We finally did it! We found another black haunt owner!!! It makes our spooky hearts so happy and made The Extreme Fear Scaregrounds in Kinston, NC a must-see on our 2023 North Carolina haunt tour! Shout out to the honorary mom manning the ticket booth for the words of wisdom and encouragement too!
Extreme Fear Scaregrounds is located on the Lenoir County Fairgrounds, and they’ve been doing their thing for 3 years now. Despite being a newer haunt and having the challenge of taking down and putting their sets back up year after year, they have done an incredible job! These temporary sets were extremely detailed and immersive.
There are 3 themed attractions that flow continuously one into the other - Nixon Asylum, Insanity, and Mayhem 3D. Their midway called Midway Madness features concessions, carnival games, a gift shop, photo-ops, and roaming midway monsters. This is also where you can find The Basement, a 5 minute escape room.
The attraction begins with Nixon Asylum. Upon entering the asylum’s check-in area, we watched an immersive video of Dr. Nixon documenting the results of some of his experiments that had gone wrong. Despite these failed tests and the deranged patients we knew were inside, we went on. Aside from the typical padded patient rooms you’d expect to see in an asylum, there were some really original sets like administrative offices, therapy rooms, and when we got to an examination room we actually ran into the same Dr. Nixon from the intro video himself. This just further enforced the cohesive storyline of Nixon Asylum.
We guess the asylum made us a little crazy, because once we escaped, we entered Insanity, the second haunt. This fog-filled, chainlink fence maze is full of twists, turns, and dead-ends. The actors were climbing all over the fences, leading us in the wrong directions, and kept us completely distracted and unfocused, making it that much more difficult to navigate the maze and escape the insanity.
And what scaregrounds would be complete without clowns? The final attraction, Mayhem 3D, is a clown-filled 3D blacklight experience. We donned our 3D glasses and entered the big top. The walls of Mayhem were filled with trippy, drippy evil clown art and other eye-popping designs and misdirections are everywhere as the actors do their best to blend in seamlessly with the props and sets.
There is an underlying tone of madness from beginning to end and the actors do an excellent job of selling it! The actors in all three attractions were SUPER interactive and fun! We were forced to sing in the Music Therapy Room in Nixon Asylum, the actors in Insanity kept us confused with constant creepy chatter, and the rebellious clowns in Mayhem 3D engaged us in some sinister banter. They also have some young haunters in the mix, and we absolutely love to see kids getting involved! Kids are freaking creepy!
Extreme Fear Scaregrounds utilized both masks and simple makeup in their costuming. The only monsters here are people so no real elaborate transformations, but everyone and everything fit in with their theming. Nothing seemed out of place or broke the immersion.
This 15-minute walkthrough brought terrific sets and great acting and is totally worth a visit whether you’re taking in the Lenoir County Fair or not! There is a great vision here, and we look forward to this haunt continuing to grow and refine their show! Go a little crazy at The Extreme Fear Scaregrounds!
