Even though our official 2023 haunt tour is in North Carolina this year, after visiting Camp Blood in Carrolton, GA for the first time in many, many years… geez… probably close to 10… we felt they deserved a proper review.
Let’s begin with the drive to Camp Blood… it’s dark, country roads for miles with the final leg of the trip becoming an extremely bumpy, claustrophobia-inducing narrow dirt road. This place is in the COUNTRY country and drives like this always add to the overall spooky experience. Especially for Vilonte, he is always paranoid about being black in rural places like this… HAHA!
When you step foot on the grounds of Camp Blood, it definitely feels like you’ve just become a camper at a questionable overnight summer camp. The banjo music playing created an oddly foreboding atmosphere despite the inviting bonfire, the concessions (mess) cabin, and surrounding wooden structures that housed a palm reader and carnival games that benefit Children’s Healthcare.
We were given poker chips and told to wait until the letter on our chips was called. We took the time to explore the concession cabin and play some games. The concession cabin was filled with more than just snacks, there was Camp Blood merch and vendors selling candles and Halloween-themed tumblers. This is also where we purchased our tickets to play the carnival games. We love these kind of games, even more so when the proceeds go to a cause as worthy as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. While Crazy Cathy laughed hysterically at us, we felt the sensation of being watched and looked over to see none other than Michael Myers lurking in the shadows.
Before he had a chance to attack, an enthusiastic hellbilly called us to the entrance as if we had been chosen as the next contestants on The Fright is Right, and we embarked on the 1/2 mile long trail through the hellbilly-infested woods.
As we traversed through the straight, slanted and very tight corridors, actors engaged with us from within their pallet prisons… or so we thought. No sooner would we walk past a monster taunting us and reaching at as through the slats, then that same monster would emerge from their set to sneak up behind us to chase us to the next scene. We absolutely loved this! The scares were non-stop! We never knew if they were going to come from in front of us or behind us!
There’s no specific story being told at Camp Blood, but there was a collection of random horror themes. We walked through a swamp and slaughterhouse… hellbillies and deadnecks were pretty prevalent out there… as they should be, a scary clown-filled funhouse, and a cemetery to name a few. There were also several familiar 80’s horror monsters that we came in contact with too. Our favorite encounter had to be Jason!
This was definitely an old-school haunt. The tight, oddly shaped spaces with uneven footing were constructed with the creative use of pallets, tarp, carpet, mattresses, and pvc pipes. The angled walls and squishy floors felt especially unnerving when we were being chased by chainsaw-wielding hellbillies, scary clowns, and movie monsters. We also noticed a few well-placed Spirit Halloween animatronics sprinkled in, but they weren’t the main focus, it was clearly up to the actors to deliver the scares here, and they did just that!
Most characters sported full masks instead of heavy sfx makeup, and costuming was minimal but always fitting. In fact, these actors were so much in character, they couldn’t turn it off! Even after the masks had been removed and the actors were heading to their cars to go home after a long night of haunting, they were still trying to scare us!
There is more scary fun on the way with the addition of a new glow-in-the-dark zombie paintball experience as the season progresses, which makes sense considering that in the off-season, Camp Blood transforms into it’s less scary counterpart, Lowell Paintball.
Camp Blood proves low budgets can still deliver big scares and big fun! We totally recommend that you enjoy all their summer camp-inspired festivities and the new zombie paintball this Halloween season!
