As a huge combine with jagged teeth on its blades bears down on your haywagon at the Springboro Haunted Hayride, the Covington “cut in the hill” at rush hour suddenly doesn’t seem so bad anymore. It’s only the last of a gauntlet of vehicles, ranging from a flame-belching quasi-hearse with zombies leaning out of the windows to a monster truck that threatens to ram the wagon into oblivion. Even the Headless Horseman shows up, galloping alongside and attempting to pluck hauntgoers from their seats.
The Hayride is spiced with sets that showcase impressive pyro effects. The Psycho Circus has an elegant 1920s German Expressionist vibe and, just so things don’t get too arty, an outhouse disgorges an army of down-home boys that clamber aboard, presumably looking for someone to squeal like a piggy. Make sure to sit at the rear of the wagon for maximum enjoyment.
The Black Bog is big on “atmos-fear” and traditional scares. The attraction underwent some major additions during the summer, including a lengthy cave that emerges into a mine. A western town features a brothel and a blood soaked barber shop. There are haunted wells, toxic waste dumps, trailers with dot rooms, a vortex tunnel, a schoolbus containing a pillar of souls, open crypts, graveyards and, yes, even the infamous Room of Bunny Death. The Hellevator comes early and is the high point, bucking and thrashing like a shorted-out mechanical bull. Too bad we never got to meet Satan like the Hellevator operator promised.
THE WAIT
: Lines can be long, running up to two hours. The trek through the Black Bog takes about 25 minutes and the Hayride 20.
DETAILS
www.springborohauntedhayride.com
THE DAMAGE
CITYBEAT RATING : PG-13 (Haunted Hayride), R (Black Bog)
