2010 Haunt Reviews: Reinke Brothers Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion
5663 S. Prince Street
Littleton, CO 80120

Haunting season got off to an early start for me this year with the Reinke Brothers' Haunted Mansion, one of the elder staples of the haunt community in Denver. I typically avoid going to haunts until at least a week into the month because they usually need some time to ramp up and get the kinks worked out - so if you're going early, you kind of have to make allowances for that. For the most part, though, no such allowances were needed at this haunt (although there was at least one room that clearly should have had an actor but didn't). Overall, it was a very solid start to the season, full of well-conceived scares and enthusiastic actors. Special kudos to one guy in a wolf-mask who stalked my haunting partner through the entire last 1/3 of thing.

That said, there were a few things that were kind of disappointing. The haunt is built into the Reinke Brothers costume store, which does work really well - as you exit the haunt, you find yourself in the middle of a cornucopia of seasonal goodies. Unfortunately, the entrance is also inside the store, and it makes for a less than impressive warm-up from an atmospheric perspective, despite the awesome giant animatronic demon next to the door. The haunt itself has no theme, jumping from a mansion to ancient Egypt to the jungle to outer space to an asylum. . . this isn't really an issue for me, but it can be for some, and does lessen the overall tension just a bit. There's also a generally cartoonish vibe to the whole thing - not a bad thing inherently, as it made the whole experience very fun, but that sort of atmosphere is never going to completely blow me away like something really scary will. There was also a very odd mixture of really ambitious, elaborate design and the occasional extreme cheapness. On the one hand you have a collection of more large-scale animatronics than I've ever seen in a haunt before, and on the other, you have trees that are actually poles wrapped in fabric. The problem isn't so much that some of the decor is cheap - it's no worse than in any other haunt - it's just that when everything else is all gussied up, it tends to stand out more, and can be a little distracting and mood-breaking.

Still, none of these are huge issues, and I want to be clear that I was very pleased overall. I would definitely recommend The Haunted Mansion, especially for younger people - I just think there will be better yet to come.

7/10