2014 The Hill Has Eyes Event Reviews

One of the best haunted houses I've ever been to, bar none (haunted house is probably a bad term considering the whole tour is completely outdoors). I had so so much fun. If you need something awesome to do this Halloween season I don't think I could recommend this place any higher.
It had EVERYTHING. This includes, but is not limited to... (********SPOILER ALERT for anyone who wants to be surprised by the tour's attractions********) a haunted trailer park with mutants, zombies, Satan's Church (we loved the priest), getting a bag put over your head and wandering around in the dark, a giant slide (complete with dancing bear), riding on a rickety old ski lift, a graveyard, many chainsaws, an inflatable anal exam (Yes, I said it), a haunted carnival, beer tents, bonfires and a ton of fantastic characters/amazing scenes to experience. (*****SPOILER DONE****)
Hands down, the most fun I have ever had at a haunted house (and I've gone to at least one every year since I was 8) I traveled all the way from Madison to go to this so I also decided to buy the VIP tickets. This means we got to skip all the lines and go right to the front (I promise, it was worth every penny) Even without the lines the whole tour took us quite a while to walk through which was fantastic! Nothing felt rushed or lacking and overall I give it an A++ (Although I love them, this is something I rarely give to haunted houses) I actually want to go again, it was THAT good.
This haunted house wasn't "terrifying" per se, but what haunted house is? You know you're not going to die or be touched by the actors in anyway and that's usually enough to keep me relatively unterrified. But scary? Yes, of course it was! I was definitely clinging to my boyfriend throughout most of the haunt and I even found myself screaming at a few points. But on the whole, it was just ridiculously fun. These guys are so into their characters! You will find NO "Boos", "Rawrs" or "Hisses" at this haunt. These guys are professionals with well thought out character names and backstories. You can just tell that they live and breathe the Halloween season and they've got the sort of creepy charisma coursing through their veins that you can only experience at a great haunted house like this. They were also very complimentary telling me that I smelled good (you just don't hear that enough, you know?)
Small disclaimer: This is probably not a place for children for sure. Although I did notice the actors were very good at reading us before we got to them. (Side note: I'm 24 years old) They were able to measure our age and type of humor so it was a lot of fun to see them interact with us and joke around with us. At some points it really felt like we were in on the whole thing which was awesome (if that makes any sense) but they never fell out of character or took us out of the illusion (This is very hard to do without looking cheesy! I used to work at a haunted house as well, I know how it goes). But yeah, I probably wouldn't recommend this to anyone under 15, unless you are with a parent and are mature enough to get that this stuff isn't real (just read through the haunt guidelines, I'm not sure what their age policy is) I also probably wouldn't recommend this to any closed minded parents or people who are easily and seriously offended by language, visuals and/or scenes as well. These are great actors who are just having a great time and living off the moment (and that's what I really like to see and what we want to encourage) So this haunt should be avoided by anyone who is preparing to rain on their parade and looking for things to complain about (why would you even come?)

SO, to conclude... I had an awesome time! I highly recommend it and I hope that my review really got you fired up to go. I'll definitely be coming back next year for another walk through.

P.S. Do yourself a favor and buy your tickets online ahead of time! It will save you a ton of waiting. Also, the haunt was actually sold out the night that I went so I'm really glad i decided to I order the VIP tickets off of their site.

This was my first time ever attending The Hill Has Eyes and I must say I was pleased with my visit. This is only the haunt's third year in operation and what they've done with those three years is pretty impressive.

First of all, Hill Has Eyes crew, you need signage on the road at the bottom of the hill directing people to the top - it was very confusing with baseball games going on to know exactly where to go. Once at the top of the hill and parked, however, the environment sets the mood right away... for the most part - a lot of bright lights far away that were confusing, but made sense later on.

The attraction starts with "Hooded" which is a really interesting idea and could really build anxiety if it was done properly. Essentially, you place a black hood over your head and walk down the hill by yourself to the rest of the attraction (oh, and you need to sign a waiver before doing this) with only your hand on a rope to guide you. At first, it was unsettling walking by yourself like this, but there were a few things I didn't like: 1- my hand kept hitting the wooden poles holding the rope; that started to hurt. 2- you walked for a long time without anything happening, so I got used to it and it was no longer unsettling. 3- scares were attempted, but failed because I could hear actors walking on the gravel. And 4- there was no ending to it.... just "take the hoods off and move on." Oh, and what was with the military? Didn't match anything else at the event.... but, nonetheless, a very cool idea and nice way to start the haunt.

After Hooded, you come upon an open area with a fire pit and what would normally be a bar on busy nights. What was cool about this, was you had time to do the 2 following trails as you pleased, having time to sit at the fire and take a break before or in between the trails. Nice touch!!

The first of the two trails started off amazing. It was a junkyard scene with cars everywhere and actors with masks looking like they were from "The Strangers." What I noticed about this haunt right away, was how raw the environments were. There wasn't anything fancy about the trails, but you were in dark woods with junk and crazy people everywhere which in it of itself is creepy. The first trail had a few good memorable places and really good jump scares, but one thing I didn't understand was the story line... There were several actors claiming it was "their land" and random actors saying they needed help and they were trapped... but I never understood why because my life or safety never felt endangered. It never felt like someone was going to take me and put me with them. Nonetheless, good scares and a good first trail.

The second trail was easily my favorite of the night. Jump scares left and right. It's hard to get me, but this was the trail that made me jump at least twice. As for the two people with me, they were screaming and laughing all over the place. At one point in particular, an actor with a boom stick had my buddy dancing he was jumping around so scared, great job there! The only thing that concerned me about trail #2 was certain points where I couldn't see anything on very hazardous terrain. I remember there being some steps that were unlit that could be very dangerous. But despite that, this trail was great. Again, they used the environment to their advantage. The ending of the trail, which I imagine was some kind of satanic cult ritual was really nifty... but it seemed empty. I think they need to expand on this idea (oh, and they should probably finish the facade so I'm not looking at 2x4's with the tags still on them...). But it was a nice setup for the next attraction -

The scare lift. Really cool and yet there wasn't anything to it. It's literally a really old ski lift and the entrance platform is surrounded by black tarp and red lights inside. I would do a better job of covering up the mechanism on the demon animatronic, but the area made you question whether or not to go on. The actors were handing out fliers explaining the ghost story behind the scare lift (as well as coupons to the bar) which would have been nice to read while waiting in line on busy nights - but we didn't have to wait so we got right on and read later. The lift itself, nothing happened. You just went up a ski lift. This is where the bright lights I mentioned earlier comes into play - the ski lift lights were on. I'm sure they have to be, but it would have been cool to ride in the dark.

Finally, we got to the Carnivore satans carnival end thing.... which was a huge let down. There was no point to this and it was done so poorly, which is a shame cause it had the right ingredients, but whoever runs this part isn't doing their job right. There was nothing psychotic or carnivoristic about this trail. Nothing. There was one actor who said she was going to play darts with my face as the target that even remotely matched the theme. The slide was fun, and might I say the teddy bear at the end of it was hilarious. They had a claustrophobia as your "anal exam" which, while funny, 1 - doesn't make any sense in a carnival, and 2- it was in the middle of the trail with nothing before or after it... it was totally random. The finale of the carnival was what I believe to be a sideshow with several booths setup. I could tell they were short staffed, but there wasn't anything going on. None of the actors were aggressive, I couldn't read any signs, and the sideshow only took about 30 seconds to walk through. To top it all off, they relied on a clown with a chainsaw as the final scare... how many times has THAT been done.... Not every haunted attraction needs clowns... this carnival doesn't work, so find a better way to end your attraction.