The attraction at C. Casola Farms was our first trip in 2007 to a haunt that we hadn't already attended in previous years. Despite just being called the "Haunted Hayride of Terror" the farm was offering a haunted wooded trail, and a barn walktrough in addition to their hayride. We chose to skip the hayride altogether since my hayride experience dictates that hayrides suck with about 95% consistency. The Haunted Trail looked promising while we were waiting in line. A narrow opening in the woods revealed a dark path between towering trees that promised to blot out whatever moonlight was available. To my disappointment, this lasted for about 20 yards before we entered what seemed to just be a well-maintained grassy path through a nursery of small trees. Not a spooky setting in the least. The path was quite long, which was nice. Unfortunately it was populated almost exclusively with animatronic devices rather than live actors to provide the scares. Some of the mechanical beasts were mildly impressive (like a small dragon and a hanging bat-person) and others were just hilarious. Most of the stationary props were lame at best, but there were a few severed heads on pikes that were kind of sweet and are something I am considering reproducing in my own front yard this year. The Haunted Barn was a small walkthrough that was even more reliant on animatronics than the wooded trail. I counted no more than three live humans working in the barn and two of them were clearly young children who had a very poor sense of timing. As Maggie stated, this barn taught us that all undead seem to have some kind of seizure disorder. I never imagined I could see so many awkwardly jerky mechanical zombies in one place. The best part of our trip was probably the gift shop. They had some decent props for sale and we bought a gigantic skull to hang in our window for just two bucks. But I'd have to say I won't be going back again in the future unless they invest some more resources in actors! |