Kings Island Halloween Haunt-“Year of the Little People”
Genre: Haunted Theme Park
Location: 1 KingsIsland Drive
Cincinnati, OH
Runtime: Around 10 min per haunt, Total experience over 2hrs
Website: www.visitkingsisland.com/haunt
Tonight is the opening night of Halloween Haunt. The weather is questionable since it’s been raining off and on all day. Halloween Haunt is always an exciting event and I was looking forward to getting startled and scared. Would Halloween Haunt dissapoint or wouldI go crazy with sheer happiness?
This is City Blood’s review of Kings Island Halloween Haunt.
What’s Good About The Haunt?
Halloween Haunt is one of the best values in the haunt industry. Where else can you tour 12 different attractions, watch 2 great shows and experience intense thrill rides for less than $22 when purchasing tickets online? New this year is Wolf Pack which is obviously a werewolf themed attraction. The entire haunt is somewhat of an indoor haunted trail that centers around monsters, wolves and victims that have been viciously mudered. The sound used in this haunt is very cinematic and will make you feel like you’re in an old fashioned werewolf movie.
Another new addition to Halloween Haunt is Half Pint Brawlers. If you haven’t seen Half Pint Brawlers on Spike TV, you are missing out. I watch just about every little person show from Little People Big World to The Little Couple and Half Pint Brawlers is one of the most entertaining. These wrestlers may be small, but they kick ass while shedding sweat blood and tears. Half Pint Brawlers wasn’t happening the night I visited, but will start the first weekend of October.
This year the park didn’t seem to have as many monsters as in 2009, but as it got later in the evening more actors started appearing from the darkness. Since it rained earlier that night, a few fog machines weren’t being turned on as much as usual and some of the fog didn’t settle. This of course isn’t anyone’s fault since no one can control the weather. The majority of haunts returned from last year. You’ll walk through Slaughter House, Death Row, Urgent Scare, Carnevil, Massacre Manor, Club Blood, Tombstone Terror-Tory, Cornstalkers, Cemetery Drive, Trail of Terror and Cut Throat Cove.
Slaughter House is the most impressive haunt at Halloween Haunt. It’s use of gory props and intense actors takes this haunt to another level. This year the use of Sinister Scents has been elimated from the haunt, but that’s ok. The element of smell was a great addition to last year’s haunt, but this year’s Slaughter House is mor startling than ever.
Massacre Manor is the most realistic of the haunts at Halloween Haunt with rooms resembling a house that’s been put on the market. But this house has a dirty little secret. It’s quite haunted and the ghosts of the past will make whoever lives their get out at any cost. You’ll walk through a kitchen infested with bloody body parts and gory bits of flesh and bone. You’ll even encounter a girl who’s been possessed on a moving bed.
While Carnevil hasn’t changed much, it’s still one of the best clown themed haunts in the state of Ohio. There’s plenty to see at this attraction from clowns that bust out of walls to clowns that are held prisoners in cages. The 3D effects are also quite good and make this haunt really fun with a few things that will catch you off guard.
Cemetery Drive may not be as flashy as some of the other haunts at Halloween Haunt, but it’s by far the best side attraction (aka Scare zone) at the park. The graveyard is very realistic and features actors resembling statues who jump at you when you’re not paying attention. There’s plenty of fog and many zombie props scattered throughout the haunted grounds. It’s not the scariest haunt, but it’s still very enjoyable.
The best part of the attractions at Kings Island are the actors. The characters you’ll walk past wear elaborate costumes, great makeup and prostethics. They also rarely come out of character. It’s impressive and it’s quite obvious that Kings Island looks for the best when it comes to their actors. The haunts at Kings Island are decent, but the star of Halloween Haunt is Hot Blooded. It’s a fantastic show with great music, sexy women, pyrotechnics, blood and dancing. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on this one of a kind show.
What’s Bad About The Haunt?
Most of the attractions at Halloween Haunt are under 10 mintues. They have good design, great actors and unique elements, but in the end you are asking for more fright. Some of the haunts are also not as good as they once were. This is the case with Death Row. The maze is very hectic and can be a little confusing, but many of the props have been removed and there seems to be less actors than in years past.
Death Row isn’t the only haunt that has become stale over the years. Both Tombstone Terror-Tory, Cornstalkers and Urgent scare are very predictable and have gone downhill. Tombstone Terror-Tory is one of those haunts where you wait in line for an hour, enter another part of the attraction and then wait in another line before finishing the rest of the haunt. It can be very frustrating and isn’t worth the time invested. The best element of Tombstone-Terrortory is its fantastic lighting. Much of the haunt is dark, but there are some areas of the trail that use old fashioned lamps that slowly dim on and off or use vibrant colors to create a nightmarish effect.
CornStalkers is one of those haunts that is very boring to look at. It lacks interesting decor, the actors aren’t well hidden and it appears to have been assembled in a few hours. Attaching Cornstalkers to another haunt such as Trail of Terror would help quite a bit. As of now, it just isn’t good enough to stand on its own. Finally we have Urgent Scare. When this haunt first debuted it was somewhat scary and unique among the other attractions at Halloween Haunt. It just doesn’t have the impact it once did.
The bottom line is that Kings Island could do much more with the haunts since their budget is massive compared to other places. There needs to be more pyrotechnics, lots of high end animatronics and jaw dropping sets that Hollywood would be jealous of. Hopefully one day Kings Island makes Halloween Haunt something that anyone would be really proud of.
Customer Service:
You are in for one big night of entertainment at Halloween Haunt. If you are too scared to enter the haunts, you can ride some of the rollercoasters at the park or watch some of the shows like Hot Blooded or Half Pint Brawlers. There’s also a lot choices when it comes to food like pizza, Skyline Chili and more.
As noted before in the review, Halloween Haunt is only $21.99 on Friday nights and $27.99 on Saturdays when purchasing your tickets online. For only $29.99 you can skip the lines, enjoy the Fright Feast Bufettt and get a one of a kind Halloween Haunt water bottle when your purchase this special packaged deal at the gate. Please visit www.visitkingsisland.com/haunt for all the rates.
The staff at Halloween Haunt is very friendly and help any way they can. Unfortunately the Halloween Haunt map can be a bit confusing if you don’t visit the park very often.
Final Thoughts:
As I’ve said before, Halloween Haunt is one of the best values the haunt industry has to offer. For only $21.99 (purchased online) you can experience 12 haunts, 2 shows and have a great time on many of Kings Island’s thrill rides. Make sure and head out to Kings Island this season because All You Fear Is Here!
Length-9 Design-7 Props/Animatronics-7 Acting-9 Scare Effect-8
Official Score – 8.0
Fun Facts:
*When Kings Island was owned by Paramount Pictures, Halloween Haunt was named Fear Fest.