Jump to content

9/28 FearFest Dry Run


italianchef
 Share

Recommended Posts

Tonight I went to PKI for the FearFesr Dry Run and had an awesome time. I managed to experience all 9 attractions open tonight: Massacre Manor, The Asylum, Psycho Path, Circus of Horrors, Cowboy Carnage ( which is new), the Worksite, Cornstalkers, and Holiday Horror. I think that Psycho Path was probably the one.

Have a great day!

Italian Chef

chef.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I might as well go ahead and post my TR in this thread, since one has already been made.

They did a spectacular job with it this year, by far the best one I've been to. You walk into the park, and there are already creatures there to scare you. The chainsaw count goes up to one as soon as you are in the gates. Here lies one of the best attractions of FearFest 2006: the host. This guy has a mic on so that his voice echos around the entire entry area. This guy was so good, that I thought it was a pre-recorded announcement, until I actually saw the guy. His evil laugh was fantastic.

It only got better from there.

Our first attraction was The Worksite. This scarezone is greatly improved from last year. The chainsaw count went up to two here. The actors did a very great job here, and when the chainsaw guy heard that the girl in our group didn't do well with chainsaws, he stalked her, chainsaw roaring the whole time.

We made our way around to Circus of Horrors 3D. The greeter character asked for the name of the girl in our group, which she gave her. Through the rest of the maze, they used her name, with some lines as, "Hey everyone! *insert name* is here! Let's all welcome *name*!" It's pretty much the same as last year, still one of the lower mazes on my list of favs.

We then moved next door to the new Cowboy Carnage. The basic plot: The last shipment of alcohol was poisoned, and now all the people in the bar are dead... and drunk. Quite amuzing events then took place. Several bar guests seemed to be enjoying their eternal drunken state. The only two downsides: This was the only maze where we caught an actor moving before we got to them, and this has stobes (so annoying). This one was pretty good.

Next was Headless Horror. This was the only maze with a line for it. The hollowers were, as always, the creepiest creatures in this maze. Their odd noises were a nice touch. Once again, anti-climactic ending. This is an average attraction for this year.

We then made our way through CornStalkers. Once again, very creepy. While this does not require the "hands on shoulders" rule, people still did it, just because you couldn't see more than a foot down the path with all the fog. One "stalker" stalked a group all the way down towards the floral clock to scare a girl in the group. She did not see it coming at all because she was so far away from the scare zone. Her group greatly enjoyed this, as well as our group (who was walking behind them, and saw every minute of it).

We then turned toward Coney Maul, and the characters in there as usual were being their normal, sliding self. Nothing different from last year.

Holiday Horror is quite possibly the funniest thing in FearFest this year. Santa went on a drunken rampage, and killed everyone at the north pole. The Santa actor was quite humorous, and had very witty responses to some of my comments. I asked him how Rudolf was doing, and he pulled out a red ball-like thing, and said that he was delicious. I was not expecting the prop nose at all, quite a nice surprise. The elves were also hilarious. they had a gay elf, and one of the female elves kept yelling at him cause he stole her tights. I never thought Christmas music could be creepy, but they sure made it spooky!

Finally, our last stop was Psycho Path. Some said that Psycho Path needed a revival, well they did it. While much of it is the same, the actors this year did a phenomenal job. One actress was eating a corpse, but the lighting was set up so we could not see her face. By the way she was moving, we all assumed she was an animatronic. I said something along the lines of, "Yeah, looks fake. Prolly an animatronic." and then she looked up at me and glared at me. Creepy as hell. Also, at another point, I kept feeling a slight bit of wind on the back of my head (I was the person at the back of the line, since we joined another larger group). A girl started stalking me, and was actually blowing on the back of my head. I thought that was cool, and while I didn't get freaked out, I could see someone getting spooked by this. Finally, the girls in the "corpse tunnel" were very scary. One girl had this very eerie low voice, definatly a nice touch.

All in all, I think Universal may have some up and coming challenges from KI when it comes to some of the better Halloween attractions at amusement parks. This year truely felt like an event, rather than just a few mazes here and there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm honestly not into frightening Halloween events, and even had real reservations about going, even IF I had a ticket to last night's Dry Run night. Now, I think it was an interesting thing that I was glad to attend.

- In some previous years, the event was just some mazes and decorations scattered around the park. This time, it's almost EVERYWHERE! Even as you enter International Street!

- Holiday Horror: rather than let some of the Winterfest props sit in some warehouse or go to waste, it's the result of Cedar Fair being creative and silly. Gay elf?!

- Headless Hollow: I probably wouldn't be too excited about the latter half of this attraction, but I wanted to check out how the first half, the incomplete train ride, worked out. The length of the White Water Canyon exit pathway would be an indicator as to the length of this attraction.

- Cowboy Carnage: This was probably one of the attractions that I wanted to check out most, and knowing me and FearFest, that seems to be news to the rest of you. But seriiously, this one turned out to be the most interesting of the mazes (at least the ones that I did.) This one I might actually do again!

- Psycho Path: Besides obviously creepy, and muddy, some interesting scenes, besides the ones that Br-- Uncle Henry mentioned - the outhouse full of censored.gif, with a sign atop it that said "Marshall University Alumni." Hmm, a scene involving death, the woods, and Marshall University - seems a little in poor taste, why not add a sign outside the entrance saying "the year is 1970...".

- Heckle and Howl: Another creative use of Scrooge's House, using the same concept, except the joke's weren't about an Interstate "ride" or the men's room at Chili's.

- Monster Bash at "The Paramount Music Hall": The performance wasn't on for the Media Preview last night - apparently Cincinnati native and Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer was speaking there sometime this week, and the live show for tonight's Pride Night was to be held there. Nonetheless, I can't wait to check out Monster Bash, having a live show with dancing and music will be great to see.

- One of the best surprises of the night: Along International Street, you will find tombstones of retired/defunct Kings Island rides and attractions. Having been to Cedar Point's Halloweekends, which also does this in their Main Midway, this is also one of the great ideas that the Cedar Fair folks added to our park's event! Note that Winterfest has a tombstone - probably the only attraction to rise from the dead for a year, but I don't think I ever saw one for the Wild Animal Habitat Monorail (1974-1993), and a couple of them had incorrect dates.

- Above all, this year's Fearfest might be the best ever, at least since the first one in 2000. I think Cedar Fair's acquisition of the park, and the cancellation of WinterFest had something to do with the changes that might make it the best FearFesr ever.

- Oh, and did anyone notice Son of Beast removed from the map? Is it simply due to the ride's closure for the rest of the year, or does it represent something bigger?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I talked with one of the actresses from Holiday Horror. She had a HUGE jug of water with her as she went into work today as I was on my way out. When you go through Holiday Horror, listen to how they change their voices. They're needing whole jugs of water to keep their throats working right to do those voices.

Again, I still think Holiday Horror was the best "attraction" at the park, even though it wasn't scary. Just hilarious!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And that's what it's all about!

Entertainment!

Sounds like this years event is a good one.

I, too, attended the preview night on Thursday. I'll agree that some things have improved vastly, but I will also hold my position that NOTHING has came even remotely close to what it was the FIRST season. As some have mentioned, I think my favorite thing was the host at the entrance of the Park. Very nice touch, very Universalish. The fog around the gate area was awesome, unfortunately it didn't trail very far down International Street. Once again, for me, fog is the biggest complaint.....or lack thereof I should say.

Cowboy Carnage was a surprise. It had a lot going on. There really weren't any dull moments. Nicely done! Personally, I thought the scare zones were lame with the exception of Corn Stalkers. The Worksite was a joke. Perhaps some fog or something MAY spruce it up a bit, but in general its a waste. I'm still out on Holiday Horror. Upon initial thought, tackiest attraction ever! I'll give them props for not wasting the Winterfest garb and as Uncle Henry mentioned, Santa was a riot.

While I think the setting still lacks a lot at FearFest, it is vastly improved over the past few years! I think this has been the best year yet for the scareactors. Everyone seemed to be genuinely into their roles, I was very pleased!

Come on PKI, crank up the fog!

- Todd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

- Oh, and did anyone notice Son of Beast removed from the map?  Is it simply due to the ride's closure for the rest of the year, or does it represent something bigger?

I saw the current (Nick or Treat) day map. The whole park, including Son of Beast and Boomerang Bay are still there. However, on the FearFest night map, I guess it's just a space saver to take them off since they're down for the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And that's what it's all about!

Entertainment!

Sounds like this years event is a good one.

I, too, attended the preview night on Thursday. I'll agree that some things have improved vastly, but I will also hold my position that NOTHING has came even remotely close to what it was the FIRST season. As some have mentioned, I think my favorite thing was the host at the entrance of the Park. Very nice touch, very Universalish. The fog around the gate area was awesome, unfortunately it didn't trail very far down International Street. Once again, for me, fog is the biggest complaint.....or lack thereof I should say.

Cowboy Carnage was a surprise. It had a lot going on. There really weren't any dull moments. Nicely done! Personally, I thought the scare zones were lame with the exception of Corn Stalkers. The Worksite was a joke. Perhaps some fog or something MAY spruce it up a bit, but in general its a waste. I'm still out on Holiday Horror. Upon initial thought, tackiest attraction ever! I'll give them props for not wasting the Winterfest garb and as Uncle Henry mentioned, Santa was a riot.

While I think the setting still lacks a lot at FearFest, it is vastly improved over the past few years! I think this has been the best year yet for the scareactors. Everyone seemed to be genuinely into their roles, I was very pleased!

Come on PKI, crank up the fog!

- Todd

I must adit that it wasn't all there for Media Night, however I went on Saturday and it was a whole different experience. The fog was so think in places that it was almost dangerous. I rode The Racer (backwards) and upon hitting the first bunny hill at the end, I could see a very clear cloud around it. Very cool.

Corn Stalkers really came together by then too. The "corn people" or whatever were literally scaring the hell out of people. One teenage girl was so scared that upon seeing a corn stalker getting in front of her, she ran BACK into the scare zone.

I like the Work Site. They really did some neat stuff on Thursday. For example, the 'foreman' noticed a guy not working and picked him up and started to run with him, with the guy screaming like mad. It was neat. Kind of lost the touch on Saturday with so many people going through it, though.

LOVED Holiday Horror. If you give it a chance, you'll understand. The guy who plays Santa is excellent and really lives the part. The elves are really oustanding too. The best part was the Christmas music playing backwards... it was messed up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...