Team Cleaverland Haunted House Reviews

12/14/2025

Seasonal scares in a snowstorm! Columbus got pelted pretty good all day with the frosty flakes, but that did not dampen the holiday spirits of a legion of haunt-goers. Absolutely filled to bursting with festive decorations, music, and characters, and topped off with an awesome AV & fireworks in the driving snow. So well done!! Glad we braced the weather!

12/05/2025

Many holiday haunts are open all this month. Find one near you in The Scare Factor's off-season listings!

Looking for haunts, but it's not Halloween yet? Many haunted house attractions are now opening their doors for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Fri. the 13th...

11/26/2025

Finishing up the awards for 2025! Our actor shout-out for Gorgas Street Horror goes to Lauren Liehr as Dr. Bub. The doc displayed a winning, nonchalant bedside manner while speaking about quite insane things, like suggesting we play with jars of acid, proposing to do impromptu eye-ectomies on us, or wanting to bake a cake out of the brains of his most recent patient, brother-in-law Jerry, who was messily laid out on the table before us. Oh, Dr. Bub also had his sister (Jerry's wife) caged up nearby, throwing sis Jerry's foot to play with. Fun with the whole family! With the entire cast giving it their all, the bizarre dialogue and amusing interactions made Dr. Bub's scene a standout.

And, we give our 2025 Most Entertaining Ensemble Award to Gorgas Street Horror on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. The gangbusters cast here was super energetic and looking to engage with us. A clutch of cackling clowns hectored us under the big top. The relentless B. Wright tried to set a record for how many times one actor could repeatedly come at us. They invited us onto electric chairs and stuffed victims inside fridges. We heard some of the most bizarre dialogue ever, including the instant classic “Beware the curse of the intergalactic fallopian tubes!”

From our review: ‘This is an extremely actor-driven haunt. Good thing, then, that the cast showed up wired from the get-go to engage and interact. The acting troupe brimmed with dynamic energy this evening. The winning group of actors made the biggest contribution to immersion with their engagingly amusing or scarifying antics.’

The whole cast seemed committed to making their presence felt. As a result, we had a highly enjoyable time on our final review visit of the season …and that is cause for celebration!

11/25/2025

Just a few more awards to hand out! Team Cleaverland gives the 2025 Most Suspenseful Haunt Award to Chippewa Lake Slaughterhouse on behalf of TheScareFactor.com and in conjunction with Team Zombillies Haunt Reviews. This sinister slaughterhouse attraction has mastered the art of sustaining a creeping sense of dread throughout its lengthy walkthrough. Waiting for the shoe to drop has never been so deliciously delivered to us. It's equal parts shadowy lighting, realistic set dressing in an actual former slaughterhouse, the grimy and gory setting, perfectly timed actor assaults – many of the is-it-a-prop? variety – and expertly maintained immersion, that all come together to generate nerve-shredding tension.

From our co-review with Team Zombillies: ‘The Chippewa Lake Slaughterhouse offers a terrifying experience set inside an authentic slaughterhouse. The immersion here was nearly unmatched. The Slaughterhouse delivered a brand of fear that felt raw and unique; something we haven’t quite seen other haunts tap into yet. It was a slow, suspensful burn that kept us questioning whether we were actually supposed to be there. Some scenes were so eerily quiet and calm that the silence itself became the scare. The unnerving humans-as-livestock lead-up, the unsettling old building, the uncanny realism, the nerve-jangling creepiness, the disturbing costumes – it all adds up to an experience to make you feel very much like you are walking through your own starring role in an awful backwoods horror movie.’

We re-visited the Slaughterhouse the weekend after Halloween for their blackout event. With the lighting turned way down and even more super-creepy quietude, we found all the qualities just mentioned more magnified. Our nerves were on high alert. It was seriously scary and we highly recommend it!!

11/23/2025

Team Cleaverland gives our 2025 Wildest Walkthrough Award to Haunted Hoochie on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. One of our favorite haunts ever delivered an absolutely bonkers experience this year. It's always nuts, but this season's edition took the crazy cake, smashed it in our faces, and stomped on the crumbs. If you've never been here, you owe it to yourself to see what the insanity is all about: the extreme touch tactics, hard-R content, and gloriously rough edges. There's a reason why the Hoochie has a rabid following.

Words cannot hope to fully explain the experience, but here are some choice cuts from our co-review with Team Zombillies Haunt Reviews: ‘The Hoochie is downright unhinged, unfiltered, and utterly shocking. No one delivers brutal horror quite like them, and this year they’ve raised the stakes again. From the moment we stepped inside, we were assaulted with over-the-top scenes, relentless scares, and a level of shock value that only this Ohio legend can bring. This was perhaps the most raucous we’ve ever seen the cast. Stumbling in a daze from one horror to the next was like being trapped in a psychedelic nightmare. The whirlwind of disorienting settings and breakneck-paced transitions set us up for maximum confusion and anxiety. The actors, and there were bunches of them, appeared seriously demented. It seemed that every single cast member had sworn a solemn oath and took it as their personal mission to make us regret entering their domain. They created utter chaos! Hats off to a truly deranged posse of ornery cusses. If this actorly assault on good taste, good sense, and goodwill sounds like your idea of a good time, get on down to the Hoochie and experience it yourself, because no description can stand in for the real thing.’

11/23/2025

Time for 2025 awards! Our actor shout-out for The Scream Machine goes to Syd as High Priestess Deianira. Certainly one of the best actors we saw all year – the character was petulant, imperious, condescending, and very funny, with the air and attitude of a powerful entity slumming it with us lowly humans. Deianira led us in chants over a misty cauldron, cracked wise when we didn't follow orders precisely, and did bits of hilarious improv. This delightful performance delivered on many levels.

And, we give our 2025 Most Theatrical Cast Award to The Scream Machine on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. This cast had character…and characters! They showed off their acting chops at the outside entrance, inside in the queue, and throughout the attraction. High Priestess Deianira, Madame Clarise, Rattman, and the zombie master headed a troupe that all made a huge impression with dramatic, larger than life performances.

From our review: ‘The splendid cast here did a delightful job. Featured players really sank their teeth into theatrical presentations of their characters: playing with accents, delivering exposition, going big, but embodying a thought-out approach resulting in fleshed-out characterizations. These major roles comprised the most impressive of our visit and gave us extended entertaining interactions. The large ensemble also comprised those with less face time, and they made their mark when it came time for their turn in the spotlight.‘ This great cast really amped up our enjoyment of The Scream Machine.

The Scream Machine's holiday show is coming up on December 12 & 13.

11/23/2025

Onward with awards! Our actor shout-outs for Haunted Hoorah go to Adam Giesz as The Doctor and Codi Kitts as The Doctor's Assistant. These two had a polished duet act going on. The Assistant, with brain exposed and following the prototype of hapless lab assistants going back to Igor, got things rolling by welcoming us into the science laboratory and assessing our suitability for getting shot up with super soldier serum. Doc joined in and found us less than scintillating material. Arguments ensued and a realistic brawl broke out, ending in violent choking of the Assistant. These two lab rats played off each other really well and together orchestrated a showpiece scene.

And, we give our 2025 Cardio Commitment Award to Haunted Hoorah on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. Make sure you take your vitamins before your time here, we felt like we'd been run through the wringer afterward and our hearts were thumping big time! During the basic training intro section of this military-themed haunt, some people get singled out for calisthenics like jumping jacks (we did push-ups the last time we were here; they also give you the option to do a little singing, but that seems like a wimp-out). Some jumping, climbing, and crawling also takes place inside the attraction, though there are bypasses. Besides the more physical aspects of this walkthrough compared with most other attractions, they'll also get your blood pumping with the ticking clock storyline where you're on a mission to do recon in a compromised research base before a nuke goes off, the friendly soldiers shouting at you to hurry up, frenzied monsters attacking, and sirens and alarm lights going off all over the place. The sense of urgency and tension levels are palpable and guaranteed to raise your heart rate.

From our review: ‘The walkthrough is among the most interactive in Ohio. We would describe it as thrilling, tense, and pretty physical. Fittingly enough for the theme, you will be asked (okay, ordered) to rope-climb up ramps, crawl through obstacle courses, take a short jump into a pit, and squeeze through blasted holes in the wall. We really felt the urgency, between the reckless, strobe-lit and metal music-blaring transport ride from boot camp to base, the frantic army people’s demeanors, frenetic enemy actions, and all the klaxons, flashing lights, sirens, blasting music, and other stressful effects firing in there.’

This one is intense – be prepared to need a little cool-down period after! It's always an exciting, action-packed experience and that's what we love about it.

11/23/2025

Awards time! Our actor shout-outs for Azra Chamber of Horrors Haunted House go to Myah Colvard as the Dollhouse Contortionist and Haylie Souva as Gerty. Just based on our party of four's reaction to Dollhouse Contortionist, this was one of the most impactful actors of the year. There was a total freakout when this bendy actor made their twisted-up appearance! And Gerty was a blast. The mental patient followed us around for several minutes making conversation with us and her husband …who also happened to be a sock puppet.

And, we give our 2025 Funkiest Funhouse FX Award to Azra on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. The similarities between haunted houses and funhouses should be obvious, and they can both be scary and fun. Azra is definitely both! Their tricky, dark, surprising approach was a real pleasure to experience.

From our co-review with Team Bentley Butchers Haunt Reviews: ‘Azra deployed all sorts of tricks to keep us off-balance and wary. A twisty mirror maze, a very long slide with the bottom obscured, multi-level layouts where actors could be above &/or below &/or at our own altitude, and the vortex tunnel stuck right at the entrance as soon as we walked in, all led to serious disorientation. Just as tricky were the effective fog blasts and a circus area requiring 3D glasses, as well as a squeeze tunnel and multiple laser swamps cleverly n presented in creative ways. This walkthrough had that funhouse feel to it – sure, a dark and deadly funhouse, but still.’

Check out Azra's Christmas Chaos show on Dec. 13 & 20!

11/22/2025

Moving on with the awards! Our actor shout-out for Haunting In The Hills goes to Chris Holcomb as Art the Clown. This Art had all the gestures, motions, and pantomimes of the cinematic demon-clown down, but most impressive was the relentless stalking and precision timing in delivering follow-up scares after first appearing. A scary, unnerving, but somewhat whimsical performance.

And, we give our 2025 Sickest Horror Movie Tribute Award to Haunting in the Hills on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. Fans of scary movies should get a ticket for their Train Car of Terror attraction. This love poem to horror flicks is set on an actual train car. The odes to cinematic slashers and monsters had us clapping and screaming all the way through.

From our review: ‘Extremely narrow passages led to filmic phantoms in quick succession: the Saw room with Billy in a bathtub, a Terrifier room, a Leatherface room, Freddy’s furnace room with strobing and fog, a Hellraiser room with Pinhead prop, puzzle boxes, and dangling chains, and the Exorcist room featuring freaky possessed dummies. Outside, we found Sam from Trick ‘r Treat. Tight corridors ideal for ambushed ratcheted the tension. This terrific choo-choo had us tied to the tracks of a whole range of phobias.’

11/22/2025

The awards continue! Our actor shout-out for Carnage Haunted House (now known as Scream) goes to Jonathan White as Pig Boy. Squeaky-voiced Pig Boy set things up very nicely as the intro character in the beginning voodoo shack scene. From our review: ‘Pig Boy’s childlike demeanor, manic clapping and laughing, and jumping-up-and-down excitement over sending us out into the bog to get murdered added up to an irresistible personality and a fabulous start to the weirdness.’

And, we give our 2025 Craziest Queue Award to Scream Haunted House on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. The build-up to the attraction entrance was an absolute delight. Music drove a pulsing beat, moving lights bedazzled our eyes, there were cool props all over the place, and actors converged and engaged us. This is how you give the people who come to see a great show a rousing start to the proceedings.

From our review: ‘The awesome lobby and queue rocked our world with pumping music, a dazzling light show, video screens, photo ops, roaming actors, and tons of props.
The intro area had us hungry for more. The exit led us to a merch booth past a very cool, very long 3D clown wall. We got glasses to check out the art at our leisure – it was nice to be able to take our time and look at an unbroken tableau instead of seeing it in bits and pieces while trying to navigate around inside an attraction.’ All in all, it added up to an extraordinary experience that had us super pumped up both before and after we got through the attraction itself – which was also pretty great.

11/22/2025

The awards continue! Our actor shout-out for Haunted Town Hall goes to Nate Army as Bobo, the hillbilly ringleader of a group of assailants that included a rabid chainsawer and a charging bull (!). Bobo was a burly bumpkin who got belligerent, leading a discussion in quite graphic detail of what exactly this group of freaks was going to do to us. And then blocked our exit and snarled, “Oh I forgot that *you're* in charge here!” when we tried to excuse ourselves out of the room. Bobo, along with his creepy colleagues, made the country shack a very fun and intimidating scene.

And, we give our 2025 Deadliest Dark Maze Award to Haunted Town Hall on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. we found a lot to love at Haunted Town Hall, but the thing that will be hardest to get out of our minds is the sinister dark maze. Too many dark mazes receive the bare minimum treatment to get by, and that makes them boring. The one here was rather terrifying due to its squeeze-play width, slanty flooring, and unnerving sound effects.

From our review: ‘They took away the light entirely for the nerve-jangling dark maze, its slantwise angles and constricting walls echoing with creepy whispers and breathing noises – an extraordinarily disorienting and dreadful set which bumped up our heart rates considerably as panic started to seep in. Its narrow confines, askew positioning, and super creepy recorded whisperings unnerved even the team member usually not prone to claustrophobia.’

We are not usually big fans of dark mazes. Thank you, Haunted Town Hall, for putting in the work to make yours truly memorable.

11/21/2025

Keeping on with the awards! Our actor shout-outs for Distracted Haunted House go to Alex Klonowski as Stella and Axel Crimmins as Aeoin. Stilts-walking Stella paired a commanding demeanor with an extraordinary costume: tall, extravagant hat perched atop a mop of white curls, freaky contacts, tongue darting out between razor teeth, spiky talons hands, and carrying around a bird cage with an avian skeleton inside. We found it hard to comply when Stella ordered us to look her right in the eye! Aeoin was a swamp spirit who popped up all throughout the attraction to give a quick scare, share a quip, or comment on a scene, following up with an infectious, mischievous yet somewhat malevolent laugh.

And, we give our 2025 Coolest Cast of Characters Award to Distracted Haunted House on behalf of TheScareFactor.com. It was very tough to single out any of these actors for recognition because so many of them were so good. We would love to give them all a shout-out – and that's what this award is designed to do. Awesomely designed and detailed costuming melded with inspiring performances to create a memorable rogues gallery of monsters: besides visually stunning Stella and tricksy Aeoin the swamp spirit, there was the terrifying Blood Beast, the southern belle door person who scolded us for not bringing a potluck dish to The Dark Feast (this year's theme), a twisted Little Bo Peep, some robed and animal skulled cultists, raggedy scarecrow The Hatter, playful Gidget, and a towering white (but evil) knight swinging an immense sword, to name a few of the deserving cast members. Take a look at our review photos on thescarefactor.com to get a taste of the standout costuming.

From our review: ‘Distracted’s talented cast made their presence felt. We know this troupe will always bring it! The costuming at Distracted is top-notch. It is created in-house and chef-kissed with ingenuity and creativity. Inventive designs come with inspired details and cool accessories.’

Between the remarkable costuming and the impressive acting chops on display, this was a gang of cool cats we loved to hang out with!