Archive for July, 2011

Summer Screams: Haunted Hotel Previews Its 2011 Upgrades

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

Last week, the Scare Zone crew fought our way through the Comic Con crowds to visit the Haunted Hotel, San Diego’s longest running and premier haunted attraction. Taking advantage of the hordes of people in downtown San Diego for the convention, the Hotel opened its doors for the weekend, and there was no way Scare Zone could pass up the rare opportunity of a visiting a haunt in July.

Business seemed to be steady at the Hotel, and when we arrived actors were outside in costume, terrifying and then taking pictures with passersby. The scene was certainly consistent with what we noticed last year when we visited during haunt season: the Haunted Hotel has one of the most dedicated cast of actors of any haunt we’ve seen. We were curious whether the actors could easily get into character for a single off-season weekend, but from what we saw of them outside the attraction and then later inside the maze, it was apparent that they had no trouble jumping back into their roles of scaring the crap out of everyone.

The folks at the Hotel have been hard at work perfecting and upgrading the scares for the 2011 season. New scenes and effects have been added throughout. Although the Hotel has been in downtown San Diego for almost 20 years, they seem dedicated to bringing in new elements to the haunt, which greatly increases its repeatability potential. If you’ve been to the Hotel in past years, you should definitely make plans to check it out in 2011, because there are some cool new surprises waiting for you.

And what are these surprises? Well, we won’t spoil them here, but we will say that we were very impressed with the changes we saw. The maze overall feels more coherent. The flow has been improved, and the pacing works better. One awesome new addition will have you searching for the right path amid disorienting distractions. There are additional enhanced effects that make the scares even more effective. And of course, the Hotel still has what we rated as one of the best individual scenes in a haunt: the subway scene.

It’s obvious that one of the major contributing factors to the Haunted Hotel’s success and longevity is their dedication to improving and tweaking the scenes and scares until they’re just right. The Haunted Hotel is an immersive, scary, and unique haunt. Be sure to check it out this year, and visit their associated haunts:  The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park and the Del Mar Scream Zone.

The Haunted Hotel opens September 23.

Friday Fright Links: July 29

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Exclusive photos and details of Knott’s new maze Delirium!! – MiceChat.com

Also, a great interview with the creator of The Empty Grave in Anaheim, plus photos from HHN Hollywood construction- MiceChat.com

House of Torment gears up for spooky season – YNN.com

New house at Howl-O-Scream Williamsburg: “13, Your Number’s Up”; Catacombs will also return – HOS Williamsburg

Questions of ethics haunt Eastern State Penitentiary – Newsworks.org

House of Torment creators are taking their haunt brand national – Austin Business Journal

Knott’s Scary Farm haunt construction photos – Westcoaster

What are the top 31 haunts in America? – Haunted House Ratings.com

Scream Fest to host a free mixer on Thursday, August 4, in Beverly Hills - Dread Central.com

Screaming Soon: HHN Hollywood is Becoming Hostel

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

This morning it was announced that the second maze at HHN Hollywood will be Hostel:Hunting Season!

This doesn’t come as a surprise as we figured out John Murdy’s code name 3DN referred to Eli Roth (in a round about way) and when they announced his participation in this year’s HHN Short Film Competition it reinforced our speculation.

In our HHN Survey Hostel currently ranks 4th among the themes that Scare Zone’s Haunt Stalkers expect to see. While Hostel could be an exciting and scary experience we’re also concerned that it will be a recycled version of the previous Saw mazes where we went from room to room and saw people being grotesquely tortured and were chased by masked, chainsaw wielding madmen.

We hope (and trust) that the HHN Hollywood team will devise all new and unique ways to scare us and bring the suspense that the original movie offered.

Friday Fright Links: July 22

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Don’t forget: Haunted Hotel in San Diego is open this Friday and Saturday! – Haunted Hotel.com

New haunted attraction coming to Galveston, TX: Haunted Mayfield Manor – Galveston County Daily News

Even India has haunted attractions! – DaijiWorld.com

Kings Island is getting two new mazes and a “fear zone” for 2011 – Kings Island on Twitter

More HHN Hollywood construction photos – Micechat.com

Bates Motel holding open auditions on July 27 – Rotting Flesh Radio

Create your own horror video and you could win $500 – Jasons Woods.com

Screaming Soon – The Thing: Assimilation

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

We FINALLY know one of the mazes for this year’s HHN Hollywood AND Orlando. The 1st announced maze for 2011 is The Thing: Assimilation.

At an Antarctica research site…..you’re trapped, it’s cold, and there’s no one around. Except for a shape-shifting alien….. The Thing: Assimilation!

This was one of the potential mazes we mentioned in January, however  many of us forgot about it and kept focused on other potential mazes such as Scream and Hostel. With Universal’s new “The Thing” movie scheduled to premier in October it’s an obvious choice and a strong promotional platform. Don’t you love synergy?

The Thing has made an appearance at HHN Orlando before. When Scare Zone visited HHN Orlando back in 2007, they featured a maze with the exact same name;  ”The Thing: Assimilation”. While it wasn’t very scary, it did have some highly detailed sets and special effects including temperature changes and animatronics.

This could be a strong theme for a maze and being on the studio lot it has the potential to offer some new state of the art effects and scares. We can’t wait to see what John Murdy and his team come up with!

Now how much longer do we have to wait to learn about the other terrors coming to HHN?  In the meanwhile, be sure to V O T E for the other mazes you EXPECT to see at this year’s HHN.

1st HHN Hollywood Announcement of 2011 Expected At Midnight!

Monday, July 18th, 2011


We’ve been speculating and playing guessing games for months, and now Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood is expected FINALLY to make an announcement this week about their first “attraction” for 2011.

Which maze is on the top of your (death) wish list? VOTE below and we’ll see how accurate our Haunt Stalkers are.

(Note: None of the movies pictured below are confirmed as mazes.)

 

 

 

 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Friday Fright Links: July 15

Friday, July 15th, 2011

We’ve been ASKING for the Disney parks in the U.S. to step up their haunt game and now here’s even more news about how they’re doing it right overseas….

Walt Disney Studios park in Paris will be invaded by Zombies at the Terrorific Night 3 event to be held on October 29-30th this October - DLP.info

Could “Lady Luck” be the HHN Orlando 2011 icon? Our theory – Original rumor via Screamscape

Blood Manor (New York) Gets a New Home for 2011 – Blood Manor.com

Vampires in Vegas? Howl-O-Scream Tampa - Inside the Magic.com

Actual Video Footage of the Hatbox Ghost in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion (MUST WATCH for Disney fans!) – YouTube.com

Midnight Syndicate to release new CD “Carnival Arcane” on August 2 (listen for it in all future circus haunts!) – Midnight Syndicate.com

Ghost Ship to employ ex-CIA members as security; will serve Vampire Wine–plus other juicy details! – Theme Park Adventure

Howl-O-Scream Williamsburg: Dark Side of the Gardens

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Virginia) is preparing for its 13th year of terror and has revealed their 2011 Web site. This year’s theme is “Dark Side of the Gardens,” and the new site is really cool and creepy.

Although there are no details yet on what this year’s houses will be, there are placeholders on the site for five houses. This is interesting, because there were six houses last year.  It sounds like it’s the “Cursed” maze and location that might be out this year. All that has been revealed so far is a new scare zone: Widow Makers, which will be located in the New France section:

“Venture deep into the woods of New France, where a solitary logging camp is ensnared by a killer clan of enormous venomous spiders. The loggers are fighting back with their sharpest blades, but these angry arachnids are bent on destruction—and they’re ready to capture anyone who wanders into their wicked web of terror. So watch your step. If you’re not careful, you could be tangled forever in the spiders’ deadly trap.”

Last year, New France was home to a “vengeful woodsman” scare zone, so it seems as though they’re taking 2010′s scare zone and adding some spiders. It’s an interesting concept: Loggers fighting enormous spiders! We can definitely say we haven’t seen that before! (And so much more original than zombies or vampires.)

There are placeholders on the site for three additional scare zones, but details are not given. We’re not sure if they’re planning to reveal the mazes and scare zones one by one, but it seems that way so far.

Also new this year is the family-friendly “Count’s Halloween Spooktacular.”

The haunt will be open September 23 through October 30.

Be sure to head over to the Howl-O-Scream site to check it out!

Haunt Stalkers Survey: Scare of the South

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

This week we head on down to the south y’all, to survey their collection of infamous haunts. We were going to do a Florida survey but it didn’t provide us with quite enough options for a stand alone survey and we figure the more competition the better.

Polls open on Wednesday at Midnight and you can vote for a week until Midnight the following Tuesday. We’ve secured the survey and will filter IP addresses for final results to ensure every unique person/thing had 1 vote for the most fair and accurate results possible.

So don’t lag behind and vote. Winner Scare All!

RESULTS

The southern haunts didn’t attract nearly as many votes as the SoCal Haunts survey but the results are still very telling. The top killer for Scare of the South is Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nights! We also have to give mention to Howl O Scream and  NetherWorld who round out the top 3 scariest haunts in the south.

The new season upon us and we’ll stay tuned to see who will be the scariest in the South for 2011.


 

2011 Haunt Profile: The Dent Schoolhouse

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

School may be out for the summer but strange happenings have been reported again at the Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati, Ohio. According to their site, several local residents heard the old school bell at Dent ringing around 3:15am/3:22am on June 13th, 2011.  Staff and security were all gone from the building but someone or something has stayed after class. Could it be Charlie the Janitor tidying up before the kiddies return to school?

Looking back, in 1894 the Dent Public School was opened. Teaching all grades kindergarten through 12th grade, the school was seen as the ideal establishment to send the local school children.  The school was equipped with the finest teachers, cafeteria workers, and janitorial staff for miles.

The school was very successful and thought highly upon.  But in 1942 several students, known for their “disruption in the class room”, mysteriously vanished.  They were last seen at the Dent Public School.  The Dent police began an investigation and came to the conclusion that they must be runaways.  Two years later, 1945, four students went missing in October.  Local police were baffled as to what was happening to the students.  Rumors started to spread that the local children disappearing had something to do with the school.

School remained as normal but rumors kept coming out about the missing kids.  It wasn’t until 1952 when three more students were not seen after school.  Students at the public school began to complain about a strange smell that was coming from the basement.  When Charlie, the head of janitorial services, was asked about the smell he said it was the pipes clogging up.  After a couple weeks the smell subsided, but new rumors spread that Charlie the janitor had something to do about the local kids disappearances.

In October of 1955, more than seven students vanished with out a trace.  The local kids complained about a smell that was coming from the basement that was actually causing some children to pass out.  Community members of Dent rallied together and stormed up to the Dent Public School.  The angry mob bust down the large doors of the school house and proceeded to go into the basement of the school.   The local rioters were shocked at the grizzly sight that was strung throughout the janitor’s basement.

The basement was covered with the decaying remains of the missing students.  Bodies had been sealed in barrels, wedged behind the brick walls of the basement, and left in sanitary tubs to decay forever.  A search for the Janitor went over two weeks, but he was never found.  The school was closed shortly after the discovery.

The old school house is now said to be haunted with the roaming spirits of the children that were “taken care of” by the Janitor.  Rumors are that the Janitor came back after several years of the school house being closed.  His body was never found, but his spirit is still said to clean the old building.  The spirit is also said to have “taken care of” local trespassers that try sneak a peak at his home in the basement.

This coming fall it’s back to Scares for the faculty of Dent and they’re promising to have an even more intense curriculum and, for those troublemakers, the Detention Hall will also be open. The Scare Zone has heard nothing but great things about this award winning haunt. It’s considered one of the scariest haunted attractions in the nation and is known for its movie like quality and detail. We’ll have to get our permission slips signed so we can a take field trip to visit this killer campus  but for our fellow Haunt Stalkers in the Cincinnati, Ohio area here’s the details for the 2011 fall ‘Slashmester’.

For prices and more information check out the school’s site HERE.