Saturday September 14th 2019
Field of Screams
Located at: 191 College Avenue, Mountville, PA 17554
4 Attractions (Haunted Hayride, Nocturnal Wasteland, Frightmare Asylum, Den of Darkness)
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 8/10
Acting: 8/10
Costumes/Makeup: 9/10
Entertainment On Lines: 5/10
Food Options 10/10
Set Design: 10/10
Props & Animatronics: 10/10
For your reference:
Parking is free, and there are plenty of large parking lots available. Make sure you arrive early on designated busy nights. They have several Porta-pottys available on site. They are generally kept very clean and usually always have hand sanitizer filled up for your use.
There are no interactive or extreme options available for their regular season. They offer an “Extreme Blackout” Night one night a year. This year; Extreme Black out is scheduled for Friday November 15th. This event has limited availability and will sell out so it is recommended that you buy your tickets online early. Ticket prices for the Extreme Blackout Event are $45 in advance online before Nov 15th or $50 at the door or online the day of the event if space is still available. This night will be extreme and ALL participants must sign a waiver. We have gone every year since this event started 4 years ago. Last year was the MOST intense to date. It is for the most extreme of Haunt fans. There is a safe word you can use, and trust me they will PUSH you to use it.
Before You Arrive:
From trial and error over the years we have found a system that works best for visiting Field of Screams. We ALWAYS Recommend VIP, it expedites your experience significantly especially on super busy nights! If you don’t want to spend the extra money on VIP, come earlier in the season and purchase general admission tickets. Just be prepared that lines have been much longer than they have been in previous years, as FOS has grown in popularity. Typically, it’s best to arrive on grounds when the park opens. Make sure to Purchase you tickets online for less of a wait time. We recommend hitting the hayride when the sun goes down. Next; we would recommend that you head over to Nocturnal wasteland. Then from there, you can head over to either one of the houses. Later in the evenings the hayride & nocturnal wasteland tend to have fewer actors. We always have an amazing experience when we hit these 2 attractions earlier in the night!
For the 10th year in a row, We have kicked off Haunt season with a trip to Field of Screams! This is a trip we look forward to every single year. You KNOW it’s Haunt Season when Field of Screams opens their doors on Opening Night. We actually visited both nights this year. Opening Night being Friday Sept 13th and The following day Saturday Sept 14th.
Our Review is for Saturday Sept 14th – FOS’s Designated Media night. This is a night set aside specifically for Review organizations and the Press to visit the park, meet with the owners, discuss changes, conduct interviews, and network. Field of Screams provided a large hospitality tent with delicious catered food (dinner & dessert), water, soda & coffee and gave us an opportunity to speak one on one with both Jim, And Gene Schopf (The Owners of Field of Screams). Everyone was very hospitable and we had a great Opportunity to speak with Gene about a plethora of topics including, Blackout night, The New Off season Events this year (specifically December Friday the 13th) and How he came up with the genius idea of the theme park styled queue lines. *Just so you know, As per Gene Blackout will be bigger and crazier this year! As for The December Friday the 13th event, it will feature normal haunt season FOS; but they will be fluffing it up a bit for Christmas!*
There have been so many wonderful additions and changes this year, but one of our favorites is The giant Silo that was added to the front of the park. This is now home to the new Field of Screams scream shop. The scream shop is now bigger and better than ever! It has a large variety of Merch available for purchase. We absolutely loved the FOS Teddy Bear! We also thought it was awesome they were selling deadly grounds coffee! Normally, this coffee is only available for purchase online or at Horror Conventions. As I mentioned before we had an opportunity to talk with one of the owners, Gene about his queue line progression over the years. This is where Gene began to tell us about his security room, and all the amazing technology he developed to keep things functioning at optimum level. We were given a wonderful opportunity to go inside the Silo where Gene gave us a tour of the control room, where all the magic happens! We were given the chance to climb all the way to the tippy top of the Silo (The REAL life Field Of Screams). Let me tell you, it is SUPER HIGH OFF THE GROUND. The view which this tower provides; is an experience that could not be put into words. We have a few videos and several pictures from our time in the Silo that we would love to share with you all! The craftsmanship that went into the construction and overall layout of this building is unbelievable. Thanks again to Gene, for being such a wonderful host and sharing his beautiful space with us!
Circling back; We took several videos when we first arrived so you could all see what the park looks like before the attractions start. There are plenty of food options, live entertainment, and a lot of fun Horror themed carnival games you can play! As far as food goes, Field of Screams honestly has one of the best selections We have yet to encounter at a Scream Park. They have everything you can think of from pizza, to hot dogs, burgers, funnel cake, fried foods of all assortments, and Of course we can’t forget the classic apple cider, coffee, hot chocolate, etc. All food Prices are very reasonable! They range between $1-$5. Our personal favorites are the fried pickles ($5 for 6 pickle spears), & the pumpkin whoopee pies ($1/each). The pumpkin whoopee pies are HOMEMADE, FRESH, made to order and picked up weekly from an amazing Amish baker. They are extremely soft, and full of flavor. We always stock up when we visit. We bought 5 this time, and they were all gone within 3 days..Whoops! They also added a new Auntie Annes pretzel stand this year! Lots and Lots of food options!! They always have live entertainment on their stage, different bands play every night. Other than musical entertainment, they always have several actors wandering around the midway upping the scare factor. All of these actors have impeccable makeup, wardrobe, and acting skills!
(For your reference) Nocturnal Wasteland, Den of Darkness & Frightmare Asylum all have suburb queue line systems which they developed for line control. Lines always move efficiently and quickly. Everything is set up to optimize the customer’s experience. There should never be a time when customers are pushed through like cattle. There are specific numbers of customers that go through on a timed scale. This may change a bit as the season gets busier. Line control is something that is focused on at Field of Screams better than most haunts we have visited.
We received permission from the owners to video and photograph as much of our journey as we could without using flash. We took our videos from all the attractions and jumbled them up a bit to compile a video for you guys!
Haunted Hayride:
Actors: 7/10
Makeup/Costumes: 8/10
Use of Props & Animatronics: 9/10
Set Design: 8/10
Overall Attraction Rating: 7.5 /10
We started our night over at the Hayride. It was exceptionally crowded for a Saturday in September, luckily we had our VIP passes which gave us significantly less of a wait time! Upon entering the line, the fast pass had us on the hayride within 5 minutes. By 8:30 we were on the hayride and ready to start our journey! The actors were on their A game, and all scenes went off without a hitch! Costumes and makeup were great. All animatronics were functioning appropriately (with the exception of the pumpkin greeter as you enter the hayride). I’ve always loved how this hayride appeals to all of the five senses! They never cease to amaze us. The newest part of the hayride was absolutely aesthetically BEAUTIFUL. This is a giant new addition with several skits compiled into 3 extremely large rooms. They removed the cemetery scene to make room for this whole section. There are a couple small parts of the hayride that seemed bare where sets had been removed to make room for this new set. The owners mentioned this was something they were planning to fill in with actors as the season progressed! Overall the hayride is always a solid attraction!
Nocturnal Wasteland
Actors: 7/10
Makeup/Costumes: 7/10
Use of Props & Animatronics: 10/10
Set Design: 9/10
Overall Attraction Rating: 8/10
Last year, major work was put into revamping and changing Nocturnal Wasteland to bring you an even bigger; over the top attraction! The changes that were made last year absolutely blew us away. This attraction took a solid 30 to 40 minutes to get through last year. With that being said, more changes were made this year to consolidate and tighten up a lot of bare space. The attraction now has a large amount of stimuli in every single possible direction during your journey. The attraction is now a bit shorter than it was, but not by much. I would say the experience is closer to 30 minutes now. But every second of your time will be full of eye candy and top notch skits from their actors. Again, their use of the five senses was insane in this attraction. I can still smell the stench of death that some of those rooms gave off. Some of the actors even had blow torches with real fire that they would come close to you with. Scary, but never once was it “too close for comfort”. The new scenes they added were AMAZING. There is a brand new swamp scene & a crazy new scene towards the end that had us losing our balance! We can’t wait for you to experience it for yourselves. There is also a fun photo op before you get into the attraction, We of course had to purchase it! 1 picture was $15.
Frightmare Asylum:
Actors: 9/10
Makeup/Costumes: 10/10
Use of Props & Animatronics: 10/10
Set Design: 10/10
Overall Attraction Rating: 9/10
Like everything else at Field Of Screams the houses are equally as amazing; if not the showstoppers, in my opinion! There were a lot of upgrades done to Frightmare Asylum last year. All of which were very well executed. There is one room in particular that scares the all living hell out of me. This part was added at least 3 years ago now and I don’t know if they changed something this particular year but it scared me as if I had never experienced it before. It might have been a texture change, or something along those lines but, it seriously gets me EVERY TIME. The rooms are so beautifully done. The actors are extremely enthusiastic. Animatronics and props in this house are over the top and mind blowing. Eye candy GALORE.
Den of Darkness
Actors: 9/10
Makeup/Costumes: 10/10
Use of Props & Animatronics: 10/10
Set Design: 10/10
Overall Attraction Rating: 10/10
This house has consistently been my favorite attraction in the entire park since I began coming to FOS 10 years ago. Last year There were MAJOR changes done to the Den. They had completely gutted several major scenes in the house. The new rooms and the attention to detail that they added were absolutely phenomenal. I hate giving spoilers, but it’s so hard! I want to tell you guys everything, but honestly words would never do it justice. The sets and overall performances at FOS need to be seen and experienced in real life. The den is so much fun! The music they play, coupled with the actors, the props, the animatronics, special effects, and attention to the 5 senses make this house a true work of art.
Our overall experience at FOS this year was a lot of fun! They never let us down. We will ALWAYS recommend this haunt to anybody who is serious about getting scared and having a phenomenal time. They were awarded our #1 spot for 2018, we are excited to see if they will continue to hold steady as #1 for the 2019 season!!
For all those Super Haunt Enthusiasts –
This year FOS will be offering several off season opportunities for you to get your scare on:
12/13 FRIDAY THE 13TH
02/15 VALENTINE'S DAY
03/13 FRIDAY THE 13TH
05/02 HALF-WAY TO HALLOWEEN: Attend FOS tonight and you just may see a few changes that are coming for the 2020 Haunt Season!
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