Get close to nature on a long-overdue vacation to die for in these notoriously haunted woods.
A Petrified Forest is an event that runs sixteen select nights between October 4, 2019 and November 2, 2019, every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday including Halloween night itself. Wednesday, October 16th is a dedicated Special Needs Night, where the cast of A Petrified Forest caters to those guests who benefit from additional assistance – a wonderful gesture of kindness that extends the haunted attraction industry to those who may not otherwise be able to experience it on a regular operating night. On October 30th, Total Eclipse night takes over, where guests wander through the woods in pitch black darkness, with no lights what so ever, and only a single small glowstick to illuminate your path. A Petrified Forest features three different haunted trails, as well as occasional entertainment and roaming monsters in a very “Northeastern Fall Festival” flavored atmosphere brought to the heart of Central Florida.
Note that while there is no parking available at the venue, A Petrified Forest has partnered with several neighboring businesses to offer free use of their lots on event nights. Parking in the Adjectives Market lot will gain guests access to a free Terror Trolley that will whisk you away to the event – and better yet, a few scareactors may just join you for the ride, and taunt people walking down the public street along the journey!
For the first time, A Petrified Forest has a bona fide icon character, and with him comes a unified theme of the event’s three haunts. The Forest Traveler has arrived, and he’s here to guide tourists to the vacation of their nightmares. Each haunt represents a ‘vacation destination,’ and they all come with their own… unique… amenities.
Island of the Dolls
Travel to an exotic island where the natives are real dolls…
Who doesn’t love a vacation to a tropical paradise? Oops, we’re being told this island is actually a cursed swamp full of demon dolls come to life. Well, no refunds from this travel agency.
On paper, pairing “swampy voodoo” with “creepy dollhouse” is a really odd choice – but through its execution, A Petrified Forest proves just how effective it can be. Without question, Island of the Dolls is a haunt unlike any other, with a completely unique theme brought to (after)life in the most perfect of outdoor settings.
Voyages to the Island of the Dolls begin in the most bizarre of fashions – with a ride. That’s right; travelers board an old wood swamp boat, and quite literally ride it down the rails a short distance to the island’s dock. From there, the jungles make way for a massive man-made lake, surrounded by high rock-cliff walls, brought to life by a roaring waterfall.
The trail itself helps bring Island of the Dolls to life, with unnatural ramps up and down, tilts and even trees organically growing through it in parts. Their heavy branches block the way, creating narrow clearances that require ducking to squeeze through. A full scale shack façade is left abandoned in the center of the island’s swamp, beckoning those brave enough to cross its dock-like porch to enter the demented dollhouse lurking within.
The Island’s inhabitants are an appropriate mix of swamp people, voodoo practitioners and even dolls who may just be a little too lifelike. The dark forest setting allows for unexpected scares, enhanced by a very energetic cast making this our favorite Deadly Destination.
The Slaughterhouse
Enjoy a 4 Star restaurant that’s sure to be your favorite place to DIE-ne…
What vacation is complete without a visit to a blood-soaked compound full of backwoods hillbilly cannibals? Well, this one sure won’t be, whether you want it or not.
A dinner reservation for the renowned Steakhouse instead makes travelers the main course of The Slaughterhouse. They say ‘you are what you eat,’ but here, you are what they eat. An ominously enthusiastic cast brings this world of bloodthirsty hillbillies to life in a truly threatening way, stalking their guests (or is it their dinner?) as they stumble through the woods, in and out of their filthy shacks, aboard an abandoned school bus and even through an actual living cornfield.
The constant flow in and out of shacks creates a genuine sense of running through a real life horror movie, hopelessly trying to evade the killer. At times lit only by moonlight piercing through the branches above, The Slaughterhouse is your worst nightmares come to life.
Appropriately, the main course brings wishful diners through the kitchen, well-stocked with freshly severed body parts, before leading them into the Steakhouse restaurant itself. Tables are set for a fine meal, but unfortunately your name isn’t on the reservations list; it’s on the menu.
Human Experiment
End it all at the hottest spa resort on earth…
An eclectic mix of sci-fi and forest hillfolk, Human Experiment has a distinctly different flavor from the other two Deadly Destinations. Beginning by being seated on a bench outside the façade, the wall quite literally spins vacationers into the first scene, or, the first experiment, as it were. A foreboding medical office, staffed by a doctor with devilish intentions does a quick examination and gives his findings.
Once free of the doctor, travelers journey through the halls of this freakish facility, set both indoor and outdoors in the surrounding woods. Each scene exposes one of the many tactics these make-shift mad scientists have employed to experiment on human test subjects, willing or not.
If you think one would need to be insane to take part in a Human Experiment, this ‘luxury spa’ has that option covered as well. Padded cell walls offer a claustrophobic sense of danger, enhanced to the extreme by actors defying gravity itself by walking across them.
Though it may not be Europe’s most relaxing Luxury Spa, Human Experiment offers a bold and unique thematic canvas for A Petrified Forest to create new nightmares.
A Petrified Forest uses a color-coded system as a sort of virtual queue for each of their haunts. This allows travelers to explore the common areas of the forest clearing and take in a bit of occasional entertainment or food instead of spending large amounts of their visit standing in queues. We found this operational choice to work quite well, and even on a decently crowded evening, our waiting times almost always felt pleasantly brief.
For nearly fifteen years, A Petrified Forest has been a hidden gem in Central Florida’s haunt scene. With its trails almost exclusively outdoors, through the the actual over-grown woods, there’s something visceral about this experience that makes it more than a little bit unique. There’s an aura about A Petrified Forest that’s just distinctly different from other haunts. It’s very homemade – in the best possible way – not as a slight to its quality, but as a compliment to the clear passion behind its crew. We have great respect for the fact that this venue actually has deep roots to a time when it actually was a home haunt, free for the neighborhood at the owners’ residence nearby.
This is not the event to visit looking for massive budgets and grandiose Hollywood-quality sets, costumes or make-up. But once you’re inside, none of that matters.
The forest setting this event embraces is very real – and from the moment you step between the trees you become instantly lost. You won’t be seeing any surrounding buildings or roads. There are no passing cars. More importantly, there’s none of the endless, crowded conga lines of people found at the big theme park haunts. Here, it’s just you in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night, and what results is a genuine sense of vulnerability.
But A Petrified Forest is far from a low-tech affair. There’s some truly clever things hidden in those woods, including the aforementioned – albeit short – ride portion to one of their haunts. I mean, who does that?! At times, you may even find actors swinging towards you down zipline-like cable, allowing the scares to come from all sides and above. The cast goes the extra mile to stay in character, and while some certainly rely on the more clichéd “boo!” scare, there are many others who embrace their roles and interact on a personal level, delivering themed dialogue that draws guests even deeper into their wicked world.
Another rather unique feature is the nightly ability to purchase (for a very low price) a Backstage Tour. On it, a member of A Petrified Forest’s team will guide you behind the scenes of both houses, have a private Q&A session with a monster and hear stories of not only how the effects and scares are achieved, but also on the history of the event as a whole. But without question, the highlight for most will be the opportunity to actually become a scareactor. After some brief training and safety rules are addressed, Backstage Tour guests are allowed to actually be placed in one of the two haunts and given the opportunity to scare other paying guests as they pass by!
The “hometown feeling” this event creates makes it easy to understand how A Petrified Forest has been lurking in the Central Florida woods for so many years. The intimate nature of the haunts creates a mood difficult to find elsewhere, and their forest setting alone is guaranteed to plant a seed sure to grow into a favorite Halloween tradition!
You can find an extended photo gallery from our night at A Petrified Forest in this exclusive album on the Escape Authority Facebook page! While there, why not give us a “LIKE” if you haven’t already? We’ll give you candy!
Show your support for Escape Authority and get social with us:
Venue: A Petrified Forest
Location: Altamonte Springs, FL
Dates: Select Nights October 4th – November 2nd
Hours: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm (ticket booths) with haunts closing at 11 pm.
Cost: $20 per person for two trails admission / $25 per person for all three trails admission / $35 for VIP admission including Backstage Tour. Other combo options are available. Total Eclipse nights cost extra. (*Note that on-site ticket booths are cash only, though an ATM is available.)
We thank A Petrified Forest for inviting us to experience this haunt. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.