A Haunting Experience at The Terrordome

I love this time of year. The changing of the leaves, the chill in the are, the appearance of Halloween decorations in stores, not to mention the increased focus on horror movies. In addition to all of that, there is the annual return of haunted attractions. Granted, I do not take advantage of them all that often, but I do enjoy them. This year I had the opportunity to go to an attraction I never knew was there, despite existing for something like 20 years, and it is walking distance from where I work! How I had never heard of it before, I will never know. The attraction is called The Terrordome, and while there is no dome involved, there certainly is plenty of terror to go around!

The attraction is located in Newburgh, NY, and when heading west on I-84, you an see it from the highway. When you arrive, you enter on a dirt road and drive a little ways until being directed to park along the side of the drive. From there, you walk a short distance to the ticket booth, with the main drag just beyond. The area has a small snack stand, a large animatronic monster and something called the Nauseleum. More on those later. The group I was with made our way over to the first waiting line, a maze of wooden fences leading to the entrance to the Barn of Terror.

As we waited our turn to enter, we couldn’t help but notice the detail that was put into the facade Lights, bones, and skulls greeted us, welcoming us for a night of fright. Loud rock music played over the PA system, just adding to the mood and getting us excited to get inside.

Soon enough, we were beckoned inside. We stepped into the darkness, sans guide. Unlike some haunts, this does not come with a guide to show you the way. We stumbled our way through the darkened hallways into sealed rooms where frights awaited. We navigated dark corners and into strobe light filled rooms that messed with our heads and wrecked our equilibrium. Each room was fully decorated and designed with fright in mind. If I wasn’t so tense over what was around the next corner, I might have just stood there marveling at the work that had gone into creating each setting.

Of course, I do not want to give the frights away. Rest assured, I jumped and let out a scream on more than one occasion. After making our way out of the exit, we were directed to line for the second attraction… Zombie Tag!

I have to be honest, I was not quite sure what to expect from Zombie Tag, but I was definitely intrigued. We taken in groups of at least eight, and the first thing we did was watch a brief video explaining the rules. We wore flashing green lights with proximity sensors that would turn yellow and red based on or infected status. The goal was to remain green for five minutes. Those five minute felt like an eternity.

We were split into two groups and each entered the maze from different end. What followed was a blood pumping, heart racing terrifying rush through narrow hallways and horrific rooms looking for someplace, any place, to hide and avoid becoming infected. All I heard while rushing around were the groans and moans of the zombies who were actively searching us out.

I have to say this stole the show. It is an innovative attraction, one that encourages you to split from your group to explore solo. This, in turn, increases the tension that you feel as you scramble to hide. It really was fantastic and not at all what I was expecting.

Upon exiting the tag arena, we directed towards this shady looking van. We all climbed in and the windowless doors were closed and were driven, well, somewhere. Eventually we stopped and after some loud bangs, the doors opened. Two of us were requested to get out. A friend and myself were the first out. We were handed a flashlight and directed to enter The Woods.

I feel this was the most underwhelming attraction. Still enjoyable, but felt somewhat lacking. We crept along the muddy path, wary of what lay ahead. While it was certainly creepy, there just weren’t enough scare actors along the way to keep the tension level up. Still, this is pretty minor, as it was still enjoyable creepy.

Upon exiting the maze, the creepy van greeted us and drove us back to the rest of the attractions. This was the end of the tour. We hung around for a little while ihe open area. There, I took a couple of pictures of the big animatronic critter and the Nauseleum, which was pretty darn cool.

All things considered, I was very impressed with the experience. It got me scared, got my heart racing and all involved made sure that I had a good time. I highly recommend that you pay a visit to the Terrordome. To make it even better, I was informed that they completely change everything up on a yearly basis, so you won’t have the same experience two years in a row!

Visit their site: http://terrordome.com/