Sleepy Hollow 881 Highland Road Newtown, PA 18940   http://sleepyhollowhayride.com/

 

Last year I skipped this haunt because I really thought it was a kids only type of hayride and didn't think much of it. I visited their website and was impressed by the video of their haunted house and had to see it for myself.  After work on a saturday, Rob and I headed up to check out this hayride.  We got there at a decent time for once and I was not scrambling to catch the last wagon.  We were shocked by the large number of cars and customers but, after all, it was a Saturday night.  From the parking lot we kept hearing this super loud maniacal laughing that would echo from a far distance, and we couldn't wait to find out what it was. 

We first rode the hayride and the whole wagon was filled with excited customers in these big wagons that have the large metal sides for actually holding hay, how about that!  We ventured into the first area where there was this magician looking guy in a little shack that was done up like a mini castle foyer, complete with tin knight.  He told us the rules in a comical way by telling us that if we did something wrong we would fall off the wagon, get dragged underneath and die.  He was pretty funny overall and we understood the rules. 

The next scene was inside a barn but it was completely unclear what was happening other then some zombie style actors with little ambition would unhook the dog clip chain, climb into the wagon and mill around.  This same type of behavior would continue for the next couple of scenes and we would struggle to figure out what was actually happening.  I do remember a little town type scene, a hillbilly scene and an ice cream truck scene, but the wagon would not stop and the poor actor or actress would run along the wagon all the while trying to scare you. I do remember a redneck woman run after the wagon and hit it with a frying pan, trying to be intimidating but completely out of breath.  They had a really cool headless horseman that was on a live horse that appeared out of the real fog and rode along side of the wagon.  This was a cool scene and probably one of Rob's favorites.  We also passed a huge pirate ship, which looked impressive but I don't know why they didn't drive the wagon beside it or through it or even made it a ghost ship... because when you think about it, why would a pirate ship be in a corn field?  There was an amazing fake tree cell phone tower way out in the field that actually looks amazing in the night sky but is sadly just part of the landscape. 

This hayride is long and takes you way out in a field.  At this point, a guy wearing a crimson ghost Misfit hoodie is driving a tractor that is shooting fire at the wagon.  Shortly after that scene a guy in a military truck comes out of nowhere and tries to run the wagon off the road.  This is the first time I have seen anyone try this gimmick with a real driver and car, it's usually a fake car or truck that rides at the wagon.  We eventually come to the end and are getting ready to enter the haunted house. 

We follow a trail of lights and lanterns in the path which look neat but would never actually be placed on a farm field but on a street.  They did, however, guide us to the haunted house section.  We waited for a little in a cue line under a big tent where we filled out release forms with our names, because we had to hand them to the ticket guy.  We got to the entrance where a woman asked us to wait at the gate, then to a kid who tells us one of us has no heart beat.  After that, we came to a really cool bridge and classic haunted house right from the cover of a haunted house record.  They did some nice production on the facade, where they used foam and special stucco for the foam and wood they built it out of.  We got to the steps of the house and they took our cards and tickets and we entered the house.  There was a lot going on in the house and it was hard to take it all in because they had people in all the rooms ushering you into different rooms. 

We begin in a parlor of sorts where a woman calls my name she got from the card in secret and hands me a card to give to someone else later. We then get ushered into a conservatory where a guy is there telling us something, then a werewolf comes in and attempts to attack us but he is stopped by the guy and thrown back into the secret door in which he appeared.  We are then lead to a library where a guy is looking up our files and telling us something about our journey.  We move slightly into another area where there is a upper level and a ghost appears at the top of the steps which is a great Disney style peppers ghost illusion and looks really cool.  We are then ushered from room to room where we see various things like a woman controlling a snake and another woman getting angry at us and then turning into a skeleton before our eyes.  

We go into a dungeon type area and then to a room with a wooden box where a girl asks for a volunteer.  I, of course, volunteer and get into the box where I am ushered into a secret passageway to another area where I get to scare the people in my party.  We then go into a creepy basement type area and eventually outdoors where there is an amazing cemetery.  This cemetery is straight out of a movie or a Scooby Doo cartoon, with great gravestones, and mausoleums and fog/mist and creepy iron fence and lights.  We wander around until we come back to the house area and are ushered to a courtyard and to a winding road where we are told to head quickly to the bridge.  We get to the bridge and a giant grim reaper appears and tries to reap us down, that is when you hear the crazy loud maniacal laughter. 

This was the closest thing to a Disney style haunted house I have seen in the area. It was a lot of fun, not really scary in my opinion, but great illusions. Impressive haunted house but average hay-ride, overall worth the visit and I certainly recommend.