Halloween Theme Park

[adrian]

i've never been to a zombie walk

love the new sig nevermore

[Hallow's Queen]

Busch Gardens, Williamsburg Virginia, has from Sep 11- Nov something / has Hollow Scream.It's filled with mazes and dressed up people walk around and scare the <deleted> out of you. It has a ton of awesome roller coasters too.

[Pumpkin_Man]

The last time I was ever on a roller coaster was Space Mountain at Disney, and it paled in comparison to the American Eagle at Great America in Illinois.

[NeverMore]

It seems Knott's Scary Farm is starting to show it's age. This reviewer wasn't very impressed with this year's attraction.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/the ... 8027.story

[Pumpkin_Man]

I was at Knots Berry Farm way back in March or April of 75, and it was a load of fun. They had this terific narrow gague train ride that was really pleasant. I would love to return there some time, but it sounds like it may have gone down hill since the last time I visited.

Mike

[Pumpkin56]

I think I'm kinda veering off topic a bit here but I'd like to see a haunted house that puts more emphasis on illusion and playing tricks on the visitors minds than the typical fools in masks that jump out and scare you. It seems like every haunted house I've been to has relied on these techniques, blood and guts and the dude with the chainsaw that chases everyone. I think it would be fun to go to a place that creates an uneasy atmosphere and just kind of sets things up to let your imagination do the scaring. For me at least, when I don't know what's out there and the adrenaline is going, my imagination comes up with some dark mess that's always way worse than reality.

[Murfreesboro]

I agree with you, but i expect money has something to do with it. Look at the way Eel Marsh House was decorated in The Woman in Black. They did a fabulous job making that house creepy, but it had so much stuff in it! Antique toys and such. That is cumbersome and expensive to do, especially if the haunted house is seasonal. And if you are herding people through it, someone might shoplift an item or two. It is way easier to have the costumed folk jump out at you.

When my older son was in grade school, the city Dept. of Parks & Rec used to haunt a pioneer village in the middle of downtown. That was the best haunted attraction I have ever been to, because it wasn't just a house, but a whole village, with trees and such. The pioneer village is still there and is used for various festivals throughout the year, but now they do the Halloween bash at more of a wilderness park on the Southern edge of town. You stand in line forever for a "haunted hay ride." That is fun, too, but it doesn't last quite as long as the lantern-light stroll through the pioneer village used to do.

A local chapter of storytellers (calling themselves the Borotellers) offers a lamp-lighted ghost tour through the historic district in October. That is a lot of fun to do. The story teller will dress up in Victorian costume, as our historic district is mostly antebellum.

There is also a Civil War battlefield here, called Stones River. Throughout the warm months and into October, they offer a free "Hallowed Ground tour," where they guide a group of about 35 through the cemetery. It takes place at dusk and, once again, you are led by lantern-light. People who work at the battlefield costume as people from the Civil War era, and they read letters beside the graves of the people who wrote them--or, in some cases, they are reading the letters of family members who were writing to the people who are buried there. It is quite an experience. As I said, it is free, but you have to make reservations in advance, because there is no electronic amplification, so the group cannot exceed 35. Any bigger and people wouldn't be able to hear it.

[Pumpkin56]

I'm not even sure an old house with all the antiques and such would be required. I think something like a haunted trail would terrify a person if you could somehow create the illusion that they are lost. Throw in some menacing sounds without ever showing what's making them and maybe something moving through the leaves or bushes out of sight--that would definitely initiate some fear.

In a haunted house, I like the idea of moving walls. Of course something like that would take quite a bit of money to create, but it's fun to think about. Trap the visitors in the house and make them think that they are seeing things. Make them think that there is something in the house with them and then start moving the walls around so that they start to panic that they are never going to get out.

[Murfreesboro]

There is a commercial haunt in this area called Dead Woods that I have always wanted to visit, but I am chronically short of cash. I know they have more than one haunted trail, and I think it may be pretty scary out there.

[Pumpkin56]

There are quite a few haunted houses in the DFW area at Halloween, but they seem to love the gore and I don't. It's almost like 'seen one, seen them all'. At the same time though, I probably just don't know where to look for the really good ones.

[Pumpkin_Man]

My Halloween theme park would include the following.

A Salem Mass village, the way it was during the witch trials. A Collinsport Village and Collinwod, which would actualy be a hotel that had creepy haunted noises. The servants would dres up as various characters, and live performances would be given in the drawing room. I would have an Area 51 for all the UFO fans, complete with crashed space ships, aliens, and all kinds of conspiriacies. There would be a Transelvania, where a replica of Draculas Castle, another hotel, would be, and there would be all kinds of vampires and wearwolvs wondering about. Finaly, for the little ones, I would have a Halloween fun land that has less intense ghosties and goolies so they don't get scared. Linking al these lands together would be a very creepy loking ghost train, with a skeleton at the throttle of the locomotive. The whistle would make a very mournful sound. While yo wait at the station a mist would rise and the train would more or less arrive out of the myst, and would depart into a myst. It would include a funeral car complete with a coffin with a rotting corpse in it.

Oh, and let's not forget. I would have a Bachelors Grove cemetery right across the street from the 3rd hotel on the premsis. The Bartonville Insane Asylum, where ghests would be "committed" for a night or two, and whitness horrific labotomies, electroshoc theoropy and good clean lunatic behaviour.

Mike

[swordsswords]

Oh my gosh, I left out Fright Fest! Yes, that's the only reason I go to Six Flags in October - their Dead Man's Party rocks!

[Pumpkin_Head]

The very last time I was at any theme park was in 2006. It was Disney World down in Florida, and they didn't really do Halloween up all that much, except at the Pleasure Island theme park, where the only 'spirits' present came in a bottle.

Mike

[Tytq]

I missed because of illness, too, sorry

[Pumpkin_Head]

I really do want to do somethint extra special for Halloween this year. Covid 19 is over as is the election. Now it's time to CELEBRAGE HALLOWEEN IN ERNEST!!!

Mike