2015 Haunt Visit

This is a blog post about my recent 2015 visits...
In this blog post we will review the haunts and post pictures of a behind the scenes tour.

I visited ValleySCARE 2 times this season and I had a blast.
First we watched the skeletones

(Photo By Valerie Davis)

Then we rode some rides and did usual Valleyfair stuff.

At 6:00 1 hour before the ceremony we got a little sneak of behind the scenes:

Then we headed straight to the ceremony.

After that we did The Chateau first.

Chateau was very nice in detail! I loved it! I was getting very excited about it during the summer but I was afraid it would let me down. It didn't. One of very few mazes that startled me. In fact during my second visit I might have screamed a little. But It seemed a bit shorter

Atmospheric Effects:   8/10 Skulls
Lighting: 9.5/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 10/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 7/10 skulls
Detail: 9.5/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: 7.5/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 51.5/60 Skulls

Then Hellside.

I personally miss the old hellside. The new location is different, I do not like the new layout because it's pretty much the same zigzag/big room pattern. the acting was ok and I do not remember getting any startles. I hate giving bad reviews because every haunt has it's own flavor. But hellside just isn't the same.

Atmospheric Effects:   5/10 Skulls
Lighting: 6/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 6/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 3/10 skulls
Detail: 4/10 Skulls
Maze Layout:2/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 27/60 Skulls

Then Bloodshed.

(I did not take a pic of it so insert random haunt pic here:)

Bloodshed was neat for my first time going in. It wasn't as scary of traumatizing as I was thinking it would be (which is a good thing) it had a creepy feel and was pretty cool. It had some neat animatronics.

Atmospheric Effects:  8/10 Skulls
Lighting 8/10  Skulls.
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 7/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 6/10 skulls
Detail: 8.5/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: 7.5/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 45/60 Skulls

Then Asylum.

Asylum was decent for also being my first time. Had a few animatronics but I don't remember any actors trying to scare me.

Atmospheric Effects:   7/10 Skulls
Lighting: 8/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 7/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 5/10 skulls
Detail: 8/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: 9/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 44/60 Skulls

Then Zombie High.

It had some pretty good talent. Some of the props and animatronics creeped me out.

Atmospheric Effects:   10/10 Skulls
Lighting: 9/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 9/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 6.5/10 skulls
Detail: 7/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: 6.5/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 48/60 Skulls

Then Humane.

Humane Habitat was not one bit worth removing Camp Wekilou. That is all I have to say.

Atmospheric Effects:   8/10 Skulls
Lighting: 7/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 7/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 3/10 skulls
Detail: 4/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: 2/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 24/60 Skulls

Then London.

All I have to say is the new theme is not worth it.

Atmospheric Effects:   9/10 Skulls
Lighting: 8/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) 8/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: 5/10 skulls
Detail: 6/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: 5/10 Skulls

Overall Rating 41/60 Skulls

I had some fun visiting ValleyScare these last few weekends and I recommend you check it out if you haven't already.

Haunt Reviews System

During our Haunt visits we will rate the haunts in this system:
Atmospheric Effects:   X/10 Skulls
Lighting: X/10 Skulls
Fear Factor (the eerie vibe created by the lights and detail) X/10 Skulls
Actor Skills: X/10 skulls
Detail: X/10 Skulls
Maze Layout: X/10 Skulls

Overall Rating X/60 Skulls

More haunt sightings AND LEAKED INFO!

In the past few weeks I have been working with people to gather as much info as I can for this post.
I first want to thank Jessica Barnd and her team for doing such a good job of painting the new Chateau Du Damne and sending me pictures of the process. Her website Here.

  So let us begin. First off for a while now we have heard of the construction project for the Chateau Du Damne Haunted House. Jessica has sent me pictures and I will display them below with captions:

Photo Op with faux finish

Front Pillar with Faux finish (and a peek inside)

The process of making a faux finish.

More Pictures? Of Course!

Getting close to finish.

Front doors ready for some cool lion knockers!

Well that's all the pictures I have if that's not enough pictures then your crazy! ;) 

Once again Thank you Jessica for being so nice to take the time to send these pictures! hopefully they bring you back for future projects!

But Caden where's the leaked info?!?!

Here it is...

Camp Wekilou will no longer be with us as it will be converted into a haunt called "Human Habitat" that is all the info I know about it so far. also the lights from the gazebo stage last year will move to either the Zombie High Finale or Habitat. I have heard the old Wekilou cabins are getting Re Constructed and converted for habitat.

Returning shows are: Hacks: Live Dudes, Skeletones, Haunted Homecoming and Charlie Browns Pirate Adventure. Returning mazes (approximate guesses) Chateau (of course) Zombie High (the facade's still there) London Terror (Duh it's a new maze) Hellside Farm (moving to Soak City) Mangler Asylum (started setting up) Bloodshed (started setting up) and Habitat. I have not heard anything about scarezones except a brief explanation of a Wild West being put by Renegade.

Planet Spooky is now The Great Pumpkinfest

Some Miscellaneous Pics:

Halloween Haunt Sightings 2015

Today (August 8th) I had a short discussion with Dave Frazier the General Manager of Valleyfair.

It was brief but we still talked on a few things. Many of you may have heard rumors of the Wild West coming to Haunt. Those rumors are true. Dave said that haunt will incorporate the Renegade/ Chickie's and Pete's area into a Wild West type area. From what he was saying it seemed that it would be a scarezone or a day event. Also it is true that Hellside Farm will be moving to soak city. As you may notice that the amphitheatre curtain is open. No they are not preparing to demolish or "blow it up" as Dave says (although he wishes to do that) they are only taking haunt props out of storage. 

You can also see that they brought out the Haunt plinko game

They are making pretty good progress on the new Chateau Du Damne

Dave did say that they have started putting together the haunt on the inside

and they will start painting the facade very soon.

Here is a picture of the Hellside Farm scarecrows being prepared

(Photo taken by Dave Frazier on Twitter)

Zombie High has not shown any changes yet (on the exterior)

Dave also mentioned the Bumper Cars will close in about a week for the Asylum setup.

I would like to thank Dave Frazier for taking his time to speak with me and to let me use his photo

(shown above the zombie high one)

Written by:

Caden Riley

Valleyfair Haunt Blog

 The new Chateau Du Damne 

If you haven't already heard Valleyfair is building a permanent Chateau du -damne building. It is located behind where Mr. Cleavers usually is and no from my understanding there is no plans to move or remove Mr. Cleavers. On the webcam the space maybe looks smaller than the space in the arcade even though they probably don't use all the space in the arcade. In an interview with Mr. Dave Frazier he said that the haunt department is leaning towards permanent haunt buildings cause of the ease of setup for each individual haunt. this means Haunt can leave the basic structure of the walls up giving them  more time to focus on detail of the haunt. I currently have very little information on this years haunt lineup. 

Notice the spooky spider in the middle of the picture?

          

In my first visit to Valleyfair of the season, I had the privilege to attend the Soak City preview night! I arrived at the gates around 4:40 and at 5:00 some VF staff members came and said hi. At that point we where waiting for the "OK" from the Lifeguards. One of the staff members had already checked my gold pass so when they opened the gates I ran to the Breakers Pipeline. I already had my swim suit on so I ran up the stairs and eventually reached the top. I was privileged to be the first rider (Excluding the people who tested it) to ride the breakers pipeline (the yellow one) When I finished the ride and exitingly I met the one and only... Dave Frazier, to my excitement I went up to him to confirm who he was and he was who I thought he was. We talked a little about the project and more.
I then decided to ride the breakers plunge and it was equally as awesome. After I finished the ride I went back up to Dave and briefly talked a bit more and then left soak city. after spending a few hours with friends I came back to soak city and rode the rest of the slides I then was Introduced to Ryan by Dave (Ryan's page is Thecoasterlead on Twitter and Instagram) we then discussed more about the project and other fan pages. This was a review from the Valleyfair Haunt Blog.