Screams

Screams is located in Waxahachie on the Scarborough Faire grounds and features four haunted houses, a maze, a graveyard trail, a children's area, numerous food vendors, a tavern, several rides and games, Scaryoke, Halloween themed merchants, as well as the independently operated Trail of Terror. At $19.99 Screams is the best value in Texas. It's definitely a place to spend an entire evening. Due to lines I advise arriving early and going to the haunted houses first, then enjoying the vendors, merchants, and entertainment.

My favorite Screams attraction is the Black Hole due to it's mixture of Old West, swamp, Egyptian, and traditional haunted house scenes. The Black Hole is an outdoor trail winding through the various scenes. It's a fun attraction and the actors do a good job of surprising the visitors, plus there are several large animatronic props along the way.

The 3-D Funhouse (Terror Visions in 3-D) is my second favorite Screams attraction and features an assortment of images, props, and actors in neon, designed to be viewed with the 3-D glasses provided to you at the entrance. The animatronics are especially good and the actors have good timing. This is a funhouse so the actors are mostly clowns, though a few others are hidden throughout the house.

Castle of Darkness is Screams largest haunted house and has the most detailed scenes, best props, and the largest number of actors. The line for the Castle becomes extremely long so this is usually my first stop early in the evening. The Castle is the favorite attraction among people looking for a traditional haunted house experience.

Arcane Asylum has mostly laboratory and medical experiment gone wrong scenes. The Maze of the Macabre has been changed this year and is larger with more props and actors. I had a difficult time finding my way out and I've been in a lot of mazes. The actors do a good job of keeping pressure on people as they try to find the exit.

The Graveyard is always one of my favorite places at Screams with it's animatronics, hearses, decorated buildings, and a few well places actors. It's nice to walk through the Graveyard a couple of times to catch all of the detail.

In addition to Screams haunted attractions, there is an independently owned and operated haunt on property called Trail of Terror, which is reviewed and scored separately.

At least half of the fun of going to Screams is the festival atmosphere and the grounds are full of various Halloween oriented merchants, food and drink vendors, as well as rides and games. The Taboo Tavern offers alcoholic beverages and Scaryoke contests are held nightly. Among the merchants, Unique Designs stands out. Beautifully crafted figurines (dragon and sorcery themed) and lithograph t-shirts and tank tops are offered. The merchandise if first rate and Terry (the owner) is happy to answer your questions. Among the games the tomato throw is great. A comedian with his head sticking out of a building taunts guests as they try to hit him with their tomatoes. The guy is funny and the crowd has a great time with him. Tower climbing, a giant slide, rune reading, face painting, psychics, video games (some classics), wax hands, a souvenir shop, temporary tattoos, knife throwing, and two rides are also available.

I see every haunted attraction in North Texas and after the review season I back to my favorite places. Out of all of the area haunts, Screams is the only place I go back to twice. That should tell you how good it is.