Quassy has been around since 1908, but until 2021, they didn’t have a haunt event. Terror
at Quassy has returned for the second straight year. This transforms Quassy into one giant
spook zone full of monsters roaming the midway and 10 different houses. But how
does this haunt stack up to the others in New England? Find out in this review!
I want to note this review will touch on the aspects that are different for Terror at
Quassy. I previously made a full review for the park during the other times of year.
Lake Compounce is located a half hour east of Quassy and for nearly 30 years, the park was
home to the Haunted Graveyard Halloween event. This was home to my single favorite Halloween
house since it consisted of one super long haunt that took 45-60 minutes to complete.
It was a stark contrast to most parks where you wait upwards of an hour for a 4-5 minute haunt.
The Haunted Graveyard was run by an outside company and Lake Compounce announced the event
would not return in 2021. Shortly thereafter, the Graveyard owners reached out to Quassy
about moving their operation to the Middlebury amusement park. This led to Terror at Quassy.
But it’s set-up quite a bit differently than Lake Compounce’s old haunt. Haunted Graveyard was an
upcharge there. At Quassy, all guests pay a flat $30 fee to enter the park as of 2022.
This grants access to all the haunts and adult rides. All of the kiddie rides are closed.
The park is open from 7 pm to 11 pm for this event. I visited on a Friday night- during a
holiday weekend no less- and that was more than enough time to experience all the haunts, shows,
and rides. I didn’t have to wait for anything. In fact, I sort of wish the park was a bit busier.
One of the most unique things about this haunt is that the entire midway is one giant scare zone.
There are dozens of scare actors just roaming the pathways. Because the park was so quiet,
I could see most of them coming from a mile away. It would have been even creepier in
a fuller crowd since they’d blend in until right on top of you. But some like Michael
Myers still stealthily came up from behind. I really liked this aspect of the event.
Maybe the haunt is busier on a Saturday, but I didn’t see queue lines set-up outside
the houses so I suspect those are walk-ons most days. That’s a stark contrast to most
haunts where you’ll encounter sizable lines. Quassy features 10 houses. These are spread
throughout the park. It’s a bit of a scavenger hunt to find them all. Most of them are temporary
structures. But they’re pretty non-descript with minimal signage and queues. I often wasn’t sure
which part of the building was the entrance or exit, especially since there were zero queues.
Most are on the main midway, but a few are back by the lake, which was a really chilling area
because of how quiet it was, and some others are over in the picnic area. Unfortunately,
I missed Clown House since I didn’t realize it was back there, but I did all the others.
Many are shorter than your typical haunts. The longest ones are roughly a minute long,
and quite a few are just 15-20 seconds in length. And I think this approach is brilliant given this
park’s audience. Quassy is a family park. This isn’t a place you typically see clusters of
adults or teens hanging out. While Terror at Quassy is clearly not meant for toddlers given
how the kiddie rides are closed, the set-up makes it digestible for someone’s first haunt.
The short houses allow kids to dip their toes. If they don’t like it, the house is over in a flash.
And they also can take breaks in between. If you were used to Lake Compounce’s Haunted
Graveyard, know the scares are dialed back considerably on this one even though
it’s the same creative company. Now I’ll give an overview of the
houses. I’ll talk about them in order of increasing scariness or intensity.
Endless Hallway and Infinity Hallway consist of a single corridor. There were no scare actors. These
just had heartbeats playing and played a bit on claustrophobia.
Misty Walkway is a room with smoke and lights so you can’t see below your neck. I love this effect
and have seen it throughout the years. It’s really suspenseful since a scare actor usually pops up.
That didn’t happen for me at Quassy. Graveyard feels more like a queue line than
a full-on haunt. You have to pass through this area to reach the Catacombs haunt,
but it’s very atmospheric and there are some playful scare actors roaming about.
Demons of Darkness is another long hallway, but this one does have a single scare actor
that will suddenly lunge at you. 3D House is a single room full of
disorienting polka dots, but there is one loud scare actor who will get in your face and scream.
The final 3 are the lengthier haunts. Zombie Hospital is a bloody walkthrough. This has
the most morbid visuals, but the jump scares weren’t as intense as the remaining 2 houses.
Catacombs had the best use of music and it had several silent actors who
would follow you throughout. Just note this one takes place on a muddy field,
so watch your steps going through it. Dungeons was the most intense haunt.
The jump scares were the most sudden and loudest. This was my favorite haunt by far.
Then there are two shows to experience. One is the human pincushion,
who pierces herself with needles and staple guns. This one was just ok.
The better of the two is the magic show. The magician has a great stage presence and
there are some neat tricks, including the balancing one towards the end.
Then you have a good chunk of Quassy’s rides available. It’s pretty rare to get to experience
this park at night, so it’s cool seeing the lighting packages on all the flat rides.
Reverse Time is the best flat ride if you love spinning rides as it bobs up-and-down and forces
you outwards. Then Franctic is the park’s most intense ride, as it’s a tiny inverting SBF
frisbee that offers a disorienting experience with nearly 2 dozen flips full of hangtime.
But the star attraction is Wooden Warrior. This little Gravity Group offers nice airtime
on every hill. The largest drops are particularly impressive in the back row, as you’re catapulted
upwards. It’s a much wilder ride than you’d expect for its size and I talk about that more
in a separate review. And it’s neat getting to try it with minimal lighting on much of
the course. The only lights are ironically inside the tunnel, which is usually the darkest part.
Last but not least, the park does offer some special food items in their main restaurant.
I’m not a big fan of alcohol or sweets, so I cannot comment on these.
So do I recommend Terror at Quassy? I think it depends. This is a good introductory haunt for
kids. The short, broken-up haunts allow them to build-up courage and test how they’d do
at a more conventional haunted house. And then you also have a family-friendly ride lineup.
Teenagers and adults may prefer some of the area’s longer and more intense haunts. That being said,
I still enjoyed the event at Quassy. The three longer haunts were fun,
I liked how the scare actors roamed every inch of the park,
and I’ll never complain about having a Wooden Warrior marathon.
Two other advantages of this haunt are the crowds and value. Lake Compounce and Six Flags New
England can get hour long lines at their haunts. Quassy had no lines for the rides or houses.
Then for one single price, you can enjoy the rides and haunted attractions.
Some of the region’s other parks make the houses an upcharge. Then houses not affiliated with theme
parks typically only let you experience them once and that’s all you get for your money.
So those are my thoughts on Terror at Quassy, the relatively new haunt event at this Middlebury,
Connecticut amusement park. Have you been to this event? Let me know how you think
it compares to the other New England ones in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!