I'd known about Haunted Acres for a while now, but somehow I never made it up to Epping to give it a shot - that is, until I noticed that they had a buy-one-get-one opening weekend deal on Groupon. THAT was all the motivation I needed to drive up to New Hampshire and check it out.
Haunted Acres is located in the woods behind the New England Dragway on Exeter Road in Epping. Once you enter the Dragway parking lot, you've got to drive about a mile on a very unpaved, very unlit road before you reach your destination. Were it not for the numerous signs with arrows in the entrance that say "HAUNTED ACRES THIS WAY," you'd likely think you were in the wrong place.
One thing I can very comfortably say about Haunted Acres is that it is extraordinarily dark. Like really, really dark. We were in line right behind the exact same people for 3 of the 4 attractions, and I honestly didn't get a good look at them the entire time because there's just no light. This certainly does add to the "creepy" factor.
The theme of the place is like an old, abandoned wild west mining town - in the dark, it looks very much the the abandoned set of some old John Wayne movie (if John Wayne made slasher films). There are a few costumed characters roaming the grounds of the "town," sneaking up on particularly frightened teenage girls and scaring the bejeezus out of them. Among the characters was an evil Easter bunny, which I didn't entirely understand (but which I still appreciated for the camp value).
Altogether there are 4 haunted attractions at this place: The Skeleton Saloon (a haunted, wIld west saloon complete with zombie bartender), the 3-D Nuclear Accident House (a black-lit, neon-spray-painted 3-D glasses-wearing affair), the Nightmare Walk (a 15-minute walk through the woods), and the Maze from Hell (a black, plywood maze with dead ends and some creepy characters inside).
The quality of the four attractions varied a bit.
The Nuclear Accident House was good fun - probably my favorite of the bunch.
The Nightmare Walk was fun and creepy at points, but kind of campy and silly at others (case in point: the pirate ship (!) in the middle of the woods, with the ghost pirate on board yelling "ARRRRRG THIS IS MY SHIP, MATEYS, STAY AWAY," or something to that effect). I think the creepiest bit of the Nightmare Walk was when one of the actors in the hillbilly section got just a little tooooo "Deliverance" on the poor teenage boys in our small group of 4 ("You ever squealed like a pig, boy?!").
The Skeleton Saloon comes in at #3 for me, as it was short on actors but the animatronics and props were pretty good (although the ropes that visibly cordon visitors off from the various props and settings inside kind of ruin the illusion a little bit).
The least thrilling one (which is sad, because it had some great potential) was the Maze from Hell. I think I saw 2 actors in there the whole time we were inside, and they didn't scare us at all. The walls were all black, with no other decorations to speak of. A haunted house with dead ends and no set path could be awesomely scary, but this one really fell short.
I wouldn't spend full price to come here, but note that every Thursday night is "Bargain Night," and two adults can get in for $33 - a savings of $10. There are also Family 4-Packs available online, with which 2 adults and 2 children can get in for $65 - a savings of $7. Overall, this place was average but fun. read more