Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction 2021 Haunt Review

On Saturday, September 18th, Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction opened their doors to their first unsuspecting victims for the 2021 Haunt Season with the theme “Hallowed Grounds” and the tag line: “Terror Has Awaken”

This haunted attraction has been Augusta, Georgia’s main haunted attraction for as long as we can remember. Ever since we began having a fascination in horror and haunted houses, we always heard about this location, but never were brave enough to enter, having heard a lot of stories that would turn off the bravest of people to this location.

Last year, we decided would be our first experience visiting Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction, and we were pleasantly surprised. The entirety of the time we were at the attraction, there appeared to be no issues. We did not see any signs of the issues we had heard about in years past. Everything appeared to be a fun and scary haunted house and THAT is what we are there for!!

After going through the attraction last year, we were very pleased on what we were able to report.

It was definitely a much better experience than what we had believed we were in for, and this led us to believe that we would receive the same experience again this year. But would we?

Would the things that amazed us last year reappear this year? Would we be left in shock at the detail work of the team? Or would we leave feeling underwhelmed and feel like we were back at square one? There’s only one way to find out…. Time To Break Down….

Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction!!

For this year’s haunt review, we have broken down each haunt that we are visiting into

6 Categories: Sets, Costumes/Makeup/SFX, Technical Effects, Scares, Pacing, and Actors.

Each category is rated on a scale of 1-5 Screams and then averaged out to give an Overall Rating. This new system is to ensure that we are not in any way biased and are giving each attraction that we visit the same fair and equal treatment that they each deserve.

Note: While all of these ratings on this review are based upon our FIRST walkthrough of Plantation Blood this year, we were able to revisit and made note of some things that would have otherwise saved the review in places.

That being said, the Overall Rating at the end will stand based upon the FIRST Walkthrough, but please be sure to read our notes throughout about our second journey through.

With this new system in mind, let’s break down each of our 6 Categories for Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction’s 2021 Haunt!!

Initial Thoughts – Upon arriving at Plantation Blood, you are left slightly underwhelmed, and yet still curious about what lies in store for you behind those tall, dark fences. Around the entire perimeter of the Midway, there is a large fence blocking the insiders from seeing the outside and vice versa. This can often lead people to think “What in the world is inside?” but all they need do is read the large, poorly painted and poorly lit letters on the side of the fence to find out. The words read “Plantation Blood” – At least you realize that when you get close enough to actually read them. If you try to read them once it’s dark outside, you might as well give up.

Once you get inside, you are revealed to have entered this different world. There is a stage with bands playing some nights, there are booths with things being sold, there’s a concession stand, and of course, there is the line to enter the haunted house. It definitely is a party once you get inside, but you wouldn’t know that from outside the fence. All you can see from out there is the fog drifting over the top of the fence and the various lights that can be seen, usually some greens, blues, or reds.

This year for the queue portion, the Plantation Blood team set up chain link fences that are about the size of the fence around the property, so you feel like you are inside a prison yard. I am not at all sure why this was done, but it seems pretty stupid to me. They could’ve built a more flattering queue line that didn’t appear like your crowd was going to be locked in cages, and if they did, they could’ve at least changed up the theming out there a bit. The next thing you notice are the walk-around characters scaring the guests. There were about 3 or 4 of them and they were VERY effective. I was actually very impressed with how all they had to was walk towards the guests, and the guests would run for their lives. When I first arrived there this group of guys got so scared they started running all over the place like crazy people and knocked over the hand sanitizing station. It was pretty hilarious.

Sets – 4/5 Screams – The sets that can be found at Plantation Blood are nothing short of amazing. They actually are very well detailed and make you feel like you have entered another world. However, with that being said, when I go to ANY haunted attractions, I expect the theming and detail to be equal all around, and for the most part it was, except for when it wasn’t. There were a couple locations in the haunt where it appeared the set was plagued by either pure laziness or lack of time. One scene in particular comes to mind – The Church scene. At one point of the haunt, you enter into something that you can only guess about what it is. When I entered the room, I thought it was a theatre. Little did I realize they had set up the room to be a church. However, the only thing that hinted that this room was a church, was the fact that the seats were pews. That was not even REMOTELY evident to me and left me confused until the actor in the room mentioned he was performing an exorcism. Thank God he told us where we were. There is also a couple places where you are just going down a series of hallways with very little theming to them. One another thing to note, is that the sets did not really change that much from last year. A majority of what I saw looked EXACTLY the same, but just in a slightly different order. There might have been ONE new scene in the entire haunt. While the sets none-the-less were very good in the majority, we gave it a 4 out of 5 for the reasons we discussed.

Note: Upon going through the attraction a 2nd and 3rd time, we did notice that the church scene did appear to be a lot more detailed inside than we may have originally thought. This being said, I do think Plantation Blood needs to do a better job of establishing the scene QUICKLY, as you only have a limited amount of time in each room to catch your audience’s eye and if that initial grab from the scenery is lost, you then have to depend on your actors to give some background, but if they don’t, the scene is lost. I had to stand in the church scene for a bit longer than I would have normally to take in the room and realize “OH! This is a church!” This cannot happen!!

Costumes/Makeup/SFX – 3/5 Screams – The next thing we are discussing are the costumes for this house. So when we arrived, the monsters out in the midway had some pretty terrific costumes on. We thought that we would be getting a similar effect inside the house as well, and for a majority of it, we did. However, there was one particular scene that left me SO DISAPPOINTED in the costuming, that I could not get it out of my head. Behold!! The Exorcism scene… again!!

As we entered the church scene, an actor came out and told us he was performing an exorcism. “Alright cool.” I thought to myself. Then I took a closer look at this guy’s costume. This dude was literally wearing what looked like a sheet from a clothesline in his backyard and acting like he was a priest. I was so baffled at the lack of costuming on this guy that I thought I was going to ask for a refund right then and there. It was VERY DISAPPOINTING to see this! And then it gets even worse!! In the next room, we run into the person who was being “exorcised”, and she has what looks like a ram mask on (symbol of the devil). The mask did not look very convincing at all, and looked like a pretty poor excuse for a demon. I think they would’ve been better off doing some things with the makeup on the girl here instead of using a costume piece. The costume piece took away from the horror aspect and just made her look kind of silly. Those two mess ups right there made me have to rill part of this rating. While most of the other costumes were pretty decent, this was one thing that I just couldn’t stand for.

Now, on the makeup side of things, not much can be said for the makeup other than it was pretty simple in places. A lot of the actors just had the typical white face makeup and some black streaks across the face and circles around the eyes. Not a whole lot to go off of. But there were a couple of actors who had some pretty good makeup that made them look really creepy and played very well with the lighting and technical effects throughout the haunt. All in all, the Costume/Makeup category scored a 3/5 Screams.

Note: Upon going through a 2nd and 3rd time of the attraction, I did note that the Priest and Exorcised girl had changed their costumes to reflect the scene more appropriately. The priest had the colored stole on so I knew that he was a priest AND he held a crucifix as well. It appeared that they did away with the Ram mask on the girl who was possessed, and hopefully it stays that way. The effect was done much better with the makeup on her instead.

Technical Effects – 5/5 Screams – Technical Effects are becoming more and more impressive with the increase of technology in haunted attractions. These new improvements in technology are making haunted houses even more like true horror films. Plantation Blood uses technical effects to their advantage in some great ways to create a truly immersive and scary experience, depending on some technical effects to illicit the scare from the customer. There are several places throughout the haunt where the floor moves which I think is a very impressive thing to do in a quazi-backyard haunt. It’s very impressive to have sets moving around and doing cool things. There’s places where the walls fall in, and car horns blare in your ears. The lighting is being used in some very creative ways to create really beautiful scenes at times. The fog plays a very intricate role in places and it’s not being overused. And this house EVEN USES WATER in one area. You enter a swamp of sorts, and there is actual water raining from above!! I thought that was a VERY NEAT TOUCH, BUT it did make the ground very muddy and a little slippery, so Plantation Blood should exercise some caution with that effect. However, I’m still going to grant them 5 Screams for it because I thought that the immersion grew with that!!

Scares – 3/5 Screams – The scares are sort of down the middle for me in Plantation Blood as there were a couple that were actually scary, and there were some that were just “eh”. The majority throughout made me jump a little bit, but I don’t think there were too many that made me scream “OH MY GOD!!” which means that you got me GOOD. There definitely several houses I’ve been too where I’ve left screaming throughout. But for the majority of this house, I was busy watching everybody else get scared. Which brings me to an interesting note – At one point of the house, I became separated from my group because they all went running through like a bunch of lunatics. Whenever I got separated, there were only about 2 actors that made a small effort to scare me. It was almost as if the entire experience was put on hold when I was left alone, which to me makes ZERO SENSE. I should still be getting scared whether I am alone or with a group. So I was VERY DISAPPOINTED when I was delivered no scares, and then TOLD BY MANAGEMENT, that I wasn’t going to get scared if I was alone. So for those reasons, the scares are only going to be 2 out of 5. Now I know some will say that everybody is different in terms of scares, but I will actually jump at jump scares if they are done the right way, and in this house they weren’t really done the right way in my opinion. – Note: I did revisit the haunt and got to go through twice on that visit, when I did this, I was able to get all the scares and they were very effective. So Plantation Blood did seem to fix some issues with the scares.

Note: On my 2nd and 3rd walkthrough, I did get A LOT more scares as I went through the attraction. I was able to receive every scare that I was supposed to and most of them were generated very well! There were still a couple that I didn’t get and I will mention that in the Actors/Team Portion of this review.

Pacing – 3/5 Screams – The pacing of Plantation Blood is pretty good, but is not without its flaws either. While each group is sure to get their own individual experience, this leads to some pretty excruciating wait times. The team there makes sure that no two groups will ever bump into each other, and that is a great thing to aim for, but it comes at a cost, and that cost is having a line that barely moves at all. I believe I stood in line for close to 2 hours on the night I went and I didn’t get home till after midnight some time. It was sort of ridiculous how slowly we were being moved into the house, and I believe part of that is the first room of the haunt. In the first room, an actor/actress gives a big spiel laying out all of the rules for you just so that they can get a cheap scare right before they send you into the haunt. In my opinion, this is a waste of assets and time. It would be just as easy to have somebody out at the front of the house give the instructions before you enter and would make things go A LOT fast in my opinion. That is how they did it last year and the line was steady moving last year. The first room really needs to be cut out entirely because it usually has to be timed to what’s happening in there, and unfortunately depending on the group, like the one I was unfortunate enough to go through with, you can end up spending WAY MORE TIME in that first room than you should. For that reason, I think it needs to be cut and the instructions can be given before you enter. No need for a cheap jump scare on a screen. You also feel like you can get rushed pretty easily through this haunt. I timed the haunt with the little flub up that happened and it still only lasted about 20 minutes. That right there tells me that it doesn’t take you very long to get through this haunt and that they are just sort of rushing you through each scene. Now maybe it is different for each group that comes through, but I don’t want to run through a haunt. I want to take everything in and get scared. This can be done while still sending a decent amount of people through at a time. But the speed that I got through and the speeds that I waited in line were entirely disproportional to each other and led to this low rating on pacing.

Note: The pacing was a little bit better this time as they didn’t waste time going for a cheap jump scare in the first room you get into. The young lady just gave the instructions and sent you on your way. This allowed for a much better experience.

Actors/Team – 2/5 Screams – The actors and team that make a haunt come together are the most vital piece of any haunted attraction. If they are not at the top of their game, then the haunt will not be at the top of its game. This can be said for Plantation Blood. Many of the actors in the haunt were committed through and through. I only saw one actress break character and that was whenever I got stranded from the group. I was moving through a section of the haunt and she kind of popped out for the scare, and then said something to the degree of “we lost a group” in the plainest voice ever. It could be the fact that two of the managers were standing right behind me trying to figure out what was going on, but as I was a paying customer in front of an scare actor, I should still NEVER see you out of character. The other grievance I have is that some of the team members at the beginning of the haunt just sort of had this attitude about them. Even the two young ladies that went over the rules had an attitude when I passed them on the way out. It was very clear that the team was not happy about being at this haunt late as I got told that by 3 of the ladies that were letting people into the haunt. They had this attitude about being there late even after I said that it does mean a lot to the haunt fans. Then when I passed them on my way out…. Still had an attitude. Then when I tried to make a joke about me getting stranded to the two girls who went over the rules… they had this “I don’t care” kind of expression and response. To make matters worse, whenever the young ladies were going over the rules, they had ZERO Character. I get they were probably annoyed with the group that I just happened to be with, but if you’re gonna be dressed up and covered in makeup, then you need some sort of character. Don’t just talk in your regular voice. Give me some emotion PLEASE/ I don’t care how late you stay and if you have to be up at 5am… as long as there are paying customers within the walls of your haunt, you need to be 100% ALL THE TIME. This is something that clearly needs to be enforced by management. Then on top of this, there was one actor within the haunt who didn’t have much commitment to his character at all and was very disappointing… Once again, it was the exorcism scene. The actor playing the priest was nothing short of disappointing to me. He seemed like he was just regurgitating his lines for the group, but with very little purpose. Then there was one actor, who I later found out has to operate 3 effects from one spot, who missed his cue on an effect. In the house there is a giant snake head that is to be operated by an actor in a little cubby, but he did all the other effects and neglected to move the snake head. This messed things up for me because one of the actors I passed earlier in the haunt asked if I wanted to meet her pet snake, clearly referring to the one that was lacking operation. Like before… IF YOU ARE IN THE HOUSE YOU NEED TO BE 100% ALL THE TIME!! And that brings me to my final critique on the actors. And once again, I am back to the fact that I was stranded in this haunt. When my group left me, I was under the impression that I would traverse through the rest of this haunt on my own. Like I said before, only two actors even bothered to interact with me. The rest seemed to deem me invisible. In my eyes, THIS IS A PROBLEM!! The fact that I continued going through this haunt and didn’t get but two scares is a BIG PROBLEM!! What’s worse, is they are practically screwing me out of my money!! I should not have had to have been told by the managers to go wait in a certain spot of the haunt to get the scares. The actors in this haunt should be trained to SCARE ANYTIME SOMEONE COMES THROUGH!! I do not care who that person is. I don’t care if it’s the queen, a 6-year-old or 600-year-old. They are there to scare YOU. If I get separated from my group because they acted like a bunch of 2-year-olds, then there should be some sort of protocol in place for the actors to know that I am going to be going through the haunt alone now and that they need to deliver the same show. I SHOULD NOT have to go back to a certain point of the haunt and wait for another group to come along. That is reckless on the part of Plantation Blood’s management and quite frankly just wrong. Honestly, at that point when they told me that, I probably would have been fine going back to my car and leaving without finishing the haunt because honestly I did not get as scared with the group as I would’ve had I just kept going through naturally. Like I have stated time and time again now, if there is a person going through whether it be alone or with a group, THE ACTORS NEED TO BE 100%. They need to give THAT person the same experience that they will give THAT GROUP of people. Otherwise, it is just not working. For those reasons, we gave Plantation Blood a 2 out of 5. We were not satisfied with the attitudes of some of the workers. We were not satisfied with the protocol for being separated, and we were not particularly satisfied with the characters of some of the actors.

Note: On my 2nd and 3rd trip through, the staff had a much better attitude overall. Everybody was a lot nicer and genuinely seemed like they enjoyed working at the attraction. I did not have any issues with the staff on a whole and they were a lot more friendly. I will say, however, that there were still a couple of actors that were slacking on the job and missing some cues in the house.

THIS CANNOT HAPPEN!! This issue needs to be addressed and as long as there are customers in the house and you have been assigned to a certain scare, whether is be 1, 2, or even 3 scares (referring to the Snake Scare again), you need to be on the top of your game and ensure that each person hits each of those scares. There are no excuses!!

Overall Rating: 3.0 Screams

At the end of the day, Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction was not the worst haunted house that we had ever visited, but it certainly was not the best one either. It wouldn’t have killed them to change more things up. After all they had a FULL YEAR to do it! It wouldn’t kill them to train their staff a little bit better. And it CERTAINLY WOULD NOT HAVE KILLED THEM, to MAKE SURE YOUR ACTORS AND TEAM ARE 100% AT ALL TIMES!! If Plantation Blood wants to make it in the haunt game, they better step it up. Because saying that you’re the #1 Haunted House in the CSRA, doesn’t say much when you are the ONLY HAUNTED HOUSE in the CSRA. I was much more impressed as a whole last year, and I do hope that they take this year seriously and fix the imperfections before stealing more people’s money.

Plantation Blood Ticket Info:

You can purchase tickets when you arrive at Plantation Blood, or you can purchase tickets online. All tickets are good for any date in the haunt season.

WEEKEND (FRIDAY & SATURDAY) • General Admission: $25 • Fast Pass: $45 (same on weekdays)

Service Discount (THURSDAY & SUNDAY) • Military, Medical, Police & Firefighters: Bring your ID for $20 General Admission

Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction will be open on select evenings from September 18th – November 5th

Every night the attraction will open at 7:30pm and will remain open until “the last victim” goes through the haunt.

Follow Their Social Media For More Information & To Keep Up With Them:

Facebook: Plantation Blood (@PlantationBlood)

Instagram: @plantationblood

Website: https://plantationblood.com/

Location: 4127 Wallie Drive Augusta, GA 30906

Be Sure To Go Check Out Plantation Blood Haunted Attraction

This Season And Let Us Know What You Think!!

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Until Next Time,

Be Safe Out There,

Don’t Text And Drive,

And Be Excellent To Each Other!

Take Care Everybody!!