Lincoln Mill Haunted House — Local services in Philadelphia

Full review at chrisdidstuff in ig:

Yes I know I'm super late on this but this is still valid. Not only for next year, but also they have a Twisted Christmas event starting in MERE WEEKS.

Lincoln Mill Haunt in Philadelphia, PA 10.20.23

OVERALL: 8/10 please note, this is NOT an average of the below ratings:

BREAKDOWN: Scariness: 8.5/10 Fun: 7/10 Originality: 9/10 Storytelling: 10/10 Performances: 10/10 Sets: 7/10 Accommodations: 6.5

In 2021, Hurricane Ida caused the Schuykill River to overflow, flooding the streets of Manayunk, destroying property, temporarily closing Lucky’s Last Chance (actual facts). As it sits on the Schuykill, it also flooded the Lincoln Mill, exposing a hidden basement where countless deceased workers were found thanks to the vile and tortuous business practices of one Viktor Kane (actual fiction). Now the restless souls of these workers are back. And thirsty for vengeance.

The exterior of Lincoln Mill is understated when viewed from Main Street—but it’s Make your way to the attraction, the Lincoln Mill is lined with posters showing you characters, setting the stage for what you’re about to encounter. The line to enter not only has a looping video about the (fictional) history of the Lincoln Mill projected on to a wall, but was rife with fully engaged actors, performing completely fleshed out characters. NOBODY was phoning it in, and this is just the line work.

What follows is a singular walkthrough, admittedly on the shorter side that doesn’t waste a second of the time it has you. If you asked me how long it was, it’s probably realistically a 15-20 minute walk. If you asked me how long it feels I’d assume closer to 45, as there’s constant engagement, things turn on a dime, but it all makes sense and holds true to the overall narrative.

The sets are unique. You have those areas that we expect—dimly lit rooms with gore galore, contrasted with interesting takes on how you can portray a descent into madness. It’s a nice combination standards that are done well, and honestly a surprising amount of innovation given the size and newness of the place. I’d really like to tell you more, but I feel like I’d be taking away from your experience in doing so.

The biggest strength lies somewhere in between the storyline and the execution of it. Lincoln Mill, more than any other haunt I’ve seen this year (and possibly just “ANY other”), is committed to CHARACTERS over jump scares. There is a purpose for the people you encounter. They aren’t just THERE. They have motive and objective, and moreover, they assume the duty of establishing that as scared as you may be in this moment, this is all just building to your eventual encounter with resident big bad Viktor Kane.

Kane is a star. The enigmatic final boss you know you’ll face at the end. And as I had stated in my earlier review of Silo of Screams, THIS is interesting. THIS is a character that can, and has, been built around. This is lore that can be dug into and employed. This isn’t “jump scaring”—this is theater in a different medium.

The overwhelming feeling i had both during, but even more so afterwards is that Lincoln Mill is a haunt built by people who LOVE haunts. People who took inspiration from the best of them, adapted it into something completely their own, brought in their own ideas, and are doing this strictly out of love for the art of haunting. This isn’t industry, this is passion, and that’s felt.

Outside the haunt, you can help yourself to a small merch stand, TWO stands where you can booze it up with local libations, a funnel cake stand and a psychic available to do tarot readings, mediumship’s, or palm readings, which I did for $20, and WAS impressed.

Lincoln Mill is a terrific experience. It has everything that should be sought out in a haunt, done correctly, and is truly more than it needs to be. As the season went on, i saw that the name started to come up more and more in local discussions on “can’t miss haunts.” And I can understand why, as this mill is anything but...

2023: I came here to add an update to my review from last year. Last year was so much fun. This year, I felt as though there was a little bit lacking. As part of the VIP package, (which we buy) we like to watch the big screens on the VIP area deck. We actually looked forward to this. We went last night and the screens were all frozen. When we told someone about it, they kind of just shrugged it off. Last year, we spent about a good hour on the deck watching the screens and being entertained by seeing the people inside get scared.

Last night, we went on the deck for all of a few minutes then just walked off. The tables had all old food containers and empty drink cups all scattered on them. Totally dirty. I didn't really want to hang out up there.

When we did arrive, I asked one of the employees if we had to stand in the long line since we are VIP and that means to skip the lines. He was really nice and told me to get in the security line, which had no one in it.

When I went to go in it, I was rudely and abruptly stopped by this one woman who told me that I had to get in back of the long line. I explained to her that I had VIP passes and that means to skip any lines. I then told her that the employee said that I could get into that line. She barked at me immediately, "WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!" I pointed to the guy and she marched over to him and started to yell at him. I was happy to see that he stood his ground and immediately and firmly said to her, "She has VIP passes and that means NO line." I thanked him for having my back and proceeded into the security area.

I will also give props to the one employee who works inside of the attraction. Towards the end, we noticed that there was a huge slowdown. The employee got out of character for a quick second to explain to us that there was a medical emergency and that we would have to wait a few minutes before continuing. He kept us updated.

I wasn't really it this year. Honestly, the highlight was seeing the psychic, Monica again. She has an area in the lot. I saw her last year and she was so accurate. Did another reading with her last night.

2022: Had been wanting to go and finally did so tonight. We purchased the VIP passes. I highly recommend getting those. The line was insanely long for regular ticket holders. Was such a good crowd. There's food, beer and a palm reader (Who I went to while there. Super sweet woman and her husband who have a shop right there in Manyunk.)

I read the description on the website and was worried about them having a "Squeeze Room". They had recommended claustrophobic people not go. I messaged them via Instagram and asked if they had the Squeeze Room. They promptly responded and said "no". Thank you for that!

The building is beautiful. It was nicely-lit. There are some actors who walk around scaring you. You can chat and take pics with them.

What I loved the most was the VIP section. We went up there first for a drink. They had a large monitor showing one of the rooms. There's a camera on the room and you can sit there and watch the people get scared. This was HILARIOUS! It's a decked-off area overlooking the river. I will say that when we were there, police and EMT showed and were looking over the deck into the river. Apparently, someone had called 911 saying that someone had jumped. Pretty insane.

As for the mill. The actors were great. The walk-through was about 10 minutes. Lots of different rooms (one with hanging dolls, one that is completely pitch dark, etc). I jumped a few times.

We had a lot of fun and did so much laughing. Definitely worth checking out.

I'd recommend going early if you don't get VIP tickets. VIP gets you right in. But, if you're a regular ticket holder and go later, the 1st line to get in stretched about a mile. We passed everyone in the car going home. Then, you stand in a 2nd line once you show your ticket and get through security. There is a lot of security. They will look in your purse and take mace or knives. You get them back when you leave. You're also "wanded" before...

Well tonight was awesome to say the least. This evening we visited Lincoln Mill Haunted House just outside of Philadelphia, PA for the first time. We ended up taking advantage of the Platinum VIP experience which allows you to go through twice. This is a must in my opinion because you cannot see or appreciate everything going through just once. I’m not gonna lie, so far this is the best scare I’ve had in years hands down!! I run my own home haunt so I can appreciate all the effort these folks put into all of this and it’s respected. They truly care about the quality of the experience you receive and it shows.

The actors here make this haunt ten times better than you would expect given its size. Both times that we went through all three of my girls were screaming half of the time. I also received my fair share of scares/startles and I’m not easily caught off guard in haunts. Not to mention no two walk throughs are identical.

Needless to say my face hurt by the end of the night from smiling out of pure enjoyment and laughing so darn much at the sheer terror and excitement my 15 and 16yr old daughters endured (in a good way). The actors do not touch you in any way shape or form, so if that’s something you’re concerned about, you have nothing to worry. So I rate Lincoln Mill at a 4.5 out of 5. The only reason I’m not giving it a 5 is because it wouldn’t be fair to other attractions that are much larger. If comparing it to a Haunted House of similar size, then it gets a 5 out of 5 hands down! We just wish it could utilize another floor of the building to extend its length because we didn’t want it to end!

One thing that sets this haunt apart from many of the others in the area is, they do not overwhelm you with animatronics. They actually utilize more real actors instead which makes the experience waaaay better.

We visited Pennhurst Asylum last weekend, also with the VIP experience. I honestly have to say, Lincoln Mill gave me, especially my family a better scare by far. Pennhurst is larger obviously with having four separate attractions/haunted houses. Yet even with having countless very high end props and animatronics, they fell very short on scares when it came to the quality and talent of actors. You visit a haunted house to get scared, startled or surprised. Not to walk through and look at countless props and animatronics as they can only deliver so much to a haunt on their own. Now I’m not saying Pennhurst is bad, far from it! But my wife and I had been dying to visit Pennhurst for the greater part of 10yrs and after going this year, my wife honestly said she was disappointed. She thought there would have been lot more jump/scare factor.

So if you’re in the area, I highly recommend visiting Lincoln Mill, you wont be disappointed! You cannot take pictures or film inside of the haunted house just like every other haunted house out there. But I was able to snag a few videos and pictures of my girls being terrorized outside at the end. They also had a few booths setup outside to offer snacks such as hot dogs, pretzels and a few more I just can’t remember. In addition they offered an assortment of drinks for the youngsters such as water, soda and hot apple cider. Then for the adults they had an assortment of seltzers and beer. We also made sure to stop by the souvenir stand and pickup some T-Shirts and hoodies on our way out.

All in all we had a blast! If any of the actors happen to read this,, you guys are killing it, keep up the...