As we all begin to hit our full stride with the haunt season, my 3rd official stop brings me to Heflin, Alabama. To a place infamously known as, The Haunted Chicken House.
The Chicken House opened in 2003 and they’ve been donating to the Hollis Volunteer Fire Department to this very day.
When you think of haunted attractions, one would mostly think of creepy buildings, dark woods. Chicken House is none of that. The Chicken House is wide open and yes, it is a real chicken house with REAL chickens…
They offer 3 attractions, the haunted hayride, the actual haunted chicken house and the Crazy Train. We’ll get into the Crazy Train towards the end, which honestly deserves its own solo article but we’ll include it here to save you extra clicks.
When traveling to this haunt, it’s hard to miss with the stacked junk cars and the bright lights. If you end up missing it, you might want to just keep going and plug an Optometrist into your GPS instead.
Parking is no problem as you have ample space to get in and out, plus it is free.
Their midway is well lit with a few roaming actors to keep you entertained, an area for you to sit while you get some food and drinks. A merch booth with multiple different options. Plenty of props, cars for photo ops. Once you get your tokens for the attractions, you can choose which you want to do first. Which is a good thing, a lot of haunts with multiple attractions direct you what to do first and that typically creates much longer wait times.
Speaking of wait times, The Chicken House can and WILL get very crowded as the season progresses, especially on Saturday nights. Be prepared for that if deciding to visit on a Saturday evening.
Let’s get into the attractions and I’ll break them down in sections:
-The Haunted Hayride-
Chicken House offers a traditional hayride that can carry TONS of customers. They run 1 wagon on Friday nights and 2 wagons on Saturday nights to help shorten the put through times.
This attraction takes up a lot of time during the experience. It’s not a short little drive around a field. You will cover some ground. My experience clocked in at around 35ish minutes
As mentioned, it’s a traditional hayride where you will travel scene to scene. To me, the downside to hayrides that I’ve experienced is the down time traveling scene to scene. Believe me, I get it and understand that it is hard and near impossible to fill the massive gaps, especially if the scenes are that spread out like at the Chicken House. But when you get to the scenes here, they make sure to give you a show. Actors are not afraid to jump up on the wagons and get right in your face. Some are more intense and interactive than others, i.e. the chainsaw scene. Those actors go full out and give you an experience that will stay with you for the rest of the night. Another scene that I feel deserves a nod is what I dubbed as “The Clown Barn”. That was simply a fun scene to be in and I absolutely loved the energy that the actors put into it.
The hayride has its fun and wow moments sprinkled in with a few good scares. You’ll get to encounter some of your Iconic Horror movie favorites on this trip as well.
-The Chicken House-
I absolutely love entering this house. The que-line is made up of chicken wire and it perfectly gives off this eerie, gritty vibe prior to your official start of the experience. This is where you will see the live chickens and roosters as they watch and judge you before entering.
In this attraction you will encounter a plethora of crazy, unique scenes along with numerous crazy characters. In some cases it will be a sensory overload with the mixture of heavy strobes, fog and props. It truly is like a roller coaster, it has ups and downs. The downs are not referencing negative things, it simply means there are sections where you do get a little breather from the actors and you are all on your own to find your way out. There are a few little things that we encountered from actors that were off putting with us and our group. The screaming in the faces and ears of patrons from a few female actresses just doesn’t work. That’s not haunting nor is it acting, it’s just an easy way to piss off paying customers. We know you can be better than just screaming. Utilize your scenes and come up with ways to be vocal (not screaming) with your characters. The dot girls do not need to be vocal at all, you have the perfect setup to get startles and scares without saying a word. Also, don’t just stand around in your scene and simply stare at patrons. That is only effective from a distance, not from 5 feet away. It’s early and these things are easy fixes, you got this!
Aside from those things, we had a wonderful experience throughout the haunt. We received some excellent timed scares from actors in the toxic barrel scenes. We loved the energy that Freddy gave off within his scene. He was bouncing from side to side and utilizing all he could within his scene.
You will have a blast walking through this attraction. The Haunted Chicken House keeps alive that “Old School Haunting” vibe that is getting lost in today’s way of haunting.
The Chicken House has been this way since my first visit 11 years ago.
Here’s hoping they stay this way!
-Crazy Train-
This….Is….The…Most…Intense…Attraction….At the Haunted Chicken House.
Take our advice, do this last! Where else can you get on a short bus and take a ride through the woods doing 50 mph while dodging trees?? No where is the answer you’re looking for.
This attraction is worth the trip to Heflin on its own.
I personally think they need to keep this attraction open year round, that’s how good we think it is.
It doesn’t matter how brave or tough you think you are. When you’re not in control and you are depending on someone else to keep you safe. You look out the windshield and see nothing but clouds of dust with trees and branches occasionally zipping by, you can do nothing but hold on tight, put on a smile to hide the fear while hoping this isn’t the night that you’ll be kissing your ass goodbye.
Seriously, DO THE CRAZY TRAIN!
The video below does not do it justice!
It is a MUST experience!
In Closing:
The Haunted Chicken House has been around for a very long time and they truly stay honest to their style of haunting. It’s old school, it’s gritty, it’s dirty but at the same time it is family friendly. I witnessed little kids laughing and having the time of their lives while big tough looking dudes who looked like they could bench press a Buick get dropped to their knees from fear.
Scurryface has been visiting since 2012 and they are a staple haunt for us. We couldn’t see an October where SF would not make an official visit to this haunt.
We don’t see a reason why you all shouldn’t add them to your list of haunts to visit.
By you all visiting the Chicken House also means you are helping support their local volunteer fire department.
While you are there, see if you can find the Scurryface tribute on one of their walls within the haunt. Or get your picture made with the Scurryface banner out in the midway. We truly appreciate the Chicken House and their wonderful hospitality towards us. We are forever grateful for our outstanding relationship with them.
THE INFAMOUS CRAZY TRAIN
