ScaryPlace Reviews - Lizzie Lincoln's Haunted House

Lizzie Lincoln's Haunted House and the legend of The Man in White (Visited in Oct. 2000)

Scuttles and his favorite ghoul, Nurse Spasm, visited Lizzie Lincoln's Haunted House, located on Lincoln Road near Birdsboro, PA. The write-up on GhostTours.com made it sound like this would be a serious tour of a real haunted house, much like the candlelight walking tours in Philadelphia and Gettysburg. But don't be misled, it is most definitely not a tour of a real haunted house.Lizzie Lincoln's haunted house is simply a reasonably well done "Haunted House Event", much like those put on by the Jaycees and other groups. However, there are a couple of things that do put this one above the average in terms of a quality experience. The most important part is that they have the "No Personal Contact" rule, much like the original Haunted Theater. This means, the actors don't touch you and you do not touch the actors.

They do go to the trouble of establishing a "legend" in order to heighten the experience of their walk-thru event. The grounds and the house are sufficiently creepy to make it believable, and the subsonic rumblings of passing trains add to the atmosphere.

For an extra $3, they show a short amateur video, patterned after "The Blair Witch Project", which helps somewhat to establish the "legend". We found the video to be somewhat entertaining, but not entirely enlightening. When we left the video tent, we still didn't know who "The Man in White" was or how he fit in. (Parents be warned, there is unnecessary swearing and scenes of teens smoking)

The crowd control leading to the entrance is reasonably well done. However, they should provide some roaming actors to keep the crowds entertained and primed during the long wait.

Once inside, the experience was a mixed bag of well done scenes and common mistakes. One of the most effective bits was shadowy figure under a strobe light who seemed to understand the "stillness" factor of being scary. On the other hand, we were disappointed to find that they made most of the two floors of the interior into a dark maze, forcing us to feel our way through. Occasionally ghouls would appear in front of us, momentarily illuminated by a strobe or other light source, providing an occasional adrenaline jolt. The final room is a bit disorienting, and involves a large quantity of "fog machine" smoke and a strobe light.

Despite the fact that they took the easy way out and chose to do a dark maze, we did enjoy ourselves, and found the staff to be quite professional and consistent in character. There is plenty of parking, and the signs leading there are well placed. Be aware that people who have breathing difficulties, trouble negotiating stairs, or problems with strobe lights are advised to pass on this one.