My understanding is that Zombie High is pretty much still intact and would be an easy redo. I am not advocating that but it's my understanding.
Kings Dominion Halloween Haunt 2024
- Thread starter horsesboy
- Start date
Cedar Fair seems to be sending a lot of Knotts retiring mazes throughout the chain. Maybe KD will get Dark Entities in the old Lockdown area. It does fit the theming of FoF. However, I am unsure what the spatial aspect of Lockdown was like and whether or not it could fit Dark Entities.
Great point @Nicole. I wouldn’t want Doll Factory or Club Blood to “come back” because, as great as those mazes were at the time, they were definitely dated compared to the set design and technology that we’ve seen in newer Haunt attractions.
That said, I do think that for the park’s 50th, it would be cool to get an all-new take on one of those beloved past themes. Imagine a new Doll Factory with the immersive sets and world-building of Blood on the Bayou, or a new Club Blood with the sophisticated lighting and sound design of GrimmWoods.
The similarities between the original houses and the new ones could begin and end with the name and theme. Maybe the new Doll Factory would have an entirely new story, or maybe it could be a sequel to the original lore.
In any case, I think this could be a good way for the park to embrace the beloved spirit of a past maze while still delivering a new, high-quality maze on par with what Haunt guests have come to expect these days.
That said, I do think that for the park’s 50th, it would be cool to get an all-new take on one of those beloved past themes. Imagine a new Doll Factory with the immersive sets and world-building of Blood on the Bayou, or a new Club Blood with the sophisticated lighting and sound design of GrimmWoods.
The similarities between the original houses and the new ones could begin and end with the name and theme. Maybe the new Doll Factory would have an entirely new story, or maybe it could be a sequel to the original lore.
In any case, I think this could be a good way for the park to embrace the beloved spirit of a past maze while still delivering a new, high-quality maze on par with what Haunt guests have come to expect these days.
I had heard that the building was gutted a very long time ago, like back in 2019, and is being used for storage now. I could be wrong, though!
When you say this, do you mean Knott’s is boxing up props from old mazes and sending them to other parks in the chain? Or do you mean the other parks are taking existing themes and making their own mazes from them?
If it’s the latter, KD has a history of doing that. I won’t go into details because I think I did that last year in the 2023 thread, but Blood on the Bayou and Trick or Treat are examples of this. While they didn’t use any actually props from Knott’s, they took the basic idea of both mazes and put their own spin and even made their own storylines with them.
Paranormal Inc. was quite literally torn down at Knotts and shipped piece by piece to Carowinds. They did the same with the Knotts iteration of Tooth Fairy, but it was sent to California’s Great America when they still did Haunt. And it seems last year Dark Ride was sent to Wonderland though if I am being honest, I haven't seen videos to prove if it was indeed the Knotts' house shipped over or just the borrowing of ideas like we've the chain do for years now. There is a video floating around somewhere on YouTube where an entertainment official at Carowinds says that Paranormal is like 80% Knotts leftovers and 20% new build.
Condemned/No Vacancy has been my favorite for years, but I'd understand if they removed it at this point. She's an old girl.
If Bayou doesn't leave, however, I'm going to have to start picketing outside the gates.
Never was a huge fan of the theming- and though I think the set is fantastically well put together, it just doesn't hold my interest when it's been up for this long. I'm no longer even remotely startled going through it because I know all the twists and turns so well that there's nowhere anyone could be hiding that surprises me. Also I think the whole "evil voodoo" thing is a bit questionable these days but I won't get on that soapbox. Just very obvious that it's an old house 
Well there's a candidate for removal/replacement then, unless they're going for the 'it's so old my grandkids can have the same experience I did' vibe
Unfortunately, I think that's the one they just "revamped" last season so we may be stuck with it for a while. If I'm remembering correctly, it's an area now instead of a maze. That's where they had the sliders though so I actually liked it a lot
They tweaked it some but it's still a maze and still mostly torn down and rebuilt each year so I wouldn't rule a change out.
Open a total of 18 days. The park will close at 11pm on Sundays until Oct 6th, after which the park will close at 12am all three days.
I’m sighing at the fact that the park is closing at midnight on Sundays despite it being a massive fail last year (or so I thought…). That tires out the monsters beyond belief, and most of them have full-time jobs that they have to get to the next morning.
With budget cuts and now this, they might have a lot of trouble finding monsters this season.
Sundays at Haunt are always fun from an actor standpoint. The year I worked SCarowinds, most people wouldn't or couldn't work Sundays. Especially early in the run. I'll never forget the night my house had all of two actors from our core cast the rest were pulled from all over the place. We had ride ops, food and beverage people, and entertainment heads. All that to say where there's a will, there's a way. They'll find a way to staff zones and houses when push comes to shove.
Oh, I’m sure it’s fun when you’re leaving at 10pm. But having to stay until midnight on a Sunday when you know you have to be up early the next morning is… well, not, I’d assume.
I thought maybe it was because this looks like a separately ticketed event again? But it sounds like a lot of actors already skip out on Sunday, most likely that includes almost everyone working early Monday. Others can use the hours, although that is a late night. The one actor I met liked being able to get there early, punch in and eat cheap food. It can be a good job, different. Meanwhile I got some of the best walkthroughs ever late night, even with a few actors missing. Riffing on the story, etc. Often I get nothing.
I’m also very nervous about entertainment cuts… I hope they bring back some of the favorite performers of shows. I really missed heads will roll and Astaroth & Burnett the barker last year, felt like we lost a lot with them gone
Haunt will no longer be separately ticketed as of this season! This was a rather recent change. This completely failed last year to the point where even SCarowinds is getting rid of the separate ticket system.
Yes! I loved this duet, but I believe that the park has permanently moved past these icons. Heads Will Roll will also never return, but I could easily see Conjure the Night coming back.
Many performers from KD don’t stay long; they typically move to other things, and the park likely didn’t want to recast Astaroth and Burnette because they were both so popular and a recast would’ve been seen as a failure no matter what.