Fear Columbus is LOUD.
It’s also something that any haunt enthusiast should experience at least once. It’s unlike anything around. If you were to take a rave or something like Electric Daisy Carnival or Tomorrowland and throw it in a blender with a haunted house, Fear Columbus would be the sensory sustenance produced. Light and sound is everything here. The question is – is it too much?
Just driving by the property would be enough to send an epileptic into an episode, attributed to the new outdoor queue. The glorious orchestra of light and sound is now outdoors too. Fear Columbus has done its best to transform an ordinary, paved parking lot into somewhat of a midway area offering a large, branded photo-op area, space for food trucks and vendors, games to play and an entertaining waiting area complete with lightshow, music, projected video and of course staple queue actors.
The true sensory infringement begins once you enter the building, in the final queue. A pre-programed music and light sequence burns through your inner being as you face the facade of old house. This first impression of Fear Columbus is an accurate representation of what lies within.
Fear Columbus is LOUD.
Before entering the actual haunt, a staged photo will be taken by a team member who will also use the time to go over the house rules. It’s quick and efficient. The only drawback is that despite these team members wearing microphones, they’re still incredibly hard to hear over the overwhelming music.
The haunt is divided into two main areas. The first, the more traditional theme of a manor overtaken by the darkness, is much unchanged from last year, based on my memory. From a design perspective, it looks great. The distressed walls, furniture, and overall build work well together. My favorite aspect is that the evil grows the further you get in. Towards the beginning, the environment is fairly ordinary, but soon you start noticing strange markings on the floors and walls. Eventually you come across a ritual taking place and then next thing you know, evil has manifested and is physically growing into the environments, overtaking them.
The second half felt to be at least 75% new. The familiar outdoor intersection is now decorated in small-town fashion on what is presented as Devil’s Night, the eve before Halloween. The majority of this section now takes place in a high school where evil has overtaken both the school and students (when we first arrived there were cheerleader actors by the queue, which now made more sense). As the preceding haunt felt like an authentic mansion, the high school was equally as impressive. Actors were cleverly positioned in various nooks while other inventive surprises kept things fresh and memorable (and no I wont spoil them for you).
Fear Columbus is LOUD.
This haunt is impressive in two major focuses – environments and technical execution. Some haunts (or really any industry) can enhance mediocre visuals with good lighting. The builds at Fear Columbus would look just as impressive (maybe even more so) without all the lighting effects. They really are top-notch. However, on the flip side, I don’t know how much the average attendee will notice or appreciate them because of the technical execution. Fear Columbus MUST have the most advanced, complex and strategic lightning scheme out there. It’s a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing simply because the lighting alone is nothing short of amazing. I mean, you could have nothing but a can of tuna sitting on a bare table in a large room and this lighting would make you think, “Man, that’s the most bad ass can of tuna I’ve ever seen!” It really adds another level of energy to the place.
The curse? Well, if you’re going intending on experiencing the haunt in the same expectation as any other haunt, you may find all the audio/visual mastery to be distracting. Did I mention Fear Columbus is loud? Fear Columbus is LOUD. It’s loud on top of loud. Then to make certain moments “hit” things are even more loud on top of the baseline loud. It’s like this:
Background music/ambient sound (LOUD) -> A scare moment (Even LOUDER on top of the LOUD) ->Team members with microphones trying to tell you something (indistinct speech drowned out by LOUD)
You get the idea. It’s pretty much deafening. While it doesn’t bother me personally, I know it overwhelms others. The main issue I had this year is that there were a lot of moments where you enter a room and there is a strobe light pointed right into your eyes. This is intentional – it’s to disorient you and force you to proceed with a degree of hesitancy. The problem is that the scare style of this haunt is incessant, quick, pop out moments. I found when leading the group, I missed many of these moments which I attribute to two things – one, the pop out happening before my eyes could re-adjust from the strobe light and two, the actors, who trigger the scare effects, almost always did so after I had already passed. There were countless times I heard the triggered sound effect and accompanying flashing lights and had to turn around to see what was going on. By the time I did, it was already over. It’s a golden rule in haunting that you do not always want to target the first person in a group, however, it never happened on this visit so I missed the majority of those pop out moments. The timing could have been better and more varied on the actors’ part.
I give Fear Columbus full accolades for what they intend to do. They purposely want to create sensory overload and mental fatigue which is a good accompaniment to the non-stop jump scares littered throughout the haunt. As a former production guy, I’m in awe of their technical set up and one day I can’t wait to come in and check out all the gear they run behind the scenes. Personally, I’d like to see them dial the lights and sound back from 11 to even an 8 or 9 and let the natural components of the haunt have more presence. As I stated before, it’s an impressive build before any of the lighting is added and they should really showcase this aspect of their talent more so.
So here’s what I would say - Fear Columbus nails it right on the head for achieving exactly what their presentation style intent is. The attendance speaks for itself. The model works. From a more conventional, true haunt experience, there’s opportunity for some down time. I really think that if there were a few more quiet, creepy moments, the sudden hit of the all-out sensory assault could be that much more impactful. When the entire haunt is dialed to 11 non-stop, it’s harder to achieve pivotal, memorable moments or worse – it can come across as just plain aggravating by the end. Make no mistake though, I don’t think anyone would be surprised on what to expect from the second they step foot on the property, but it could be a test of endurance by the time they leave.
It’s also something that any haunt enthusiast should experience at least once. It’s unlike anything around. If you were to take a rave or something like Electric Daisy Carnival or Tomorrowland and throw it in a blender with a haunted house, Fear Columbus would be the sensory sustenance produced. Light and sound is everything here. The question is – is it too much?
Just driving by the property would be enough to send an epileptic into an episode, attributed to the new outdoor queue. The glorious orchestra of light and sound is now outdoors too. Fear Columbus has done its best to transform an ordinary, paved parking lot into somewhat of a midway area offering a large, branded photo-op area, space for food trucks and vendors, games to play and an entertaining waiting area complete with lightshow, music, projected video and of course staple queue actors.
The true sensory infringement begins once you enter the building, in the final queue. A pre-programed music and light sequence burns through your inner being as you face the facade of old house. This first impression of Fear Columbus is an accurate representation of what lies within.
Fear Columbus is LOUD.
Before entering the actual haunt, a staged photo will be taken by a team member who will also use the time to go over the house rules. It’s quick and efficient. The only drawback is that despite these team members wearing microphones, they’re still incredibly hard to hear over the overwhelming music.
The haunt is divided into two main areas. The first, the more traditional theme of a manor overtaken by the darkness, is much unchanged from last year, based on my memory. From a design perspective, it looks great. The distressed walls, furniture, and overall build work well together. My favorite aspect is that the evil grows the further you get in. Towards the beginning, the environment is fairly ordinary, but soon you start noticing strange markings on the floors and walls. Eventually you come across a ritual taking place and then next thing you know, evil has manifested and is physically growing into the environments, overtaking them.
The second half felt to be at least 75% new. The familiar outdoor intersection is now decorated in small-town fashion on what is presented as Devil’s Night, the eve before Halloween. The majority of this section now takes place in a high school where evil has overtaken both the school and students (when we first arrived there were cheerleader actors by the queue, which now made more sense). As the preceding haunt felt like an authentic mansion, the high school was equally as impressive. Actors were cleverly positioned in various nooks while other inventive surprises kept things fresh and memorable (and no I wont spoil them for you).
Fear Columbus is LOUD.
This haunt is impressive in two major focuses – environments and technical execution. Some haunts (or really any industry) can enhance mediocre visuals with good lighting. The builds at Fear Columbus would look just as impressive (maybe even more so) without all the lighting effects. They really are top-notch. However, on the flip side, I don’t know how much the average attendee will notice or appreciate them because of the technical execution. Fear Columbus MUST have the most advanced, complex and strategic lightning scheme out there. It’s a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing simply because the lighting alone is nothing short of amazing. I mean, you could have nothing but a can of tuna sitting on a bare table in a large room and this lighting would make you think, “Man, that’s the most bad ass can of tuna I’ve ever seen!” It really adds another level of energy to the place.
The curse? Well, if you’re going intending on experiencing the haunt in the same expectation as any other haunt, you may find all the audio/visual mastery to be distracting. Did I mention Fear Columbus is loud? Fear Columbus is LOUD. It’s loud on top of loud. Then to make certain moments “hit” things are even more loud on top of the baseline loud. It’s like this:
Background music/ambient sound (LOUD) -> A scare moment (Even LOUDER on top of the LOUD) ->Team members with microphones trying to tell you something (indistinct speech drowned out by LOUD)
You get the idea. It’s pretty much deafening. While it doesn’t bother me personally, I know it overwhelms others. The main issue I had this year is that there were a lot of moments where you enter a room and there is a strobe light pointed right into your eyes. This is intentional – it’s to disorient you and force you to proceed with a degree of hesitancy. The problem is that the scare style of this haunt is incessant, quick, pop out moments. I found when leading the group, I missed many of these moments which I attribute to two things – one, the pop out happening before my eyes could re-adjust from the strobe light and two, the actors, who trigger the scare effects, almost always did so after I had already passed. There were countless times I heard the triggered sound effect and accompanying flashing lights and had to turn around to see what was going on. By the time I did, it was already over. It’s a golden rule in haunting that you do not always want to target the first person in a group, however, it never happened on this visit so I missed the majority of those pop out moments. The timing could have been better and more varied on the actors’ part.
I give Fear Columbus full accolades for what they intend to do. They purposely want to create sensory overload and mental fatigue which is a good accompaniment to the non-stop jump scares littered throughout the haunt. As a former production guy, I’m in awe of their technical set up and one day I can’t wait to come in and check out all the gear they run behind the scenes. Personally, I’d like to see them dial the lights and sound back from 11 to even an 8 or 9 and let the natural components of the haunt have more presence. As I stated before, it’s an impressive build before any of the lighting is added and they should really showcase this aspect of their talent more so.
So here’s what I would say - Fear Columbus nails it right on the head for achieving exactly what their presentation style intent is. The attendance speaks for itself. The model works. From a more conventional, true haunt experience, there’s opportunity for some down time. I really think that if there were a few more quiet, creepy moments, the sudden hit of the all-out sensory assault could be that much more impactful. When the entire haunt is dialed to 11 non-stop, it’s harder to achieve pivotal, memorable moments or worse – it can come across as just plain aggravating by the end. Make no mistake though, I don’t think anyone would be surprised on what to expect from the second they step foot on the property, but it could be a test of endurance by the time they leave.
Fear Columbus is a haunt that's just not like any other I've experienced. Most haunts build suspense with their sets, actors, theming, lights, and sound. They may gradually build it up, give you a big dose right at the start, or have it build and fall repeatedly to catch you off guard, but it's essentially the same concept at almost any haunt.
That just isn't how this place works. From the moment you approach the gate in the parking lot, you have lights in your face and sound in your ears. Once you step inside the front doors... you'd better be ready. Fear comes at you with an all-out sensory assault unlike anywhere else. You'll have lights flashing in your face throughout, and the entire time you're in the building, you'll have unbelievably loud music and sound effects blasting your entire body. Think fifth-row-rock-concert-loud, but there's no break between songs. It's so loud that the employees who actually have to talk to you have personal microphone and speaker systems so they can boost their voices loud enough for you to hear them. And if you have to talk to anyone... be ready to yell.
Why do they do this?? -Sensory overload. By overwhelming your brain with so many sights and sounds, you have less brain processing power remaining to notice all of the clues you'd ordinarily pick up if something is about to jump out of the shadows at you. It's essentially the same reason people turn down the radio in their car when they're trying to concentrate on making the correct turn, or finding a specific address.
So is this effective? Well, yeah. I'd say that a very large percentage of the people who go through Fear are scared repeatedly. Since the suspense builds much quicker due to the sensory overload, the jump-scares used in nearly every room of the haunt are super effective. The actors or props can jump out at you, get the scare, then reset for the next group within a couple of seconds. In fact, they were so quick about resetting, the first person in our trio would often set off the jump, and it would be over and the actor or prop would be back in hiding by the time the third person got there. While this wasn't great for us, it's great for busy nights when they're trying to get as many people through the place as possible. Groups can come through a room only a few seconds apart, yet the next group won't see what happened in a room until they actually get there.
As far as things that impress me about Fear- The lights and audio are unreal. There are concert venues that could take lessons from these guys. And as loud as everything is, there's minimal sound bleed from one room to another, which is kind of crazy. In addition, some of the set builds are excellent. They're well-themed, giant, detailed, and super realistic. Also, the number of people they can pump through here a night is kind of ridiculous.
But as well as everything seems to work together, it just doesn't work for me. The deafening audio means that the actors don't speak- They jump out and do some threatening motions as some lights blink and sound effects play, then disappear. And although the sets are great, there are quite a few you can't see because they have a bright light turning on and off in your face every second or two. Just when you get used to the light being on and can almost see what's happening, it turns off and your eyes have to adjust to that, then it repeats. There were so many scenes I couldn't see at all because of the lights flashing, I started to wonder what the point of even spending time on the builds was. And don't even get me started on their ridiculous online waiver system before you can even go in. That thing is a great way to get people to not come back.
I mostly get what they're doing here. They're making a semi-high-tech scare attraction for the masses. It's a place where they can pump hundreds or thousands of people through it a night, the people will get scared, and they'll walk away happy. They're doing that better than almost anywhere I've been, it's just not the haunt for me.
That just isn't how this place works. From the moment you approach the gate in the parking lot, you have lights in your face and sound in your ears. Once you step inside the front doors... you'd better be ready. Fear comes at you with an all-out sensory assault unlike anywhere else. You'll have lights flashing in your face throughout, and the entire time you're in the building, you'll have unbelievably loud music and sound effects blasting your entire body. Think fifth-row-rock-concert-loud, but there's no break between songs. It's so loud that the employees who actually have to talk to you have personal microphone and speaker systems so they can boost their voices loud enough for you to hear them. And if you have to talk to anyone... be ready to yell.
Why do they do this?? -Sensory overload. By overwhelming your brain with so many sights and sounds, you have less brain processing power remaining to notice all of the clues you'd ordinarily pick up if something is about to jump out of the shadows at you. It's essentially the same reason people turn down the radio in their car when they're trying to concentrate on making the correct turn, or finding a specific address.
So is this effective? Well, yeah. I'd say that a very large percentage of the people who go through Fear are scared repeatedly. Since the suspense builds much quicker due to the sensory overload, the jump-scares used in nearly every room of the haunt are super effective. The actors or props can jump out at you, get the scare, then reset for the next group within a couple of seconds. In fact, they were so quick about resetting, the first person in our trio would often set off the jump, and it would be over and the actor or prop would be back in hiding by the time the third person got there. While this wasn't great for us, it's great for busy nights when they're trying to get as many people through the place as possible. Groups can come through a room only a few seconds apart, yet the next group won't see what happened in a room until they actually get there.
As far as things that impress me about Fear- The lights and audio are unreal. There are concert venues that could take lessons from these guys. And as loud as everything is, there's minimal sound bleed from one room to another, which is kind of crazy. In addition, some of the set builds are excellent. They're well-themed, giant, detailed, and super realistic. Also, the number of people they can pump through here a night is kind of ridiculous.
But as well as everything seems to work together, it just doesn't work for me. The deafening audio means that the actors don't speak- They jump out and do some threatening motions as some lights blink and sound effects play, then disappear. And although the sets are great, there are quite a few you can't see because they have a bright light turning on and off in your face every second or two. Just when you get used to the light being on and can almost see what's happening, it turns off and your eyes have to adjust to that, then it repeats. There were so many scenes I couldn't see at all because of the lights flashing, I started to wonder what the point of even spending time on the builds was. And don't even get me started on their ridiculous online waiver system before you can even go in. That thing is a great way to get people to not come back.
I mostly get what they're doing here. They're making a semi-high-tech scare attraction for the masses. It's a place where they can pump hundreds or thousands of people through it a night, the people will get scared, and they'll walk away happy. They're doing that better than almost anywhere I've been, it's just not the haunt for me.
Fear Columbus is the most disorienting haunt I’ve experienced so far this year. With the high volume they experience, it makes sense why the designers set the haunt this way, however, it seems they only consider the desires of teens and dismiss the horrors that haunters love so much.
Upon entering the parking lot, you are met with speakers blasting the latest hits. I don’t mind that and it was fun to see all the people dancing while they wait. Unfortunately, this is just a fraction of the decibel levels you’ll experience throughout the night. Fear Columbus is LOUDDDD, even with trusty earplugs. It works in their favor as they pump people through, because you can’t hear what is happening in the next set. I am not a fan of how loud the place is, but the designers do an excellent job cutting off sound transfer from one set to the next. It is almost as if there is a wall blocking the noise, but in reality, there are only curtains.
While the sounds are aggressive, the strobe lights are almost debilitating. Starting in the “lobby” before the entering the haunt door there is a laser light show that is pretty cool, although I couldn’t actually look at it because every couple minutes, there was a blinding flash of bright white light that was actually painful to experience. Through the whole first half, I was disoriented and blind with strobe lights. Some people like that, but it was not enjoyable because I couldn’t see any of the sets around me. Even some of the actors who were trying to scare us were masked by the lights.
Overall, Fear Columbus has their target market locked in. They know what the kids want and they have a masterful way of moving the lines in a way that never ruins the surprise for the next party. For what it is, they put on a good show. I just wish there was more variety.
Upon entering the parking lot, you are met with speakers blasting the latest hits. I don’t mind that and it was fun to see all the people dancing while they wait. Unfortunately, this is just a fraction of the decibel levels you’ll experience throughout the night. Fear Columbus is LOUDDDD, even with trusty earplugs. It works in their favor as they pump people through, because you can’t hear what is happening in the next set. I am not a fan of how loud the place is, but the designers do an excellent job cutting off sound transfer from one set to the next. It is almost as if there is a wall blocking the noise, but in reality, there are only curtains.
While the sounds are aggressive, the strobe lights are almost debilitating. Starting in the “lobby” before the entering the haunt door there is a laser light show that is pretty cool, although I couldn’t actually look at it because every couple minutes, there was a blinding flash of bright white light that was actually painful to experience. Through the whole first half, I was disoriented and blind with strobe lights. Some people like that, but it was not enjoyable because I couldn’t see any of the sets around me. Even some of the actors who were trying to scare us were masked by the lights.
Overall, Fear Columbus has their target market locked in. They know what the kids want and they have a masterful way of moving the lines in a way that never ruins the surprise for the next party. For what it is, they put on a good show. I just wish there was more variety.
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Fear Columbus offers a unique and disorienting haunted experience with its all-encompassing sensory assault approach. From the moment you approach the parking lot gate, you're bombarded with blaring lights and music. Once inside, the relentless sensory overload continues with lights flashing, ear-piercing music, and sound effects that overwhelm your senses. The goal is to keep your brain so occupied that you're less likely to notice the impending scares, resulting in highly effective jump-scare moments. Fear Columbus excels in creating impressive environments and executing advanced lighting schemes, and it's designed for high throughput with minimal sound bleed between rooms. However, the constant loudness and blinding strobe lights can be overwhelming and lead to missed scare opportunities, making it a love-it-or-hate-it haunt experience, particularly for those seeking more traditional scares.
Fear Columbus's innovative presentation style succeeds in achieving its intended effect of sensory overload and fatigue, drawing large crowds. It's a haunt that deliberately maintains a relentless intensity, offering a different kind of scare experience. Yet, for those seeking quieter, creepier moments in a haunted attraction, Fear Columbus's non-stop sensory assault may become more exhausting than enjoyable, potentially diluting the impact of its all-out approach. Dialing back the intensity at times could enhance the overall experience and create more memorable moments amidst the sensory onslaught. |
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