design: Natalia Favlia Inacua
I was running as fast as I could possibly go as a person with a chainsaw chased me. Although my heart rate was high, I was only mildly frightened as this is what I signed up for when I came to the horror theme park, Zombies Bay.
Over-run with zombies, patients, and clowns, there were screams heard at evey corner.
Zoombezi Bay had its debut of Zombiezi Bay last fall, and the event is continuing this fall. I had the opportunity to visit the park with a friend and experience its haunted houses and trails on Sept. 17, 2022.
The park opens at 6 p.m., and when I arrived at 6:30 p.m., there weren’t many people in the park but as it started to get closer to 7p.m., it became more crowded. I would recommend getting there at 7 p.m. as only two of the haunted houses are open at 6 p.m. and the rest open at 7 p.m. and dusk.
There are four haunted houses: Pleasant Screams, Sinister Sideshow, Eternal Darkness, and Catacombs. There are also two trails: Photosynthesis and Devastation, which is new this year.
Sinister Sideshow is the least scary in my opinion. Visitors get a pair of 3-D glasses to experience all the effects, and the theme is evil clowns and their acts.
Clown laughter can be heard everywhere, and there are bright lights in otherwise dark halls. Unless someone has a fear of clowns, Sinister Sideshow is the best house to start at because it is open early and the other haunted house build up from there.
Catacombs is slightly more spooky than Sinister Sideshow, and I really enjoyed the jump scares throughout this haunted house. Scare actors in this one are dressed as zombies.
As described in the map I received upon entering, Catacombs allows visitors to “visit the realm of the undead, and the corpse-laden corridors of those who came before you!” This was the shortest haunted house, and it is promising for a quick scare.
The Pleasant Screams haunted house takes the fright level a notch higher, as it is the longest haunted house they have. In this one, visitors enter a mysterious sleep research facility named Pleasant Dreams with patients at every corner.
Throughout this one, there are tables with mannequins and a few scare actors at each turn who are dressed as mental patients. There is a lot of torn clothing, red dye to represent blood and towards the end there are some obstacles to get through, such as hanging mannequins.
This one is one of my favorite haunted houses because it is definitely scarier than the others, and I never expected when the people were going to jump out at me. It was also the most realistic as there were actors in cages and tables that were climbing and chasing after our group.
The last haunted house, Eternal Darkness, is my other favorite. This one is different than the others because there are not many scare actors, as the focus of this is to find one’s way out in the dark.
I expected there to be some lights, but I actually could not see anything once inside and we had to feel around for the exits into the following rooms which was very entertaining. The rooms were not only dark, but also very foggy which really made the experience of getting lost in a haunted house come to life, making this enjoyable even if there weren’t many explicit scares.
The haunted trails weren’t as scary as the houses but added to the spookiness of the night as I had to walk through Photosynthesis many times to get to the other side of the park. One of my favorite things about Zombiezi Bay was that the scare actors aren’t only confined to the houses, but some of them actually roam around and sneak up on visitors, so no place was safe!
I went into Zombiezi Bay thinking it would be a mild fright level, but I was definitely screaming at certain sections so it is definitely worth giving a try if you are interested in haunted houses. I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars as it isn’t extremely terrifying, but perfect for a spooky night with family or friends.
