Haunted Attraction Reviewed: Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill
Website: www.kimskrypt.com
Location of Attraction: Spring Grove PA
Date of Review: 9/23/2022
Total Number of Attractions Available: FIVE
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 8.5/10
Entertainment & Food Rating: 9/10
Atmosphere Rating: 9/10
Overall Costume & Makeup Rating: 8/10
Overall Cast & Crew Rating: 8.5/10
Overall Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 8.75/10
Overall Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8/10
Overall Feedback: Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill continues to enhance the experience by leaps & bounds each & every year. Kim & her krew seemingly never sleep, working around the clock to ensure guests receive a refreshed & spooky fun experience each season! There’s a reason Kim’s Krypt is one of the few haunted attractions that we’ve visited annually since our start in 2016. These folks certainly know how to entertain & provide a frightfully fun experience each & every visit.
Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill located in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania boasts FIVE haunted attractions of pure terror! Guests should expect to spend a better part of an evening to fully enjoy all that Kim’s Krypt has to offer. Something unique about Kim’s Krypt is the length of each attraction, as most of them take at least 10-15 minutes each to complete! New for 2022 is a drastically expanded midway, featuring several food trucks, ample seating areas, large merchandise booth, several photo ops, Zombie escape room, games, and hearse + coffin rides! Lots to see & do while outside of the attractions!
For 2022 general admission tickets run for $60, which includes access to all five attractions. For an additional $30 you can upgrade to RIP tickets which gives you front of the line access. New for 2022 is the Kim’s Krypt Season Pass ($399), which gives those avid Kim’s Krypt fans an unlimited opportunity to visit for all yearly events. Also included in the season pass is skip the line access, food vouchers, merch items, & more! There’s still ample time to visit Kim’s Krypt this season, as they’re open every Friday-Sunday from now until Monday October 31st! Don’t forget to come back for Kim’s Kryptmas & Winter Wonderland Trail, which will be hosted December 16th-18th!
We arrived on site around 8pm for what was their 4th night of operation for 2022. We could hear music booming off in the distance, which helped amp up guests as they ventured towards the ticket booth. As usual at Kim’s Krypt, you’ll be greeted by several roaming spooks! Special shout-out to some of our favorites - Trixie, Cookie, & Otis! After snagging our tickets (utilized LocalFlavor for a 50% off deal) we meandered around the property a bit to take in the newly renovated & expanded midway. Eventually we deemed ourselves ready for the madness that lies ahead & set forth for the first attraction of the evening.
Back for 2022 is Dark Despair, a pitch black attraction that’s sure to cause a sense of delirium. Guests are sent into the attraction one by one, or in small groups of 2-3. The attraction doesn’t really feature any sort of set design or special effects, as it’s solely an inflatable pitch black maze with creepy audio in the background. We’d love to see them crank up the audio volume, as that would help to further disorient guests. Some of our crew ventured through Dark Despair with minimal troubles navigating the snake-like paths & dead ends, while others got all twisted around & ended up stumbling out of the entrance thinking they successfully made it through. Unless you’re afraid of the dark, there’s not much in terms of scare factor with Dark Despair… Having a few scare actors lurking in the darkness would certainly help elevate the scare/thrill factor. It was great to see Dark Despair back in action but we’d like to see them find ways to further disorient guests & enhance the scare/thrill factor!
Next up we ventured for The Terror Trail. A solid 15-20 minute adventure through the dark woods & along the Codorus + Oil Creeks! Terror Trail features a plethora of elegantly & uniquely crafted scenes along with a passionate scare team! You’ll journey through an abandoned mineshaft, camp Crystal lake, VooDoo shack, old town general store, bio-hazard wasteland, greenhouse, ghostly graveyard, insane asylum, & much more! Each scene featured unique theming with handcrafted props & clear attention to detail. The scare actors encountered were fully immersed in their roles, providing an equally entertaining & frightfully terrifying experience! Special shout-out to the patient in the insane asylum, this character was borderline deranged & provided a rather sinister encounter. The Hillbilly encounter provided a comical engagement, as he caught us red handed, trying to steal his moonshine. We also have to give major props to the actor in the ghillie/tree costume, as he was lurking in the darkness & frightened our squad multiple times during our journey! As always, the final scene is executed to true perfection, sending customers fleeing for their lives as they race for the exit trying to keep their limbs intact.
Next up we headed for the House of Eyes, historically the most dated & dull attraction at Kim’s Krypt. Throughout the offseason we had been getting reports that the House of Eyes was getting a major revamp, and those reports held true! Dated & dull no more… the House of Eyes delivered a demented & nerve-wracking experience! At least 50% of the attraction was completely revamped with new & more horrifying scenes than ever before! Right off the bat we ventured through a startling library with tipping bookshelves, a crazed librarian, & a painting with glowing eyeballs following us. We traversed through a wide variety of scenes ranging from a gory hospital scene to a dining room with a lunging possum coming from the cabinets. One of our favorite scenes featured a massive animatronic ghoul with dismembered & gory bodies lying beneath it. While there wasn’t an army of scare actors encountered, those we did encounter were engaged & intense, providing several spine-tingling startles! Kudos to the spook in the classroom scene, as they gave one of our members a blood-curdling startle. The House of Eyes all in all seemed notably longer (10-15 minutes overall), much more disorienting, & possessed undeniably more bone-chilling startles then ever before!
Next we ventured for our 4th attraction of the evening, The Haunted Mill. The Haunted Mill couldn’t have a more unnerving setting as it’s housed in the 1783 Grist Mill. Patrons should be prepared to experience four floors of horrifying scares, adding up to nearly 20 minutes of in attraction experience! The Kim's Krypt team completed a massive overhaul of changes within the Haunted Mill in 2020, essentially stripping the attraction bare and starting fresh! For 2022 there’s once again a few more tweaks, updates & upgrades, making the Haunted Mill more nerve-wracking and frightening than ever before! Just moments inside the decrepit mill you descend into the dark and eerie depths of the basement. A portion of the basement has been converted into a beautifully crafted catacomb/crypt, which left us in awe as we traversed through. One portion of the Mill featured numerous new animatronics, many leaving us in awe, especially the fearsome looking Angel of Death. One animatronic was strategically placed up above the path of travel and at just the right moment it rapidly descended causing a spine-tingling startle. Drop panels, air cannons, audio/visual effects, and animatronics were effectively utilized throughout the Haunted Mill to make for a thrilling and fearsome journey. Scare actors were sprinkled throughout the attraction, leaving effective moments of dead space which created notable suspense as we feared the anticipation of a spine-tingling startle. The Haunted Mill continues to become more lively, more intense, & undeniably more horrifying each year!
Lastly we ventured for our final attraction of the evening, The Horror of Menges Mill. Before even entering the attraction you’ll be greeted by the monstrous ~15ft dragon animatronic, which sets the tone for the action-packed and blood-curdling experience that lies ahead. The Horror of Menges Mill received a massive revamp for the 2021 season & of course had a handful of tweaks & updates for the 2022 season. The Horror of Menges Mill features by far the most aesthetically pleasing and high-tech set design out of all the attractions at Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill. Scene after scene we were continually shocked by the effectiveness of the various props and animatronics utilized to create an unsettling journey. We felt on edge throughout this action packed attraction, often leaving us susceptible to spine-tingling startles! By far the most stunning scene continues to be the infamous dragons den, which featured several new monstrous dragon animatronics. We also have to give major kudos to the bait shop & swamp scene which featured visually pleasing set design and engaging scare actors. The scare actors throughout the Horror of Menges Mill were frightfully flawless; often relentless in their attacks and provided an extremely interactive and engaging experience! We could ramble on for days about our electrifying and spine-chilling experience, but will refrain from doing so to avoid ruining the element of surprise for those of you who end up visiting this season. There’s a reason The Horror of Menges Mill was among our Top Five Indoor Attractions in 2021, and it could very well find itself among the best of the best once again!
Amongst the other PA Haunted Attraction Scream Parks, Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill has become a force to be reckoned with! Each and every year we are pleasantly surprised by the substantial amount of updates & upgrades to the attractions. It’s safe to say that you’ll never encounter the same experience twice when visiting year to year at Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill. Special shout-out to the cast & crew who were spot on and well immersed in their roles, possessing frightening skits and utilizing improv to deliver an entertaining and nerve-wracking experience. We continue to see notable improvements each year in the costuming and makeup department, which helps to further immerse haunt goers into the experience. For 2022 Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill possesses FIVE attractions of PURE TERROR that are sure to please any and all haunt goers. For those of you who haven’t visited Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill before, or may have written this haunt off due to poor past experiences, we strongly recommend a return visit as they’ve once again upped their game! Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill has quickly become a must-see Haunted Attraction Scream Park, so what are you waiting for? Head over to Spring Grove PA to experience the frightfully fun, unnerving, and downright spine-tingling Kim’s Krypt Haunted Mill!
Individual Attraction Ratings:
Attraction Name: Dark Despair
Overall Attraction Rating: 5/10
Cast & Crew Rating: N/A
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 5/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 5/10
Attraction Name: Terror Trail
Overall Attraction Rating: 8.5/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 8.5/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 9/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8/10
Attraction Name: House of Eyes
Overall Attraction Rating: 8.5/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 8.5/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 8.5/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 8/10
Attraction Name: Haunted Mill
Overall Attraction Rating: 8/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 8/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 8.5/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 7.5/10
Attraction Name: Horror of Menges Mill
Overall Attraction Rating: 9.5/10
Cast & Crew Rating: 9.5/10
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 9.5/10
Scare/Thrill Factor Rating: 9/10
Comments