Terrordome, haunted houses, and Transylvania

It is that season again, and I am going to review the Haunted Houses and other Halloween activities that I attend this year.  Last year, you may remember that I went to Transylvania with www.dractours.com and partied at the Hotel Castle Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains on Halloween.  For the true Halloween enthuiast, that is the ultimate trip to take over Halloween.  Click on the links below to my entries from the trip and you can read all about it.

Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3, Entry 4, Entry 5, Entry 6, Entry7, Entry 8, Entry 9

This year, however, I am staying a little closer to home and will be in Salem, MA for Halloween and hopefully a good witch trial or two.

In the meantime, I am having some fun attending local haunted attractions.  In the past I have been to several in both Manhattan and upstate New York, and the best of them in the past has been the Headless Horseman.  This year, we decided to finally give one called Terrordome a try.

Terrordome includes 5 haunted attactions.  The Barn of Terror, the Movie House, Metal Nightmare, The Hacker House, and Lost in the Dark.  Terrordome is not aimed at small children, though I did attend with a very mature 6 year old who was able to make it through two of the events.  She was scared off from the largest of the places by a spook with a distorted voice who kept talking to her from his second floor perch.  I on the other hand went through all of them. 

Terrordome is a fun event, but a little less professional than Headless Horseman.  Terrordome's actors are well rehearsed and do a great job keeping in character, something I always look for at a haunted attraction.  This was not a crowded night as it was early in the season, and yet all of the actors inside the attractions were in character when I went through.  I have been to places before where you round a corner and find them drinking coffee or chatting, and this type of unprofessional behavior is the quickest way to spoil a haunted event.

On the other hand, I think the creators of Terrordome need to spend a little more time working on their creative ideas for the event.  The Movie House is the most creative as you watch clips from horror movies as actors portray them around the room.  It even has a couple of good scares within it.  Not all the movie clips are appropriate for children, such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  The Hacker House is a bit gross, as it focuses on chopped up bodies and other ways of killing people.  Needless to say, we kept the 6 year old out of this event. The other events are large dimly lit walk through mazes with few rooms.  Instead the focus on the length of the maze areas.  Their scares mostly come out of wondering if you will ever find your way out of the house without walking into another wall.  They are fun, but not outstanding.  Terrordome's shopping and food areas also were a bit weak.  The stores were under filled and the food choices were few and far between.  These extra places to spend money can be a great way for an attraction to bring in more money, so it would be in their best interest to spruce things up a bit.

Overall, I would rank Terrordome as one of the better Haunted events I have seen in the area, but would encourage them to keep working to improve things.  Terrordome has the space and potential to become a really strong attraction.  Keep up the good work, and keep improving.

tags: salem  transylvania  dracula  terrordome  witch  dractour  vampire  ghost  review  haunted house  haunt  new york  

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