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Two of the PA haunts we have visited so far this season are the Field of Screams and Sleepy Hollow.
Field of Screams in Lancaster, PA offers three attractions - a haunted hayride, Den of Darkness walk-through and Frightmare Asylum. We visited the Field of Screams in late September so it was not crowded at all. I believe this is one of the most popular haunts in eastern PA, and has some close competition with Jason's Woods not far away as well as two popular haunts in York, PA (Haunted Mill and Halloween Park). However, judging by the queues set up for the attractions this place looks as if it could get pretty packed. Their hayride is a fairly good hayride, and this year they appear to have gotten a couple of ideas from Shocktoberfest - pull the hayride into a barn, stall, drop some doors so you're sitting in total darkness, and then 'things happen'. Not bad but this is no Shocktoberfest hayride. The Den of Darkness is a fantastic walk-through and very well done. I haven't been to FOS in a few years and the facade on Den of Darkness must have been redone because it looked great! The Frightmare Asylum was an average haunted house with the usual clown type theming. I am starting to lose track of the clown haunted houses with paint thrown on the walls for bad 3-D effects, the 'dot' people coming out of the walls, the spinning tunnel and dropping photo frames (althought this last effect usually gets me even though I know its pretty certain to happen). So I would give Field of Screams a 7 out of 10.
Sleepy Hollow on Active Acres Farm in Newtown, PA has a haunted hayride, a haunted house, another small walkthrough and a corn maze. We've never bothered with the corn maze and went through the small house (Vortex?) a year or two ago which was mostly forgettable. Their hayride is very long, but also very boring. Their hayride wagons are unusual in that two wagons are latched together and each of the wagons has huge steel 'cages' surrounding the wagon - not sure how else to describe it. At various stages during the hayride, actors 'attack' the wagon, climb on the cages, etc. There are no really elaborate scenes, except for an animated headless horseman attack on the wagon (there is one of these on the grounds of the Headless Horseman in NY, and it is a great piece). It actually seems rather odd that they have this one elaborate animatronic, and not much else. OK, so yeah whatever the hayride kinda sucks. This is all made up for by the excellent walk through haunted house called Payne's Asylum. There are several cool 'Pepper's Ghost' effects throughout the house, excellent actors, elaborate scenes and props, a really cool outdoor graveyard scene, and great interactive use of guests names throughout the attraction. This could actually be the best walk through in the Philadelphia area!
Field of Screams in Lancaster, PA offers three attractions - a haunted hayride, Den of Darkness walk-through and Frightmare Asylum. We visited the Field of Screams in late September so it was not crowded at all. I believe this is one of the most popular haunts in eastern PA, and has some close competition with Jason's Woods not far away as well as two popular haunts in York, PA (Haunted Mill and Halloween Park). However, judging by the queues set up for the attractions this place looks as if it could get pretty packed. Their hayride is a fairly good hayride, and this year they appear to have gotten a couple of ideas from Shocktoberfest - pull the hayride into a barn, stall, drop some doors so you're sitting in total darkness, and then 'things happen'. Not bad but this is no Shocktoberfest hayride. The Den of Darkness is a fantastic walk-through and very well done. I haven't been to FOS in a few years and the facade on Den of Darkness must have been redone because it looked great! The Frightmare Asylum was an average haunted house with the usual clown type theming. I am starting to lose track of the clown haunted houses with paint thrown on the walls for bad 3-D effects, the 'dot' people coming out of the walls, the spinning tunnel and dropping photo frames (althought this last effect usually gets me even though I know its pretty certain to happen). So I would give Field of Screams a 7 out of 10.
Sleepy Hollow on Active Acres Farm in Newtown, PA has a haunted hayride, a haunted house, another small walkthrough and a corn maze. We've never bothered with the corn maze and went through the small house (Vortex?) a year or two ago which was mostly forgettable. Their hayride is very long, but also very boring. Their hayride wagons are unusual in that two wagons are latched together and each of the wagons has huge steel 'cages' surrounding the wagon - not sure how else to describe it. At various stages during the hayride, actors 'attack' the wagon, climb on the cages, etc. There are no really elaborate scenes, except for an animated headless horseman attack on the wagon (there is one of these on the grounds of the Headless Horseman in NY, and it is a great piece). It actually seems rather odd that they have this one elaborate animatronic, and not much else. OK, so yeah whatever the hayride kinda sucks. This is all made up for by the excellent walk through haunted house called Payne's Asylum. There are several cool 'Pepper's Ghost' effects throughout the house, excellent actors, elaborate scenes and props, a really cool outdoor graveyard scene, and great interactive use of guests names throughout the attraction. This could actually be the best walk through in the Philadelphia area!