To kick off my haunted house festivities this month I had Scout Island Scream Park at the top of my list. A brand new Halloween carnival fest featuring three separate haunt attractions, fright zones, thrill rides, ghostly games, music, food and drinks. I could not wait to get there even with the knowledge that there would be a Cirque Du Fear fright zone that I could only assume would be creepy clowns and vaudevillian gore. I have a real problem with clowns for anyone new here. But I stayed cool until we grabbed our All Access passes and ran eagerly over to the entrance only to find this dude:
"Wonderful," I thought. Now we have to go home." Turns out we did not go home and I did not regret this decision once we walked past the spindly legged, toothy grinning creepshow!
Let me quickly cover the tiers of admission tickets. General admission basically just gets you in the door to walk around and check out the sights without having any of the fun. The fright zones are free to walk through and that's about it. All Access passes allow you into all of the haunt attractions and carnival rides as many times as you choose. Games are a separate charge and obviously any food, drink or souvenirs are extra. They also offered a VIP Access pass which I would only recommend if you want to come to Scream Park much later in the night when the lines are going to be packed and you want to skip the longer wait times. We were there from 6-10pm on a Saturday night and did not experience a wait beyond about 20 or 30 minutes which was unexpected and awesome.
Though this is Scream Park's first year, I was impressed with how many terrifying and varied props they placed all over the area and inside their attractions. As a collector/fanatic of horror props and animatronics, Scream Park's were top notch. I would have liked more scare actors running around the park and even inside some of the attractions, but I know the festival is still looking to hire more people for this. The scare actors they did have were incredible though. The detail in costume and FX makeup were on a pro level and everyone kept in creepy character no matter what. I had so much fun just walking around waiting to be messed with.
Okay so like I sad earlier there are three main haunt attractions: The Devil's Swamp Terror Tour, Zombie Outbreak Battlefield and the Scream Factory Haunted Fun House. We decided to go the Fun House first because we wanted things to get dark before we did the outdoor stuff and also because I knew it would be the scariest for me. I love haunted houses, I hate clowns. This was going to be both. We were the last 2 people in the line of our group which was the worst spot to be since the staff made sure to put plenty of time in between groups. So there is nothing but darkness behind you and a harlequin lady with half a face whispering in your ear while she follows you for what feels like hours. I was legitimately scared and remembered being in line and seeing at least 4 or 5 people bail on it halfway through and bust through the emergency exit to escape. I understand now, I thought.
My favorite haunt in the whole place was The Devil's Swamp Terror Tour. They give your group some lanterns (I was a proud lantern holder) and they send you into the woods with the condition you do not stray from the forest trail. Easy enough. Walking into this gave me the feeling we were heading into the Temple of Doom:
Let me quickly cover the tiers of admission tickets. General admission basically just gets you in the door to walk around and check out the sights without having any of the fun. The fright zones are free to walk through and that's about it. All Access passes allow you into all of the haunt attractions and carnival rides as many times as you choose. Games are a separate charge and obviously any food, drink or souvenirs are extra. They also offered a VIP Access pass which I would only recommend if you want to come to Scream Park much later in the night when the lines are going to be packed and you want to skip the longer wait times. We were there from 6-10pm on a Saturday night and did not experience a wait beyond about 20 or 30 minutes which was unexpected and awesome.
Though this is Scream Park's first year, I was impressed with how many terrifying and varied props they placed all over the area and inside their attractions. As a collector/fanatic of horror props and animatronics, Scream Park's were top notch. I would have liked more scare actors running around the park and even inside some of the attractions, but I know the festival is still looking to hire more people for this. The scare actors they did have were incredible though. The detail in costume and FX makeup were on a pro level and everyone kept in creepy character no matter what. I had so much fun just walking around waiting to be messed with.
Okay so like I sad earlier there are three main haunt attractions: The Devil's Swamp Terror Tour, Zombie Outbreak Battlefield and the Scream Factory Haunted Fun House. We decided to go the Fun House first because we wanted things to get dark before we did the outdoor stuff and also because I knew it would be the scariest for me. I love haunted houses, I hate clowns. This was going to be both. We were the last 2 people in the line of our group which was the worst spot to be since the staff made sure to put plenty of time in between groups. So there is nothing but darkness behind you and a harlequin lady with half a face whispering in your ear while she follows you for what feels like hours. I was legitimately scared and remembered being in line and seeing at least 4 or 5 people bail on it halfway through and bust through the emergency exit to escape. I understand now, I thought.
My favorite haunt in the whole place was The Devil's Swamp Terror Tour. They give your group some lanterns (I was a proud lantern holder) and they send you into the woods with the condition you do not stray from the forest trail. Easy enough. Walking into this gave me the feeling we were heading into the Temple of Doom:
The Devil's Swamp Tour had a nice mix of walking through mostly pitch dark forest and then coming to these wonderfully elaborate and immersive staged walkthroughs complete with high end props, animatronics and scare actors. I bounced between fright and amazement at the level of detail and eeriness about the trail and it managed to have some story telling going on as well. We had a fun group of strangers to walk with and the trail was so much longer than I expected which made the wait feel worth it. I would have waited twice as long honestly.
Unfortunately, we did not get to the Zombie Outbreak Battlefield because the wait was insane by the time we had finished seeing everything. My understanding is you play some lazer tag with zombies and you can bet I'll be heading to the battlefield first when I go back to Scream Park for a second time.
By the way, we took a ton of pictures to help convey the Scream Park atmosphere further so feel free to check out the slideshow below:
Unfortunately, we did not get to the Zombie Outbreak Battlefield because the wait was insane by the time we had finished seeing everything. My understanding is you play some lazer tag with zombies and you can bet I'll be heading to the battlefield first when I go back to Scream Park for a second time.
By the way, we took a ton of pictures to help convey the Scream Park atmosphere further so feel free to check out the slideshow below:
RSS Feed
