Halloween attractions disappoint many

CHRIS CAMPELLONE STAFF WRITER CLC726@CABRINI EDU

October is the perfect time of the year to seek fun and thrills in the spirit of Halloween. But what if the fun and thrills become real fear followed by real discomfort?

That’s just what happened at the Valley of Fear in Feasterville, Pa. on Friday, Oct.12. I went to the Valley of Fear expecting a great time and maybe some fun thrills but what I really got was nothing of the sort.

A night at the Valley of Fear, which includes the hayride, two haunted houses and a walk through the Valley of Fear itself, will cost $31 per person. The price is a little steep but I figured it would all be worth the cost.

The first attraction we decided to go to was the hayride, which was about a 20-minute wait. The hayride was cramped and nothing more than a small covering of hay on top of a hardwood floor.

The ride started out scary enough with a few “ghouls” popping out and a convincing witch that guided us on our journey. However the sight of the driver smoking a cigarette just a few feet away from the pile of hay behind him was the scariest part of the ride.

Just before the ride was over, piles of a foam-like substance began to pour all over the riders. Those on the ride seeking thrills were then granted their wish when they could not see and were swallowing the foreign substance at an alarming rate. A cry from a child “Mommy, I can’t

ASHLEY COOK NEWS EDITOR AAC722@CABRINI EDU

As you enter the gates of Jason’s Woods, your heart begins to race with the anticipation of what is to come. My friend Diana clutches on my arm and says “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME!”

At Halloween, I look forward to haunted attractions and other Halloween extravaganzas, however once the first hayride was finished and we started towards the next installment, the fear and excitement left me, as there was nothing scary or entertaining about the hayride.

The hayride, promising to be horrifying with a whole new spine tingling theme for 2007, was nothing more than a big joke. The hayride always stopped right before the scare, so by the third scene, my mind started wandering with thoughts of what I could be doing instead of being here.

The next attraction, a haunted maze, only has one creature throughout the whole entire thing. It was so dull; it is not even worth talking about. The only thing that could be horrifying about it was the fact that I was lost in it with fountain towards the end of the main entrance. breathe,” could be heard over the shrieks of the passengers who managed to fall off of the hayride in an attempt to rid themselves of the foam.

That area of the park was never meant to accommodate so many people.

At this point I attempted to take a picture and was told by an employee that I would be removed from the premises if I took a picture. I then requested a towel for my shivering girlfriend and was told she could “use the toilet paper in the porta-potty.” a bunch of loud and obnoxious teeny boopers who kept pushing me into the walls. By now I was regretting spending my thirty dollars on this senseless garbage! Blah!

The rest of the crew and I then waited, shivering in the cold night, for the two haunted houses. The wait for these houses was about an hour and the actual visit in the house lasted no more than five minutes. A few ghouls popped out to scare us but other then that it was a little disappointing.

Lastly, we ventured on the famed Valley of Fear. There was no wait to get into the Valley of Fear and the people working there were very convincing and never broke character. It was completely dark and it seemed that people were jumping out and scaring you left and right. A man carrying a chain saw and another “creature” who appeared to be on stilts highlighted the walk.

Overall, the Valley of Fear was not worth the wait nor was it worth the money. The reaction of the employees to the guest’s concerns was disappointing and showed a lack of a commitment to quality. Perhaps the Valley of Fear should spend less time covering their guests in suspicious foam and more time listening to their comments and concerns, maybe then the Valley of Fear would be worth another visit.

As we ventured off to the haunted barn, my anticipation had vanished. “The Inquirer rated this haunted attraction number one? There must be a mistake,” I thought to myself. The haunted barn was nothing short of pathetic. Maybe if I was still eight years old, I would have enjoyed it the least bit. It also doesn’t make the atrractions any scarier when you find yourself having a regular conversation with the characters. What a bummer. I could have made a better haunted house in my basement with sheets and boxes!

We concluded with the psycho circus. Finally something to look forward to considering ever since I can remember clowns have scared the bageebers out of me! But once again, I was extremely disappointed. Not only was there only one clown throughout the whole attraction but he didn’t even attempt to scare me. By now the only thing I was looking forward to was going home.

Overall, Jason’s Woods definitely gets a lot more acclaim then it deserves. I would never recommend wasting your money on this poor example of a haunted attraction.

Are you claustrophobic? Afraid of enormous amounts of people in relatively small spaces? If so, then it does not get any better than Six Flags Fright Fest if you are looking for a good scare. With crowds nearly reaching park capacity totals, the only true horrors in the park were the lines.

I arrived at the park rather early in the day hoping to get a few last rides on the roller coasters, knowing that this would be the last time I would visit the park this season. I thought that the crowds would not appear until 6 p.m. after the fright fest festivities began.

I was way wrong. By noon, the lines for each major attraction in the park were spewing out of the entrances. It seemed as though all of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania had the same idea.

Already aggravated, I thought I could just plan for later on in the night. I picked up a Fright Fest guide only to realize that they got rid of half of the haunted attractions from years past. With the park becoming increasingly packed, there was only one main attraction: The demented forest terror trail.

The trail is a darkened walk-through path equipped with fog machines and men with shovels and chainsaws. It takes a mere two minutes to walk through, and the line was already wrapping around itself before it even opened.

As advertised, the nightmare began around 6 p.m. with The Awakening Parade, when the ghosts and ghouls “rise from the dead” to haunt the guests walking around in the park. A very cool concept, in a horrible location: The

As it turns out, fighting the massive crowds ended up being the biggest scare of the night, as you would lose a member of your group to the mob every time you tried to cross the middle section of the park.

With the park becoming more and more family oriented each season, it seems as though they are neglecting the older crowds. There were 16 family attractions and only six aimed at scaring the teenage-adult guests.

What happened to the haunted hay rides? The four other terror trails? Even the scarers roaming the park were among the missing or posing for pictures with guests rather than scaring them.

Two of the shows were in the park’s arenas, which are very high capacity. An excellent idea to draw so many people to shows that could accompany them and the only sign of crowd control all night.

The biggest crowd pleaser in years past has always been the fireworks at the end of the night, set to horror movie music. For the first time I’ve been attending fright fest, there were no fireworks either.

After consulting a park security guard, I received unofficial attendance numbers. Nearly 51 thousand people were roaming the park, just nine thousand away from the maximum capacity of 60 thousand.

Six Flags has a crowd drawing event, but they need desperately to turn it into a crowd pleaser as well.