Best Haunted Area in the Park!

[BoSox04]

First off, I would like to say that SFGAm Fright Fest kicks the crap out of New Jersey's. I've been going there for the last few years and had incredibly more fun at this park. So much time and effort goes into the haunted attractions to make them fit for the season, and it pays off great!

That being said, which was your favorite haunted area between Necropolis, Rise of the Demon, Mausoleum, and Studio 13?

Necro was good, but it seemed too spread out back there. It's such a huge area, they really need to jam pack stuff back in there to give it more of a city feel. Also, it seemed some of the props were showing signs of age and not enough attention was given to caring for them. A great area, but needing more.

The Mausoleum was great! It was a good length and full of great scares. I also enjoyed the scenes that were part of the que, gave you something to look at while waiting. My only complaint is that the themeing seems to have a bit of an identity crisis. Wasn't too sure what the overall effect was. There were great gothic elements like the entrance catacombs and the graveyard, but the rest was kinda sparatic. I think the house would be even better if you stuck to just the whole "Mausoleum" feel and made the whole thing gothic and cryptic, maybe make you feel like you're underground and have tree roots coming down all the walls, and have tomb-type rooms with slots in the walls for corpses and actors to climb out of: Think Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when they're climbing through the tomb. Lots of skulls and re-animated corpses clammoring through the catacombs. Just an idea.

Studio 13 is a great concept, but was executed poorly. I enjoyed a few of the scenic elements, especially the Saw room, but the actors really need to commit to these roles better and learn how to scare large groups. These guys are the stuff of nightmares, they've haunted everyone's dreams since we were kids and stupid enough to watch those movies. They just didn't take advanage of what they were given. I wanted to feel much more like I was in the movie and being stalked by each of these characters. There was no build-up, and perhaps that was due to lack of space inside. You barely had time to look around to immerse yourself in each world before the character came out, therefore making each scare rather monotonous and not individual. Perhaps not so many different rooms would be better here, just more detail in half as many movies. I would much rather go through 7 or 8 different scenes if they were well set up, complete with theme music, something I was very dissapointed didn't make an appearance. How can you have someone coming through the shower curtain w/out the Psycho violins accompanning it?!!

That brings me to the best area in my opinion: Rise of the Demon. Although very short (one of it's only flaws) I got as many scares in there as I did in the Mausoleum in the fraction of the time. You were constantly on edge, not knowing if the demons were behind the fence or in front of you (or behind or above you!) That constant state of panic played out so well here, and was only intensified with the great choice of music (300 Soundtrack) that seemed to pull everything together. You could also tell the actors here were more well trained and were enjoying themselves much more than the ones in the house, and it came out in their performances. What was great about this one was that it was free, had very little wait time to get in, and the Demons came out from every possible angle, so no two visits were alike! Even when I had gone through it a few times and knew the general layout, I was still startled because they switched it up and came at you from somewhere else! I can't believe there were only 4 actors in there. My favorite scare was when one Demon climbed the fence directly in front of, or behind rather, the rock wall in the barrel area. He climbed over the top, barking and lunging like a madman over our heads, then swung down over to our side while still holding on to the top, I completely thougth he was going to jump on top of us, it was great!! I would love to see this area expanded in the future, with more actors and much more disorienting corridors and hellish ambiance!

Overall, a wonderful value for the price of admission. With so many things to see and do, I never tired and can't wait for next season! Sorry about the rediculous length of this post, I got excited. What are your thoughts on the areas? I want to hear your opinions and ideas too!

[Demon_07]

I enjoyed Rise of the demon too. One of them was asking my mom if he could come home with us. He said he was house trained. You could really they were having a good time.

[TK895]

Thanks for the kind words about the Rise of the Demon. I enjoyed being one of the demons for a couple of weekends. We really did enjoy what we were doing. Glad that it showed.

Anything you would change?

[Jackluver18]

RoD was good....that's the place I got the most scared out of me as well as Necropolis. RoD was short but it was still good....if it was just a little longer Im sure it would be better.

[tp41190]

The scare areas in the park are good in quality but they are not scary. I think they need to tone down the quality one notch, and turn up the scare about 3 notches. Its not that I don't want to see quality areas, but sometimes having all this new "stuff" takes away from the scare.

Like, if a place seems deserted and dirty, it will seem more scary. I also think that we need about %50 less lighting then what was used this season. And about %50 more fog in the midways.

RoD was a great area to walk in. But the problems I had was that it was too short, and that with all the people going in at once, you could see the scarer's before you walked to them

[Tip Top Club]

All The I would change is having more. The Rise of the Demon Area was small but well designed and very frightening. I would love to see more of these small but frightening "Terror Trails" as I have decided to call them in the future. In Fact, I can think of a few places I think that we could fit some next year (Cough Cough Six Flags) Space Shuttle Plaza, Ex-Turbo Bungy Area, SWT amphitheatre Plaza, Behind the Scooby Doo Game in Mardi Gras, Hurricane Harbor Entrance Path (Connecting to Winners circle area).

[demon boy]

Thanks for the kind words about the Rise of the Demon. I enjoyed being one of the demons for a couple of weekends. We really did enjoy what we were doing. Glad that it showed.

Anything you would change?

RoD is pretty good, i liked it. The only thing is that at night there is WAY too much fog in the second room. You cant see where you are going.

THe other thing is that with one of the demons, you need to know when to give up the scare. THis one had extremely poor timing and just kept saying "run, run, run, run". IT got really old and i wasnt moving. (this may be just me, again i work at a haunt = hard to scare). Along with that, try using some different techniques. For demons, try to snarl. It's like clearing your throat only louder and not as mucusy. It would be a real nice rouch for that section.

All in all, i liked all the areas of the park except TTT. Not terror. Maybe call it Tinsel Town Hilarious. Thats a good title, but terror? I think not.

[Bob O]

I also thought the Rise of the Demon was the best haunted part of the parK.
It was a short walk-thru, but in the time you were in there the characters did a very good job of scaring people and weere very active and did a great job. Unlike Necropolis where alot of time the characters were just walking around doing nothing and only seemed interested in going after teenage girls but nothing else. The theming was good in Necropolis, but overall I found the Rise of the Demon to be more fun .

[zjohn1988]

MOT