a headache. Waste of money for a scare. When purchasing tickets it says no refunds and I see why they have to put that because a lot of people would be wanting their money back after realizing It wasn’t worth the time. Drove two hours for nothing! However, for a place that somebody just wants something to walk through and look at, then this place is fine for that. But not for scares. They had plenty of props and themes to look at but nothing scary. The actors that stand outside to scare you while you wait was the only scary thing...