SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to the Dread Alert Podcast. Today I'm joined by Sarah, my co-host, who I haven't seen in like, I don't know, a year. How have you been, Sarah?

SPEAKER_03 0:08

I'm pretty good. How about you?

SPEAKER_02 0:11

I mean, it's not to say that I haven't seen you. Uh, and I'm fine. Thanks for asking. It's not to say that I haven't seen you. We do live in the same house, but you haven't been on the show for quite some time. So uh let's just take a moment and say, welcome back, Sarah. It's lovely to have you here.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

Thank you. I appreciate it. That's very nice of you. But yeah, I was like, huh, I have definitely, you've definitely seen me in like the last minute or so.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yeah, I I definitely saw you when we were setting up the podcast. Uh, but I wanted to bring you back on the show, not only because I enjoy talking to you quite a bit, but because we've done some incredibly interesting haunt type activities this year. And I wanted to sort of review what we have gotten into and what maybe your favorite haunts of the season have been. We've done quite a few of them.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

We have, and we really kicked it off with a bang this year. Uh, the first two haunts that we went to were a ton of fun, and that would be 100 Acres Manor and then Cedar Point, which was incredible this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

For all of our watchers, I am in fact wearing a Hundred Acres Manor hoodie right now. Um, that's probably my favorite haunt in the Pittsburgh area that we've been to. There are a few that have just popped up in the past few years that we've not been to that I'm very much so looking forward to getting a chance to check out.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Portals of Fear is definitely one that I have heard wonderful things about. I'm very much looking forward to getting there.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Absolutely. But we also did a few amusement park-style haunts this year. Um, and that's where I think we're probably going to spend the majority of our talk today because there's a lot to unpack. First, earlier uh in September, we headed to Ohio to visit Cedar Point for Halloween. And then in the following week, uh we went to Kennywood for their Phantom Fall Fest, both of which are very different events, both of which are very good events if you happen to be able to check either one of them out. If you're located in the Midwest or even a little further east than that.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

Yeah, Cedar Point is definitely a top-tier location, I would say, for amusement park haunts. Um, amusement park haunts are very different than a traditional haunt, but I think that they also have merit. I mean, I think that Halloween Horror Nights has really put amusement park haunts on the map.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah. And I think that with such a vast amount of land, they can do a lot to theme and to give themselves a fall vibe, which you don't necessarily get at a smaller haunt or at a home haunt or any of those other sort of experiences.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

And I think that the one thing that the amusement park haunts do really well, specifically Cedar Point and Kennywood, is that they have an element for the kids during the day that is a little spooky, but it's not scary.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yeah, I agree. And I recognize that not everyone listening is going to have kids or have kids of an age that would appreciate uh younger activities. But for us, we have two kids and it probably a second kid since you've been on the show last, Sarah, to be honest with you. Um, and so our kids are young. Our kids are uh under three at this point. So having uh the ability to have experiences that are spooky, not scary, uh, and fun for adults, it does mean a lot to us right now.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

Yeah, and uh it's not even just that they're good for kids. These are just sort of fun fall harvest activities that I think that anybody that even enjoys the haunts would enjoy in the theme parks.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

There is a fine line between fall vibes and haunt fun, and I am here for both of those things.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Same.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Why don't we start by unpacking what Halloween's is? If you make the trip to Sandusky, Ohio, what you can expect and maybe what some of your favorite haunts that you got to experience there were.

SPEAKER_04 4:09

Yeah, so when you get to Halloween's, it runs Thursday nights through Sunday. So Thursday night they start at six o'clock, five o'clock. If you are a resort guest or you have their highest level tier membership or season pass. And then they also have it during the day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sunday they close a little bit early, but Halloween's is open on Friday and Saturday from 11 to midnight. It is a long day.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

I feel like this is a good place for us to disclose that we were guests of Cedar Point. Well, we are pass holders as well. We were guests of the park for their media day. And on our first trip to Cedar Point this year, because we've done two, uh, our our VIP line skips uh were comped, and we got to try a lot of their fall tasting menu as press. So that that's just something I want to disclose. That said, I do find their fast lane to be a very good value if you want to do all of the haunted activities, because there are a lot of them.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

There are a lot. And I would say that if you can also budget your vacation where you're not there on a Saturday at all, or if you are that you're not doing haunt activities, that can definitely help along with your fast pass to get through those haunted houses with enough time.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah. And I would also, if we're talking tips and tricks right now, I would say that the earlier in September that you can possibly go, the better experience you're gonna have. Well, we were there on a Friday, and it was reasonable. We wouldn't have been able to do all seven of their haunted attractions and both scare zones on a Friday in September, even, if we didn't have the FastPass. Thursday night is gonna be your winner if you want to do the haunted attractions because there was there were minimal lines. Uh in our second visit, there were minimal lines on Thursday night, and I did a speed run of all of the haunts with our own personally bought fast passes in about 90 minutes. I didn't do the scare zones, but I was able to do all six haunts. I didn't do the conjuring that time, I should mention, but I did all six regular haunts uh in about 90 minutes. So you you can make a run of it if you go on a Thursday night, but Friday night it's iffy and Saturday is just so darn busy.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

It is bananas crazy. It is so busy. And I will say that for Cedar Point specifically, and actually any of the Six Flags locations, you do have to pay to get into their haunted houses. So you're already paying for a haunted attractions pass. So I think for my for what it's worth, upgrading that to that fast lane just makes sense as somebody who loves haunts.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

And everybody's budget is different. You can get a lot out of the park without paying for that pass. If you're not going to pay for the pass, you should probably prioritize your haunts, get into line a little early, especially if you're gonna be there for multiple days, and pick the two or three that really matter to you because you will be waiting in a in a considerable line, especially like you mentioned on Saturday nights.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

And specifically for the haunts that are probably the best ones, if we're being honest. I know I have kind of been following what's been going on since we've been to Cedar Point in terms of lines. And I think that our collective favorite house uh definitely has the longest line.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Yeah, absolutely. So before we dive into ranking those houses specifically, there are a ton of amazing activities that you can do. Um, if you're a fan of peanuts, you could see the Snoopy show, their character meet and greets. Although I don't know who listening to this podcast is gonna be like, man, I gotta get a high five from Snoopy. That said, uh the whole park is decked out in Halloween and harvest decor. They have a wonderful pumpkin display, they have uh trick-or-treating if you can pass as a child or if you are a child, uh and if you are, I don't know why you're listening to this podcast.

SPEAKER_05 8:35

You shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Yeah, you shouldn't be. There's pumpkin decorating, there are animatronics set up throughout the park. The the park really does a nice job of creating a vibe. And honestly, having been there an over a number of years and having been there twice this year, it's just a place I want to be.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

I agree with that sentiment. It's definitely somewhere that feels like it is that kind of vibe that I just love, especially in Frontiertown, where the majority of their haunts and scare zones are. That really feels like it is electric back there.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Yeah, Frontier Trail, which runs up, I guess if you're standing at the park entrance, it runs up the left side of the park, and Frontier Town, which runs up the other side, and they sort of meet in the middle. It's where the opening ceremonies are going to be, where Mr. Midnight unleashes all the monsters. It's where a lot of the theming is. They do do something really weird though. They have two of their haunts at the front of the park. Like right next to Gatekeeper, which is like the ride that sits right over the front main entrance gate. Uh, and and maybe, I don't know, uh an eighth of a mile back uh in the right behind Kitty Land. I don't know why those haunts are back there other than available space. But you should absolutely keep that in mind if you're planning, if you're watching your steps or if you're planning to run these haunts very quickly, you're gonna be able to do a bunch of them very quickly, right in a row. But there are gonna be two that are gonna you're gonna be tired heading to your car, and there's gonna be two left on your punch list, and you kind of have to budget your time and budget your energy for that.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

Well, I mean, those were the last two that we did whenever we were.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

It's like we're always dragging ass right down to the end of the park. I'm like, oh no, we have to do eerie estate. We have to, we have to do what is now midnight, but uh that that's a newer haunt. We we are always dragging ass to those two haunts.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Yeah, and it is actually funny though, the day that you speed ran it, you uh did it backwards, you did those two first.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yeah, we were still in Kittyland for a lot of the day, and I was like, you know what, there's no line for eerie estate. I'm just gonna pop in. It's a Thursday night. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna pop in. And um, we were down by midnight, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna pop in. And Sarah's there with the kids, and she's like, do you, man, I am tired. I'm already done. And then you went back to the hotel with the kids. And our daughter said, I'm going, Dad's going on a fog adventure, which is not untrue. I speed ran the other four houses at the back of the park, and I was back to you in about an hour.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

Yeah. Yeah, it was it was honestly pretty impressive. And yeah, that is the thing, is is you can get a majority of the things done as long as you're towards the back of the park. The other weird thing that they do is they have the frontier trail, and then they have the clown scare zone on the other side, and there is no connectivity between the two. Yeah. So if you want to do all of that, you kind of have to figure out how you're gonna maneuver.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah. Uh the clowns. So if I was going to do this, and I and I have, uh, I would absolutely make sure I'm either positioned in line for Diablo without Fast Lane.

SPEAKER_05 12:03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

When right after the opening ceremonies, I get in line right for Diablo. And they are so close together that it's a hop, skip, and a jump. Say hi to Mr. Midnight, head on back by Steal Vengeance, and hop in line.

SPEAKER_05 12:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

And then run the haunted houses counterclockwise until I get to Cornstalkers and uh Slaughterhouse. Or I would make sure I'm mid-park and experiencing the if I don't care about the opening scaremonies, which I do because it's super cool. Um, that the clowns are there, they throw out little baubles and trinkets. We got a skull, it was awesome. Um, I would run the clowns first and then head to Diablo if I had a fast lane. And I didn't care about the scaremonies because that's going to keep you in one continuous arc and then you can be dragon ass at the front of the park later on.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

Exactly. Yeah, it just kind of depends on what you're looking for and how you're looking to do it. I think that there were people, though, that were in line for Diablo during the scaremonies, which makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

That is an extremely impressive house, new for 2026. It's it's gonna be busy. I don't expect it to go away next year. I think that the licensing deal is probably a multi-year licensing deal. This is Diablo, the video game, so if you're a fan of that game, you're gonna want to experience this. They have characters from the game fully realized. And the scale of that house, it's not a long house. It's not I mean, it was it was a it was a vampire nightclub last I checked. Last time we were there. Bloodbath, yeah. It's not a long house, but it is impressively the art direction is amazing. And the scale of the animatronics and the actors and the makeup design. I don't know. I there's there's very little that can compare to that that I've experienced in a park setting.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

It was the scale for me. And the thing that you're gonna hear me talk about that Cedar Point does so well is misdirection, and they did that very well in this house too, where you're looking at that big animatronic, or you're looking at the scale and the size of the room that you're in, and then they get you with an actor. Uh, that is really the bread and butter of what you want in a haunted house.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

I just watched a movie and my review hasn't come out today. Uh, it's called Hello Warrior. Uh it will probably be out by the time this airs, but it that's a love letter to haunted houses, and they're like, haunted houses are all smoke and mirrors. You get them looking one way and you scare them from the other. And like that's what they do, and they do it so well. It's so well planned and so well executed. Some cool things about Diablo, um they have like animatronics, they're not animatronics, they're masks that the actors will wear that are like game accurate, but they have recorded voices. And so it's not the actors just blasting their throat. It's like a sound effect that you would expect to hear in the game, and it it just completely anchors you in the world. There's nothing that I dislike more, and I'm sorry if any scare actors are listening to this and and and feel attacked. I'm not attacking you. But I hate the get out line uh that scare actors give you. Get out, get out of my house. I man, I pay to be in here. Give me give me something the yes and like I am the guy in a haunted house who's gonna play with you. Uh I will play rock, paper, scissors with you. I will do whatever I will I if you want to give me a high five. I know we're not supposed to touch the scare actors. I'll give you a high five. I am here to engage. And so when you tell me to get out, I I got no, I can't play with that. I'm I I I'm funny, but not that funny. Um they don't even allow themselves that opportunity. This is these are pre-scripted, like recorded voiceovers, and it completely anchors you in that world.

SPEAKER_04 15:43

I would imagine that it kind of almost makes it a little bit more prescriptive as well. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily, but that is interesting that you bring that up because if they are not having that anchor of being able to engage and talk with people in the way that other scare actors are, it's just a very like different experience at Cedar Point in general.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

I didn't think about what the uh perspective of the scare actor themselves might be. I I'm sure some scare actors really like jerks like me who give them something to work with. I'm sure I'm positive that some scare actors do not like jerks like me who will uh yes and them till I'm out of the room. But it must be a different experience working those rooms.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Yeah. But Diablo in general, I that was the first house that we did at Cedar Point, and we were lucky enough to be able to film in there for at least uh partially film in there. And I was just amazed at what they were able to accomplish, especially because we had been in that house before, whenever it was Bloodbath and Club Orpheus, and they were able to really transform that space into a full-fledged video game, and that is wild work.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

There's a cathedral in there. Uh, they let us film up to the first red portal. Uh, and if you played the game, you could probably assume what that portal looks like. And if you haven't played the game, it's called Diablo. You can probably assume where that portal goes. Um, but it was great. Uh there there are a number of houses in Cedar Point, and and I believe last year they added a new house as well. And this is an upcharge experience, but it's uh the Conjuring uh franchise has its own house in the park. And I will say that house is unlike anything I've experienced as well, but not only in a theme park, but in all of our haunt travels and all of our haunt experiences, the conjuring is more of a scripted, very much so timed and well-regulated theatrical event where you are in a room with an actor leading you through all of these these haunt gags. And uh, I don't know, man, for someone who likes to participate like me, uh that was that was heaven.

SPEAKER_04 18:06

You were part of the story in the conjuring, and it's so funny because I am not a fan of that franchise for the most part. I probably need to revisit it, but it's just not something that has been that's my favorite, let's say. And so I was I w I wanted to do it, but I didn't want to pay, you know, to go through it. But I'm so glad that we ended up doing it because it's the one that and Diablo, I think, are the ones that I keep going back to in my brain because it was so unique, it was so different, and I really loved what they are able to accomplish with their actors that are in there because those actors are really doing the work. Yeah, these actors pretty scripted. Yeah. And some of the gags that they were able to do, I don't really want to spoil any of the gags, but some of them I have never seen in a haunted house before.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

And my advice to you as a haunt goer is to fully like, I don't want to say submit to the haunt, but like they're gonna misdirect you. And if you're looking around the room, you're gonna blow the gag. Look where they tell you to look and allow yourself to be surprised because that haunt is nothing but misdirection. And there are some really surprising elements to it that aren't misdirection, just some incredible visuals. And I think what really sells it though is the participation.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

The participation and the fact that, yeah, like you are part of the story. And uh, like Vince said, it is very timed. So if you don't get through something quickly enough, uh you will get taken somewhere else.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

We were lurking in the back, and there is one part where you have to travel through a passage. And I'm not uh I really don't want to spoil this for you. But the the folks in front of us were not moving quickly. And and it's a great, it was like half a room of influencers and half a room of general public, uh, and Sarah and I uh as well. And so, like, you got some YouTubers, you got some general public people, and and Sarah and I were in the back, and they're like, Go through this passage, it's the only way.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

And then she looks at me and Sarah and goes, I know another way. Just come right through this door. And we're like, why did you say that in the first place? Like, made all these people go through this passage.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

And then they thought that they lost us because she was like, Do we have everybody? And they're like, No, we're missing two people. And it's like, no, we're right here. We just came another way.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

But that just goes to show how timed this is. They are like, I'm I I can't imagine whether it's an internal clock or whether they have some sort, I I don't know if they have some sort of way to time this, but they are moving you through.

SPEAKER_04 20:51

Yeah, I have no idea how they know exactly where things are timed. Yeah. It is also interesting that the end we ended up getting stopped completely uh because something else happened.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Yeah, we should say this isn't a traditional haunt where like you can just go out the emergency exit halfway through because you're feeling a certain way. You have to hold your hands up in an X and say, this is too scary for me. I want out. And they will stop the show. Uh, and we assume that's what happened here. Hopefully somebody didn't lose something, or somebody, hopefully somebody wasn't injured.

SPEAKER_05 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

We assume that somebody stopped the show, and we were like, I don't know, 15 seconds from the end. The actor's like, this thing happened. And then there he was like, Oh, we literally were 15 steps from the end. We had like 15 more seconds to go. And we held and we're just chatting with the guy, and people were asking them questions about how they execute things like how many Annabelle dolls are in the hunt. And he's like, What do you mean? It's not there's only one Annabelle. And then the lights went out again.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

He's like, This thing happened and picked it up. He picked it up seamlessly right before he left off.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

It was great. So the conjuring was a ton of fun. It is an upcharge on a sliding scale. We again graciously, Cedar Point provided access for us and the rest of the media and content creators who were there. But I I think it's probably worth the upscale, uh upcharge.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

I think so too, because I had a really, really great time. If we weren't there with the kids the second weekend, I might have wanted to do it again just to see what if we didn't stop, if there was no stoppage, like how that all played. Because some of the uh wind definitely got let out of the sails at the end, just because we had to stop.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

The cool part was we were in that final room, and the final room is well, the the the second to final room, 15 steps from the end, really. Uh but it's like it's like an artifacts room, and they had all of these Ed and Lorraine Warren artifacts on display. And like we just I everybody was talking to the actor, and I'm sitting there looking at everything on the shelves and just admiring the art direction because it was there. There's nothing I like less about a haunt when than when you have too much space and you have it underfilled. So uh, if you'd send me through too many rooms with nothing on the walls, I'm gonna be like, this is breaking the immersion. That was not the case with the conjuring. I mean, maybe the last room was a little bit like empty, but you're not supposed to be looking there. There's one that there's a a stinger on that haunt that you're not looking at that room. And so that it was just so well realized, so immersive, so interactive. Is it worth 30 to I don't know, what I don't know what the max charge on the sliding scale is, 60, maybe? Uh it's somewhere in that range. Is it worth it? How many people are you traveling with? How many days are you in the park? How much do you love the conjuring series? It might be worth it to you. And if you're a haunt connoisseur, uh and and I wouldn't say that I am, but I'm I'm no newbie. It's it's probably like unlike anything you've ever seen before. And so just the experience alone, if it's in your budget, it might be worth considering.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

Yeah, I would definitely agree. Like I said, I would have gone back if we had the time uh without the kids, but that's not one that you go through by yourself.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Are we are we just moving in our favorite order? So Diablo is clearly, I think that we we have landed. Diablo was our favorite. Yeah. Um, and the conjuring uh is a close second. It's hard to rank those two, though, because Diablo is your traditional haunted house done exceptionally well with a budget that's unreal. Uh and the conjuring is not. It's it's something completely different.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

It is. I think that it still lands at number two for me, just because I uh because it because it's different. But that's not a bad thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

I I I'm jumpy. I am I I've literally I have two, I have like three modes. I have uh, I have jump down, like uh, and then I have jump up, which is like if you get me to jump up, that's a uh you know I'm scared, you know. Uh the conjuring didn't do any of that for me, but I was surprised, shocked, startled, all of the above. And I was completely enthralled.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Moving on to number three, and I think our rankings are the same, if I'm not mistaken.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

They are.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah. Moving on to number three, our previous number one. So that should tell you how good the conjuring and uh Diablo are. Our previous number one, Fear Ground Freak Show. Um, there's not a space in that haunt that is not full of something to look at.

SPEAKER_04 25:45

Oh my God, it has so much stuff in it. And that's the reason that I've loved it. And I mean, we were talking about how we were looking everywhere in that last room or second to last room of the Conjuring, but Fear Ground Freak Show has so much stuff. It is full of circus and other freak show things. I I don't even know. There's just so much in there. Uh it's hard for me to categorize it.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

There's one great scare where they have the skeleton of uh the elephant man on display, uh, as you do in a freak show. And I'm I'm looking at that and somebody just they they got me. I I mean, like I I almost left my pants. I jumped up so high. Uh it was uh they got me. And they what they do in that haunt, and so the building is shaped like a circus tent just by its nature. So it really lends itself well, but they do outside inside so well. Like you're in an outdoor scene and you feel like you're outdoors. It's it's very hard to accomplish. Another haunt that we'll probably talk about later in this podcast does it also almost as well. But outside inside, they have trailers set up, they have a freaking giraffe, like a full-size giraffe in the in the room with you.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

Not a real giraffe.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

No, it that's more impressive. Well, I don't know about that. A prop giraffe is pretty impressive. Having a real giraffe that doesn't trample someone would be also quite impressive. I'm gonna say it's as impressive. It's as impressive. We're gonna say it's easy. Um but no, honestly, it it's they do such a good job of bringing outdoors inside. They do a great job of bringing circus vibes, and all of the actors are hilarious. I I I wish I remembered what that guy called me. I texted it to you as I left uh this on our second trip. I forget what he called me. He called me some weird name, something boy, and I was like, that is I've never been called that beard boy. He called me beard boy, and uh I just I don't know. It just tickled me. Uh the the actors in there are fantastic. I can't believe I remembered that. Yeah, I can't believe that either. Um but but realistically, if I were going to prioritize my day, it would absolutely be Diablo. If it's not in my budget, not the conjuring, but if it is, I would try and get to the conjuring, and then I would absolutely try and hit Fear Ground Freak Show. Um and if you do this, this is an interesting hack. If you do have fast lane, you can run Diablo and you're you're fairly close to Fear Ground Freak Show. But you come out of Fear Ground Freak Show and you're right by the fast lane for um oh no, you're right near uh Pirates Cove.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

You just go back a little bit towards uh Steel Vengeance again, and then you hit Pirate's Cove, which is one of the scare zones that goes underneath Maverick. It is super cool. So long. So long.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

It's like 20 minutes of people asking you for rum. Um it's good though. It's good. It's and and it's free, and that's awesome. Uh and that spits you out right by the um fast lane for corn stalkers. And the fast lane and cornstalker spits you out right near the fast lane for the slaughterhouse. And so you can literally run these in like a 40-minute non-stop haunt sequence, maybe 50-minute non-stop haunt sequence, which is like, I don't know, man, the centerpiece of my Halloween season so far.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Yeah. And that's kind of what we did, as I recall. Um, I think that did we do freak show before we did the conjuring? I think we might have, because we were over in that area, just kind of like waiting.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

We had an hour to kill, so we're like, yeah, hit freak show. But that is right your freak show. Yeah, right in your freak show as well. If you get on that track, you can just blast through all of those and you're like right there.

SPEAKER_05 29:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Um, but that brings up that brings up another point, which is corn stalkers. Um, and I know a lot of people are probably coming for us right now, uh, if they're still listening to us, even, because corn stalkers is everybody's favorite. Diablo excluded at this point, but you know, of the of the of the old school Cedar Point haunts, everybody loves corn stalkers. And I love corn stalkers too. Um, it's in an emptied-out water ride. So it's in like a rapids ride, and they line this with like 10, 12 foot tall corn stalks. You got men in gila suits, like you can't is that the is that the term? They're like in like the the the mossy furry suits. Uh and they blend right into the yeah. Well, someone will tell us in the comments.

SPEAKER_05 30:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Uh and they blend into the corn. You, I mean, like and uh outside of that, there's some spectacular visuals. It's it's absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 30:39

Yeah, and it has a really great and surprising, I would say, ending, especially because you're just like kind of traveling and it's a very claustrophobic haunt for the most part. And then at the end, it kind of opens up into something much larger that you're kind of not expecting. Um, so I think that that's why that haunt works so well is that uh the claustrophobia of being in that corn and then kind of not knowing what is actually coming next or when it's gonna end because it feels like it's endless.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Yeah. And what's cool about it is you don't know if it's you rustling the corn leaves or if it's an actor. I mean, every sound is like eardrum splitting in there because you don't know what is near you, who's behind you. There were a number of times I I had to stop because of the people in front of me, and I'd look over, and there's just a dude. There's just an actor right there, and I'm like, ah, you know, it it's it's awesome. And I will say, if you don't know, or if you haven't been, or if you plan to go, Cedar Point has a petting zoo and a barn area, and the smells in that haunt are very authentic.

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Very authentic.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

You can you can smell the animals, and it actually, as unpleasant as that sounds, lends itself to the the fear, smells like fear.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

It also lends itself to Slaughterhouse, which is right next to that, and also features the that great animal smell that we all love.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

We all love it. Um, and Slaughterhouse would probably be next on our list. And Slaughterhouse is a fine haunt. Um, has improved in recent years, I will say.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

I would agree.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

It's not my favorite haunt. I I don't know what it is about slaughterhouse haunts. We're gonna talk about 100 Acres Manor, which has some throwbacks and nods to their Brian Slaughterhouse uh that was is a haunt of from years past. Uh and they're a very popular haunt scenario. It just I don't know, it just never does it for me.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Doesn't do it for me either. Not to say that this is bad. I don't think that it is bad. It's just like the slaughterhouse concept doesn't really scare me. And I think that it is a trope that is done a lot. And so if it's not exceptional, then it's just okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

They do a lot of great stuff in that haunt, though. Uh, if you're a fan of Motel Hell, it's got a lot of pig headed guys running around. Uh if you're a fan of chainsaws, they had probably the most epic chainsaw I have ever seen in a haunt. This thing had to be four, five feet long. Um, so there's a lot of really great stuff. And that one also has a fantastic sort of stinger on the end of the haunt, too. So, you know, there's plenty of reasons to go there. There's plenty of reasons to spend your time in line, but you gotta know you gotta know yourself as a haunt goer, and you gotta know whether slaughterhouses do it for you. I heard somebody in line for Diablo say, I hope this isn't as scary as the slaughterhouse. That's been the scariest one so far. So it really is a matter of personal taste, no pun intended.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

Yeah, uh absolutely. And you know, that's the thing is I appreciate all of the detail. And again, I've I got a lot of Motel Hell vibes this time, too. It was very uh reminiscent of Motel Hell, which I appreciated.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Giant chainsaws, pig headed guy.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's great, but I just uh I don't know. It's just not something that that gets me excited usually.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Yeah. We're moving into the last two at the front of the park, the dragon ass.

SPEAKER_04 34:37

I think that we need to talk about the other scare zone.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Is that Crystal Rock Massacre? Camp Crystal Rock is the location that we are all entering. Crystal Rock Massacre is the name of the scare zone. And it's cool. I mean, honestly, if you're a fan of Friday the 13th or Slepaway Camp or any other bloody camp affair, this is gonna get you going. It's long. It's my only complaint with it, right, if I'm being honest here, is that the people management and navigation is confusing at best because you enter, there's one entrance suite. You walk through this uh maybe a quarter mile. Uh it took us 15 minutes to get through.

SPEAKER_05 35:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

And you double back on yourself and you go back out the entrance. So when we were going in, there was a lot of uh oncoming traffic or opposing uh bodies that were, you know, they were done. They were they were leaving, they weren't really concerned about people coming in. And so it was just a bit of a traffic jam. But if you're prepared for that, or if you're going early in the evening just after dark, you're gonna have a blast here.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

Yeah, it definitely the double back is what kind of kills this one a little bit. Um, and yeah, it it takes a long time to walk to the actual haunt itself, which is kind of weird. Um, it feels like it wants to be a haunted house, but it's just a scare zone.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Yeah. And and again, the scare zones here are free. So when you're walking through Frontier Trail or when you're walking through Clowns with a Z, uh, that's all free. It's free scares. Uh you can buy, you can't purchase a no-boo necklace that will allow you to not be scared for the most part. But those are like um what is it? Uh Crystal Rock Mascara and the Pirates Cove. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Those are more intense scare zones. Those aren't along the means of travel. You're not just navigating the park and walking through this. You have to deliberately go into those. And for that, I mean, it's it's a haunted house light and it's free and it's awesome. I mean, I have no no real complaints.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

Yeah, it uh and you can't take your no boo necklaces in there. So if you do purchase them, you can't. They they will make you turn them off. But it it's fun. I think I liked Blood on the Bayou a little bit better whenever it was.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

I probably did too.

SPEAKER_04 37:09

But again, that's a matter of personal taste.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

This is the eve of Crystal Lake being released. We just bought the novelization. We have to show some love for camp massacres here tonight. So I'm not gonna come for that one too hard. I had a good time. You do walk through the entrance to segments, two scenes twice. You go in, you pass, you know, like a camp party that has ended poorly. You pass like a shower sequence, and then you do the rest of it, and it's beautiful, and there's like a lake, and it's awesome, and it looks great. And then you end up coming back through those things, which does sort of kill the momentum. You come and see it on the other side. But I don't know, I had fun. I would do it again.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

Yeah, yeah, it's it's uh it's a ton of fun. Um, but then you continue on frontier trail to the other ones, uh, the other houses, and yeah, you got you really gotta walk. You gotta walk to get there.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

It's it is, yeah. Uh that said, you gotta walk to get anywhere at Cedar Point. It's like I I would say if we did a lap of that park, it was probably about 20,000 steps. We did 60,000 steps over the course of that weekend.

SPEAKER_05 38:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:22

So but and and with those steps, you are very tired. And by the time you get to the front of the park after having all those scares, you have my next favorite house, Erie Estate. I would not call this one a skip it house. I think there's a lot of merit in here. I will say one actor gave me the same line both both times I was through the house this year. Uh both times I was traveling in a group that had a younger kid and he was a bartender. He's like, You brought a kid to a bar both times, and both times, of course, I said, We gotta start him early, like a total jackass. But um it has some really, really memorable scenes, uh, some curtains flowing over windows, some some good, well-executed jump scares. It just it's a haunted house. And for me, you know, I some people love haunted houses, like haunted house, haunted houses. And for me, I you know, I've been going through haunted house, haunted houses since I was 10 years old, 12 years old. Someone brought a kid to the bar and it was me. And um I don't know, I just I've seen it. I've seen it done. I've seen it done well, like at Cedar Point, I've seen it done poorly, but it just doesn't get my motor going.

SPEAKER_04 39:33

Yeah, I think that like with the slaughterhouses, if you're going to do a traditional haunted house, haunted house, you have to do it exceptionally well.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:45

Um, to really make it stand out.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

It's not a total skip. Like if you have fast lane or if you're there on a Thursday night and there's nobody in line, check it out. It's a fun time. But I I don't I I don't know what else to say about it other than it's a haunted house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:01

It's fine. There are some some really good moments. It is very well decorated in there. Some the set deck dressing in there is really good.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

I just remember the girl with the Ouija board in there, and I was like, hey, can you tell my dad I said hi?

SPEAKER_04 40:16

Yeah, you did do that. That was a little dark. Definitely did that again. I forgot that you did that until just now.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

But it I mean, it's it's worth checking out, and there's a lot of fun stuff in there, and and some of the actors are are really on point and will play with you in there. So that was fun. Don't be Vince. Lastly, don't don't definitely be Vince. There, they're nights, you know, how many people can just yell in their face? Have something to say when you go in. Um lastly, it's midnight. And it breaks my heart to say this because I don't want to come for Cedar Point in any way. Like they were very kind to us. I had a blast. We we went twice and stayed. We were there, we've been there for four full days over the course of this fall season. But midnight is my least favorite haunt, and it breaks my heart because uh I love Mr. Midnight as a character. Our kid loves Mr. Midnight, and he like gave her a high five, and she was literally jumping up and down excited. And I don't know if it's her enthusiasm for Mr. Midnight or if I think he's just a really great park IP character, but I think his house, I think he deserves more.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

I agree. I think that in terms of having their own sort of icon for the park, that Mr. Midnight deserves a better house than whatever midnight was. Um I was very disappointed in that one, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Dark Academia Goth Fun House.

SPEAKER_04 41:49

Yeah. And like it that could have been a really cool concept. It kind of felt like they threw this one together because they were working on Diablo, or they were, you know, like putting stuff in like fear show. Like, I don't know, man. Like it just felt like an afterthought.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

Yeah. I mean, there's a cool crypt sequence, there's some cool spinning tunnels, and I again I don't want to spoil too much, but like I don't I don't know if it was cohesive enough for me. And it it's a prime example of a haunt that was smaller than the space that it was in. We were talking about Diablo filling the space and having an epic scale, or the conjuring being full of art direction. I just feel like there were unused corners, and I think you said it best. It felt like an afterthought. And uh, I'm just gonna say to wrap up our Cedar Point coverage, Justice for Mr. Midnight.

SPEAKER_04 42:47

Justice for Mr. Midnight. Uh, before we wrap up that footage there, before we wrap up this portion of it, I do want to say that the pumpkin whoopie pies at Cedar Point this year are some of my absolute favorite fall food that I've had.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

We didn't talk about the food. Uh the pumpkin whoopie pies, I not only did we get to taste them during the press event, uh, along with their chili and their jalapeno burgers and their chocolate cookies. Uh, we still have not tried their uh Snickers cheesecake, which, you know, it's Halloween presented by Snickers. They even got their own cheesecake. Um we literally bought four additional pumpkin whoopie pies when we were there, just vacationing. And of course, they are huge and calorically dense, and we split them with our uh toddler and our infant, who just is a garbage disposal of a baby. He just he will eat anything. He will. I think he had more whoopie pies than she did, than our toddler did.

SPEAKER_04 43:46

Yeah, he definitely did. He very much so enjoyed the whoopee pie.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

But let's not like twist it here. I also had way too much whoopie pie to give myself the calories to make it around that giant. Enormous park.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

Yeah, same. And that's how I justified it. I was like, you know, I'm going to be doing a lot of walking. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

I'm not sure. Yeah, no, I'm I and I hear that and I appreciate that because that was the same lie that I was telling myself. But I'm not sure that was a one-to-one. Those whoopie pies. I mean, they're they're they're pretty big.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

There it they are.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Pumpkin cake and cream filling. I you just I would drive, I would drive the four hours just to grab one of those. Like honestly, they're so good.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

I'm thinking about it right now, and I'm like, I want one so bad.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

We found local pumpkin whoopie pies. Uh not as good. Not not quite as good. We we had a chance to speak to their executive chef and sous chef, and all we could talk about were the whoopie pies. They're like, oh, did you like the wings? Did you like the the the apple buttons? The pizza.

SPEAKER_04 44:50

Yeah, there was a apple butter pizza. Oh my god, the apple butter pizza was really, really good too. It had bacon on top. It was so good.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

Yeah, that's fine. That's all well and good, but all we wanted to talk to that chef about was the whoopee pies.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

It didn't matter, man. Like, I I everybody else was talking to him about all the other things. I just wanted to talk about how much I loved the whoopie pies.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

They were so good. Honestly, like if you're on the fence about a trip to Cedar Point this year, if you have a Thursday night that you can spare, go get the whoopie pies.

SPEAKER_04 45:22

Go get the whoopie pies for us.

SPEAKER_02 45:24

Yeah, seriously. I I don't know that my pants size can handle more whoopie pies, but honestly, have one for me. Uh, that's not all the the fall food and fall festivities we've done this year. We also, uh after our three days at Cedar Point, we're invited to Kennywood to check out their offerings. And we are closer in location to Kennywood. We we go to Kennywood frequently. We're pass holders there as well. They invited us to check out their haunts. They gave us um speedy passes, I believe is what they call them. Yes for the haunts. So just full disclosure, we we were uh comped those as well. We weren't comp food though, so we let's start with the food. Let's talk about the food.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Let's talk about the food.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

Because you've done two tasting passes.

SPEAKER_04 46:09

I bought two tasting passes. I have three whole punches still left on the second one. Uh, and I'm gonna use them.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

That sounds like a Sunday night activity to me.

SPEAKER_04 46:20

I am looking forward to it. I I so I have had the smoked mac and cheese, which is a mac and cheese, obviously, with some smoked pork in it. That was actually very good. It had just enough heat and spice to it that I really enjoyed it. Um, you also had some things as well. I had the Bavarian pretzel.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

I had some apple cider, which was absolutely outstanding in terms of apple cider. Um, yeah, I was I was pretty satisfied with their uh with their menu this year.

SPEAKER_04 47:02

I honestly thought, and you had the sweet potato fries.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Oh, yeah, I had the sweet potato fries with maple and uh marshmallow sauce. Well, let's let's not get it twisted here. That marshmallow sauce was just some mini marshmallows on it. I am not complaining about mini marshmallows. I think that a lot of food could benefit by placing mini marshmallows on top. But um don't don't let them fool you with their marshmallow sauce.

SPEAKER_04 47:28

I also had the pumpkin bread pudding, which was very good. I stole a bite of that. Yes, it was it was quite delicious. And then this last time that we went, I got a fried apple dumpling.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

I stole a couple of bites of that as well. With a brick of like they like cut a slice off of a blue bunny pint or something like that, or four labels. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 47:53

There was like it was like a whole like square of ice cream thing.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

Yeah, it was great. And to be fair, we had that same menu item at their sister park, and the dumpling was not as crispy, and it was like two sad scoops of ice cream. Uh, this was this was a legit baked apple dumpling.

SPEAKER_04 48:10

It was very good. It was hot and it was it was it was very, very good.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

The dumpling was properly crisped, the ice cream was properly rectangular.

SPEAKER_04 48:20

I I also had the pork skillet. Um, and so that just had some pork and potatoes and some vegetables, some nice heat in there. I really enjoy something that has a little kick to it. So I very much like this. If you are heat averse, maybe you don't get this, but I tend to like that kind of food. So I gravitate there.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

One thing Kennywood does exceptionally well is at Cedar Point I didn't know where the food was. I felt like every restaurant had a menu item, and I had to go hunting. Like when we found out that those pumpkin whoopie pies were at the cafe, yeah, I'm still talking about those. We knew where they were, and we kept going. We kept finding ourselves in Kitty Land to go to this cafe to get those whoopie pies. I I I knew where the Snickers cheesecake was. We never managed to get any, but like there are so many eateries and so many menu items that I I honestly didn't know where to find them all. Kennywood, there's they're serving food out of a booth, man. Like they have like booths lining the lagoon. You can find these booths, you can you know where the lagoon is, it's in the middle of the park, and you just go and get your your thing punched, you get your food, and you're on your way. I I will say that is while I always have reservations about eating from a booth, it is it's easily identifiable. Like, you know, hey, this is the apple booth. You know where you're gonna get your baked apple dumpling and your apple cider. It's at the apple booth. And it's just really easy to find and really easy to navigate.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

Yeah. Uh uh, you know what? I've never gotten food poisoning from County Wood. Um, and I've been eating it that bites and pints for a long time. I was very excited that they decided to do a fall punch card because I there's nothing that I um enjoy less than paying a la carte for food items. So the fact that I can purchase this, and as a pass holder, I got six items instead of five for the same price.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

That you can't beat that. That's why I got a second card.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

I've seen you eat from many booths many times. So and and you're still here to talk about it. So it's it listen, the the chicken is not risky. Uh go for it. And enjoy yourself.

SPEAKER_04 50:43

I even I even ate their pregnant uh out of booths.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

So we're all good. You did do that. Uh, and and we give it to our kids too. They our kids had some. So I I, you know, as as skeptical as I am, I'm not that skeptical. Um Kennywood does a lot of theming as well. I will say it is much more spooky theming in nature than Cedar Point, which is much more harvest festival in nature outside of their dedicated scare zones. Kennywood has some dedicated scare zones, which are well themed for what they are, but like I would say generally speaking, there's uh a lack of pumpkin in the park. Like, we're not you're not gonna see a pumpkin display where they ship in like 1,500 pumpkins and make Snoopy, or from in this case, Kenny Kangaroo. Uh, it is definitely like a skeleton driving a hearse and a graveyard and skeletons playing on a jungle jungle gym. It is absolutely spooky season at Kennywood.

SPEAKER_04 51:38

I think that that also just has to do with the fact that Kennywood started as Phantom Fright Nights. So they only added this extra element of daytime fall fun recently.

SPEAKER_03 51:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 51:54

Um, which is why I think that they lean a little bit more spooky than uh because there is fog everywhere in that park.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

There it that's a there's a lot of fog. I've I my my uh our daughter, my daughter, our daughter. Uh your your your I have my wife on as a guest, everybody today, so uh forgive me. Our daughter is is a little overwhelmed by the amount of fog that's in the park, actually.

SPEAKER_04 52:19

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

It it's interesting. It's just an interesting dynamic change to come from this this harvest like fun family stuff in the afternoon. And uh what's really interesting though is that Cedar Point keeps their kid kitty lands open until well into the night. You can still get some good kitty rides in after dark. Kennywood's kitty land shuts down at six, the phantom comes out, takes over the park. There are monsters everywhere. And if you're a youngster in the park, buckle up because you got zombies waving to you, you got uh monster cowboys hanging out in Hellbilly Hollow. It it it gets a little it gets a little intense for kids after dark there.

SPEAKER_04 53:00

Yeah, I think it also, especially if you have young ones that can't ride a ton, you're pretty much locked into just walking around after six o'clock because all of the rides that have a very low or no height requirement all shut down at six o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 53:23

Yeah, Noah's Ark becomes Ark in the Dark, an upcharge attraction that we can't speak to. We've never done it. Um, and the only thing that is a no height requirement is the turtle.

SPEAKER_05 53:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

Kittyland is used for queuing or at least migration to the queues for two of the haunts. And the carousel shuts down. And so there's not there's not much for kids to do after after six. So keep that in mind if you're planning a trip and you have youngsters, you're gonna want to get there early in the day and either leave or have some child care on hand to sit with the kids in a non-foggy location if you can find one while you go and do some haunted attractions.

SPEAKER_04 54:03

Or ride some rides, whatever you prefer.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Listen, we we have done both at night. Um, there are some really great haunts at Kennywood. You want to just run down our list as well?

SPEAKER_04 54:13

Yeah, we can we can do that. Uh, I think that they're also the same. So I would agree. Our our first is Detached, which was new for 2025. This theming is a sort of a ventriloquist dummy sort of vibe.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

He got sick of making dummies. Yeah, he got sick of making dummies. He needs he needs people parts to make people dummies.

SPEAKER_04 54:41

Exactly. And I think that this haunted house we were talking about uh haunts that do um it outside inside very well. And I think that there is a section of detach that does outside inside the haunt quite well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

They and you get to double back on that section, see it through a chain-link fence, really surreal. And then you get to actually walk through it, which uh listen, if you're gonna do outside inside, and that's your double back point, sign me up. They also do inside of a theater extremely well. I really love the uh the the theater. I don't know how better to say it. You're in an actual like old school, not not quite vaudevillian, not quite burlesque, but like red velvet curtains with like clamshell footlights. I mean, it's it's really well done.

SPEAKER_04 55:33

That's exactly what I was going to say. I think what I enjoy the most about Detached is that it is the only house besides malice that I feel like takes you on an actual journey and a story.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

Yeah. And that brings us to our second inline for Kennywood, which is um Malice in Wonderland, and it has a tagline, uh Unhinged or Malice in Wonderland. We're gonna call it Malice, Unleashed, I think. Malice in Wonderland, which is a twisted Alice in Wonderland haunted house. Uh, you're welcomed and greeted by Alice, and you run through and you see all of the uh usual suspects in there, but in very dark and twisted forms.

SPEAKER_04 56:15

Yeah, and this one does suffer a bit. Um, and this is actually something that you said whenever we were going through the haunts, is that this one feels like it's in a space that is too big for what it is trying to accomplish. And I would agree with that sentiment.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

They do an admirable job of filling that space, but you just can't staff that space uh regularly to the brim. And you, I mean, they they've over the years have filled it with art direction and decor, but they're just rooms that are uninhabited sometimes, and you know, it's it's it's tough. It's a long haunt.

SPEAKER_04 56:57

Yeah. Um, and I will say that if you are a person that doesn't like claustrophobia tunnels, this haunt does include that. I know that some people are very averse to them, and I know that they're not as popular in the haunt space now as they were, I would say, um, pre 2000 or 2000, 2020. Yeah, 2020. Wow. Um, pre-2020. Uh but yeah, there there is uh Kenny Wood utilizes them in two haunts in particular.

SPEAKER_02 57:35

If we're calling that out, I should also mention Diablo has one as well, but it leads to one of the best scares in the entire haunt.

SPEAKER_04 57:41

So oh, does it? I don't even remember it. Oh, it does. Oh, that's right. I totally forgot about that. That's that's how good that house was because I don't like claustrophobia tunnels, but and I if we're if we're just being fair, they aren't the full they're they're they're waist-high claustrophobia tunnels.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Those are the inflatable um sort of vinyl uh things that you have to push your way through. Uh, I believe both in Kennywood are are waist high as well. I don't believe they have any full height.

SPEAKER_04 58:10

They do uh dark and dark shadows. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

Yeah. Uh both Diablo and in uh and and in Malice and Wonderland use the waist high ones. I I'm fine with them. I think they're pretty creepy. My issue is that I think it's just a hygiene issue with people you know breathing and spitting and screaming all over that. You're then I'm gonna put my face in it. It's not it's not my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_04 58:32

I just don't like whenever you're walking through them and the person in front of you just stops dead. And it's like, can you just keep going? Like just keep moving, because people get really freaked out, and it's like you just gotta walk through it. I think that's what kind of annoys me about it.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

I will say uh Detached has some really great performers in it, some really great hot actors, but Malice, I think I had the most fun with the team. I have and again, but I'm an asshole who will yes and you and play with you. I got stuck. The Red Queen had me stumped, just speechless. And it wasn't a moment where she was like, get out of my Red Queen house or something. Like she just she hit me with something, and I my jaw dropped, and I was like, I don't, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I don't have an answer for you. That's ridiculous. Uh but I did get into a game of rock, paper, scissors with one of her cards. Um, he his his shtick as a haunt actor was that no one will play with him, and he's a playing card and loves to play, and no one will play a game with him, and so I said, Let's play some rock, paper, scissors. Uh sad to say he beat me. Yeah, no, he sad to say I chose paper and the playing card chose scissors. That was a shame. And Sarah didn't let me live it down for the rest of the night. If I'm prioritizing, definitely detached and malice are the two you have to hit. Those two have extremely long lines. So if you're not doing speedy pass, I get it, budgets are a thing. You gotta get in line for detached before the sun goes down. Honestly. If you are doing speedy pass, we'll make a recommendation on where you should go because this one is not included in your speedy pass. But we'll talk about that a little later on.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:11

I will say that both detached, uh, malice, and then the next one that I believe that we're gonna talk about all open at six o'clock proper because they are indoor haunts. So if you're prioritizing indoor haunts specifically, that's where you should head. Oh, I guess the the last one that we're gonna talk about also opens at six o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

So yeah. So lead us into the next one. Which what's the next one we are going to talk about?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:42

Yeah, so the next one, I believe, is Shady Grove Memorial Hospital.

unknown 1:00:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:48

Or is it Voodoo?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:50

I I thought it was voodoo, but I was willing to go with you on Shady Grove. Those are pretty equal in my mind. Yeah, they're pretty equal in my mind. And that's not to say that Shady Grove or Voodoo uh are not top-tier haunts. I think they both have different challenges.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:05

I would agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:07

Voodoo is another uh emptied out, dewatered, uh, what is the word I'm looking for? Um empty rapids ride, uh the raging rapids if you're a Kennywood fan. And you go, you walk through, it's very long, it's the entirety of the ride track. But uh when you have a haunt that is on a ride track, and you're not cornstalkers, which is just a genius solution to this problem, you don't have anywhere for the actors to hide. So you're walking around, you see a voodoo guy, and he says something voodoo-y to you, and you go, ah, maybe, or maybe not. You see some graves, you see some crows, you see some more voodoo guys, and then you're done. And the vibes there are 10 out of 10. I mean, I I they they're they're impeccable on vibes, but scares are like a two out of ten. And so I'm really torn with voodoo. It's it's a they'll never get rid of it. It's a staple, it's been there for as long as we've been together, and that's 15 years, 16 years.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

I think it's been there since they started. I think that it's one of the uh original haunts.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:13

Yeah, they'll never get rid of it. I will say it has one shining pinnacle moment that's not based on a scare, but based on fear. And they have this long turn in the ride track and they build a plywood wall, and they really, I mean, you have to single file your way through this. You don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if they're what's waiting on the other side, and it is it's narrow. I mean, you've got to wiggle your way through this, and it feels like it's going on forever and there's no turning back. That is a shining moment of voodoo. But if you want good, solid, spooky vibes, voodoo's where you go. If you want some good, solid scares, there are better parts of the park.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:54

I would agree with that. And yeah, it is very vibey. I believe that the word that you were looking for before was drained.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:02

Um listen, you can't have all the words all the time, you know? Drained. Drained was the word I was looking for. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

No problem. I've been waiting while you were talking about it the entire time. And I was like, kind of drained, I believe is the word.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

Sarah, we're married, and I can say this. Sarah, you will never you there, I can't you would wait for years to be able to dunk on me. You would like like your patience for dunking on me knows no bounds.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:33

Yeah. I was I was very patiently waiting.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:37

Um excellent.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:38

Next is Shady Grove Memorial Hospital. A haunt that I once called just loud. Um, but I think that it's a lot of fun, and the actors that are in that haunt specifically have a ton of fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:59

Yeah. And if you get it on the night where the where like the A team is there and the performers are on board, you're gonna have a good time. And it really it comes down to who's setting the tone for you and giving you the rules of the haunt. Um, they have a pre-show speech in a lot of these haunts. And if you get a good host, the haunt, the whole haunt vibe changes.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:19

I agree. Yeah, and we had a pretty good one this time. And I think that that kind of helped to change uh the the attitude and the atmosphere. Um, this is also a haunt where Vince um high-fived an actor in the haunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:38

They told me not to touch him, but he said, give me a high four. And this gentleman only had four fingers. And if you're gonna ask, I'm not gonna leave you hanging, doctor. He was a doctor. I'm not gonna leave you hanging, sir.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:49

Uh and then I thought, and then I was like, I don't think he was a real doctor, Vince. I hate to bring that to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:54

Honestly, he only had one eye, so I'm probably uh you might be right. Um, but uh, I spent the rest of the night worried I was gonna get kicked out of the park, and we're there on media passes, so it was don't that I'm not gonna leave you hanging. Um Shady Grove has a different problem than Voodoo. There are plenty of places to hide, there are plenty of jump scares, but my problem with Shady Grove, much like my problem with Erie Estate and Slaughterhouses, you can do a hospital anywhere. In fact, there is another hospital in Pittsburgh that we have done. And uh both hospitals are loud and it's a bunch of people screaming that they need my body parts. I don't I've not seen anybody do an interesting angle on a hospital in in as long as I've been doing haunts. It's just like, hey, people are afraid of going to the doctor, people don't want to go to the hospital. What if we screamed at them about it?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:48

Yeah. Yeah. I think that you're right. I think that if there was if they did something different, I think that it would be a little bit more effective. The thing that I'll say about Shady Grove is that they do focus a lot on the eyes.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:06

So maybe if there was a little bit more eye horror specifically in there, maybe that would be a little bit different.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

This is shitty criticism for me because I don't have a suggestion on how they can improve it. I just I just think that there's, you know, they do have a strong narrative. They have a cool intro video. Like they they really they're trying here, you know. But this this haunt is in a small actual picnic pavilion that they clear out and build walls in. It's long enough. It's just and it's a mainstay. People love Shady Grove. So there are 15 people turning off this video right now, I'm sure. But you know, uh it just for me, I I would love to see, I love something innovative and scary. Detached is innovative and scary. Diablo, while it's based on an IP, is innovative and scary. The conjuring, also based on an IP, is innovative and and startling. Uh that's what gets me going, having been to, I mean, like if you counted the individual walkthroughs that we've been through this season, it's probably close to 20.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:07

Yeah. Yeah. And uh, if people aren't gonna come for us for Shady Grove, they're definitely gonna come for us for our criticism of Dark Shadows.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

Someone already was in my comments coming for me about Dark Shadows. Um, yeah. What can you say about Dark Shadows? It's dark. It's dark, it's disorienting. They have some really cool effects with the costuming of the characters because it's so dark, they dress them in dark robes, and you just oftentimes, much like corn stalkers, don't see them until you're right up on them. Um and they have a really great visual in there, and I don't want to spoil this because it's like the climax of the house. The climax of that haunt is stunning and worth the wait in line. But other than that, uh, how many times have I said art direction on this podcast today? Like, there's zero art direction. It's black flats, black plywood that's painted black, and it's and it's dark. And uh you you know, you know what you know what the bill of goods is when you sign up for it. You know what you're walking into, and it delivers. It delivers well.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:16

Uh, but I think my biggest issue with it is that it is I think that the actors spend more time telling you how to maneuver the house.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:28

I've seen Sarah go into actor areas. We saw a couple get disoriented and walk right out the uh the emergency exit, which I've done in my haunt career, gotten twisted up and accidentally walked out of an emergency exit. But that's not the goal, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:42

That's not no, no, and that I think is there there's there's got to be a way where it can still be dark, but you can signal which way people should be heading.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

Well, I mean, look at Nightmare Sphere Factory in Niagara. I mean, they have laser dots, so you head towards a laser dot, like little red. I mean, you head towards that, you know you're gonna make it through the haunt. And that's a very successful dark haunt. But as I recall, it's been a couple of decades, but they have scenes in there, right? Like they have it's dark, dark, dark, and then there's a scene, and dark, dark, dark, and then there's a scene. So, you know, there are ways to make this come alive a bit more. That said, it's somebody's favorite haunt, and I'm not here to shit on it. I think it's I think it's a solid haunt. Like I said, you know what you're gonna get, and it delivers on that. And if that's your thing, rock and roll.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:35

Is it a haunt for me? No. Yeah, I was gonna say. Also, uh, just a side note, and this may be just part of my own trauma. I definitely saw a skunk right outside of that haunt one year. And so that's an absolute no for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

Yeah, stumbling around in the dark with a skunk is probably ill-advised at minimum. But yeah, uh Kennywood, Kennywood used to be uh undeveloped land. It used to be a farm, it used to be uh the end of the trolley line, and there is still a fair amount of wildlife surrounding the park, even though it sits firmly in West Mifflin.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:12

Yeah, I've we've seen a skunk there, we've seen a deer.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Just chilling on the train.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:17

Like we're on the train.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:19

Yeah. And we've seen a snake.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:21

There was a snake. Oh my gosh, right by Steel Curtain. If you're familiar with the park, it's towards the back uh end of the park.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:29

Right by where this haunted house is.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:31

Yeah, it's right by this haunted house. Uh the the park, uh, they they used to be called sweeperettes. They had like a dustpan on a stick. Uh, there was somebody who grabbed one of those iconic Kennywood dustpans on a stick and tried to scoop this snake up, and he was like, Nope, I'm not getting in there. Uh, not during haunt season, but also very spooky. Uh, there is one more haunt that we do need to talk about with Kennywood before we move on, and that's Ghostwood Estate, which is their newest dark ride in the park, inhabiting the same building that the iconic classic gold rusher inhabited. R.I.P. Gold Rusher. Miss you.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:06

R.I.P.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:07

That said, Ghostwood Estate is fantastic as a dark ride. It's a laser game-based dark ride. You shoot targets, things pop out, it's a guy in a cake. It's fantastic. Um, what's in there right now, though, is trick-or-treating for kids during the daytime and a walkthrough haunt at night. And if I've said it once, I've said it five times in this podcast. Haunts that inhabit a dedicated ride track are always going to be a challenge.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:35

Yeah. Yeah. I will say that uh I love trick-or-treating in there during the day.

unknown 1:11:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:43

This is a not a very long ride when you're in a slow-moving ride car, and it's not a very long haunt when you're walking through. And there are literally zero places for actors to hide behind. And what's more, and probably the biggest disappointment for me, and this is their newest haunt. I'm not trying to come for Kennywood here. They this is they tried something new and I really respect it. But they just set up stanchions, like those little ropes that you can like that you put in lines. They just set up stanchions, and actors are like, Why are you in my house? And they're standing behind the stanchions. And I was like, I don't know, because I waited in line to get out. I watched a whole video before I came in and shout out on the video. Uh the video is done, it's Elizabeth Ghostwood, uh, the daughter of Lord, or the grand, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of Lord Kenneth Ghostwood, who's like the main character of the haunt when it's a ride. Uh, done by their supervisor of entertainment, Aaliyah, and she's just phenomenal. She does a great job on the video. She's a phenomenal human being. The shows at Kennywood are great, and it's a large in large part due to Aaliyah. So no shade there. And and the pre-show video here, it got me. There's a jump scare in there that got me. But the experience, it just I will say there was one part of the haunt that was truly terrifying, and just out of the dark comes crawling this monster after us as we're leaving, but it was when we were leaving. And uh it was almost too little too late.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:08

I agree. I had really high hopes for this one because I thought, how cool that they're going to do this inside of the ride. And I think that I mean, because they have trick-or-treating in there during the day, they can't really set up things properly. Right, exactly. And it is going to turn back into a ride whenever they are done with this and they do their Christmas overlay because they do a Christmas overlay for this ride.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:48

And that is just chef's kiss. I love their Christmas overlay for this. I've I have such a good time on this ride. I wanted it to be cool. I wanted it to be awesome. And outside of the basic cool factor of walking through a ride you love. You know. Yeah. There's another dark ride in Kennywood, though, if you are interested in dark rides. It's going to be it's probably over a hundred years old now. It's the oldest standing uh tunnel of love boat ride. Um, it's called uh the old mill. It's fantastic. It's, you know, it's an old mill. What are you gonna do? It's been a number of things over the years, including Garfield's Nightmare, which if you're a Pittsburger and you remember Garfield's Nightmare, I'm not sure it was Garfield who was having the nightmare. That was the worst overlay on that ride I have lived through. But um the old mill's the old mill's clutch. It's good. Uh I will say bring back the outdoor scenes, you cowards. Uh the outdoor scenes on the old mill are no longer there, but the old mill is fantastic. All that is to say, if you plan to do Ghostwood Estate open house, that's the name of the haunt, I it's not included in your speedy pass. Uh, if you want a speedy pass for that uh itself, you have to pay additionally. I would not pay for it. Uh uh budget aside, if you have budget to burn, buy an extra apple cider. Do something else with that money. Buy a souvenir. If you really are married to doing that haunt and you want to run all seven haunts in the park, get in line at six o'clock. It shouldn't be too long. Get in there first before all the other haunts open up. It opens at six before the sun goes down. You can get in there. But don't pay for it. Enjoy it for what it is, which is a really cool walkthrough of a ride that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:32

Oh, we all forgot Kennyville Cemetery.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:35

Oh no, we forgot Kennyville Cemetery. Yeah. Uh how can you forget Kennyville Cemetery?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:40

Uh I I would place this um probably above Dark Shadows.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:44

I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

Yeah. It's the tamest of the haunts. Honestly, it's not gonna blow your socks off, but it's it's so charming.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:53

It is, and it has been there since they started doing Phantom Fright Nights and then whenever it became Phantom Fall Fest. So I have a very soft, nostalgic spot for this one. And uh, I actually think that they were trying to also do kind of like a better storyline, actually take you through a story this year, which I appreciated.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:19

We got some lore about the lady in the the lake, the fountain. The lady in the fountain. There's a beautiful fountain at Kennywood, and uh I feel bad. Shout out to the actors who play her because they're standing in some cold water all night. But it looks cool, it's super weird and creepy. And I don't know, if you like zombies, if you like cemeteries, if you like charming, quaint haunts, or if you like outdoor haunts, that's not something you get very often. Um, corn stalkers comes to mind, but you don't get a lot of that in in an amusement park situation. So Canneyville Cemetery is one that I would not skip. That is definitely a don't skip.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:54

Yeah, I agree. And they can get a lot of people in that one at a time. So the line usually moves fairly quickly there.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:02

Yeah. All right, we're coming down the home stretch. We've done one more traditional haunted attraction outside of like harvest festivals and kids' parks with haunts and and Halloween theming, and that's Hundred Acres Manor. I'm wearing my hoodie. Uh we've done this one twice this year. And to be biased, the operators are friendly with us. We consider them friends. Uh, we really like what they do, and we typically go multiple times a year. We've been there twice uh for the uh evening haunts and once for a daytime kids' day. And I don't know, I I don't have much bad to say about Hundred Acres Manor. They really do a nice harvest festival.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:43

Yeah. And I think uh especially what they have been trying to do lately, which is bring a whole experience. They have games, a midway, they have a bar if that is your thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:58

A screen bar? Put some respect on that bar's name.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:02

Screen bar. Um, and they have a maze that is outside of the haunted house. Um, so it's just it's it's different. Uh in the past, I know that they did like a buried alive experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:20

Narrated by Tom Savini.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:23

Yeah. You can't you can't dis dismiss that. It's narrated by Tom Savini.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:29

But they don't have it anymore, which is sad because I never got to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:33

Yeah, that's fair. I will say the haunted self, the manor, as it were, uh, sits in the middle of a county park outside of Pittsburgh. And it occupies a spot that used to be a pool, a swimming pool, and they have a giant plot of land. Walking through the haunted self is almost a mile long, and we timed it. It takes on a on a day where there's you're you're the first person through or they're not very busy, 25 to 30 minutes. On a day where it's packed and people are moving slowly, probably 35 to 40 minutes. There are six, five haunts inside. Five. Five there are five haunts inside. There's the sisterhood, uh, there's a hospital haunt in there. There's a voodoo haunt in there, uh, some pretty traditional theming. Um there's uh All Hallows Eve, and then probably the most unique one, not in that order, yes, uh All Hallows Eve is the end cap, but probably the most unique one is folklore, which is a Yeti-themed haunt.

unknown 1:19:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:36

So if you're into like cryptids, that's kind of your bag, I would say, is the Yeti haunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:43

Yeah. Outside of that, you have, as Sarah mentioned, Midway Games and a Chainsaw Maze, which changes its theming nightly. So you could have clowns one night or astronaut alien fighters the next night, which were the two themes that we happen to catch. Um all of it's done extremely well. All of it is extremely well themed and very densely decorated. I don't think there's very much empty space in this haunt. And there are some really significant outdoor sections. And since you're in the middle of this county park, the stars are very bright, it's very much so uh fairly isolated around the park. You really do get an outdoor haunt experience that's unlike a lot of others, unless you're going to a haunt on a farm or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:31

Right. Uh, the thing that they do so well is going through those areas, going inside and then going outside and the transition between the two depending on where you are. It's always very effective. The thing that I've always said that I love about Hundred Acres Manor, besides their really great set design, is their utilization of smell in their haunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:02

Shout out to Froggy's Fog and their fog scents, uh, heavily utilized throughout.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:08

Yeah. Um I think that that kind of immersion really uh sets them apart from a lot of other haunts.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:17

Yeah, I agree with that. And because this is on an old county pool, you're walking through outbuildings that supported the pool, you're walking through buildings that they've constructed, you're walking over the shallow end of the pool itself in some cases. And a lot of that is because some of these pieces of equipment or buildings or the pool were just too hard to remove. So they creatively leveraged them into maybe a boat sequence or uh into the hospital itself. It's a very steampunk kind of hospital.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:46

Yeah. Um, so I I think that they just they they really do a great job utilizing their space. Um The Sisterhood is new this year, but they have utilized a lot of their old set pieces that they had for their London set.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:07

So London plague kind of vibe, and now it's like a London plague cult kind of vibe.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:13

Werewolves remain. There are still werewolves.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:15

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:17

Um, you go from the sisterhood with these beautiful outdoor London sequences, which feel extremely like run-down busy streets in the middle of a plague time, into a hospital. And the hospital probably ranks fairly low for me, if not last. Uh the hospital is loud. It's loud. And again, like we said earlier in this podcast, hospitals are, you know, a dime a dozen in terms of haunt theming. They do a good job with some of the animatronics. They do a good job with uh they have a whole ass ambulance in there. And probably the highlight scare of that haunt within a haunt is that ambulance and what happens surrounding it. It's it's fantastic. Um, so it's not all for lost. Uh it it is it is a a worthy addition to the manor, but at the end of the day, it's my least favorite of their five.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:11

I would agree with that. It's just not for me. But again, I think that if you're gonna do a hospital, you kind of have to do it really well. The thing that that space that they have to use there for that haunt specifically, is very challenging.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:31

It's the old pumphouse from a pool.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:33

Yeah, they can't move a lot of their stuff around there. So it I think uh the theming is just that they can't do a whole lot where it's gonna make a ton of sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

Previously it was an alien invasion uh haunt called Breach, and it suffered from the exact same issues as the hospital, which is all we can do is blast your eardrums, throw in a couple of animatronics, send you up a ramp and around the bend and back down. And it's you know, it's a pump house, what can you ask for? Uh from there you move into 100 Acres Manor's voodoo uh sequence. And it's interesting now that I'm saying this out loud, the Pittsburgh has two overlapping haunts at two of their major haunt attractions. Um but this voodoo is probably my favorite in the entire experience. I absolutely love out the outdoor cemetery sequences. I absolutely love what is inside this chapel that exists, and you see this chapel just break over the horizon. It is amazing. And I absolutely love how you come out of this haunt. It is one of the most striking visuals in the entire walkthrough. And even if it's not Sarah's favorite haunt, which I know it isn't, I think she can align with me on the fact that those three things that I mentioned make this one of the highlights of the walkthrough.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:54

Oh, absolutely. And like no discredit to voodoo. I think that voodoo is very well done. It makes use of a lot of different elements. Um, because you have that outdoor cemetery, you have that church, they utilize uh the pool in this sequence. Um, they also have a boat that moves in this sequence. It is very, very interesting. And then, yes, the capstone of this into folklore is probably my favorite element that they have in the entire haunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:36

It's one of the most disorienting, probably 15 feet that feels like 100 feet I have ever been through in any haunt, in all of its permutations, because previously this used to use those claustrophobia tubes, the full body, full height vinyl tubes that are inflatable. And even then it was super disorienting. So now what they're doing with it is just it's so good. It's so good.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:58

It's very, very good. Um, but yeah, it's a very um very good haunt. And again, no discredit to um Voodoo. I just happen to like the theming of another haunt a little bit more.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:14

Well, we're gonna move into probably uh a haunt that ranks um maybe fourth out of fifth for both of us. I don't necessarily or maybe third three out of five.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:25

Third. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:27

I'd have to re-look at my we did a review, check out our our short on this with uh Stuff Scared Chris. We did rank these. I I like I like folklore quite a bit. I think the scale of folklore, much like the scale of Diablo, is quite impressive. I love cryptid, so I don't know why the Yeti thing doesn't entirely connect with me, but I think that folklore is a ton of fun. There the scares in folklore for me are I think where it's lacking. It's just a bunch of people yelling about how they're stranded on this mountain. And some some probably some good jump scares in there too, here and there, but uh a lot of the actors are just like, We've lost contact, get to base camp, you gotta keep moving. There's a yeti. They don't say that, but that that's the implication.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:10

I mean, that's kind of what they say.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:12

Yeah, there and there are plenty of yetis.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:16

Yeah. Um, but yeah, I this one is interesting because I actually think that it has gotten better over the years.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:26

Yeah, specifically this year.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:29

Yeah. I remember the first year that they did this and they had the fake snow.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:39

Yeah, you almost got broke.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:41

I did. I almost fell like flat on my ass. And I was like, oh, this is not good. Um, but uh they don't really do, they have one section of fake snow now, but it's not nearly as. Um uh slidey. Uh slippery? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:07

What's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:08

Drained.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:10

Yeah, right. But we're all looking for words tonight. Yeah. What's interesting about Hundred Acres Manor is they do accessibility really well. Some of the sections of voodoo are not paved and difficult to navigate if you have mobility issues. They have a wonderful way for you to pass through that and still get most of the voodoo experience. And in folklore, there is a sideways room where you walk up and around and the whole room is a gravity room. A gravity room. They do have a way for you to bypass that as well. So if you are concerned, if you have mobility issues, if you're in a wheelchair, if you're on crutches, if you're pregnant and going in against doctors or against the haunts orders, uh, which Sarah has done many times.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:52

Who would do that?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:54

Yeah, right. You can skip the gravity room and be just fine. So I just want to give that a shout out because I think it's important to know that this haunt is an accessibility first haunt, even though it's a long walkthrough.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:08

But yeah, I think that folklore, um, they've definitely done a lot with the animatronics. They've brought in some new pieces this year, sort of moved some things around. So uh I think that it is actually getting better. Um, but I agree with you that uh maybe if there was a little bit more of a narrative to the haunt.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:31

Give me some scare actors in Yeti costumes, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:35

I want to I want to be chased by a Yeti. Uh but the scale of the Yetis are getting bigger. I will say that the Yetis inside are growing. There must be eating uh guests who get lost. Um, so they're getting bigger, and I love that. Uh lastly, is my second favorite, your absolute favorite, and that is All Hallows Eve. Do you want to take this one?

SPEAKER_04 1:29:59

This one is a whole vibe. So basically, you are going into a Halloween party into this house, and what happens is you go through a spinny tunnel and you descent into Halloween madness, where all of your fears and your traumas over Halloween start to manifest themselves.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:27

Um of the classic monsters come about.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:31

Yes, and this one just feels I think that this to me feels like when a haunted house is done right.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:40

Yeah, agreed. You walk into a house, you there's literally a house facade. You walk into this house. I I will say they probably need a maid in there or and some plaster work. That house has seen better days, but it is a house, and you go in, and like you said, all of the Halloween traditions and and all of the Halloween legends come to life. And it's it's actually really well done.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:04

It's a unique imagery is what always gets me. It's very vintage Halloween vibes whenever you go in. And then, yes, you get all those classic Halloween tropes in there. And I think that that's why I appreciate it so much, is that it is a different take on it. And as someone who loves Halloween, this just hits me in a different way.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:32

It's a love letter to the holiday. I just want to know what their blow mold budget is. Um, there are so many freaking blow molds.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:38

I love them all. Like they look so good. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:42

I wish we had footage of this to show you because it is just it is uh if if voodoo at Kennywood is 10 out of 10 vibes, this is 12 out of 10 vibes. The vibes are perfect.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:53

And they have like pumpkin-scented fog going. We tracked it down.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:59

We literally tracked down their fog supplier because that pumpkin-sented fog is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:04

I needed it in my life.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:07

There is one more thing that you can do after you've exited the manor, provided you're still living, um, after all Hallows Eve. Uh, it's the the chainsaw maze. And I I want to just briefly touch on this because it is just black flats in a maze shape with chainsaws. There's not much to say. But this year they've redone the facade to make it like a ticket booth in an old movie theater. I love it. They have a nice LED display or maybe OLED, I don't know. It's a TV up there that has their logo and is playing some cool stuff. I love it. The whole thing looks like it's gotten a facelift this year. But what I really love is between our first visit on opening night and our second visit last week, they've redone the interior of the maze to make it 10x more challenging. And I am someone who is good at mazes, inexplicably. And even I had a bit of trouble. And so there's a loop at the beginning of this maze and a loop at the end. But what's really, and I don't want to spoil a lick of this for you, but what's interesting is they make it almost impossible to navigate this loop at the end. It it honestly had my blood pressure up. It was it was a little unnerving.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:18

Yeah. Uh, as someone who has been going there for a long time and, you know, who uh uh remembers when this maze was actually in the haunt itself.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:30

A part of the haunt.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:31

Yes, and now it's a standalone attraction. Uh, this was probably the best that the maze, the second time that we met that we went, was the best time um that we've gone through this. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:46

I couldn't agree more. I mean, I could uh the the haunt with the maze inside was probably an hour long because you'd get lost. And I I wouldn't necessarily get lost, I would just find my way through inexplicably, and it would be about about the same amount of time. This maze, this time, with the recent additions, it's hard. Uh apparently the the the operators told us that they are having to do like search and rescue missions at the end of the night because people are just having a hard time getting out. And uh I love that for them. I love that for the people who get to experience that. And what's even scarier is there are plenty of places to hide and start your chainsaw and come running at people. And that is unnerving. Even if you're not affected by chainsaws and haunts, and some people are, some people aren't. It's unnerving.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:31

Yeah. Um, yeah, the the and the the two uh actors that they have doing the chainsaws uh are are quite good. They are they are having a lot of fun in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:45

Yeah. Well, that's pretty much what we've been up to over the past few weeks. Uh going to haunts, going to parks, and uh making content about it. Sarah, what was your favorite haunted experience this fall so far?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:03

Um, it has to be Diablo at um Cedar Point, followed by the Conjuring for sure. And I I can't even like really place like I I have to give the conjuring as like just a little side note because it is unlike anything that I have ever done, and I don't want to discredit that because it's so wholly unique in what they are able to accomplish, some of the scares that they are able to do, the interactive nature of the haunt. It's something that I find myself thinking about during the day. And I never thought that that would be a thing for me because I'm just not a fan of the IP like that. But that house was so good. And Diablo as a traditional haunt was definitely, I think, the best thing that I've done so far this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:08

I couldn't have said it better myself. Outside of sitting uh enjoying the vibes at Kennywood or enjoying the vibes at Cedar Point or enjoying the vibes at Hundred Acres Manor and connecting with old friends and connecting with new friends, which are some of my favorite experiences of the fall so far. If I'm limiting it to a haunt, you took the words right out of my mouth. Well, that's about all we have for you today. Thank you for sticking with us and hearing about our Halloween adventures. I hope that you get to visit some of these places yourself. I hope that you'll join us when we come back to talk about whatever it is we're going to be talking about next. I do know, I just can't tell you right now. So you have to subscribe and follow us on YouTube, follow us on Instagram, follow us on TikTok, where you get daily horror content from both Thread Alert Media and Stay Spooky Sarah.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:56

And as always, stay spooky, my friend.