Halloween Haunt 9/21

[The Forsaken]

First, was a great day to be at Kings Island. We arrived at the park around 1PM to BEAUTIFUL weather. Sun was out, temps were cool and a light breeze made me ever so excited for haunt that night. So first, the non-haunt stuff...

First ride was Vortex. Awesome as always. I had brought a friend of mine who has never ridden a roller coaster before or visited a park since 1996. So, why not start him off with Vortex. He loved it.

Next was Backlot...always fun and had a very little wait.

Headed over to The Beast but it was momentarily closed for about an hour, so we headed towards Action Zone. Got my friend on Flight Deck, while he was a little nervous, he loved it. This ride was a walk-on. I'm kinda sad to see how this ride is operating now-a-days. I really hope some life can be put back into it or just removed and add something else there.

Then, we stopped for food!

KI Halloween Haunt 2013 / 9/20

This was my first time eating at the new Reds Grill. I must say, the food was great and the prices are way better than I expected. My friend, who loves BBQ, said it was some of the best BBQ ribs he had ever had. So, great job guys on the grill. Oh, our waitress was awesome too.

After lunch we toke a nice leisurely ride on the train. Love those things. After that we headed towards Coney Mall for a ride on The Racers, we won!

Now, we just relaxed and waited for HAUNT!

KI Halloween Haunt 2013 / 9/20

BTW...we bought the FrightLane Passes. WORTH EVERY PENNY!!!!

KI Halloween Haunt 2013 / 9/20

I knew the lines for Haunt were going to be long on a Saturday night, and I was right. These passes are worth every penny and I will forever buy them every time I go to Haunt. We were able to visit every haunt attraction with a couple of hours to spare. Makes for a much more relaxing time and allows us to really soak in and enjoy the event.

HAUNT REVIEWS: (In order of visit)

-Slaughterhouse: Loved these actors; kinda like a family in there! However, the poorly executed haunt does those awesome actors ZERO justice. Poor lighting, mediocre theming...at least the actors and managers pulled it all together to make it rather enjoyable. I'll give it 5 out of 10. The actors saves this haunt! Great job guys.

-Club Blood: Hmmm...what can I say. Night club, "strippers", gore and dance music. LOVE IT. But seriously, the decor and theming in this maze is nice. The flow of the attraction from room to room is a little whack, but that's ok I guess. The actors do their best with what they got and most of them have come up with some really creative dialogue. I just wish it could be longer. I'll give this one a 7 out of 10.

-Wolf Pack: This was my friends favorite haunt and we used our "extra haunt" pass on the FrightLane to do this one again. The scenes are very nicely detailed, although I'd love to see more leaves, branches and vines on the walls. The actors are fantastic given the low-par masks they have to wear. The crew in the maze really know how to center in on just the right person to get the scare they need. Great job. I'll give this one a 7 out of 10. BTW...this haunt needs to move to Rivertown.

-Delta Delta Die: Our least favorite haunt. I never thought I'd see a haunt designed by Leonard Pickel be driven into the ground so much. The original theme, that of a haunted mansion/house, is by far the best use of this haunt. This new theme, sorority house does NOT work. In fact, it's too much like Club Blood in the fact that it's basis is around "sexy sorority girls" throwing a KILLER party. Whatever...it was scary and the sets were terrible. The actors, sorry to say, tried and failed. Good attempts though. Also the "Asylum door" prop by Pale Night Productions needs a new, shorter animation on it because it causes MAJOR bottle-necking in the haunt...terrible use within a theme park setting. I'll give this one a 2 out of 10 just for mercy on the actors. BTW...last I checked sorority houses don't have restaurant quality and stocked kitchens, stick to the theme guys.

-Board to Death: First, LOVE THIS CONCEPT. This is, I think, the most creative haunt I've seen at KI in many years. I absolutely love the theming, the props, the costumes...everything. It's just not scary though, which I sadly have to say falls onto the actors and poor placement of key scare elements. Although, I still enjoyed myself...the board games featured where pulled off very well and really worked with the theme. Those actors though, work on your timing. I'll give this one a 7 out of 10. Note: In the beginning, those large board piece on the walls would make a great drop window!

-Urgent Scare: Please, retire this haunt...it's needs hospitalization more then KI's guest do. Poor theming, terrible flow, bad lighting, bad sound and actors trying to over compensate for all of this. No knock to the actors though, their dialogue was great and they all really stuck with the hospital theme. But darn, my haunt soul can only take so much. I'll give this a 1 out of 10. Sorry, but this haunt needs to be euthanized.

-Wax Museum: My pick for best haunt! First, let me say that I don't look at the theming until we're down into the actual maze. I won't give any credit for the old ride theming that wasn't created by KI's haunt team. Saying that...THE SCENIC DETAIL WAS GREAT! This is by far KI's top quality haunt. The props, the sets, the scenic treatments, the sound, lighting, actors...it all worked! Haunt also featured some unique scares that I'm surprised KI had up it's sleeve. Now, I'm ****ed though...because I know the Haunt crew can do it, now make EVERY haunt like this one on the quality scale! I'll give this one a 9 out of 10. Loved this haunt.

-Tombstone Territory: This haunt is a VAST improvement over what I remember this haunt being. The train ride being attacked by 'train robbers'...great! The trail back was much better than previous years. The haunt crew took a lot of old props from Red Beards and put it to good use on this trail, which it was lacking severely. The actors where also spot on and kept with the cowboy nature of this haunt. This is one of the better haunts at KI now. I'll give this one a 7 out of 10. Still needs a little scenic tweaking, but it's getting there...finally.

-Holiday Horrors: Sigh. The thought of a haunt based around the holidays sounds awesome...but this wasn't it. The set detail is alright to say the most. A lot of stuff seemed "thrown together", like, there's no passion for the maze construction, layout or detail. The actors are good and some of the animations are quality...but that's about it. This haunt also needs a retirement...put that in the calendar. I'll give this a 4 out of 10. Also, location is terrible.

-CarnEVIL: I'm kinda partial to this haunt because I'm friends with the company who built it. Saying that, what the hell happened? KI really needs to hire a 3D HAUNT painter to come in and redo the paint in this haunt, it's severely faded in a lot of parts. Also the makeup, not blacklight reactive at all, or it didn't seem like it. What's the deal with the 3D glasses upcharge? Privately owned smaller haunts don't even do that...and without them it kills the experience; so, why? Sorry actors, but you guys didn't help this one out either. This haunt needs a crucial update not just in the paint, but the build and theming as well. I'll give this one a 4 out of 10.

Best paint job on this haunt...and it's STILL a little rough.

-Cornstalkers: VAST improvement over previous years. I'm so glad to see this haunt doing so well. Great scares, great actors, great theming...although I would like to see more "corn field" theme and less burlap and wooden crates, it is CORNstalkers after all, not CRATEstalkers. Anyways, this was a great haunt...could use better music/sound...maybe a touch more scenic lighting. But it was a very good haunt and was a great cap to our evening. I'll give this one a 8 out of 10.

-Ed Alonzo's Psycho Circus: LOVED IT! That's all. 10 out of 10. (Not for kids though). Also, I want the soundtrack to this show!

KI Halloween Haunt 2013 / 9/20

BTW...KI's retail dept...keep up the good work!

Overall, KI's 2013 haunt is ok. KI has SO MUCH potential to have a truly scary haunt event but I feel the lack of creativity or general haunt industry experience will forever keep this production down. I don't know if Cedar Fair is to blame for this or not, but seems like most of their haunt productions aren't quite "their"...except maybe Knott's, but my money would bet they pretty much do what they want and other parks must follow...which is terrible because Knott's is NOT the end-all of haunt events by any means.

I'll give KI's haunt an overall score of 6 out of 10.

-T. Forsaken

[The Forsaken]

Sorry, I titled this review wrong...date was Saturday, October 21st. NOT the 20th....

Sorry.

-T. Forsaken

[calakapepe]

You should be able to edit that
And to edit your post (future reference)

[jcgoble3]

You can change the title by clicking edit on the first post followed by "Use Full Editor".

[The Forsaken]

AWESOME! Thanks guys.

-T

[Ki Man]

I'm so mad that they took away Massacre Manor. That's KI's original haunt, and my personal favorite. It was always the best in my opinion. Just a classy classic haunted house. Why get rid of it? As a past Haunt member, I'm going to find my old managers and give them my input as a guest

[purdude86]

Massacre Manor was ok but I never found it to be that great so I wasn't too disappointed to see it go. However, I thought ti was pointless to replace it with a haunt with a very similar theme (massacre inside a large house). If you aren't going to change it don't do it. Pretty much had the same thought of it as Forsaken that it seemed like a mix between Club Blood and Massacre Manor. wish they would have just kept Massacre Manor in this case and focused more money and efforts on upgrading some of teh existing haunts instead of a half hearted new one.

Though it is nice to see that some did get a bit of upgrading still like Tombstone Terror-tory