Halloween Haunt , originally known as " Fearfest ", is a haunted attraction at Canada's Wonderland located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It runs after the park's regular operating hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings in October - up to, and including Halloween night. It is Canada's largest haunted theme park featuring over 300 monsters, 10 walk-through "maze" attractions, 3 uniquely-themed atmospheric scare areas, and a live show. During its operation, the grounds are transformed via frightening decorative props, thematic music, eerie lighting to further create its scary atmosphere.
History
The haunted theme park concept was first introduced in 2005, then called Fearfest while the park was under the ownership of Paramount Pictures. Fearfest at Paramount Canada's Wonderland originally operated on weekday evenings through October, with 7 maze attractions alongside 2 motion simulator movie rides in the Paramount Action FX Theatre.
Most of the park's regular rides and attractions (with the exception of Nickelodeon Central, KidZville and Hanna-Barbera Land) continued to be staffed and operated during Fearfest, including the 'Haunted' Thunder Run coaster, which was slightly thematically changed to match the park. The park grounds were divided into 3 separately themed scare areas- The Curse of Sleepy Hollow, MTV Rockin' Scare, and Backlot Blood Bath - each having 2-3 mazes associated with it. Each maze and scare area generally has its own unique back story, sometimes linking several mazes together.
The following year, Paramount extended its regular operating season through the family-oriented Halloween event "Spooktacular" in the typically closed child-oriented areas of the park, to match Fearfest's attendance in October. In 2006 the park ran Spooktacular from October 14th- 29th on weekends during the day, and would reopen the park as Fearfest in the evening.
With the change in ownership of the park from Paramount to the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, the Fearfest name was dropped and renamed Halloween Haunt, remaining consistent with similar attractions at other Cedar Fair theme parks across North America. In addition, Spooktacular was not revived for the 2007 operating season. Despite this, Canada's Wonderland still continued regular daytime park hours during the Halloween Haunt run. With an existing history of running haunted attractions since 1973 at Knott's Halloween Haunt, Cedar Fair was able to incorporate 4 additional mazes to the roster while retiring the Legend of the Lost and Slaughter Street attractions.
In 2008, Halloween Haunt saw an extended seasonal run into November, breaking the park's own attedance records for the event. Cedar Fair also retired the MTV Rockin' Scare area, including the Total Request Dead and Ozzburnes mazes in order to introduce 3 new ones for the season . The "adult-oriented'" horror musical show Dead Awakening also opened during the 2008 Halloween Haunt, performing at the Wonderland Theatre. There are currently three atmospheric scare areas with free-roaming monsters: Front Gate, CarnEVIL, and The Swamp.
Current attractions
- Fangs - Show ( debuted 2009 )
"Comedy meets vampires in this edgy unveiling of the undead..."
- Club Blood - Maze ( debuted 2009 )
"At the hottest new nightclub in town, they line up to get in, but no one makes it out alive. Because inside this devilish dance hall, vampires staff the bar and the DJ booth in an effort to lure the most edible into their isolated lair. The most delicious dancers are invited to the VIP lounge, where away from the throbbing heartbeat of the music, the vampires slowly suck the life from their victims."
- A Midsummer Nights Scream - Maze ( debuted 2009 )
"The mysterious and mythical creatures who once peacefully inhabited the forest are gone. Fallen victim to massacring humans scared at living so close to these immortals, the burnt and destroyed forest was devoid of almost all life. Only a few fearsome fairies remain, swearing terrifying revenge on any who dare to enter these woods."
- Kingdom of Carnage - Maze ( debuted 2008 )
"Castle Carnage had a dark and twisted reputation for using medieval torture methods on their prisoners; but what could the starving peasants do to save those captured, and where were the chivalrous knights to resettle order? Bertilak de Hautdesert gave up hope on being rescued, and rallied the prisoners to overthrow the cruel tyrannical nobility. The torture which they had long been subjected to has now come full circle on their royal oppressors in a scene of carnage that makes Countess Bathory’s castle look like a holiday retreat. Let the brave of heart and noble of spirit beware: chivalry is dead. "
- Red Beard's Rage - Maze ( debuted 2008 )
"The legendary pirate known as Red Beard is said to have led his crew into a massacre when they set to the sea for a preemptive strike against the Spaniards; but neither he or his ship was ever found. A single surviving manuscript details how his mistress, a sea witch who was later burnt at the stake, cast a spell to keep Red Beard and his crew from fully crossing into death. His ship has continued to haunt the stormy seas for centuries. Now it has set up dock and Red Beard and his crew await new victims to help them fulfill their bloodlust. "
- Clowns at Midnight - Maze ( debuted 2007 )
"In 1857 the circus top tent caught on fire. The spectators escaped unharmed, but the performers were left behind to choke on the heavy smoke and burn in the infernal heat. The audience claimed they thought it was part of the show, but the angry spirits of the clowns and circus freaks do not believe such a claim, and know that the spectators simply did not believe the freaks were worth the effort to save. Every night, the circus freaks appear to perform their act in an attempt to lure in fresh blood until they have gathered enough to return to this world for good."
- The Asylum - Maze ( debuted 2007 )
"In 1923 Miles Gravestone was admitted to the asylum after surviving the curse of Slaughter Mill. No one believed his story, and most believed that it was he who gruesomely murdered his camping friends. The doctors forced electroshock therapy while the nurses cruelly sedated him with rusty needles. Pushed to his psychological brink, his sorrow and fear exploded in a rage of fury and he gathered all the other inmates to form a revolt. The inmates have taken over the asylum entirely, and those doctors and nurses who survived such actions are just as deranged as their former patients."
- Miner's Revenge - Maze ( debuted 2007 )
"It was a dark and foul night when the mine collapsed. Few escaped, and most were trapped alive. They spent their last days waiting....expecting to be rescued. But they never were, and no rescue attempt was ever made. To this date, no one in town can forget that fatal night, especially not those miners left behind, and now they are hungry for revenge. Over 50 years too late, the exhumation has finally begun. The question is, will fear hold you back, or will you go digging for trouble?"
- Mother Noose - maze ( debuted 2008 )
"When the Brothers Grimm set out to tell stories from the countryside, they never imagined the dark horrors and unhappy endings they would encounter. Tales of massacre, evil creatures and ferocious beasts are not the fairy tales we grew up with. Mother Noose recreates these haunted stories for anyone brave enough to see just how dark the dark ages really were."
- Bloodshed - Maze ( debuted 2005 )
"When the headless horseman realized his head was not in the possession of the humans, he ravaged the Van Tassels’ barn, tearing through the helpless workers and animals that got in his way. The dilapidated barn is now haunted by rabid animals out for revenge against all things human, and the corpses of deceased farm hands roam about in loathsome madness."
- Cornstalkers - Maze ( debuted 2005 )
"With the Van Tassel family and their farm hands all dead, the fields of the Van Tassel Farmstead have become overgrown with two centuries of colonial debris and corn. The evil which occurred on the farmstead that night has sunk into the once lifeless bodies of scarecrows, which now consider these fields theirs, and will stalk and scare any crows, animals or humans who dare set foot onto their soil. "
Retired attractions
- Dead Awakening - Show ( retired 2009 )
"A live, adult-oriented musical horror performance that will take audience members into the deeply disturbed and twisted world of the contemporary human's psyche. Darkness and evil that all have dreamed but never talked about, will be unleashed in is this chilling, music-video style show depicting one woman's maddening nightmare in a performance that will leave audience members afraid to go to sleep."
- Massacre Manor - Maze ( retired 2009 )
"The Van Tassel boy had been warned about wandering too far into the forest, and disturbing things better left forgotten, but he didn’t listen. He came to the grave of the Headless Horseman, a soldier who had died not during battle, but by execution for unjust war crimes. When the boy returned home that night, he brought with him the curse of sleepy hollow. The enraged horseman brutally
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