RingMaster

Really, there is no name for this small path....What it is is several metal cubes with army camoflague wrapped around them, with metal plates and blood-covered tarps in-between. There's usually three or four creepers running around this little strip, and last night had a guy from Maze of Madness wielding a chainsaw. I'm not sure if he stays over there or not on other nights. I'll try next weekend to get some footage of The Gauntlet and wrap up on all of the SHRIEKshow footage.

Hello, all. Here is yet another (VERY LONG) trip report on last night's FearFest events. Enjoy...if you dare. First things first, came to the park at around 5:30-6:00. I noticed at first that there weren't that many cars in the parking lot (compared to last weekend), so it didn't really bother me much. My first goal was to pay yet another visit to my friends in ECO (Sarah L., Sarah R., Hillary, Willie, Nick); hugs and merriment were exchanged. Then, I headed for Sleepy Hollow (Rivertown) to see if they were handing out tickets for Headless Hollow. About halfway through cornSTALKERS, I stopped and sat down on one of the hay stacks next to a fog machine running normal. Strange, because the cornSTALKERS music was playing full blast, and that was the only fog machine running at the time. Five minutes into sitting, I ran into Hillary again and we walked back up to the Cage (2nd time). We parted ways and I walked back towards Massacre Manor. Then, I ran into Sarah R. again, and we walked back to the Cage (3rd time, now). I then headed back to cornSTALKERS again and sat down on the same hay stack as before. Now I knew it was crowded as hordes of people were walking back and forth through the midway, and the fog machine was still running. Two FF managers walked past and saw me, but didn't say anything (one gave a slight chuckle) as they went to repair one of the stands that the scarecrows sit on. I pretty much stayed on the hay stack for the next hour and a half, just sitting there and watching people walk by. This was when my "evil instinct" kicked in when several people mistook me for a scareactor because I would sit completely motionless on the hay stack. It wasn't long before I started scaring girls my age to death...in plain street clothes. Other bystanders started cracking up when they saw some random guest (mind you, some random black kid) actually getting these teenagers GOOD. What made this truly interesting was that the same two FF managers working on the stand were only 10 feet behind me and heard the screaming. I believe that, after the eighth or ninth group I scared, they started laughing. I also ended up chasing three or four groups through the midway, doing my old zombie walk from COTC last year. I chased one group, in particular, out of cornSTALKERS and up to the floral clock where the line was for Masacre Manor. People in line started laughing when they saw this, and one of the ushers never even said anything. Finally, at a quarter till 8:00, the REAL monsters showed up in the midway, and did their thing. I was kinda disappointed that they weren't getting people riled up that much, except for one scareactor, who looked almost exactly like me, who used the wagon in front of my hay stack and the crate behind it as trampolines as he jumped into other groups and caused several to fall to the ground. It was classic. So then I finally left and finally made my way up through Rivertown and towards Headless Hollow. What a scary sight. It wasn't creepers scaring the crowd (I have yet to see ONE actor over here actually scaring people), but the line for HH. It had gone from the train station to Tomb Raider's cave, then snaked BACK UP halfway up the other line. I heard someone yell the wait was two hours, so that was definitely a no-go. My next idea was to go to Fear Street and see if they were still handing out reservation tickets. So I took a shortcut through cornSTALKERS (I sure do love corn) and up past Massacre Manor's line towards Coney Maul. I soon reached the house that R.L. Stine built, which had an hour-and-a-half line, and they had ran out of reservation tickets early. Darn. So I finally decided to walk over to PsychoPath; knowing the guys running the maze over there, it was probably going to be a short wait. The line had stretched maybe a little bit past the actual exit to PP, but it was only a 10-minute wait, tops. It was halfway through the wait that the fog (from Sleepy Hollow, no doubt) started to clear up and we saw the real terror-there was one continuous line walking into the maze. Bad idea. I got up to the front and ran into Rachel, the usher for PP. I asked her what was up with the huge line and she said that's what the managers told her to do. Again, bad idea. 20 minutes, and 10 stops through the forest, later, I finally got out of the PsychoPath. And, yet again, they had blocked off the tunnel portion of the maze, which probably would either alieviate the pain or add a whole new problem of the line control. Yet again, bad idea. It was now 9:00 when I left PP, and I was late to meeting up with the Sarahs of ECO for their break. Along the way, the line for Manor had stretched to the main entrance of the Showplace Stage, so I said no way to MM. At Oscar's, I ran into my good buddy, Shep (Andrew Sheppard) from the Maze of Madness, along with the Sarahs, and Hillary, who was just now getting off of break. I told Sarah L. about the line problem with PsychoPath, and she was just as surprised as I was when I told her. Apparently, they had done the same exact thing last year involving one big line of people walking through PP, which of course didn't work, so they went to having groups of 6-8 people walk through the trail. This year, they stopped doing the groups after Dry Run Night and went back to the one continuous line of people. Apparently, this "disease" has now spread to Headless Hollow, as, last weekend, it was almost another continuous line of people walking through WWC's exit path. At a quarter to 10:00, after walking with Shep back to the Maze, and after "meeting up" with another one of my usher friends, Christina (read: scared her silly), I headed up Coney Maul and towards the Circus of Horrors. Along the way, I ran into Big Mike (the tall creeper with long hair and the skull on his face, he's the best one) and a terrified group of girls running past me by Adventure Express. It was the first time I had ever seen that many people running from one creeper before. Of course, I then realized they were running away from the Gauntlet, a very small midway in-between the Sling Shot and the Festhaus. This, besides cornSTALKERS, is what saved FearFest this year, as four creepers and a chainsaw-wielding madmen wreaked havoc with the guests. This was also the first time in which I saw a chainsaw being used in such a large crowd, and he got EXTREMELY close to people with that thing. Every ten seconds, there were two or three groups of people running into or out of the Gauntlet. Two of the best scares I saw this year was one involving a large group of black folk; one sight of the chainsaw and they went speeding. At first, only one guy ran through the thick fog; pretty soon, two, three, and eventually, eleven, guys and girls ran past with two creepers not far behind them. The second was three girls who got blindsided by the chainsaw man and ended up running into me (mind you they were the hottest chicks I saw last night), so I slid away from them, but they, and the chainsaw, were less than four inches away from me. So the girls almost knocked me down again in their failed attempt to escape as another creeper slid into their path and the girls fell onto the ground, rolled up into a ball and crying liking a baby. Finally, I left the park at 10:30, but not without getting some take-out from the Int. Street Skyline Chili. As I ordered my two chili cheese fries, one of the scarecrows from cornSTALKERS had managed to walk all the way up here and order a three-way. Another gang of teenagers sitting down started cracking up when the scarecrow came in and started running around the place with his chili and asking for a spoon. At one point, he sat down next to a family of six with two children aged 8 and 9 and began waving at them, just to be friendly. The kids started crying, yet everyone else was plain rolling on the floor, laughing (except for the family). Then, the mother gets all ****ed and starts yelling at the scarecrow and everyone in the store, "That wasn't supposed to be funny!", and "I hope you're happy that you've made my children cry!" Yeah, well, next time, don't bring your eight-year-old kids to an event when you know they're going to get scared. Especially when it spcecifically says FearFest is not recommended for kids under 12. Long read, long night, good scare.

I'll make a huge attempt to be there tomorrow, though I'll probably be more interested in FearFest. Oh well, still doesn't mean I can't hang out w/some of my fellow PKIC member friends. Have no idea what I'm wearin, though, most likely a hoodie, but again, I don't know. So if you see a black kid with glasses walk up to Legend Rider and any others at the TRTR Rendezvous Point, please, don't worry-it's just me, the RingMaster.

[scratches his head] I could've sworn this was "constructive criticism" and not "brashing and complaining." Both hidden_agenda and Shman are right on the managers being able to run things smoothly, take care of whiny guests (read: ME), and handle performers/scareactors. But handling scareactors and TEACHING them good scare tactics are two totally different things. Perfect example: Massacre Manor has a lot of actors that perform realatively good scares on their own, but the whole "He's coming for your head," "The Headless Horseman is coming, leave now" bit gets really old when the entire maze does it. Only two or three people need to shout it out at guests. Meanwhile, the Maze of Madness has a somewhat small crew of performers, but what they lack in quantity, they make up for in quality. Group scares, the ability to follow guests around, and maniacal laughter are key reasons why the MOM crew is the best crew of FearFest. So, really, it's all in the hands of the managers on how well the scareactors perform, as you guys said. BUT, does it make more sense to plan out group scares and special tactics to really get guests riled up, or just tell them to pop out and say some random "Get out of here before the Horseman gets you!" lines? Now, as for competition, let's drop Universal and Knott's for a sec here and focus on local competition. Yes, I know that Kings Island does not operate year-round and they add new attractions every year. And I know for a fact that FearFest does not come cheap and is a hefty price to design, build, and operate such a large event. But looking at other events such as USS Nightmare, St. Rita's, and CP's HalloWeekends, and even home haunts in someone's backyard, they all use techniques and fabricate their own props at a fraction of the cost it takes to buy from a Haunt production company. You can go to the nearest Party City and get masks, costumes, and fog machines for reasonable prices. There are money-saving ways around designing and building haunted attractions that PKI can use without sacrificing quality Halloween scariness. Of course, they probably already do this anyway (dang mind-readers). FearFest is, of course, a spectacular event that provides plenty of good scares (and laughs, if you're like me, hint hint), and the actual crew behind the design and construction of it should be commended for their efforts . But, it's just like hauntguy said earlier, you guys just gotta INNOVATE, man! Go for the gusto! Come up with some really interesting techniques and scare tactics for upcoming years! You got some real big potential to become the next Halloween Haunt, dudes! All you need to do is INNOVATE; challenge yourselves! Don't rehash the same old thing over again just to get another big paycheck, earn it and really impress the fans out there! Oh yeah, and fire the creeper manager and get someone who can actually teach them how to slide and give them pointers for group scares. Of course, they probably already have someone else doing this anyway (again, dang mind readers).

Yes, in no way, shape, or form, am I an expert. I just have friends who work at the Haunt in California and I have seen what they do. You do realize that our FearFest managers are really just usher managers on a normal day? A few of them are also singers from the different shows of this year (School of Rock, Tuned In, Turn it Up, Star Search), so they have no FearFest experience whatsoever. I agree with hauntguy 100%; they need to hire people that know about haunting and haunted events. It's almost an insult how much debt Six Flags is in, yet they have enough money to create a very nice-looking Fright Fest. I'm guessing their mindset is this-"Let's not worry about updating FearFest too much, the guests will be scared of anything. Besides, there are more families with younger children that come than teenagers or older adults." Hmm, maybe the reason why there aren't many older crowds at FearFest is because they'd much rather go someplace else to get scared (IE: USS Nightmare).

^ Because my parents thought that I wouldn't focus on my schoolwork while working at FearFest. I had to quit at the end of September because of school. Now, are you working at FearFest this year? If not, then don't insult. You probably didn't realize this, but COTC was one of the more popular mazes and the longest running maze of FearFest (2000 and 2001 was Revenge of the Mummy). If the other members of the COTC crew read what you put, expect a rude awakening; every one of us worked our asses off every single night, and only nine of us (out of a starting 24) held COTC together the last weekend. Seems as if a majority of members here respect that 'cept you.

Actually that was the line for Maze Of Madness...many people got in line thinking it was for Psycho Path - heck, many people didn't know what they were getting in line for... There was no line for PsychoPath, which is almost an insult considering how bad line control is this year. Headless Hollow, for example, had an usher that let groups of 12+ people go through, with almost no waiting in between groups. Hey, I know that this is only Kings Island's sixth year doing FearFest, but with all the other competition out there getting better and better (EX: USS Nightmare, California's Halloween Haunt, Florida's Halloween Horror Nights), it would make sense to IMPROVE on what needs to be fixed, not neglect old problems and create new ones. Plus, there have been real talent from both Haunt and HHN that have come to FearFest and given their true opinion about the event and what we need to do to really scare people. That's not to say that there wasn't anything good that they did do this year;the new crew behind The Curse of Sleepy Hollow area needs to be commended for their efforts-at last you can see the scenery and how good it looks-and cornSTALKERS was a definite sucess in my opinion. I still want to see some changes made to really help FearFest shine: 1) Hire some REAL Hollywood talent-I'm serious, your make-up artists are not Hollywood talent. The most they do is paste oatmeal to the actors' faces with almost little to no extra applicants. Also, hire some people that can really teach people how to scare or how to slide properly, I've seen better. 2) Hire MORE scareactors-For an event as large as FearFest truly is, only 100 scareactors is not enough. It doesn't make things better when there are only 9-10 creepers running around the ENTIRE park. Having too many talent is better than having little or no talent occupying a maze or scare zone. At least have 25-35 actors to a maze, and 10-20 creepers PER AREA. 3) Fire whoever decided to not put any creepers in Rivertown-Do I even need to explain this? NOTE: Again, sorry for me complaining about this so much, I just think PKI really should look at what they're doing wrong and stop making up excuses for not trying (Winterfest is NOT an excuse). Especially when Canada's Wonderland is in their first year of FearFest and their's is three times larger than everyone else's and has more attention to detail.

No, that was from this past Saturday. On past trips through HH, there were more actors before than what was on the video.

IDK, it kinda sounds like that IJ:ST would have originally been themed to the Addams Family Coaster according to peteytherocker, before the original rights went in limbo. Just imagine the beginning launch into the upward helix which is inside the big Addams Family mansion. Then, the cars swoop down to the graveyard and dodge evil tree monsters or ghosts. It then goes through a big overbank back into the graveyard, twisting and turning until the cars take a hard left turn back into the mansion, down some steps, and into the basement, where guests get attacked by somthing evil (I don't know). Finally, they take a quick speed course through the darkened hallways of the Addams Family mansion and crash through a castle wall and down into the mansion moat. The queue line would revolve around the different rooms of the mansion, while meeting the different members of the family. Just think; a dilapidated manor would look totally WICKED where the upward spiral is now. Or maybe that's just me. I don't know, I'm just making this stuff up as I go.

Says that Headless Hollow can download on my computer, but I don't know what's up with PychoPath. I'll just take PP off the list and get it hosted somewhere else. Meanwhile, keep me informed on Headless Hollow, too. Rickster: Headless Hollow is a 33 MB file; Putfile won't work. Anyone have suggestions for other hosting sites that are easy to download videos from?

Greetings, fellow PKIC members. This thread brings together any and all footage from this year's FearFest event. This first post is where you can get the latest videos on your favorite mazes and scare zones, and you can also check my signature for updates and news on SHRIEKshow. Feel free to post comments/suggestions here as they are welcome. Enjoy........if you dare. EDIT: Reclaimer has now posted all of the SHRIEKshow videos on his website, so you don't have to download the from Rapidshare! Hooray! Here is his site: SHRIEKshow Page (courtesy of Reclaimer) Note that the site is back online and you can download the videos again. Maze of Madness and Massacre Manor, as well as some other special videos, will be up soon. Now go have fun...if you dare. -Matt (The RingMaster)

Last night (Saturday) was okay. Almost none of the fog machines were working, except for the three in Coney Maul and the ones in cornSTALKERS. This, to me, was a big disappointment from last Saturday, when the entire park was covered in fog. Also noticed that Maze of Madness had a tremendously huge line reaching around Zephyr at around 10:30, and PsychoPath had literally NO line. What up wit that? The creepers were fun, especially the two that started wreaking havoc on the Fear Street line (I especially got a few good laughs). The last 20 minutes by the front gate were a riot, seeing several groups of young teenage girls running past me and my camera, with a creeper not far behind. Still, some minor/major gripes: 1) Add monsters to Sleepy Hollow (Rivertown)-Seriously, this is the third night I've gone to FearFest, and there is still NOTHING over there. Either place some of the creepers over to Sleepy Hollow or expand cornSTALKERS to reach the boundaries of Rivertown. 2) Fix the fog machines, if neccessary-The massive fog from Preview and Opening Night is what made FearFest this year. Don't disappoint us by either not attempting to fix the fog machines or choosing not to operate them. 3) Hire better managers-I lost count on how many damaged gravestones/puppet monsters I saw. I even caught a glimpse of a group of teenagers running around one of the themed gardens in Coney Maul, with the FearFest managers just standing there. Still, it's good to see the security guards doing their job (Good job, Kenny). 4) Get rid of the Friday the 13th "show"-Yeah, it was bad last year, but this is just unacceptable. Absolutely no attempt to scare people was made; it was just 15 minutes of reliving all of the Friday the 13th films and showcasing every single cliche of the series (is that technically even a good idea?). 'K, I'm done.

I'm probably thinking more along the lines of involving werewolves into that back path. If not, I'll move Sleepy Hollow (scare zone) over to the picnic grove, and the werewolf maze would be WWC's exit (Headless Hollow). Meanwhile, I have an idea for a scare zone walk-through-Toon TERRORtory. It involves demented cartoon characters on the hunt for human blood. I just have no idea where to put it. Any suggestions?

Hey, Bodda, were you allowed to use your camera light when you went through the mazes? 'Cause I couldn't; they sat up and told me that I couldn't use my light cause it would mess with the actors' eyes.

They still have the sirens and the heart pumping noises running rampant throughout the maze. ^Still, the best part of the video, for me, is the beginning where the host is torturing Britney near the front and says that she's blonde underneath her dark hair. That was classic. PS: On a lighter note, Britney works on IJ:ST. If you ever see her, and ever ask her if she's still blonde underneath all that dark hair, tell her that Matt Godfrey said it. She'll know what you mean. -The RingMaster

^ Thanks for that. I'll probably just return the one I have now and get the DCR-HC20; there's not much of a price difference anyway (DCR-$380, Panasonic GS-$350). Now I'll be able to deliver a much crisper Headless Hollow and Circus of Horrors. -The RingMaster

^Hey, if the managers weren't so strict on us, we could've been a lot better than we were last year. I hate the FearFest managers there; they think that they can boss people around just because they get paid more than the actors and the managers just stand around and do nothing. Has anyone seen any photos of Six Flags Fright Fest? I know screamscape.com has some. I think it's an insult that they have that much detail in their event considering their financial status as of now, whereas we have plenty of money but we just waste it for other things. ...Sorry, just had to vent there for a sec...

Nice pics and awesome video, Bodda! Might I ask what type of camcorder you were using for the video? I may just need to trade my old one in for a new camcorder for SHRIEKshow. -The RingMaster

^The first "rehearsal" doesn't start until the Saturday before FearFest starts. And then it's that last full week in September, minus Friday for Pride Night. Hey, don't forget about next Friday! That'll be the first Friday of FearFest '05!

^(takes a bow) Thank you, thank you... Seriously, though, the Crypt idea has been around since FearFest's inception in 2000 as The Mummy's Revenge. But I guess that's just what PKI should be known for-taking out good attractions and replacing them with mediocre ones.

^With the actors in COTC, the darkness is our friend. You will honestly not believe how many hot chicks we scared to death in there. I could've sworn I made at least four or five SUPER-HOT ladies cry in there with pitch-black settings.

StxSteven- There are actually only a handful of returners that come back over the years. The sliders themselves only get 2-3 days of practice to slide and rebound from crashing; the rest of the time is spent walking around through everyone elses' mazes. It's the same with actors in mazes; we only get 2 days of actual practice and the rest is just walking through other mazes. I'm saying this because I was in it last year for Curse of the Crypt. I hate to keep comparing this, but the Halloween Haunt in California knows how to scare people. Their sliders train for 2-3 MONTHS and perfect what they do. And the maze monsters spend at least a school week doing dress rehearsals for thir own maze. Last thing, then I'll shut up- I really don't like the way Paramount Parks runs everything. They're the only reason why PKD is in such a rut, why PGA is getting stripped of their good coasters, and why PCW has such crappy coasters (I'm sorry to all the PCW/PKD/PGA fans out there). I know what you're saying-"If you don't like it, the why don't you do something about it yourself?"-but I can't. I'm only 17-years-old. I'm trying my best just to get FearFest '05 on tape, and even that's not going well. I recently heard that Viacom had split into two companies, and that all of the Paramount Parks are now under CBS. Corps. (TV productions). I just hope that they're smart enough to either change what they're doing and improve, or give the parks to a company that knows what they're doing. OK, now I'll shut up. Rico-Finally, he shuts up! God, that ringmaster kid is annoying! Don't you think, Jose? Jose-Si, amigo.

^Yeah, usually the second or third weekend is always the best due to everyone really getting a good feel of scaring the heck out of people. I went through Massacre Manor, cornSTALKERS, and Headless Hollow. MM was much darker than last year, so much so that I couldn't see a vast majority of the maze itself, which was the most beautiful maze of last year. Of course, almost all of the scareactors used this to their advantage to get some really good hiding spots and get our group bad (mind you that it was just me and four other girls behind me). I guess the only bad thing was it was WAY too dark in there to see anything. cornSTALKERS was the best out of the three for Sleepy Hollow for me. I just wish that they would have enlarged it to the point of it covering all of Rivertown. The fog is what really made this shine-at one point, you could not see in front of you AT ALL. Add to it the scareactors that were camoflauged well in the area that also used this to their advantage. The extra props in the center of the walkway also added to extra hiding spots for them, especially one that slid out from underneath one of the wagons and got our group in the back. Great job. Headless Hollow was a bit of a head-scratcher. I enjoyed the overall storyline of it-taking a train to the Western Woods when it breaks down and the only way back is to go through the fabled Headless Hollow still haunted by the victims of the Headless Horseman-but it seems as if they didn't really care much for it. It really just wasn't scary at all. Compared to how much the girls screamed in both MM and cornSTALKERS, this was nothing like those. The worst part was the Horseman; I went through twice (once during Dry Run and again last night), and BOTH times he just stands there and does nothing. I liked the idea of using the train for part of the maze, but it just doesn't make any sense waiting in line for the train, and then waiting in line AGAIN just to walk through the maze. If it were me, I would just have people wait in line for the train, and then set up HH like cornSTALKERS to where it would be like a midway where everyone could walk. Anyway, last night was okay, just not great. The only real complaint I had was Sleepy Hollow. It was EMPTY. Not empty as in no guests, empty as in no scareactors. And there were only six going around to begin with. I'm sorry, but if this is their sixth year running FearFest and they're adding a new scare zone, at least hire more scareactors. Because the 100 actors total for FearFest just doesn't cut it. Especially when other haunted events have 250-300 actors (Halloween Haunt and Halloween Horror Nights have 1000) and are not up to the sheer size of FearFest. I also have faith in Paramount Parks; I just think they're spending their money on and paying more attention to all the wrong places (IJ:ST, IJ:SC, MI:SS).

'K, who all is going tonight for the official opening of FearFest? I know I am, but I gotta process my '06 season pass when I get to PKI. I'll be there at 4, so anyone else comin? O yeah, and the Headless Hollow finale leaves a lot to be desired (meaning it needs a LOT of work). -The RingMaster

Yeah, I had the same problem. Maybe the site was down or something. IDK.