Halloween season 2017 my husband and I went to a total of 13 haunted houses. We Hit 5 in the Atlanta area the night of September 29th and then went to the remaining 7 (all in the Central Alabama) throughout the month of October.
Here is our favorite haunted houses in order:
1) Netherworld
2) Nightmare's Gate
3) Atrox
4) Paranoia
5) Hellbilly Hollow
6) Nightmare 3008
7) Warehouse 31
8) Hollis Haunted Chicken House
9) Insanitarium
10) Sloss Furnace
11) Mountain Creek Trail of Fear
12) Folklore (only BAD haunt we went to)
6) Nightmare 3008 "Great Hands On, Low Budget Haunt" (7.5 out of 10) (Wednesday night)
Total time on site: 46 Minutes.......Total time in Haunt(s): 16 minutes (2 sections)
To be honest we weren't going to make the drive to Fultondale for a small haunt we had never heard of before. My husband grew up in the Gardendale/Fultondale area and he knew the building used to be Pine bowl that had been purchased and turned into escape games/haunted house. His first thought was that their main source of income is the escape games and the haunt is an afterthought to generate extra revenue. (These were all his assumptions based on no facts)
We arrived and there were barely any cars in the parking lot and most of the people inside were employees. Everyone was very nice and we had some casual conversation with the staff. Once we paid we were instructed to go outside and around the side of the building and to look for a big guy. So we walked around to someone who appeared to be a big guy. He walked us to the start of the haunt and then he started telling us about how the haunt got started 4 years ago a few miles away at his previous location, how he had outgrown that space and purchased this building and made a haunt out of half of it. He then told us some other things to get us in the mood of getting scared (such as this is a hands-on, very aggressive, physical haunt). We walked in and the haunt started with a tarot card reading concept. (I didn't care for this because of the witchcraft and mystic roots). We then entered the haunt which was apparent from the beginning that it was a low budget haunt. There isn't a lot of expensive props, animatronics, special staging or detailed scenes. However, what they lacked in expensive scenery they made up for good lighting effects, setups meant to confuse you, good timing by actors/actresses, grabbing, touching, & holding. There were several times when monsters would come from multiple directions and surround us giving us no logical path of exit except through them. We entered a room with multiple doors and an old man holding a flashing bunny. He told cheesy jokes, but it made for a good mix of scary and fun. Later we entered a white room with bright lights and full of fog. It was impossible to see where we were going for the first minute until our eyes adjusted and we then were able to feel and sorta see our way out. I won't elaborate on the whole experience, but I will say that the actors were well placed and spaced so that we never felt like it was understaffed. We enjoyed the physical nature of the haunt and while they did touch and grab it was never inappropriate or out of line with what would be considered appropriate for a haunted house. Honestly, every haunted house would be better if this degree of touching was standard. (They also offer a light up pumpkin stick that they call the "Sissy Stick" for people who prefer not to be touched.) After exiting the haunt the owner asked us how we liked it and we stood there talking with him and several staff for about 15 minutes.
I do have some thoughts for the owner though. It would be better if the tickets were purchased on the outside of the building in a booth rather than inside where the escape rooms are. It takes away from the "haunt" experience having to start it in a "normal" environment. It would also be better to sell the shirts outside rather than inside. We won't buy shirts prior to going through a haunt and because of the hassle of having to go back inside to get them we decided not to. Plus the fact that my husband would have had to make a second atm withdrawal to get shirts it was easier to just walk to the car. Inside the haunt, I would have liked to have seen more gore, more blood, water splatter on us to represent blood splatter. It would be nice if there was a place to take pictures with your logo in the background...(If there was something like this setup, we didn't see it.) These things are just our personal opinions so take them for what they are worth.
The overall experience at Nightmare 3008 was very good. Between the reasonable price for tickets, the backstory of the owner and the haunt, the physicalness, the layout, and the actors it was a very good haunt...despite it being a low budget setup. As the haunt grows and the owner is able to put more money into props, effects, etc it is assumed that it will only get better. I highly recommend people to check this haunt out. read more
