Newberry Cornfield Maze 2011 Review

Newberry Cornfield Maze

Laugh by day....SCREAM by night..

 

Gainesville, FL- We arrived shortly after dusk on a Saturday night. The completely dark and near empty bumpy dirt road that led us to Hodges Farm got us in the mood to be scared that's for sure. We arrived and parked  in a huge lot beside the cornfield, parking was free which was a plus. We got into line and waited no more than 10-15 minutes to purchase tickets. If you purchase tickets online, you can skip the line when you arrive. The cost is $9 for adults and $7 for children 10 & under and an additional $5 for the hay ride. We opted not to do the hayride, though they do have a haunted house which is included with admission. Once inside we made our way to the cornfield as the sound of chainsaws roared in the background.

As we approached the corn maze, we were unable to tell where the entrance or exit was because people were both entering and exiting from the same place. We were told by security it didn't really matter where you did what. This was slightly disappointing since the point of a maze is to enter one way and find your way out through the other. Slightly disheartened, we entered the maze. Immediately we were greeted by a gentleman in a Michael Myers mask and a chainsaw, while we don't scare so easily, others didn't take so well to our greeter and ran past us screaming. This became a main point of frustration with the maze, other people screaming and running by, therefore taking away the element of surprise or fear when you approach the person they are fleeing from. The maze was a letdown in that aspect, as well as the fact that it was very hard to actually get "lost" in the maze. It seemed no matter what you would end up back at the entrance, or exit, whatever it was. We went through once rather quickly and later decided to try again. The second time we did get further into the maze, and even had a few points of isolation from everyone else. One time in particular as we walked, shining our flashlight at the corn around us, looking for one of those chainsaw wielding scare actors, the light landed right on one and he immediately burst from the corn chasing us quite a bit through the maze. That instant of running, slightly scared and hearing a chainsaw roaring behind you, is the feeling we were looking for this whole time. Unfortunately, those instances were few and far between. We never did accomplish the feeling of being lost in the darkness of a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, which was the goal we had in mind. That was a major let down in our opinion.


Haunted House in daylight

We also did the haunted house, as we had read it was 3 times the size it was last year and supposedly that much better. Since we did not attend last year, we cannot compare it to then. We stood in line for about 10-15 minutes and entered the house through a broken down school bus. The house itself was mediocre, we may be biased as we are Halloween Horror Nights fans and the quality of their houses is beyond compare. It did have quite a few scares, some better than others. It was without a doubt a better house than Eternal Abyss, which we experienced at Warehouse 31. It seemed to have more effort put into it than that house and plenty more scare actors. However, it was not worth the amount of time we spent in line waiting, as the house itself was not very lengthy. For the price of everything it wasn't bad, it just could have been better.


Scareactors inside the haunted house


Overall, the corn maze seriously lacked organization, which took away the whole point of going into a corn maze at night to get "lost". Knowing you can turn around and be back at the entrance at any point never allowed you to get that paranoid feeling of being alone in the darkness. Having teens and kids run by screaming also did not help to achieve that feeling. I would suggest designating one point as an entrance and one as an exit, possibly even have a line to enter, spacing people out so as not to feel so stuffed into the maze with other groups of people. I will say we did have a few instances of being alone and getting a great scare from a scare actor hiding in the cut. But having such few of those experiences only left us craving that feeling for the entire duration of the maze. As for the haunted house, it could have been expanded in length and possibly have more elaborate scenes. It was still an enjoyable house, and not a complete disappointment.

We suggest you check it out, but don't have expectations higher than what will be delivered. For the price it's not too bad, but it could always be better. For those not interested in being scared there also was a bonfire and activities for kids.This weekend we will be going to Roger's Farm corn maze in Gainesville, and will review it after and see how it compared to this one!

For more information visit http://newberrycornfieldmaze.com/