Kings Island Halloween Haunt 2010 Review

Trail of Terror:

Trail of Terror is an outdoor haunt with a Hillbillys gone crazy theme. The props included a lot of Hillbilly related essentials (milk jugs, port-o-lets and old washtubs). You wind your way down a dark path through the woods where you encounter several members of the deranged Hillbilly family. Some notable scenes were the dismembered dolls two creepy girls walking towards you singing a child’s tune. The old wash machines and abandoned cars gave this haunt a country feel but the lack of actors definitely hurt the scare effect. The chainsaws at the end were almost expected and would have maybe been a better addition to the middle of the haunt to add some scares as, although it was fairly dark, it was more like a relaxing stroll through the woods rather than a “Trail of Terror”.

Rating: 6 – Good

Carn-Evil:

Carnevil is one of the better Monster Clown themed haunts that we have seen and overall is a lot of fun. If you can only go to one or two haunts at KI, this should be on your list. Although the theme is not quite original, the execution is well done largely due to the 3D effects and the great funhouse style characters. Highlights inlcude a neon dot room complete with “surprise” dot actors and a bearded lady and other traditional circus freak characters. The seedy Ringmaster/head Carney was the best actor I have seen yet in a haunt. Very convincing but just creepy enough without going over the top.

Rating: 7.5 – Good

Tombstone Terrortory:

Tombstone Territory is a fun haunt both because the back-story is interesting and because it is outdoors. The haunt begins with a train ride through dark woods where we’re told the legend of Walley Sparks, a miner who struck it rich in the old West but then goes on a deadly rampage terrorizing the town. The ride ends abruptly forcing passengers to walk down a dimly lit path to where the the haunted trail picks up. The actors were dressed in appropriate period dress, but unfortunately the trail left little room for hiding spaces so there was very little suspense. The smoke made the trail seemed creepy and the actors played the part well, but overall, more could have been done to add to the element of surprise.

Rating: 7.5 – Good

Urgent Scare:

The Urgent Scare is a hospital taken over by patients infected with a virus. Before you enter, you are told about a “pandemic virus” that really exists (“You can Google it – go ahead! It really exists!”) by a doctor with a bloody face. After being warned, you enter a building with many hospital rooms separated by bloody white sheets. There is a bit more of the scare factor here due to the claustrophobia created by the closeness of the sheets and actors and the constant blaring sirens and warning bells. The rooms, though, were a bit repetitious but did have ample actors and the actors did all stay in character, many being quite good. There was one man in particular who had what looked like rubber bands around his arms who jumped out and gave our group quite a scare.
As you reemerged from the hospital back into the open, you had to walk through an old junk yard with army men hidden behind crates and cans. This was quite effective for a last minute hidden gotcha.
This haunt seemed to improve from last year when a lack of actors left you wanting a bit more.

Rating: 7.5 – Good

Massacre Manor:

Massacre Manor is a twist on the old fashioned haunted house theme with the idea of the house being advertised for sale. This is explained to you by the eerie looking real estate agent upon entering the parlor room. You’re told about the owner of the house, a woman named Emily. There are many interesting rooms but not a lot of surprises overall because the house it was too well lit. One quirky and cute touch is that there are portraits of Emily on the walls throughout the house that at first are nice and sweet and get progressively more ominous, ending up with her holding a bloody chainsaw. In the last room you finally meet Emily and she has a man chained to the wall in a chair and chases you out of the house with a knife. The overall effect was a bit better this year but the scare effect was still lacking due to lack of actors and not enough dark areas to build suspense.

Rating: 6.5 – Good

Corn Stalkers:

The Cornstalkers is a very short outdoor haunt that was lacking in overall design to the point where we were literally going in and out of the “trail” and would have wandered further off if not for the employee who steered us back on track. With very few actors, not very well hidden, too many places to wander off the path, and the path being too well lit, this was not a good haunt. It needed much more smoke, hidden surprises and scarier actors. I would either improve this next year or do away with it altogether. I’ve had better scares walking through a cornfield on a sunny day.

Rating: 4 – Poor

Slaughter House:

Slaughter House theme was, well, a slaughter house. Upon entry you meet Mama who instructs you to stay away from her “boys” (aka the butchers). The haunt was very repetitious as every room had the same hanging meat, meat on the table, bloody walls and counters, an actor with a butcher apron spouting one liners. Parts of it were a bit confusing on were to go next, so much so that the actors had to direct people where to go. This takes away a lot of the believability of the haunt and demotes the “scary actors” into being just ushers. The last part of the haunt did have a tight inflated balloon walk through that impressed some of our reviewers who were a bit claustrophobic. Good effort but the theme needs a bit more dimension rather than just one room of gore after another. That gets old.

Rating: 7 – Good

Club Blood:

Club Blood theme is a vampire nightclub. After getting past the “bouncer” at the door, you enter to find a leather clad girl revving a motorcycle. The next thing you pass is a club-goer vomiting into a very disgusting toilet. I would have saved that for the last. You continue to walk past cages with scantily clad teenagers dancing to loud music. You continue past a bar with people dancing on it with very short shorts and tops. This is definitely a haunt aimed at adults, although the majority of people we saw going through it were definitely under 17. The guys seemed to like it, in large part due to the scantily glad girls, but the girls thought it was just so-so.

Rating: 7.5 – Good

Wolfpack:

The Wolfpack is a new haunt addition this year and definitely has the look and feel of being not quite finished yet. It’s located on the platform of the old Son of Beast ride, which radically limits the overall length of the haunt. You enter into a fairly dark, sparsely decorated room that is supposed to look like a (I am guessing here) wolf’s lair? The theme was wolf-something…never very well defined. The actors mostly existed of a few shirtless teenagers with a wolf mask on jumping out at you from their not-too-well-hidden corners. The only thing that seemed to be well hidden was the path through the rooms. That was very confusing at times with odd tires (?) on the floor that a few of our reviewers almost tripped over. The haunt needed more actors, better actors, more trees and smoke to create suspense, better sound (maybe wolves howling?) to create atmosphere. Overall – pretty ineffective, unclear theme and overall, not good.

Rating: 3.5 – Poor

Overall rating: 8.5 – Very Good

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