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So I had the lovely pleasure of heading over to the Halloween Haunt over at Great America. After hearing information about it, I got hella curious and thought to myself “Hey, heading out there’ll be pretty cool!” Thing is, I didn’t have enough time to gather other party members to join me on my quest, if you will, so I decided to do it solo.
1) I’m crazy.
2) DEAR GOD, WHY?!?!?!
I came to the theme park at about 8 o’clock at night; the event started at 7. So when I got there and parked, I saw that Great America, which had normally been a pretty bright place even at night, had become shrouded in darkness, lit by only a few periodic flame pillars at the entrance of the theme park, and low lighting everywhere else.
One of my friends was working at one of the spooky (read: terrifying) mazes at the park, and I wanted to see if I could find them and see them in action. To get through there, I had to go through a completely fogged up area of the park…in the fog itself hid monstrous clowns and undead carnies waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting park-goer.
Ladies and gentlemen, this area is known as a scare zone. There are three others around the park; I’ll make note of them as I write this article out. The one I was travelling through was called The Gauntlet.
Going through the fog made me INCREDIBLY NERVOUS! Not just because of my previous experience with some Silent Hill games, but it was due to the eerie echoing of the sounds that I had become all too familiar with back at home. My biggest fear was that the fog was hiding certain things. I can tell you from first-hand experience that clowns and carnies used it to their full advantage! Naturally, I’m cautious going through this area…and I witnessed terrifying moments of people walking behind others, donning their haunting regalia, and scare the living daylights out of them, especially since they just saw them two minutes ago. It was glorious.
I had reached one of my designated maze targets, which was Werewolf Canyon. The wait was long, but worth it. As I got closer and closer to the canyon, I could hear screams coming from it. My heart was racing as I neared the entrance. One of the park staff stopped me just as a group was coming in; they were at a cut-off, and I was the one in front of the next pack (Hehe..pack…see what I did there?). This meant that I was going to be tanking the family that was behind me.
Also, THE MOON WAS FULL!
I will not spoil the maze, but I will mention at least a few rooms and my mentality (read: Sanity) as I walked through. Because I was the tank, I had to press forward. There was an undead usher escorting us through what looked like a vestibule straight out of the first Alone in the Dark game, only with a lot more gore and decapitated heads. The butler “encouraged” us to continue through to the next room; the MOMENT that I
hit the entrance, a scarred, gashed and bloody gypsy stepped out in front of me. She looked up at me, narrowing her eyes straight at my face. I stammered out a “H-Hello.” With one finger, she beckoned us deeper into the next room. We followed. “Welcome to my kitchen!” she growled in a gravelly voice. Her…”kitchen”, as she called it, consisted of a bucket filled of severed heads, a boiling pot, and a table covered with heads, entrails and a large kitchen knife.
Trying to keep my sanity as high as possible, I made some light conversation: “S-so, you cooking anything?” “Maybe…”. We pushed further into the kitchen…she spoke again. “I may have a SPECIAL pot…just big enough for you.” My response was “T-That’s fine, I’d rather not be on the menu :D.” And continued to walk further. She put her hand in front of me as we were going into the next room. This is what she said:
“You’re Kyle…yes?”
My eyes widened. I had no idea how she knew who I was…”Y-Yeah?” I replied.
A dark grin appeared on her face. She then banged the door of the next room LOUDLY and called out something so full of terrifying glee that it I can still remember it to this day:
“OUR TARGET IS HERE!!!”
Then she snapped back at me…gave me the most terrifying grin…and let us through.
“T-T-Target?”
My sanity sank like Guybrush Threepwood as he is being tossed into the pier with an idol attached to his feet. But I had to press through. I was always careful rounding corners; this was the survival horror instinct coming out in me; which was good, because there were some REAL GOOD SCARES going through that canyon, with various werewolves popping out of nowhere. The family behind me was terrified to hell. At one point, I tried to reassure them “It’s ok, we’re good…we’re GOOD!” A ghoul in front of me whispered “You’re not good.” My sanity sank even further.
Towards the end, we were nearly overtaken by a few other park-goers, that looked like they just RAN through the maze…which was probably the smart thing to do. When we finally got out of the maze, I heaved a sigh of relief, with one of the family members behind me hugging me; we got through one hell of an ordeal. I texted my friend my terror, then continued through the park.
I knew where I wanted to go to regain more sanity, but to do that, I had to go through Dead Man’s Cove, where forsaken souls looking for pirate treasure had become trapped there for all eternity. I had to duck and dodge undead pirates, as well as witness one pirate sneaking up on a group of unsuspecting park-goers. I wanted to call out, but I was too late (read: I didn’t want to spoil the surprise >:D). This area was also incredibly foggy.
After I pushed through the other side, I did Go-Kart racing, and that did help regain sanity: I mean, it’s go-karting in a well-lit area, of course that’s gonna help XD. Afterwards, I pushed through further, gathering some food and going through another densely fogged up area, known as Underworld Alley. Three guesses as to what populated this particular scare zone D:.
Passing through there, I got to the Dios de Los Muertos maze, which was apparently new for this haunt. It was lit by lots of dark lights and various people in Day of the Dead garb. The ease of the maze was a stark contrast to what I felt when I passed through Werewolf Canyon…and that’s probably what made going through this area a little bit unnerving. By the way, I was tanking…AGAIN!
When I got out the maze, I read a text from my friend (whom was working at Werewolf Canyon), saying that she was sorry that she missed me, but hope that the rest gave me a warm welcome. This actually terrified me to no end, because I thought that the gypsy was her. It was then that she dropped something that instilled terror in me:
The entire canyon knew I was coming.
So that’s my experience in the Halloween Haunt, and I gotta say, I enjoyed it A LOT! It was one hell of an adventure, and a night I won’t forget for a long time :D.
images from: knowyourmeme.com, blog.zap2it.com, www.fanpop.com, www.bayvillescreampark.com, www.desktopaper.com. Amnesia sanity screen-capped by me.
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