Sunday, October 7, 2007

Haunted Attraction Review: Bayville Screampark










RATINGS
Theme: 2/5
Effects: 4/5
Execution: 2/5

Atmosphere: 1/5
Value: 3/5
Total Rating: 2.5/5 - Average

Location
: Bayville Screampark
8 Bayville Ave.
Bayville, NY 11709
516-62-GHOST
Website: http://www.bayvillescreampark.com/
Pricing: Above Average (13.50 for one, 33.50 for all 4)
Recommended Age Group: 13+ (Nighttime)

Attractions:
Bloodworth Manor - Haunted House
The Curse of the Zombie Pirates - Haunted Walk / Converted Mini-golf Course
Uncle Needle's Funhouse of Fear in 3-D: 3-D Haunted House
The Temple of Terror: Haunted Labyrinth

PHOTOS: Unavailable (Photography Prohibited)

This is our first "official" review, and it is an interesting one. We are LI residents, and are very familiar with most of Long Island's haunted attractions; however, neither one of us had ever been to Bayville Screampark before. To say the location is very good is to give it too much credit; on the other hand, to say it is mediocre would not do it justice.

Screampark is an adventure park modified for the season. It has an appropriate selection of daytime activities, but our interest in it rested solely on what happened come nightfall. Due to the nature of the park, as well as its location (amidst a set of storefronts in the middle of an upscale suburban neighborhood) make for poor fare when it comes to setting the mood for fear. In addition, the park only really transforms the contained attractions and its ticket booth, doing little for the areas between attractions; the result of this is a somewhat disjointed feeling in between scares, as you journey from an often well-crafted amusement to an unadorned walkway, and it does little to help the illusion of terror.

That said, the attractions themselves are pretty well put-together. The two houses are rather good, and even lacking any music whatsoever, they manage by visual and sound effect alone to put together a little scare. The gore is sparsely spread, but when you get it, it comes in buckets. The most memorable moment of the locale comes in a room littered with body parts of both man and pig, while ear-shattering porcine whines pollute the air around you, and a knife-wielding butcher bathed in blood comes running out from a side door. In all, the houses outdid the other attractions, and some of the tactics used are an acquired taste. We personally enjoyed the overwhelming calm of the Temple of Terror, put together with repetitive ornaments that enhance the labyrinthine disorientation, and no actors whatsoever for the first two-thirds of the attraction, followed by a comparable mob of monsters near the end. The funniest moment of the night goes to a point in the labyrinth where we ran into another group of hopelessly lost wanderers, and we all managed to scare the hell out of each other.

Unfortunately, the labyrinth is not the only place you get lost, and that's a bad thing. The Execution score above suffers from the houses' mislabeled and confounding walkways, which will just as easily lead you accidentally to a behind-the-scenes portion of the house as they will to the next room. This results in a lot of backtracking, and really dulled the effect of the rest of the attraction. The other issue was with line design. It is understandable that big lines form in vastly populated areas like LI, and this is no fault of the house; however, the design of the houses allowed for too many people to be crammed into the lobbies, shoving impatiently as they snake around the same tiny, cramped room, listening to the master of the house give his prerecorded welcome/warning about twenty times before mercifully being allowed to walk.

In the end, Screampark does what it can with what it has; it gives a decent scare or two using spots that are not really meant for that purpose. The actors are pretty good and the balance of actors to mechanical scares is only slightly off. The problems are mostly in the park's inability to hold its own theme and atmosphere, its somewhat disorganized design, and slightly inflated ticket pricing. I would recommend this one only as a last resort, when you're on LI with nothing to do and a few twenties burning your pocket; otherwise, steer clear and look for something with a little more bite.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

screw the scream park. the bayville haunted firehouse has been puting on its show for almost 15 years now and every year there are new rooms new actors and more creative machines. ten dollars a head and goes towards a good cause. stick to the originals and not the commercialized

Anonymous said...

I think the Scream Park is great. Where else is there such a professinal attraction with 5 different attractions and a lot of deatil. I thought everthing was great. I go to all the attractions I have not seen any better.

Anonymous said...

Best Haunted houses on Long Island for sure. So much to do and it is a real professional park.

Anonymous said...

I agree with oohjeezer, the Bayville firehouse is much better. I've been in just about all other haunted attractions on long island and I still find the Bayville firehouse the best. The people there are interactive and each room is distinct and very well designed. The scream park's attractions are forgettable-typical scenes that are done in less pricey attractions. Commercialized, as ohjeez said. Spend 12 dollars at the firehouse(and any other attraction that uses its profit for a cause) and know it's not going to some corporation making money for themselves.

Anonymous said...

baybille scream park is the best.
i went there like to weeks ago with my friend.
its soo scary and fun. i went inn uncle needles and bloodworth mannor.
i wannted to go on evil in the woods and stuff but i didnt get a chance! Bayville screampark is the best screampark on longisland! i really recomond going there!

Jessica said...

10/19/08
Last night we went to this park, with 4 pple total. I have gone the past 2 years this would have been my third. The park itself was great the past two...very scary and worth it. HOWEVER last night it was 40 degrees with wind from the beach blowing up (we were freezing) we got on line at 9:30 and at 12 MIDNIGHT we got to a register to SIMPLY PURCHASE A TICKET to enter the park. After the LONG FREEZING 2 hr wait they told us we could no longer purchase the "speed pass" and we would have to wait on the lines for each attraction once we entered (which was an easy hour, hour and a half). I was FURIOUS to say the least if they would have said that. I would have NEVER waited TWO hours plus to get to the register, just to walk back to the car. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED AT ALL for the crowd that they atrracted this year. You COULD buy your ticket and come back anytime this year to finish up your attraction visits but since they were not allowing you to purchase a speed pass you could not even up grade it during the week or at a later date to not wait on MORE long lines. We had a group behind up come from MASTIC BEACH (about an hour) who did the exact same thing we did, left after a 2 h0ur wait. They really need to update or revamp the ticket purchasing system. It was a waste of time and VERY frustating!!! If you have no problem with EXTREMELY long lines...you will love this park this year.

Unknown said...

don't waste your time and money in this park. it is really, only ONE attraction is decently good, which is the "blood" something attraction, anything else is extremely bad, ridiculous and very dissapointing!. So if you buy your ticket just buy it for that attraction cause it is the only one which does not sucks! There were not enough actors, the "decoration" inside the attractions was not enough, the worst one is "evil in the woods", you make a line to get to a next line that takes you to the next line. once you are in, it takes you 2 minutes to go around the woods and you will find a maximum of 5 actors there! it is extremely bad so please DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY AND TIME THERE, we were a group of 12 people and we were all very dissapointed with this place. they should nto be in business this long, they suck!

Anonymous said...

Bayville Scream Park is the only real Halloween theme park on Long Island. 5 attractions, shows, parades, great food, arcade, full service restaurant and so much to do. We love it.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, this is by far the WORST park i have ever been to!!! We went into all five attractions and each one was WORSE then the other! NOT enough actors at all!! OVERPRICED & HORRIBLE!! Dont waste your time or money!!

Anonymous said...

Everything was way overpriced. The pick two attractions does not even let you pick the two that you want. The House was scary and had alot of different rooms to go into. Yet the Woods one was dissapointing. Would not go there again but enjoyed the House and would recommend it for a one time trip. Oh and the workers in the ice cream shop next door were rude and impersonal if you are going to eat look for something else less pricey with friendly workers.

Anonymous said...

Bayville scream park was great idk what you people are talking about. I went there with my dad and friend last year and the year before and we loved it. It is a bit over priced, but we went on a weekday early so lines werent long at all. It will be cold what do you expect its october by the water, bring a jacket. My personal favorite is the bloodworth manor, its been my favorite for 2 years. Its long, scary, and fun. I also really like the temple of terror because no only are you in a maze trying to figure out how to get out but your also being scared. I also liked the evil woods because it was different. People scared you from trees and followed you. I wasnt really fond of the funhouse of fear because im not scared of clowns, the glasses wouldnt stay on my face, and there wasnt that many actors scaring you. I still havent been in zombie pirates yet, but im hoping to try it this year(:

Anonymous said...

ok for all of you who have been saying that bayville screampark is bad, they have no idea what the people who work there have to do to make it as entertaining as possible. Every day actors come in and put on cheap make-up and fake blood on for 6-8 hours and then go home around 3am, not to mention the people they have to deal with that are complete jerks and drunks. Some of the guests are sketchy and at times mean, so next time you judge this place maybe you should work there and see how much sweat, fake (and real) blood, and tears go into making it run well. Honestly we try our best every year to make it better and better but it won't work if you don't have an open mind and don't just have one set opinion on it, sure you might have to wait on a long line and if you don't have the patience than...GET THERE EARLY. I suggest getting there around 5:00pm because the parade of the dead starts at 6pm but the houses dont open until about a half an hour later, but to avoid the lines you got to get there early. D.R. and Glen and every single worker there just wants you to have a fun time and to get some thrills and scares, they are there to entertain. My personal oppinion is that Bloodworth scared me and was down right creepy, and i don't get scared easily. The best part of the whole thing is that its rated 16th scariest haunted house IN THE COUNTRY and they can't even touch you...now imagine if the actors could...you know you would be scared. I highley recommend you go to Bayville Screampark this October and for many years to come. They are only going to get better :)

Anonymous said...

This park was so scary! i went in the clown fun house 1st! it was a mirror maze so you would see them but have no idea which direction they were running at you! i just kept my eyes closed the whole time. I bought the ticket to go into bloodville manor but i was too scared. My friends went in and said that it wasnt as bad as the fun house! Everyone who is saying that this isnt scary it really is! Dont go there not expecting to be scared it really is terrifying and the actors are scary!Instead of going in bloodville i went onto the treetop adventure thing and that was really fun but also a little scary cuz it was so high up! haha but overall it was very scary