www.midnightproductions.com
Baton Rouge Louisiana
Midnight Productions operates two haunted attractions in Baton Rouge. While the attractions sit across the street from each other, The only thing they have in common is the ticket booth. Each attraction is a fully themed full-sized haunt. I mention this to differentiate this attraction from some of the others which are made up of a series of mini-haunts designed to extract the maximum cash for the minimum experience.
I arrived in time for the 8pm show. The queue line wraps twice around a graveyard scene so there are probably 500 people that get to see this theatrical event in the round. The story line of the show is that a voodoo priestess wants to raise the dead in the graveyard and calls upon a deamon for assistance. What ensues is a cross between a Hawaiian fire dance and circus side-show. The show ends with all the dead rising and escaping into the graveyard. We later meet these characters as scare actors in the attraction.
Groups of 6 or so are metered into a stairway that leads underground (really underground) after a short stint in the catacombs you spend the rest of the haunt walking through a replica of an above ground Louisiana graveyard. The graveyard is populated with above ground crypts arrange in such a way to form a maze like path. This is a brilliant bit of design as it allows high volumes of visitor traffic but tends to break up line of sight. With all the twists and turns, the actors and animatronics have a chance to reset between groups. This provides an environment where you can be caught off guard and scared or startled.
There were a couple of unique effects I like in particular. They have a what I think is a horizontal scissor prop with a live actor on the end. The effect is to propel an actor 6 feet or so out of a crypt towards the visitors. Pretty impressive. I also really liked the hollowed out statue of a large standing angel that rotates 180 degrees to expose the actor inside.
Set design was excellent throughout. The actors were experienced and enthusiastic. All in all a good time was had by all. Well worth the $20 price of admission. A great deal if you can catch the fire show on Fri/Sat.
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