Rottentail's Revenge

Horror in the Springtime? What’s the meaning of this? Well, it’s a chance to sneak an article in before the Fall, all while padding the numbers before I reach article #50 and force myself to finally finish the one on POGs. Of course that would mean that I’d have to do it before the Halloween proper articles, so I might be setting myself up for failure. But what else is new? I’m also going to double dip and add this to the Halloween Haunt reviews. Work smarter, not more ethically. I think that’s how the saying goes…

So last October, I hit up a few haunted houses out in the southern Connecticut area during my month-long binge of road trips and eventual 4-figure credit card bills come the next billing cycle. One of them was Fright Haven, a location that I hadn’t visited until then due to its somewhat lengthy drive distance. I had paired it with another stop in order to make use of the drive, which is often needed when you spend five hours in the car plus another hour of lines all for fifteen minutes of walking through the actual haunt.

During the queue, there were a few posters for off-season events. Christmas and Valentines are common and shared with Fright Kingdom up in New Hampshire. We made a note to try and visit again, so once Easter rolled around, it became time for Rottentail’s Revenge.

I admit that Haunted Easter doesn’t come off in great taste, despite the common theme of rising from the grave. However being the day before Easter, I can write it off as just some twisted rabbit fun. In another universe, I’m sure the Trix Rabbit was destined to snap and murder the children who keep him from his long desired cereal. But they were only trying to prevent him from unneeded ingestion of maltodextrin and GMO flour; they were the unsung heroes all along.

So, no Trix rabbits here though, just a malformed one that offers a photo op, and a bloody—yet cuter—one that gives you hard candy. Or maybe drugs. The remainder of the actors were traditional ghouls with glowing ears and another with some choice prosthetics that bumped into me and necessitated a follow-up letter to the Title IX department.

Oh, and the carrot man. We can’t forget the carrot man. I only saw him outside, but that was all I needed.

The general haunt was similar to the one during Halloween, being a haunted hotel, with a brilliant wonky elevator start. You’re ‘checked in’ by the bellhop and then the elevator crashes, and you exit out into a maze of hotel rooms. Some are separated by walls, and others with stacks of luggage, so the divisions are creative.

For the first half, it was smooth sailing, and we were able to take out time. Then we started to bump into the group ahead of us since they had a baker’s dozen and couldn’t seem to walk faster than the undead doing the haunting. We tried to purposely slow down, but then the group behind us started to encroach, likely blaming *us* for the slowdown. If they only knew…

There were a few other unique features in the haunt, like a collapsing crossway. It took us by surprise last October, but the cattlecar effect made it trigger for the group ahead of us (as did pretty much every other motion activated trigger). It did have the effect of resetting as we walked on it, so that was something, I suppose.

Then it was over and three hours of driving awaited to get home. There was a merch shop with the usual t-shirts and leggings, but I have enough swag from all the other events I’ve been to, of which I’ve worn them a grand total of never. Overall it was fun, but probably better to do later towards closing when there isn’t other people you’re going to crash into.