Shrub and I, along with 3 more adults, 2 teenagers and 2 kids visited Rock City’s Forest of Fear on October 11th. Before heading out, we stopped at Mojo Burrito to get our grub on and fuel up. (yum) Shrub grabbed a local entertainment paper, which had the prices for area haunts listed. To his surprise, the Forest of Fear was listed as $20! Shrub was shocked, because he had seen somewhere online that this was only a $10 haunt. (note: the Forest of Fear website has current rates listed at $15 or $20 for fast pass) Anyhow, so Danielle, who was with us, had one of those fancy phones with internet access and we used it to find out the rate was $15 for Forest of Fear which includes 3D Glasses.

After debating it for a while, the group decided to go ahead and get the tickets. After purchasing our tickets, we got into the line for the haunt and while we were standing there, we saw stuff being projected onto the ticket building. Interestingly enough, it was advertising ticket prices at $10 with 3D glasses for an additional $2 (for the mathematically challenged, that does not add up to $15 no matter how you look at it). Hmmph..

So at this point, we were feeling kind of ripped off - not only because they were advertising the wrong price AT the haunt, but also because the 3D glasses are pretty dumb. As a person who wears spectacles, I have to tell you that 3D glasses do not work well for the seeing impaired. They didn’t fit in or outside of my glasses and so I didn’t wear them most of the time. I don’t think they enhance the experience anyhow. There were a couple of areas, such as the

entrance that looked real neat with them on, but once inside the house, there was no real purpose for them. I think it would be better for the haunt to keep the option of glasses or no glasses up to the customer.

The line was fun at some points with a carnival barker who would yell at the crowd from high up on his perch and then wind between the patrons issuing some pretty funny quips. Once inside, though, I thought the haunt fell pretty flat. The actors were fun in some spots and a few of them were pretty dang persistent and tried to give us a good time. However, they didn’t really have much to work with scene-wise and some of them needed to learn a little more dialogue than “RAH!” There are not enough scenes in this outdoor attraction and it makes it hard to remember what the storyline is supposed to be.

They sent us in as a group of 15 which is so dumb – unfortunately, it seems MOST of the Tennessee haunts we’ve been to have this problem. I was hoping they’d split up our group of nine and instead they added people to it. Shrub and I were at the back so we watched everything unfold before we got there. Nobody in our group was really scared or even entertained. I wish I could tell you the kids in the group felt differently, but they didn’t.

All in all, it was a pretty disappointing experience, especially considering what HUGE Rock City fans we are. We had debated on whether or not to go – money is an issue for everyone right now – and after it was all said and done I wished we hadn’t paid the money. If this had been an $8 haunt, it would’ve excused the shortcomings a

little. However, knowing that we paid $30 + tax for the two of us sucked what little fun could’ve been had right out of it.

- KARA

For more details visit the Forest of Fear Website