General Chat / TR: Halloween Haunt 10/1/2005

*** This is basically copied from my post at Westcoaster.net, so if you see names you don't recognize, that's why. ***



My first trip to Haunt this year coincided with my brother's first trip to Haunt ever. And we were also going to meet Ed for his first Haunt experience ever as well. So going in, I was definitely excited.

I had hoped that since it was the first Saturday Haunt, the park wouldn't be as crowded as people say it is. Boy was I wrong! Arriving at 6:45, I found the line to already be to the brim, packed all the way back to the curb, basically. Security did a speedy job, though, so it only took about ten minutes to get through. And as it turned out, though it was quite crowded, it wasn't nightmare crowded.

We got into the park at 7 and headed straight to the Ghostrider mazes. They don't seem as far back this year (could just be that I was used to it). Feary Tales and Asylum are a two for one deal. You go into Feary Tales, then get dumped into Asylum. The system works better than you might think.

Feary Tales - 6/10
This was basically rehashed Malice with a few new medieval type scenes. It was nice, though Haunted Line syndrome was in effect early on, so I never really got any scares. The scenery is cool, though, and though there are a lot of recycled props, there are new scenes and stuff. The talent made the best of the situation, but this maze (for this night) was marred by the crowds.

Asylum: Revisted - 8.5/10
My favorite maze from last year falls a little bit this year, again due to large crowds. It's basically the same maze, which is awesome. The talent was pretty energetic and very well in character. Nurses, doctors, patients all acting pretty crazy. In the last room, I had a nice conversation with a large guy about pizza. Poor guy doesn't get it in there. No wonder they've gone mad. Couldn't find any WC'ers, though. Altho Pat (who I ran into later on) says that the big "pizza guy" might have been like Jack Skellington or something... not sure. Mirror room still rocks, although the second time I went, I think all the monsters in that whole area were on break, cuz the strobes were down and no one was around.

From there we headed up through Ghost Town, which was marvelously done as usual. There seemed to be less talent than usual here, although there were definitely screams all around. Not a lot of sliding, though, due to the high crowds. Next up were 13 Axe Murder Manor and Hatchet High.

13 Axe Murder Manor - 10/10
Oh man, by far best new maze of the year! The set is amazing. Haunted Mansion on steroids, but that's a great thing! First time around, it was a bit crowded, but the monsters still were top notch. Not a lot of room for surprise scares, but they zeroed in on the squeamish ones. In fact, the two girls behind us were shrieking all the way. And the interaction with props was awesome. A hanging spinning exorcist girl on the ceiling... dinner with boogers... it was all awesome. The last part, through the gauzy corridors, was dead the first time around. When we revisited the maze later past midnight, however, the crowd had died down, and we actually got perfect spacing, resulting in one of the best maze experiences I have EVER had. Oh, and the changing pictures down the hallways were awesome!

Those two girls ended up joining us for the next maze, as we formed an impromptu group of four (one of those situations where you make a new friend, decide to hang out together).

Hatchet High - 8/10
Again, Haunted Line syndrome, but this maze was saved by its talent. It's the exact same thing from last year, but the monsters were VERY interactive, and I even held a few quick conversations with them. We ran into everyone's favorite prom queen, who was extremely in character (hope you enjoyed the Nerds Rope, Angel), and only had time to chat for just a bit. In the lockerroom, we ran into a huge lineman (wearing #69) and promptly engaged in a big jump fest to get everyone riled up (like they do before football games).
It kinda went like this:
LINEBACKER: Yeeeeaahhhh!!!
ME: Yeeaaaahhhhhhh!!!
BROTHER: Yeaaahhhhhhhhh!!
GIRLS: Yeaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!
*everyone jumps up and down and gets all excited*
My brother was like "That guy's awesome!"

At this point, it was eight, and we'd done four mazes in an hour. Not bad at all. Ed finally made it through traffic and met up with us by Bigfoot. But that was not before I observed the Murder Manor End of the Line Sign Holder doing a pretty stupid job by standing right by the Big Foot entrance, so that everyone though the maze started through the Bigfoot queue line.

We headed toward CarnEvil and did C-3 next.

Carnival of Carnivorous Clowns from Outer Space in 3D - 5/10
I have no problem with clowns. And this maze doesn't really do anything for me. Add to that more Haunted Maze syndrome and you have a pretty average maze. The clowns didn't do much, just stared and honked horns. But they couldn't really do much anyway. Overall, just a forgettable maze, unfortunately.

Turns out that the two girls we met were friends of Pat (a member of another forum I visit), so we tracked him down coming out of the maze, and our group of four turned into a group of eight as we joined him and his family.

Strolling through CarnEvil, we saw Michael Jackson and Super Mario. Pretty funny stuff.

Interestingly, coming by Supreme Scream, we saw an orange sign holder. Why people wouldn't be able to tell where the entrance was located was beyond me... there's a huge sign structure right above it.

Curse of the Spider - 3/10
Man, how the mighty have fallen. Two years ago, this was the best maze of Haunt. Now... it's just a trip through the forest and into some caves, all the while having "an angry terrier puppy growling at you" (to quote Patrick). Actually, I did get one unexpected startle when a monster came out of nowhere, but that doesn't really offset the fact that the maze was a line, the monsters looked at me, and that damn dog on the speakers wouldn't shut up. Oh, and since there's no preshow, they put the ceiling spider at the end.

Terrorvision - 8/10
My other favorite maze from last year drops this year. It's the same thing, only reversed, and a couple of new shows. The highlight of the maze, by far, was FATMAN!!!! who did a hilarious jig. And Fonzy was awesome too. EYYYYY!!!!! However, a few of the great scares from last year, like the Brady Bunch pop out of the square thing and chainsaw Elmo, were missing when I went through. I must say that the entrance is really neat though. You go into a TV, and it's like you're being sucked into TV-land. Very neat. And of course, best soundtrack in the park.

Lore of the Vampire - 5/10
Like Berryfarmer, I'd really like to love this maze, particularly because I love vampires. And there was a decently long line too, one that only got longer. Instead, the maze was emo city. Vampires stare at you. And that's about it. Go through the maze to see the stuck up but extremely hot vampire chicks... and that's about it. Pat was so disgusted he had to resort to doing an awful impersonation of Blade in the final club scene just to entertain himself. I hope I got that on film... it was hilarious.

Red Beard's Revenge - 9/10
BY FAR the most improved maze of the year. The talent was all around awesome, and if it wasn't for that annoying joking skull head you have to put up with in the line, this maze would be perfect. Talent was scaring anything that moved, and the set was fantastic as usual. We ran into Shaun in the last room, who promptly proceeded to terrifying Pat's sister and chase her out of the maze. Excellent job!

Funny thing is that we'd basically done all the mazes (sans Jaguar, but I'll get to that later) by 9. We caught the 9:30 showing of The Hanging.

The Hanging - 9/10
HILARIOUS as usual. Spoofing Disney always yields some awesome laughs, especially as they poked fun of Disney basically giving the public nothing new but still raising prices and convincing everyone that they'd be priviledged to visit the park because everything's painted gold and it's the 50th anniversary. However, the best moment of the show came when the hosts lamented over The Hanging's budget troubles, then noted "at least we're not as in bad shape as these guys..." to which Mr. Six came out dancing to "We Like to Party" and holding up a sign that said "SIX FLAGS PARKS 4 SALE." I practically fell down. They also poked fun at the lawsuits over the years by composing a mercenary team of "copyright-safe" monsters who were just different enough from Jason, Freddy Kreuger, Leatherface, etc... that they wouldn't get Knott's sued. They also had the Ultimate Haunt webmaster guy... um... "monsterbating." Great show all around, and I really marked out (to borrow a wrestling term) when the guy I wanted to get hang got hanged.

The rest of the night was spent revisiting some of the old mazes, walking around the scare zones, and watching the sliders operate in Calico Square. I really need to give a thumbs up to them, because they shows some of the best team work I've witnessed at Haunt (though I usually don't get a chance to see them team up). There was this one kid who was literally stumbling around from monster to monster as they snuck up behind him. It was like a scene from Seasons of Screams. And they did a bit of Slider Olympics too, which is always awesome to watch.

We hit Jaguar later in the night, and that included a pathetically funny incident that would probably have Robb Alvey pulling his hair out.

Temple of Sacrifice - 6.5/10
Actually, considering this was LITERALLY a haunted line, it wasn't that bad. Monsters popped out of nowhere, and the Aztec god or goddess sitting on the throne played with my face with a feather.... But they did a great job considering the cirumstances, which weren't great to begin with.
But here's the kicker... we get into the station, only to be greeted by the high pitched wails of a fire alarm. YES, THE FIRE ALARM WAS GOING OFF IN JAGUAR'S STATION. We were a bit confused until we looked up and saw lotsa fog. And then it hit us (or Pat, I guess). THE FOG MACHINES UP IN THE CEILING HAD SET OFF THE FIRE ALARMS... ALSO LOCATED IN THE CEILING. Great job, Knott's. But to make matters worse, the oh-so-incompetent Jaguar Crew looked totally confused. One was on the phone, the others were like... stoned (not literally). And correct me if I'm wrong, but if a fire alarm goes off, whether there's a real fire or not, aren't you supposed to EVACUATE THE STATION? I mean, isn't that OSHA regulation? But no, they just told everyone they were having "temporary problems." We could leave if we wanted to... Um, yeah. I can imagine if it was a real fire.
"EMPLOYEE INCOMPETENCE KILLS 200 PEOPLE ON JAGUAR RIDE WHEN RIDE OPS FAIL TO EVACUATE GUESTS"
And then there was the fact that the evacuation path was blocked by queue line ropes. In a real evacuation, had there been a panic, people would have died.
So just... wow.

Our last two rides of the night were the two actual rides.

Cavern of Lost Souls - 7.5/10
MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH better than Army of the Underworld. The talent actually cared, the setting was appropriate, and they even used some nice animatronics to scare people. The driver stopped the train at appropriate times, and the overall effort was much better than in previous years.

Red Moon Massacre - 7/10
For a ride near closing, this was pretty good. Every monster popped out of nowhere and spooked us, and the theming was nice too. In short, it was a solid ride, with the talent defininitely into it despite the late hours.


SCARE ZONES:

Ghost Town - 9/10
Top notch as usual. Calico Square monsters were superb and just an absolute joy to watch. Heck, they garnered a crowd as they operated, and their stuff was fantastic.

Gauntlet - 8/10
Despite the heavy crowds, there were still lots of monsters out in force, scaring people and such and even sliding. Very nice work there.

Silver Bullet Mining Town - 7/10
Probably a bit too brightly lit, but still monsters sliding and trying a lot. We saw one guy with a map over his head. He hilariously uttered, "It's gonna rain sometime; gotta be prepared!"

CarnEvil - 5/10
Not much going on when we passed it, besides one scare and seeing Michael Jackson and Super Mario.

Dark Realm - 6.5/10
Poor guys... they've been buried to the back end. Actually, this wasn't as bad as I expected. Yeah, it's basically a maze, but I actually got some great scares from monsters popping out of nowhere. Unfortunately, there were only like seven monsters total (everyone one of whom interacted with me). Points for trying, but it looks like KBF gave this area the shaft. Oh, and Andy, we tried looking for you but you were on break when we passed.


The crowds basically died down past midnight, which made things even better. And I guess last impressions make the best ones, so I had an absolute blast. I can't wait to come back on the 20th. It was great hanging with Pat, and overall, despite a series of not-ideal maze experiences (for me personally, although they were still very active), this was a fun trip.

Thanks for lasting this long... if any of you have made it down to here.

Ed took a crapload of pictures, and I know a few of them turned out amazingly, so I'll bet he'll post some pics sometime.

damn, that sounds extremely fun. the parody thing sounds best, though.

Thanks Al for the introduction. Now let's just skip right to the good stuff.

















...and of course, I had to get one of these--for old times sake.



Thanks Knott's! I think maybe next time I'll wear sunglasses so I can't see all of the monsters hiding in the corner waiting to pop out. And those sliders were really awesome. Worth the price of admission for that alone.

Those are AWESOME shots, Ed. It took me a second look to realize that one with my brother and I staring at Pat actually shows the Pepsi machine. Looks like a frickin portal.

I've never been to haunt... but I'm going to work it on friday.

hello 3 hour line on xcelerator! Why do people even bother going on anything when there are mazes abound? Blows my mind...

Oh yeah, maybe I got the memo late, but I think I've figured out why knotts hires so many hardcore kids to be monsters... Damage buffer, since they'll just be like "fuck yeah" if they get a particularly nasty customer who responds "badly" (a friend of my mom's has a daughter who got punched in the face by some guy while she was working at frightfest after scaring the bejesus out of him).