10/02/03

[StXBomber]

Last night was FearFest dry run night. It is the practice night for the actors in the mazes. Employees were all given tickets for the night, so only employees and their friends and family could get in. The bad part was it was only open 2 hours and only the mazes were open (no food, rides, nothing!). Here is my review of the night. CAUTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!

I walk in and hear the Beatlejuice theme playing, but I had heard that played before in the park, and thought nothing of it.

I go to the meeting spot (floral clock) to meet the rest of the people in my group. We all get together at about 8:20 and head to our first stop: The all new Route 666!

Route 666:

We walk up to see a long line. Yes, even though only employees and their friends were allowed in, since only mazes were open, the lines were massive. My group enter the car and begin (I was the driver, cause the 2 other people in my car were too afraid too, lol). I drive off to find myself in a creepy scene. Many dark statues on either side of me. They are black, hooded, and scary looking! Of course, me being the thinker I am begin thinking of ways they will try to scare us, and figure out that one of them is really an actor, but which one? They all looked alike, and I didn't know which was real! But sure enough, one jumped out at the car. I continue on and suddenly a person jumps out of a tree right next to the car! I definatly did not see that one coming! We continue on and more people jump out, but then we go under the bridge and is the most obvious scare of the ride. It's on the right, but when you ride it, you know someone is gonna pop up a mile away (mainly cause the guy was moving when we were approaching). Later on we go into an area with massive fog, and I didn't see where I was driving! All I saw was purple fog! Very creepy! We come out of it and enter a cornfield. We hear someone on the other side of the corn yelling, "Don't go further! Turn back now!" Then the corn jumps toward the car! Then a scream is heard just to the left of the car right in your ear! As the scream ends, the cornfield ends and the station is seen!

Maze of Madness:

We get off of Route 666 and head to Maze of Madness. From the line we see people being forced into a shed and looking like sheep being lead to the slaughter (which is what it's supposed to look like). We meet a nice dead man and we decide to have some fun with him. "Uncle Billy! You were alot nicer when you were, like, alive!" said one of my group members. He turns to him, gets real close to his face and says, "Boy, we've got one word for you in there, DEAD!" The doors then burst open. Finally it's our turn. We hold on to the shoulders of the person ahead of us (as is the rule) and we enter. We seem to have no choice with the same dead guy shouting, "IN! GO IN NOW!" right behind us. We find ourselves in a winding path of mirrors, fencing, bloody butchers, and loud noises! Not really scary, just disorienting at times. Many times I thought I saw another group, but it just was our reflection. The bad part of this maze was at one point we see a projection of a person being spun around. Very lame, not scary at all. As we are about to exit, we see one last butcher. He looks at us, and we look back thinking, "Hes on the other side of the fence, he can't get us. All of a sudden, he pushes the fense open and comes toward us! Very scary!

Psycho Path:

We leave the maze and find the entrance to Psycho Path right there, so we say why not? We still had about a half hour until 10. We walk back, and back, and even farther back into the woods behind FoF and Racer. This line was the longest of the night. As we near the front, we play another game on a dead guy. This time, I was the jokester. A guy with alot of red stuff on his face gets our group set up and I say, "Dude, you've got something on your face there." He says, "Oh, you mean this?" and shines his flashlight on his face. At first it looked like paint in the dark, but with light on it we could see his face was all pusslike. Very cool looking! Some on my group were so amazed they asked if they could touch it, and he let us touch his face. We are next and we begin to head into a massive fog we could not see through. As we approach it, an old woman walks out and says, "Welcome! We love our visitors here! Don't listen to stories you may have heard about cannibals living in these woods. Oh, and ignore those screams coming from the woods, those are just the locals having some fun." She did this all in a funny accent. As we begin to go into the fog, a girl in our group mimics the voice and says, "Yeehah! Let's go gang!" We then hear the woman saying, "You know, in all those horror movies the person that makes fun of the way the locals talk is always the first person to die!" We all get a good laugh of this and enter the dense fog. Now, how did we not get lost in the fog? We are all holding to a rope so as long as we are holding rope, we aren't lost. I was second from the front in this group, so I could see what was coming: nothing! All we saw was fog! I had to look at the ground to follow the barely marked path. For the first part, no one jumps out. We just walk this path that doesn't seem to end. At one point we think we really are lost because no one is coming to scare us! The lack of scares was the most frightening part of this path! We really feel alone in the middle of no where. Eventually people start jumping out, and we realize it was a part of this maze. At one point a character yells, "The trees are alive!" This makes the actor in my group who loves musicals to begin a rousing rendition of, "The trees are alive with the sound of terror!" We all begin singing along. The dead people must've thought we were nuts! At another point we see a couple heads on a table and me and another person say at the same time, "I bet one of those heads is real!" just as one comes to life. So predicatable. At the end it turns out to be a Texas Chainsaw Massacre ripoff with 2 guys with chainsaws at the end.

Leaving: We get out of the path around 10:10 (it was a ten minute adventure!) and begin leaving. As I head out of the park, I begin humming along with the song that is playing as we leave. I stop for a few seconds to listen, and it turns out to be the music from the Flight of Fear exit hallway! I was humming along with it because I hear it every day at work! I loved that part of the night! Very unexpected bonus!

SHORT REVIEWS:

Route 666: No plot, some cool effects, very good overall.

Maze of Madness: Very little plot, effects not too spectacular, not very good overall.

Psycho Path: Unorigional plot, very creepy lost feeling, good overall.

International Street: Nice spooky music, including FoF music!

Edited January 1, 1970 by StXBomber

[PKIDelirium]

did any of the ghosts have "Internet Police" shirts?

[beastbreakdown]

my ? is how did you remember all of this or did it scare into your memory

[RyanA]

Was there any fog used in the actual park? And did they make the Eiffel Tower change colors(with lights). Also, how well themed was the park itself?

[Chatter]

So, did it suck?

[SML828]

Also remember folks that you can't always go by 'dry-run night' - it's a practice night - so just because something wasn't so great then, doesn't mean it won't be better when everything really starts. Everyone was still learning what they need to do.

[Losing Streak]

I thought what I did (Rt. 666, Maze, Path, Clowns) was a lot less scary then last year... and last year, dry-run was much better then the real thing.

[Dane]

Maze never made that much sence to me, mabey it will tonight when I go (Oct 4, 03)

[coasterbilly]

sounds like fun! I won't be able to go to any Halloween type events at any park so i like reading about these to keep me interested, thanks!

[StXBomber]

1. No, I didnt see any "Internet Police" shirts.

2. Fog was everywhere, especially around FoF (3 mazes in that area). Nothing with the Eiffel Tower really, just that the lights on it were off.

3. I remember everything because I was walking through it thinking of what to put in this novel of a TR, lol. What can I say, I'm a stickler for details!

[PKIDelirium]

whoops, i was moving when you approached? crap

[StXBomber]

whoops, i was moving when you approached? crap

Does anyone else think this makes no sense?

[Mr. Fusion]

Nope, no sense at all.

Edited January 1, 1970 by fusiondude09

[PKIDelirium]

i was one of the costumed peeps under the bridge. i saw it was you and was tempted to yell: "Internet police! you are under arrest!"

[StXBomber]

1. How do you know it was me? You've never seen me before.

2. The guy under the bridge on the right?

If you have AIM, IM me!

[SOB_TOM]

The bottom half of the tower is lit with black lights.

[PKIDelirium]

i've seen you at FoF before. you look like Harry Potter.

Edited January 1, 1970 by pkidelirium

[SOB_TOM]

If youre talking about me, I have never actually worked FOF. The 6 times I was sent there last year I was stuck at Zephyr unload every single time. Thanks James!

[StXBomber]

Actually, he was talking to me. My nickname on my crew IS Harry Potter.