Orlando’s newest – and briefest – haunt brings quick scares to the heart of International Drive.
Tunnel of the Damned is a walk-through haunt that takes guests through a 480-foot maze inside the Orlando Forum of Fear. Located in the heart of International Drive, this attraction promises a brand-new experience that will morph several times throughout the month of October, changing from the Tunnel of the Damned into City Overtaken before finally concluding with Apocalypse.
Also offered at the Orlando Forum of Fear is The Dark Séance, which advertises itself as a five-star dinner show filled with the paranormal and otherworldly, guided by a mysterious host who will take guests on a journey to the great beyond.
It’s worth stressing that as of press time, October 26, 2020, the haunt is still running the initial “Tunnel of the Damned” experience, leaving little time, if any, to enact the sweeping changes promised to “morph” into the two other originally promised experiences.
As you stand at the edge of the tunnel you fear that you may become lost. As you gaze forward and hear something screeching just beyond your field of vision, you understand that you may never return. But as you stare into the light emanating from the darkened passageway you know one thing is certain.
The only way out is through.
Operatives receive their mission details from a prerecorded video in a small briefing room at the haunt’s entrance. As is natural for a zombie apocalypse, this is going to be a heavily military-based affair, and the drill sergeant standing guard by the entrance is quick to put any potential troublemakers in their place. Of course, that place is directly on top of any one of the markers on the ground, a safe distance from the rest of their party.
Once inside the tunnel, the story of a desperate battle between the few humans that remain taking on a horde of demons and the undead unfolds. Crews are rushed forward with great urgency by camouflaged soldiers and desperate citizens as zombies lunge out from every direction – sometimes even at their fellow actors.
Just as the action begins to pick up in this world, however, it abruptly ends. While one could suggest that each of the three themes (Tunnel of the Damned, City Overtaken, and Apocalpyse) would string together to create one cohesive story, the reality is that 480 feet took us, on average, just over two minutes to complete, making it difficult to feel like any sort of comprehensive narrative – with a solid beginning, middle, and end.
The sets found within the Orlando Forum of Fear were, for the most part, detailed and believable – especially in the initial tunnel sections.
The haunt is divided into three distinct sections, each seeming to emphasize a certain section of the three promised stories, although it’s important to stress that although each is loosely represented, it would seem as though the sweeping changes that convert Tunnel of the Damned as a whole into two distinctly different haunts was sadly not meant to be.
Guests enter an arched brick tunnel to begin their journey through the Tunnel of the Damned, winding through dim and dirty passages as zombies claw at them from behind sewer grates and fences.
Eventually, the tunnel opens up to a sprawling cityscape, with guests traveling up a short flight of stairs to an abandoned bar, where both owner and patrons alike have obviously met with an unpleasant demise.
Through a junkyard and into an office, operatives find themselves navigating narrow hallways and dodging filing cabinets and chairs before ending their journey through a black curtain and into… a fully operational bar.
With such a small cast and equally small space, the actors of Tunnel of the Damned are often utilized multiple times throughout the haunt, with operatives often traveling by the same characters on two or three sides. This allows for plenty of scares spaced intermittently throughout the experience.
Unfortunately, our experiences throughout our three trips into the Tunnel of the Damned varied greatly, leading us to question what type of quality guests can expect when they go. Our first journey into the haunt came just after opening at 7:00, and we were treated to a variety of scares with every actor seemingly in their place and ready to go. Throughout two more trips over the next half an hour, however, we noticed many actors out of place, out of character, or missing entirely. While it should be noted that everyone is entitled to breaks, of course, it seemed strange to have so many actors already missing barely a half hour into the evening.
That being said, when they’re present, there’s a great mix of scares and interactions throughout the experience. Operatives are guided through the haunt by several actors, some of which meet an unfortunate demise right before our very eyes. While a great interactive part of the experience story-wise, these actors also serve the important purpose of keeping guests moving at a steady pace throughout to maintain both capacity as well as physical distancing.
This is not one of our typical Haunt review sections, but we feel that it’s critically important to address during the 2020 Halloween Season. We understand that a lot of you are still nervous about venturing out this fall, and may have questions about what venues are doing to keep you and your loved ones safe. It is our hope that we can assuage some of those very valid fears in our Health & Safety section of each Haunt Review.
Tunnel of the Damned is an indoor, walking attraction with both physically distanced and up-close scares. Face coverings are required for both guests and scareactors. Many actors are also behind windows or doors to provide further distance from guests.
The venue’s waiting area is outdoors and has plenty of seating to allow for guests to distance themselves from other parties, although physical markers are not present on the seats themselves.
Private groups are limited inside the tunnel and plenty of time is given between each to assure no two parties intermingle. Crowding is not permitted in the haunt, and guests may be stopped to allow for additional time if they get too close to the group ahead.
Tunnel of the Damned begins with a compelling story of a city under siege, inviting guests into detailed environments filled with great scares – when they’re present – but falls short of the bar due to its duration, ending just when guests begin to fully immerse themselves into the experience. We touched on this earlier, but the experience is exceptionally short relative to its price tag. We timed our very leisurely paced walk through the haunt at just 2:17, from the time the preshow video ended and we actually began to the moment we exited into the bar. Comparing this to its $18 price tag makes for a very, very difficult sell.
As of posting this review, the evolutions of this haunt promised by the Orlando Forum of Fear have seemingly not yet occurred. With less than a week left until Halloween, this leaves us concerned about the venue’s ability to deliver on the promises made to patrons and moreover, those promises explicitly made in an attempt to sell annual passes.
If, indeed, the plan to have three different versions of this haunt throughout the season has been scrapped (as it currently seems to be) it’s difficult to feel as though the value of that which was promised truly matches the quality of the product received.
You can find an extended photo gallery from our night at Tunnel of the Damned 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!
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Venue: Orlando Forum of Fear
Location: Orlando, FL
Dates: Tuesdays through Sundays October 1st – October 31st
Hours: 7:00pm – 2:00am
Cost: One-time pass $17.95 | All-day pass $24.95 | Season pass $69.95
We thank Orlando Forum of Fear for inviting us to experience this event. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.