Dementedfx Haunted House

DementedFX is not what I was expecting in terms of a «haunted house». I will break down my experience from beginning to end:
I heard ads for DementedFX on the radio station I listen to daily. Combined with the billboards I saw scattered throughout the Pioneer Valley, I decided it would be a legit place to get scared for Halloween. On top of that, the owners/​creators came on the radio and, in my opinion, bragged about how scary their house was, said that they had invested lots and lots of money in the haunt, etc. All of this fueled my fire and I was super excited to check it out. I purchased my ticket online ($ 20) for Halloween night. I arrived at about 9:40PM (last admits at 11PM).
Getting to and from DementedFX is very simple, and parking at the nearby strip mall is convenient and hassle free. As a note, police officers do patrol the lots, so no public drinking and/​or partaking of illegal substances. The ticket counter was easy to find, and it took only a few moment for them to look at my Eventbrite email and issue me a hard ticket. The ticket counter also has merch for sale, for those interest. The Button building, where DementedFX hosts its haunted house, had a line stretched almost all the way to the door. The line wound around down the handicapped accessibility ramp, then back up toward the entrance. All in all, I’d guess there were 60 – 70 people in line, at least. A distinct odor of urine, cheap beer, and marijuana hung in the air. Many were dressed up for Halloween, and many were at least slightly intoxicated in one form or another.
I got to know a nice couple in front of me, and they offered to let me tag along with them, as I came in alone. When we finally got to the front of the line, I realized that I was lucky to be with the group I was in (they normally do groups of 6 – 7): the group behind me was completely stoned out of their minds. The brief intro was fun, the woman saying «I’m the nicest thing you’ll see for the next 15 minutes.» In reality, she was the scariest! She has a lot of fun with her job. Once the haunt began, I slowly began to realize that this wasn’t going to be the scare I was looking for.
Demented FX relies HEAVILY on animatronic monsters for their scares. The theme for the haunted house was «genetic lab gone awry», and that was followed very well. There were several human interactions, some of which were the zombie types, but others acted as «guides» who were not scary at all. Two humans actually broke character to celebrate when they heard that one of our group had «peed a little» (from someone jumping out at her).
Even in small groups of 6 – 7, the first person would ALWAYS trigger the animatronic monster to pop up, and the rest of us would all be several steps behind. Hence, anyone in the back (of this very small group), would not get to experience any of the scare, especially since many of the human scarers also hit the front of the group. There were certain areas of the haunt that smelled horribly of urine and/​or animals (possibly hamsters?). The positives to this particular haunted house are: the elevator scare, the claustrophobic scare, and the pitch black hallway. The rest of the entire tour was basically the Gremlins meet Disney’s Haunted Mansion/​Tower of Terror: it’s dark and there’s lots of mechanical monsters with flashy lights that pop out and growl at you. There’s no buildup, no suspense, no creepy factor, very little human interaction scare, and the haunt is, in my opinion, very one dimensional.
All of that being said, it is apparent that DementedFX has spent A LOT of money creating this haunted house, and with a $ 20 ticket price, they’re raking in the dough. This haunted house is great for people who get scared by grotesque (animatronic) monsters popping out at them. For those who thrive off the creep, the suspense, the build-​up of terror, this haunt is not for you.