Howl-O-Scream

[pandorazboxx]

Just a few more thoughts from me. I thought Demon Street looked awesome. Especially at night. The fog was thick and the lighting was great. The chainsaws kept scaring people. We could watch the scares for a while. It's also interesting to see when coming in via SkyRide.

The pirate area was OK. I did like the Sangria and Hot Rum Cider. I was extremely disappointed in the Pirate Barrgh. I sat down at the bar and there were literally 6 other people there. All of them had drinks and the 2 bartenders were talking to them. I sat there for 5 minutes with no one making eye contact with me or coming to get my order. Someone walked up to the other end of the bar sat down and was helped almost immediately. I left and got some Sangria. >:-| I guess no Pirate Punch for me. Plus those "souvenir" cups did not blink and did not have Howl-O-Scream on them like at the rum cellar bar.

They also didn't put a refill price for the drinks at the Pirate Barrgh. Do they just keep handing out souvenir cups? Am I paying extra for a cup each time? I'll probably throw away the cup then, so I'm just throwing away souvenir cups with batteries and all. Seems like a bad plan. The bar at the shop has a separate price for refills, FYI.

Ripper Row was eh. I liked the headless women though.

Not a lot of path scares. I'm assuming all the ghillie suits are locked up in a closet somewhere or I guess they're all in Root now. They could have placed a few of them around the park with noisemakers to remind people they're at a halloween event.

Overall, I'd say it's a little bit worse than last year. I still had fun though. Blood Banquet was special.

 

[chickenking]

There is a Demon SLIDER on Demon Street. So cool. he was creeping the... HELL out of people by the Reaper/Demon thingy.

 

[Applesauce]

I would do 13, Deadline, Skyride to Catacombs, and Bitten. At this point it would be dark enough for Root and CTC.

Ah okay then. I'll keep that in mind.
u just want me to skip Demon Street don't u?

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

You can't, Catacombs ends in the middle of it. :V

 

[Party Rocker]

There is a Demon SLIDER on Demon Street. So cool. he was creeping the... HELL out of people by the Reaper/Demon thingy.

Interesting considering they got rid of most of the slider equipment a year or two ago? I guess they must've bought new stuff, another money eater.

 

[Kitty]

Gel came off. Yay gold lamé! Sorry the photo is so blurry!

 

[chickenking]

Some more images from Sunday...

 

[wyldekat]

The scare zones are reeeaaally understaffed!

 

[Thomas]

Did you go to the same Howl-O-Scream I did? I would say they are VASTLY overstaffed...

 

[Zachary]

The Howl-O-Scream I went to wasn't supposed to have scarezones...

 

[Party Rocker]

The only difference I see in Scare Zones versus Terror-tories is the props used or the facades as well as the large decor/prop pieces. Terror-tories are supposed to be complete immersive worlds that turned a regular European country into a whole other netherworld. Honestly, I probably would have been fine if the park cut Port of Skulls and or Vampire Point to do the full facades for Demon Street, because had they been able to do that, Demon Street would really be the meaning of Hell.

I think the only Terror-tory that lives up to the definition is Ripper Row. Mainly because the area is already England, they just needed to add Scotland Yard and a brewery? and bam you have it. Plus the lighting and effects, with these two somewhat simple sets, make for a very immersive environment.

 

[Zachary]

I think the only Terror-tory that lives up to the definition is Ripper Row. Mainly because the area is already England, they just needed to add Scotland Yard and a brewery? and bam you have it. Plus the lighting and effects, with these two somewhat simple sets, make for a very immersive environment.

Theming-wise, I couldn't agree more but, you see, there's sorta a problem there. If a Terror-tory is supposed to completely replace an area's theme (which was the original premise), does Ripper Row really qualify? Ripper Row complements and slightly alters the existing atmosphere provided by Banbury Cross- it in no way substitutes the existing theme. In that way, it's more of a scarezone than a proper terror-tory, no? In theory, judging by how the terror-tories were originally sold, the park should be able to pull off the same level atmosphere in any of the park's existing terror-tories in any other area of the park. If you moved Demon Street to Festa Italia, it would work just as well as it does in Aquitaine because Demon Street is a true overlay (how good of one is another matter for another time). On the other hand, however, if you moved Ripper Row to Festa Italia, the same is certainly not the case. Basically, my point is that Ripper Row doesn't replace the park's existing atmosphere and, because of that, I'd argue that it's actually unfair to call it a terror-tory or even compare it to the other proper terror-tories around the park.

tl;dr: Ripper Row has a ridiculously unfair advantage over the park's three true terror-tories and shouldn't actually be considered one at all.

 

[Party Rocker]

I think the only Terror-tory that lives up to the definition is Ripper Row. Mainly because the area is already England, they just needed to add Scotland Yard and a brewery? and bam you have it. Plus the lighting and effects, with these two somewhat simple sets, make for a very immersive environment.

Theming-wise, I couldn't agree more but, you see, there's sorta a problem there. If a Terror-tory is supposed to completely replace an area's theme (which was the original premise), does Ripper Row really qualify? Ripper Row complements and slightly alters the existing atmosphere provided by Banbury Cross- it in no way substitutes the existing theme. In that way, it's more of a scarezone than a proper terror-tory, no?

I agree. Honestly, the only difference between Terror-tories and Scare Zones is specifically Terror-tories are more immersive and completely different than the everyday stuff. Scare Zones are more complementary to the existing hamlet therefore require less work. Both have some scares, one has more of an ongoing show with scares mixed in.

But with that, I think even though their intentions were different they basically used the name Terror-tories to make them seem larger and better than Scare Zones, when in reality most of them just barely surpassed scare zones or were right at the point of scare zones.

I will say I was looking forward to all new shops, new names and layouts, etc. But they only re-did the one shop in Italy, which was fantastic. That shop is what I was hoping for all the shops to get done.

 

[Zachary]

Sorry- updated my post above quite significantly- I think I've done a better job of stating my case now.

Honestly, the only difference between Terror-tories and Scare Zones is specifically Terror-tories are more immersive and completely different than the everyday stuff. Scare Zones are more complementary to the existing hamlet therefore require less work. Both have some scares, one has more of an ongoing show with scares mixed in.

I'd agree to a certain extent however, I don't think immersion is really the governing factor here either because, in all honesty, I'm fairly sure there's a very strong argument to be made saying that the scarezones of 2011 were far more immersive than at least one or two of this year's quote, "terror-tories". I don't know how many of you really remember Unleashed back in 2011, but it had some very, very, very good set pieces and lighting- far better than those that can be found in Ports of Skull, Demon Street, or even Vampire Point in my honest opinion.

 

[Party Rocker]

Yes, Unleashed was much more immersive, but Unleashed is much like Ripper Row in the same aspect that it only supported the existing theme of the area, the WIld Reserve, an area based on animals, with an existing wolf exhibit.

But I am interested, what do you feel the difference between the two is? Nevermind, I just picked up what you pointed out between the two.

 

[Zachary]

Yes, Unleashed was much more immersive, but Unleashed is much like Ripper Row in the same aspect that it only supported the existing theme of the area, the WIld Reserve, an area based on animals, with an existing wolf exhibit.

I agree completely. I think both Ripper Row and Unleashed rely on the existing themes of their respective areas to create the atmosphere that they achieved, hence, making them both scarezones.

 

[pandorazboxx]

To be fair the description for Demon Street says Paris is burning...

 

[Party Rocker]

So Zach, from the inside how did things work out from concept to practice? I know you said don't expect scares or else the Terror-tories are failures, so where does this leave us now?

 

[netdvn]

Funny. I don't recall Unleashed being anything special. Just a bunch of large crate thingies lying around and wolves/ghosts roaming the pathways. Some of them had props to work with and some hid behind the crates, but that's all I remember.

 

[Zachary]

So Zach, from the inside how did things work out from concept to practice? I know you said don't expect scares or else the Terror-tories are failures, so where does this leave us now?

From what I can work out, after having their actual terror-tory plans sliced to bits by continuous budget cuts handed down from above, the park got cold feet, ripped a ton of actors out of their houses, dumped them on the paths, and went back their old ways. The terror-tories, even in their vastly reduced state, weren't even given a chance. It might as well be 2009's prop-less scarezones all over again.

Funny. I don't recall Unleashed being anything special. Just a bunch of large crate thingies lying around and wolves/ghosts roaming the pathways. Some of them had props to work with and some hid behind the crates, but that's all I remember.

Unleashed had very large fake rock structures that I believe are now being used in the cave area of Cut Throat Cove. With the fog and the lighting, it produced what I thought was a very effective scarezone. Unfortunately, because of its location, it bottlenecked the path between Killarney and Aquitaine horrendously.