Reading through last season’s reviews was really frustrating, but also not surprising. A good majority of the reviews stated that the haunt looks unorganized, due to kids running around freely, not knowing how to act and just screaming, playing around and not paying attention, and not being respectful towards peoples boundaries or the rules. People claimed that last years haunt “looked like a bunch of toddlers in walmart costumes who only knew how to scream” and I was very disappointed to see these. As someone who loves this haunt and the people like a second home, and plans to continue to work here for a long time, I want people to really be able to enjoy their experience at The Dark Side. 

The reviews also stated that 2020 was a much better year compared to 2021, due to hiring more young toddlers. I did notice myself last year, a significant amount of younger kids working than the years prior. A good select few of our young actors surprised me, and are very talented, but a lot of them simply saw it as a chance to run around and act crazy, instead of actually trying to scare and follow the rules.

Me, and many other employees who work for the haunt, have come to an agreement that there should be an age requirement to working at the haunt, as well as an actual audition, to test your ability to genuinely scare and/or have the personality and talent to work at a haunted house. I want to do this to help better our attraction as a whole, I want people to leave this year feeling better than they did last year. Let people get their moneys worth, and let’s make the haunt actually scary!