KSF Halloween Haunt TR 10/15

[DegoRed]

This is taken from my post on WC, I want to preface this by saying I had a good time, and if there is anyone on here going or thinking of going to Halloween Haunt I highly encourage it. I'm just a veteran and have been going for many years so my take on it is a little different...That being said..on with the TR...

 

Unlike past Haunts, I did not start tonight off with the pre-scare dinner, just bought tickets and waited in line like everyone else. Got there at 5:30, in line for entry about 6, they let us in to the holding area around 6:15, then dropped the ropes around 6:30. We headed over to Bullet, since my friend had never been on it. We got front row waited about 5 min, later in the night I think it was up to an hour or so

 

Before I get into the individual mazes there is a couple points that I wanted to mention. One of the biggest problems is that there is not nearly enough talent in these mazes and the few talent that are in there are not utilizing the places to hide. The talent just stands out there hardly moving around in the open, that doesn't scare anyone. Granted they are working for a long time in the same space, I probably wouldn't want to exert much effort either. But others were really putting forward the effort. But there were just far too many that didn't seem to care.

 

The other thing I noticed a ton of tonight were monsters in just about every maze, standing around either talking to other monsters or blackouts, or guests, completely breaking character, or for example in axe murder, a single monster followed an entire group throughout 25% of the maze just because he got into an arguing match with a guest and he wasn't trying to scare him either, just sayin stuff like..."yeah i'm still here" " i can follow you all over this thing, you can't get rid of me" totally not cool.

 

So that being said onto the mazes....

 

First up, Grudge 2......This was very well done, but with all mazes seriously lacking talent, and a lot of the talent was grouped up, in some rooms there were 4 monsters, while the following 3 rooms had none link: It's a good one for a first year, question is will they keep it around next year? 8/10

 

We did a quick ride on Xcelerator, 2 train wait, and then over to Red Moon. Again, seriously lacking on talent, even places I knew talent would or should have been in the past weren't there. The RMM story has run it's course time for a change. I got one good scare so it gets a 6/10

 

And the winner for the biggest waste of time at Haunt is...Cavern of Lost Souls. While last year showed a fairly decent improvement over Underworld, this version was flat out pathetic. I counted 5 monsters in the ENTIRE RIDE link: nobody in the spiderweb scene, and only 1 person in the entire lower portion of the ride, 3 people in the stalactite room or whatever you call it, and the final monster as you exit the mine...pathetic, plus it broke down by the lift, wow could they have got some good scares in but we just there waiting for someone to show up, no one did.....lame 1/10

 

At this point we caught the first show of the hanging. I'm not gonna spoil anything here, and just say that the show relies on too much crude humor and sexual jokes. I mean halfway through I was just shakin my head at 1/2 the jokes. The list of accused was rather weak, and the person who they decided to hang...well they could have picked someone way better....all i gotta say is bring back the Executioner, this new version just didn't live up to the Hangings of the past 6/10

 

After the Hanging, we decided to grab a burger at the new Johnny Rockets. My first experience there was not a good one, meaning tonight. We sat down at 8:40 a couple was sat next to us at 8:50 and somehow they got there food first which still wasn't till about 9:10...a 1/2 hour for a burger link: at that point i went to the supervisor and told him we weren't waiting any longer, and just as he grabbed our waiter, he finally grabs a pair of burgers we had been eying for about 7 mins sitting out of course they're cold so I tell him i'm not paying for that. They offer to pay for the burgers and get us 2 new ones which came out within 2 min, wow shows you what kind of efficiency they're running over there :rolleyes:

 

So food done, we head over to Lost Vegas. It's a comical maze and I got a few laughs out of it, and even a couple scares, still has a long way to go to be good. 7/10

 

13 Axe Murder Manor had the longest line for all the mazes filling the entire switchbacks of mystery lodge out all the way to Bigfoot's entrance. I didn't think this was possible but this maze is WAY too long, and with no line separation, and the combination of little talent it was an absolute bore. It's the only time I kept telling myself "I want this to be over NOW" Such a shame cause the maze is REALLY well done, it doesn't have the cookie cutter cardboard box feel a lot of the others have, it just needs to be shortened, or filled with WAY more talent actually trying to scare people...for this year 2/10 (would have been 1 but the theming i'm giving an extra point to)

 

Hatchet High was just as it always has been. I like the comedic aspect of this maze but it's time to give Hatchet High...well the Hatchet lol i crack myself up sometimes. Go back to the days of putting something genuinely scary in WDH....fun maze with decent talent....8/10

 

Time for the most anticipated part of the night, the return of Marty Putz, the guy's been on hiatus from Haunt for awhile, so I thought maybe he'd have some new stuff, but it was the same old thing, but still really enjoyable "thats one big ass goldfish" and chubby bunny were awesome as always....8/10

 

Over to Ghostrider with an hour 1/2 wait...hahaha NOT as in not happening, so we make our way over to Feary Tales/Asylum

 

Feary Tales and Asylum were the same as last year, though I did notice more talent in both mazes than previously, which equaled some good scares in both though Asylum just gives that creepy uneasy feeling which makes it my pick for BEST MAZE at Haunt. Feary Tales 7/10...Asylum 10/10

 

Across the entrance plaza into the Gauntlet? I only say that cause in the whole front of CS, no lights, no fog, no Gauntlet, bunch of monsters standing around talkin to each other, killed the mood for that scare zone.

 

Red Beard's Revenge was great cause when we walked up no one else was in line, got some great scares before runnning into the rest of the line but this maze was also very well done, its definitely a winner for at least another year if not longer...8/10

 

I don't know why, but I decided to give Lore 1 more chance, and I'm glad I did. Lore had a much higher count of talent in there and they were actually scaring people link: Lore made a vast improvement over previous years, but this one's gotta go too 6/10

 

Dark Realm: Lazer Rage...first off if you pay 5 bucks for the lazer tag portion you will feel so jipped, they claim you'll be shooting the monsters, but with the exception of 2 monsters all you could shoot were targets mounted on walls...L A M E, thankfully the maze made another vast improvement from last year, still nothing to rant and rave about but some good talent mixed in there....4/10

 

and to end the night was Terrorvision. I love this maze, it's not scary by any means but that guitar and drum track constantly playing mixed in with the little variations from room to room makes it a winner in my book, plus the best part was Sesameat street the talent in there was awesome. Doin some stuff like that recent Disney video floating around, I was rolling 9/10

 

So we got there at opening left shortly after midnight, I really think what they need to do is either increase their budget for talent or just start eliminating some of the uneeded mazes and making the good ones great, and don't rely on sooo much crude humor and shock value for the shows, then Knotts will be tough to beat

[Jew]

or for example in axe murder, a single monster followed an entire group throughout 25% of the maze just because he got into an arguing match with a guest and he wasn't trying to scare him either, just sayin stuff like..."yeah i'm still here" " i can follow you all over this thing, you can't get rid of me" totally not cool.

 

What's wrong with that?