Last year, BoneYard Effects brought us “Into the Black”, which was a smash indie haunt success. This year, they decided to go bigger and bring us Horrorworld at the Punte Hills Mall, which involves vendors, 3 haunts, and a VR experience. But would this haunt live up to last year’s indie success or will this be a learning experience in that less is more?
Horrorworld contains 3 mazes: “Psycho Sanitarium”, “The Fleshyard”, and the main attraction, “Into the Black”. All three are located on the second floor of Punte Hills Mall, right next to Round One. Seeing a haunt in a mall is quite unusual but very intriguing. This set up can bring any mall goer randomly into the haunt world.
Psycho Sanitarium
Once you enter the main hall of Horrorworld, you will see vendors, merch, and our first attraction. “Psycho Sanitarium’s” theme is a psych ward where the patients take over the hospital. This is the most lackluster of the haunts out of the three. The actors seemed they weren’t given much to their characters than to just act crazy, but some actors also had trouble doing that at times. The set design had an average home haunt look of what a psych ward would look like, but I enjoyed how some actors were using it to their advantage. With that said, I believe if they were given more time, this would have been better.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”137″]The Fleshyard
“The Fleshyard” is a family owned and operated haunted house that has been around since 2015. You can tell this maze had an idea and ran with it, telling the story of the Kearny family being slaughtered and the farm being burned to the ground. When we entered, we were greeted by a hooded ghoul telling us what happened long ago before when venturing into the maze and baring witness to the demises of the Kearny family. During our journey, we get lost when the actors start to lose focus and started yelling “Get out!” It was as if they did not know what else to say, which was compounded by some confusing layout choices. Quality and time were put into this maze to make it look like an old farmhouse and slaughterhouse. However, the area where it was located in the mall had uncontrollable acoustics, which had sound going through the maze, letting you know where the scare was before it happened.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”139″]Into the Black
The main attraction for Horrorworld is the lovely and bleak haunt called “Into the Black”. The Black family was deeply involved in human sacrifice, devil worship and demonic possession. The theme for this maze is that you are investigating the Black’s house. Also, when I say “you”, I mean that you are the only one to venture the house: you and you alone. This maze is by far the better of the three, with fantastic set design and actors, but doesn’t mean it is lost to criticism. The maze can be too dark most of the time, to where your eyes will need to adjust before you run into a wall. It can be too quiet, to where you can hear the actors before the scare. Though I can’t blame the maze, only the location.
Overall
Horrorworld made a big leap and fell short of its goal. With two home haunts and the main attraction being under the same roof, in a mall, that brought some unforeseen circumstances. I will say, though, at least you have a choice in the matter. You are able to choose which one of these mazes you would like to go through or pay one price for all. Hopefully in the future Horrorworld will move to a better location to have a greater ability to be the haunt it is meant to be.
