Field of Screams review: Haunted hayride, sinister spectacle dazzle at ultimate ‘scream park’
Field of Screams — an independently run Halloween attraction in Pennsylvania — is a must-see, especially for the Haunted Hayride.
By Ricky Brigante
Pennsylvania is full of legendary independent haunted attractions, but the one that truly lives up to the moniker of “scream park” the most is undoubtedly Field of Screams.
What and where is Field of Screams?
Located just outside Lancaster, Penn. around 1.5 hours from Philadelphia, Field of Screams has now impressively entered its 32nd spooky season with no sign of slowing down.
Much more than a mere collection of haunted houses, Field of Screams is an entire evening of eerie entertainment. While its parking lot may be a dusty field and its location initially feels like stepping onto a middle-of-nowhere farm, once you arrive at its ultra-polished entrance, you quickly realize this is a haunt like no other.
Field of Screams feels like a farm because it is. Corn Cob Acres was founded by Gene and Jim Schopf and still exists today. But during spooky season, the brothers dedicate themselves to ensuring more than 100,000 visitors each year witness a Halloween spectacle that’s sure to blow their minds.
What to expect
The sprawling sinister adventure begins at the fire-lined entrance leading to a midway in the round, which serves as a hub for concessions, creepy carnival games, five-minute escape rooms, a stage with rotating live bands, and plenty of shopping and photo-ops. It’s an overwhelming (in a good way) introduction to the frightful festivities ahead. You could easily spend 30-60 minutes enjoying this area alone.
Strategically located around the hub are the entrance facades to three haunted houses and Field of Screams’ legendary Haunted Hayride, where the whole experience began with humble beginnings back in 1993. From there it grew over the years, adding the “Den of Darkness” haunted house in 1995, “Frightmare Asylum” in 2002, and “hal Wasteland” in 2013.
Across these main haunted attractions, Field of Screams employs 100-200 actors each night, each of whom is beyond energetic, passionate, and eager to scare the life right out of you.
For anyone who’s only familiar with haunts in warehouses and theme parks and has never been to a farm-based haunt before, Field of Screams will absolutely blow your mind.
Haunted Hayride at Field of Screams
The Haunted Hayride is easily the star of the show. It’s like a theme park dark ride blown up to a massive scale.
Passengers climb onto and sit down on a hay-lined trailer, pulled by a tractor across the 20+ minute experience of nearly nonstop surprises and thrills. Though entirely safe, it feels like there are no rules as massive scenes unfurl around you from all sides — especially overhead — with clanging metal, massive flames, and unfathomable scale.
Actors seem to appear from nowhere and they aren’t afraid to not only get up-close and personal, but also touch you as well. Across scenes where you stop for several minutes and appear to be trapped within various themed barns and other wildly imaginative structures, the ghouls leap up onto the trailer with you as wild sounds, music, and lighting erupt — along with other special effects we won’t spoil here — making it nearly impossible to predict what will happen next.
One minute you’re on the wrong end of of a pig slaughter, the next surrounded by toxic waste, only to find yourself amidst a hilariously backwoods shootout, just to name a few choice moments. It is by far one of the most unapologetically over-the-top Halloween experiences you’ll find.
Haunted houses at Field of Screams
Jim Schopf admits the hayride often takes top honors from each night’s guest feedback. But depending on who you ask, “Den of Darkness” or “Frightmare Asylum” may top the list of the three haunted houses on any given night. They’re equally impressive, in entirely different ways.
If we had to make local Pennsylvania haunt comparisons, “Den of Darkness” is most similar in theme to Bates Motel while “Frightmare Asylum” naturally bares resemblance to Pennhurst Asylum. But these comparisons stop in theme alone.
Across both haunts, Field of Screams makes a point to pulse guests in small groups, which certainly heightens the horror.
‘Den of Darkness’ haunted house
“Den of Darkness” is its own unique horror show, sending guests traversing four floors that feel like a labyrinth to get lost in. It doesn’t take long for this haunt to hit maximum velocity, thrusting guests into a whirlwind of intense, in-your-face moments that feel like you’re venturing deeper into a nightmare that just keeps going more and more horribly wrong.
There’s not a single moment of calm to be found in this 10-15 minute walkthrough, a nonstop onslaught of performers appearing from the most unexpected places with environments that constantly distract you with larger-than-life animated props. Be ready to travel up and down stairs, duck, and even crawl to your doom. This one leaves you breathless.
‘Frightmare Asylum’ haunted house
“Frightmare Asylum” begins with an equally relentless set of frantic moments. But this one seems to keep turning up the gross-out factor as you push further into something that transcends a classic asylum theme and becomes your own personal land of confusion.
It plays out after one scene pretends to inject you with a drug that serves as the only explanation for what feels like a series of hallucinations ahead. This one deserves oh so many trigger warnings including intense strobe lights, prolonged darkness, clowns, (fake) insects, needles, and blood.
‘Nocturnal Wasteland’ haunted maze
If Field of Screams has a weak point, it’s “Nocturnal Wasteland,” an outdoor maze that is strangely serene at times, or at least in comparison to the rest. It’s some kind of cross between “Mad Max” and a children’s playground, sometimes feeling like traversing St. Louis’ famed City Museum with all its gnarled metal walkways. But while the views are exciting — especially the high-up peek down onto the Haunted Hayride — the scares are few and far between across this strange zone.
Behind the scenes at Field of Screams
For all the crazed terrors that guests experience at Field of Screams, its backstage areas are anything but unruly. Schopf led us on a quick trip through their costuming and makeup departments at the end of the night, revealing how they keep this chaos perfectly organized.
Every role has a laminated photo card that shows exactly how that character should look. An actor uses it to get their assigned combination of clothing, mask, and faux weapon or hand prop. For those without masks, there are different degrees of makeup applied, with prominent characters arriving sooner and getting more time in the chair than some performers who simply apply black paint around their eyes.
This backstage area is also home to a tribute to Field of Screams’ past, which depicts photos of its major milestones through the years. It’s a brilliant reminder to how far this unique place has come in more than three decades of evolution, which began so long ago with simple props and sets that would today be easily outdone by a few purchases at Home Depot.
To keep impressing visitors, Field of Screams invests upwards of $200,000 annually into improving the experience — and it shows. Among its more recent additions are custom, plasma-cut metal “murals” that depict an overview of each of its key attractions, serving like twisted, rusted movie posters on the way in.
Field of Screams tickets
With so much to see, do, and live through, the only visitors who might leave Field of Screams with any regrets might be those who don’t buy the VIP upgrade to jump ahead in the lines — which can get brutally long as the season goes on, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.
Pricing ranges depending on the date, but even the busiest days offer admission to all four attractions for just $55, with the VIP pass adding $30 per ticket — extremely reasonable for the impressive level of spectacle to be found here, year after year. Early in the season, pricing is as low as $40 for the attractions and just $15 for VIP, so it pays to jump into the Halloween spirit soon.
Even after so many years, it’s clear the Schopf brothers still love what they do. They remain hands-on, excited to welcome visitors every night into this remarkable place of peril that they began. Unquestionably, Field of Screams should be added to any horror fan’s must-see experiences without delay. Be ready to lose your mind.
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