Dorney Park’s The Haunt is not your average tourist destination: there are screams of park-goers on rides, scare actors running up to jumpscare you, and skidders rolling in front of you while on your merry way to a new attraction.
If you haven’t seen them before, “skidders” are scare actors fitted with metal plates on their hands and knees. When they drop down and slide across the pavement, they can glide up to twenty feet, throwing off a shower of sparks as they rush straight toward you.
Dorney keeps its coasters running deep into the night, adding to the park’s eerie energy. Between haunted houses, you can watch trains of riders vanish into fog, their screams mingling with the distant hum of haunt actors skidding in the distance. The result is immersive: part carnival, part fever dream.
Unlike the typical haunted attractions that rely on jump scares or sticky fake blood, The Haunt thrives on psychological tension and clever detail. There are different scare zone “scenes” to visit: the Steel Industrial Park, the Steam-Punk Dystopia, CarnEVIL, Midway Misfits, and Port of Call (pirates).
The French Quarter leans more toward chaos and dark humor than straight horror. The sets are loud, gaudy, and drenched in personality, culminating in a massive animatronic snake that lunges from the shadows, equal parts terrifying and absurd. It’s camp horror done right.
The actors in the French Quarter are also very kind and offer that Southern Hospitality that fits right into the scene. In that scene, there was the Blood on the Bayou attraction, where I giggled, screamed, and was traumatized by a haunt actor dressed up as a shrub.
Blackout was an almost entirely pitch-black attraction, where you had to feel your way through the entire walk-through, with actors whispering at you and jumping out once in a while.
In my opinion, the standout attraction, Ghost in the Machine, is a masterpiece of controlled chaos. It’s an old steel yard, with the actors being deformed, traumatized steelworkers, or the ghosts of them.
My favorite part is the lone performer who soars overhead while strobes and sound distort your sense of balance. I don’t even know how to describe it; the scare actor must have been hooked up to some sort of harness, because he flew over our heads, making me think he was going to jump straight on top of me and my friends.
The set feels industrial and alive, and the old man with a pocket watch, frozen like a mannequin until he isn’t, might be one of the most convincing scares in the park. I don’t know how the actors stay so still that you think they are mannequins, but they do a fantastic job.
What’s most impressive is that Ghost in the Machine actors never need to touch you to make your skin crawl. Some haunts rely too much on touching their customers, but Dorney strikes the perfect balance of psychological horror and jump scares, in my opinion.
Trick or Treat and Necropolis had some fantastic actors, but they weren’t my favorite of the night, and it wasn’t too memorable in its own sense.
But a massive staple of the haunt culture is missing: chainsaws. I expected far more chainsaws, and I only saw one the entire night. Where are all the chainsaws at Dorney?!
Another complaint: the park didn’t have enough guests, so they closed an hour early. This felt a little ridiculous to me: you have paying customers in your park, how can you close an hour early? I hate the corporate machine and greed; that’s probably the scariest part of the whole night.
Since the park closed early, I didn’t get to visit the Tourist Trap, Roadside Stop, and Chop attractions, which was a little disappointing, but overall it was a scream-filled night.
