Halloween Haunt 2011's Bloody Details

[BoddaH1994]

Halloween Haunt is back and bloodier than ever! With two new mazes and the return of some of the most savagely popular attractions that pleased thousands of victims last year, Kings Island is certain to make some of your worst nightmares come to life!

New for 2011! Mysteria will bring you to a new dimension where nothing is as it appears. You may enter this new indoor maze but be warned – you are entering on your own peril.

The holidays will be experienced in an all-new way as Holiday Horror makes its debut at Halloween Haunt in 2011. Located in Planet Snoopy, Holiday Horror will turn all of your favorite holidays into horrific and terrifying scenes.

Returning this year for a second encore is Hot Blooded, a wildly popular live show that has created a cult following in its tenure. Produced in-house, Hot Blooded is regarded as one of the best shows that Kings Island has ever presented. Follow a young couple as they stumble across a vampire’s lair with no escape. Love, lust, betrayal, and revenge are experienced in this soon-to-be-classic musical revue.

Who’s ready to see a midget bleed?!? The Half Pint Brawlers are back for more abuse and this time there’s no stopping our little friends! Coming off of an overwhelmingly popular debut last year, everyone’s favorite “midgets” (please don’t call them “little people!”) will be making their return and will shed some real blood, much to the delight of their long-legged audience!

Does waiting in line just kill you? You can survive Halloween Haunt in a brand new way with the debut of the Fright Lane at Haunt in 2011. Priced as low as twenty dollars when you buy five or more, a Fright Lane pass will let you skip the line and be amongst the first to reach the chopping block at all of Haunt’s horrific attractions! The Fright Lane pass allows you to bypass the line one time each at all of Haunt’s attractions.

If all of this talk about blood, guts and midgets is making you hungry then make sure you check out Halloween Haunt’s Fright Feast. Details have yet to be released about this bloody buffet, but it has proven to be a popular last meal amongst Haunt’s victims in past years.

If being scared to death isn’t your idea of a good way to spend your free time, Kings Island will offer two different family-friendly activities during the day. New this year in the Dinosaurs Alive! area of the park, “Trick or Treat With the Dinosaurs” will delight youngsters as they collect goodies from some of their favorite extinct friends. An upcharge will be associated with this activity.

Making its return, Howl-o-Fest will complement Kings Island’s award winning kids’ area with special activities for kids in this family-friendly Halloween experience.

Do you LOVE Kings Island? Why not come back next year too? Season passes are now on sale for 2012 at the lowest price of the year! You can purchase your new pass or renew your pass online or at the park.

For more information, check out the park’s official web site: www.visitkingsisland.com

[RingMaster]

I'm surprised you didn't bring up the fact that Planet Snoopy has now finally been annexed to the rest of Haunt, with monsters roaming the new fear zone Nightmare Alley.

But anyway, will KICentral be providing Opening Night photos and footage for this season's Haunt?

[jcgoble3]

Nice article, but the link to the park's website is broken. On another note, despite putting Haunt into the "confirmed trips" list in my signature, I'm a giant chicken, and I normally stay away from scary stuff like haunted houses and horror movies, so I'm still trying to talk myself into going. Anybody want to help talk me into going?

[Jasper]

I am really excited to see the Fright Pass feature is so cheap, 20 dollars when you buy 5. This to me is really worth it if you want to experience all the haunts. Waiting in line for Haunts can get excruciantingly long and you probably won't get to do everything all in one night. Using this, I can now hopefully breeze through the Haunts, and still have time to ride some rides afterwards. Haunt looks promising this year, I hope to see a bunch of KIC coverage and photos.

[standbyme]

I'm a giant chicken, and I normally stay away from scary stuff like haunted houses and horror movies, so I'm still trying to talk myself into going. Anybody want to help talk me into going?

Do you want me to tell you the same thing I have always told my nephews? "It's just somebody just like you with a mask on...there's nothing to be scared of". (Except the lines.)

As a side note, here's food for thought: I remember a comedy bit of George Carlin's where he was talking about the day when eventually he could see a "nutcase" with a gun going into a church and start shooting everyone...and that did come to pass...I wonder if the day will come when a nutcase with a knife will sneak into a haunt and start hacking people up before anyone realizes that it's not fake. (Now you can be scared again! )

[Colonel_SoB_fan]

jcgoble3 I stay away as well due to fear, but I am working it, so if ya want to come out, come on out and see a bright yellow shirt jump 10 feet every 10 seconds. That ought to calm your nerves

[jcgoble3]

jcgoble3 I stay away as well due to fear, but I am working it, so if ya want to come out, come on out and see a bright yellow shirt jump 10 feet every 10 seconds. That ought to calm your nerves

LOL! At least I know I'm not the only scaredy-cat that will be there!

Do you want me to tell you the same thing I have always told my nephews? "It's just somebody just like you with a mask on...there's nothing to be scared of". (Except the lines.)

I know that and yet it doesn't help much...

As a side note, here's food for thought: I remember a comedy bit of George Carlin's where he was talking about the day when eventually he could see a "nutcase" with a gun going into a church and start shooting everyone...and that did come to pass...I wonder if the day will come when a nutcase with a knife will sneak into a haunt and start hacking people up before anyone realizes that it's not fake. (Now you can be scared again! )

...and that's not helping! You're supposed to be talking me into it, not scaring me away!

[185139]

jcgoble3 I stay away as well due to fear, but I am working it, so if ya want to come out, come on out and see a bright yellow shirt jump 10 feet every 10 seconds. That ought to calm your nerves

dont forget, a lot of the guests like to try and scare the scareators, so if your jumpy like i am you should keep your guard up

[TombRaiderFTW]

jcgoble3, I'm notorious for being the jumpiest person alive at Haunt amongst my friends. This is probably because, prior to the Haunt 2008 season, the scariest thing I'd done was watching the movie Premonition with Sandra Bullock. Before that? Phantom Theater. The idea of being intentionally frightened did not interest me in the least.

Then a friend dragged me along with her to that Haunt... and I was pleasantly surprised to find I had a blast. Will you get scared? Sure. But the entertainment factor for me is when I go with someone who can laugh off the scares with me. If you're like me, you'll find yourself (nervously) laughing along when a scareactor gets creative with how they scare you. If the person you go with is in front, you might enjoy it if you notice the scareactor before they do--the anticipation for the person you're with becomes entertainment when the actor goes in for the scare.

The actors will add their own personal touches that make Haunt fun; once, the rule spieler at Cornstalkers noticed my friend looked nervous. He walked up and politely asked, "Aw, are you scared? It'll okay. What's your name?" (We'll call her Anna.) When she told him, he turned to the trail and proceeded to bellow, "HEYYY! EVERYBODY! ANNAAAA'S COMIIIIN'!" We laughed, but when we went through the course, the actors scared her by name. We got to the other side, and she was like, "Holy crap. I am NEVER talking to strangers EVER. AGAIN." You've just got to find your own entertainment value, and once you do, you'll have a blast.

Oh, and one other thing to note: contrary to what it may seem, the roamers at Haunt that have no assigned trail or house are not as common as the internet would make them seem. That's not a criticism of the Haunt; it's just fact. The only times a roamer has scared me in three seasons of Haunting has been while was entering the park at the beginning of the first night (after the monsters rush the crowd) in 2009 and when a slider snuck up on me on IS in 2008. I don't know how the whole roamer thing will work this year with the addition of fear zones, but it's just what I've noticed in the past. Should you occasionally check over your shoulder if you don't want to be caught off guard? I would (and do), but it's not something you have to do all the time.

EDIT: One other thing... Since going to the '08 Haunt, I've done a legitimate 45-minute trail (as opposed to the 5-minute ones at KI). I did not enjoy it the same way I enjoy Halloween Haunt. (Actually... I didn't enjoy it at all. Too much emphasis on the scares and not as much on the having fun for me.) Just thought that says something for Haunt.

[jcgoble3]

That's a big help. Thanks.

Then a friend dragged me along with her to that Haunt... and I was pleasantly surprised to find I had a blast. Will you get scared? Sure. But the entertainment factor for me is when I go with someone who can laugh off the scares with me. If you're like me, you'll find yourself (nervously) laughing along when a scareactor gets creative with how they scare you. If the person you go with is in front, you might enjoy it if you notice the scareactor before they do--the anticipation for the person you're with becomes entertainment when the actor goes in for the scare.

Ordinarily I go to KI by myself, but I might drop into the meetup section and see if I can scare up somebody to go with me.

[RingMaster]

Here is a (small) list of things you shouldn't do if you are actually scared:

Don't let your name go public - As per mentioned by TombRaiderFTW earlier, name-calling serves a completely different purpose in the vein of a haunted house rather than anywhere else. Much like living in an apartment, the walls of a haunted house are paper-thin and sound travels extremely quickly from one end to the other (the lack of a roof directly over the maze's walls is the main culprit of this). Case in point, when someone's name is called out by a scareactor, everyone else can hear it and follow suit. Name-calling adds a level of personal terror, as you feel like you have been singled out from your group and the monsters will make a bee-line for you. This works to a lesser extent in the streets, as you have hundreds of people and many more noises bouncing off all over the place, but is still a formidable way to get under someone's skin if you know what their name is.

Don't "act" scared - This is the hardest rule to follow if you are actually scared. There are many ways to tell if someone is scared, from both an obvious and a subtle standpoint. The one screaming at the most insignificant thing and hiding behind their significant other? Obvious. The one with a barely audible whimper and quivering lips? Subtle. The less obvious notions you give off, the less you'll stand out from the crowd. Hence the reason why monsters will go after the group of tweeny-boppers that are climbing over each other instead of the lone couple casually strolling through.

Don't run - Not just from a safety standpoint, this is the absolute easiest way to get a monster to not leave you alone. A good monster doesn't initiate the chase, because it is the guest who initiates it themselves. It's the most basic primal instinct amongst the "prey" when they notice something is amiss and take off prematurely. So if you see a monster at the end of the street, don't give in to the flight (but definitely don't go for the fight), or you risk being the source of one wicked chase sequence straight out of a horror movie.

Don't be the middleman - You've seen/heard the commercials about people eliminating the middleman to pass savings directly on to you. Well, in this case, both the exact same and the exact opposite can be said when being in a group in a haunted house. One of the most important rules of being a monster in a haunted house is to always scare forward. Houses need to get as many people through in a certain amount of time, and line backups hinder this greatly. Hence monsters scare the middle or back of the group to push them forwards. This actually makes things easier for the monster because where do the most scared people in the group go to? You guessed it - the middle. Thus, aim to be the first person in line or be as close to the front as you can.

And finally:

Don't let your guard down - This goes for everyone, not just the ones who are actually scared. Kings Island is just one big distraction, an instrument designed to get people to look at everything except what's in their immediate surroundings. One second, you look up at Diamondback's 230 foot first drop, the next second, you look back down to find a monster three inches from your face. The creepers are the most notorious at scaring people when they're not expecting it. Just like The Spanish Inquisition, nobody expects someone to come sliding right in front of their feet...especially in a big crowd. So always keep your guard up, but not to the point where you'll point out one monster and keep him away from you, only to have another one come up and scare you from behind (another fine example of killer teamwork).

[HTCO]

Some very interesting and true advise there Ring Master. But everyone please remember why you went to Haunt in the first place... to get scared. Not avoid getting scared.

[UnrealNightmare]

Will there be as much fog as last year? I hope so!

[McSalsa]

I just looked at the Haunt website, and on the list of rides they will have open, one caught my eye:

http://www.visitkingsisland.com/haunt/attractions/thrill_rides/all_rides.cfm

Congo Falls WILL BE OPEN for haunt this year. Strange, but welcome.

[XGatorHead 8904]

Now RingMaster, why did you have to go and give tips that could hinder our fun?

[Guest TombraiderTy]

I just looked at the Haunt website, and on the list of rides they will have open, one caught my eye:

http://www.visitking...s/all_rides.cfm

Congo Falls WILL BE OPEN for haunt this year. Strange, but welcome.

It appears as though CornSTALKERS has been moved to Tower Gardens, opening up Congo's queue line and enabling it to operate. Yet Viking Fury is still closed for all of October... so that its exit can be used as a house's queue. I'd rather see VF's queue house used for a haunt. It's nearly the size of Club Blood, a flat space and wouldn't be in-the-way of guests during the day. Just an idea.

[jdawg1998]

RingMaster, you have explained everything I need to know to not be a wimp during Halloween Haunt....

[standbyme]

I'd rather see VF's queue house used for a haunt. It's nearly the size of Club Blood, a flat space and wouldn't be in-the-way of guests during the day. Just an idea.

It never fails to amaze me what kind of haunt ideas you can think of.

(Personally my family is always dissapointed that Viking Fury is not open in October...one less ride that the family can all ride together.)

[TOPGUN1993]

This topic makes me miss working Urgent-Skurrre

[coasterfanatic83]

I am very excited for this stuff. It has been TOO long.

[Tanna]

Now I go to the park firmly convinced those scareactors have something genuinely wrong with them. I like the scare.

Ringmaster's statement on name calling: it's not just the name. Once in Carnevil, the knowledge that clowns bothered me shot through the haunt like wildfire- you could hear people yelling out a description down the line.

There's something about frightening people that's really fun, and letting yourself be scared is fun, too.

[SpongeBob]

I can't wait for Halloween Haunt!

[XGatorHead 8904]

Now I go to the park firmly convinced those scareactors have something genuinely wrong with them.

You know, I think you might be right about us!

[185139]

only 7 more days till they open Halloween Haunt, who heres going on opening night?

[faeriewench]

I dunno when I'll be going to KI Haunt, but I know for sure I'll be at Knott's Haunt

[185139]

Why did the Fright Feast page change "Chef Costa" to "Chef Williamson"?

[Cpt Crunch]

Because Chef Williamson is serving Chef Costa at Fright Feast now.

[185139]

I dont get it...

[Avatar]

Get it now?

And yes that is real cake, it was delicious.

[TheBeastFreak56]

My sister and I were at Wolf Pack and we were waiting to go in. The man at the entrance heard me call my sister by name so when when one of the wolves poked his head out, he said to him, "This is Natalie." Then he told another wolf and so forth. I think its fun when the actors call you by name, its more fun that way