Factory of the Dead: Production ramps up
Heading into Saginaw, it isn’t hard to find the Factory. A massive, imposing building, a line snakes around the building, letting it be known that you are at the right place. Heading inside reveals a ticket booth with theming all around to accentuate the feeling of entering an old, rundown building that is hiding dark secrets. The loud noises emanating from beyond the entrance gates add to these feeling, and soon you know you will head inside yourself. What follows is a house that is full of interesting concepts but is lacking a major aspect that hurts the attraction.
The theming in this house is amazing. The sets are incredibly detailed, with a nice variety of scenes ranging from sizable morgues to a gross farmhouse. Lighting is used beautifully, creating appropriate moods in each scene. The aforementioned morgue uses some dim blue lights to create a perfect sinister and cool feeling room. A child’s bedroom using traditional white lighting to create a room that feels natural and inviting. Well, except for the creepy stuffed animals and dolls that are lying on the floor. The house also has some great prop and animatronic work. Using them in situations that help to add some life to the scenes. It is clear from going through this house that the creators of this house know exactly how to build a theme and know how to make a house that feels foreboding.
The groundwork is laid in this house for something special and has the makings of a house that should be great. However, there is one major issue that holds the house back from reaching its potential. There is a lack of scares unlike any place I have seen before. This isn’t a case of a lack of actors or anything like that but feels more like a design choice. The house is less a haunted house but more a collection of small skits. Actors can have good conversations and show some quick wit and are hilarious. The problem is that actors rarely, if at all go for the scares. The house is also very short, using only one floor of the massive building. If you weren’t stopped in most scenes for at least a minute or two interacting with the actors, I believe this house could be done in about 10 minutes top. This includes a random tacked on 3d section that feels put in at the last second, as there are no actors whatsoever, and it lasts about a minute.
These issues are frustrating, because the work that has been put into this house shows. The set design is great and lays out the groundwork for an amazing house. Even the best house in the world would falter without the key component of a haunted house and that is scares. This is easily the least amount of scares I have ever scene in a haunted house, and I am struggling to recall a single moment at all. It feels like the directive was to go more in a conversation direction to artificially inflate the length of the house. This is the first year for this attraction, so hopefully the issues get fixed over the years. For now, this is an attraction that needs a ton of work, and needs to work on adding scares.
1.75 / 5
