In addition to the Conjuring maze, SCarowinds will also be getting a Jason: Blood Reign maze. No word yet on if this will be a separate upcharge like the Conjuring maze is.
This is interesting because it sets the precedent of former Cedar Fair parks having more than one IP maze.
In addition to the Conjuring maze, SCarowinds will also be getting a Jason: Blood Reign maze. No word yet on if this will be a separate upcharge like the Conjuring maze is.
This is interesting because it sets the precedent of former Cedar Fair parks having more than one IP maze.
To my absolute best knowledge this is replacing Silver Scream. Slaughter, Defex, and Paranormal are visibly untouched. Tooth Fairy has had some movement around it and I've heard its allegedly recieved enhancements over the off season. It could be that the these enhancements were indeed ripping it out and building Jason, but that's not the story I'm getting.
To my absolute best knowledge this is replacing Silver Scream. Slaughter, Defex, and Paranormal are visibly untouched. Tooth Fairy has had some movement around it and I've heard its allegedly recieved enhancements over the off season. It could be that the these enhancements were indeed ripping it out and building Jason, but that's not the story I'm getting.
Defex is completely gutted, so this may be going there, not Silver Scream. Wonder if this is another Plague Productions installation like The Conjuring: Beyond Fear was. They previously worked with the Jason IP for a Midsummer Scream booth.
Wondering if the project filed in South Carolina for a 2026 temporary maze structure is for modifications within the permanent DeFex building, or a tent for a temporary maze to fit into. If it's the latter, I question if this is the only new maze announcement we'll see.
Defex is completely gutted, so this may be going there, not Silver Scream. Wonder if this is another Plague Productions installation like The Conjuring: Beyond Fear was. They previously worked with the Jason IP for a Midsummer Scream booth.
Wondering if the project filed in South Carolina for a 2026 temporary maze structure is for modifications within the permanent DeFex building, or a tent for a temporary maze to fit into. If it's the latter, I question if this is the only new maze announcement we'll see.
DeFex 2.0 was just Depths of Darkness but with some trash littered about. Glad the money got spent on Conjuring, but my god the rest of the 2025 event was embarassing.
DeFex 2.0 was just Depths of Darkness but with some trash littered about. Glad the money got spent on Conjuring, but my god the rest of the 2025 event was embarassing.
I don’t even know why I paid for the haunt band. Defex was trash, silver scream was a cluttered mess, paranormal inc was just kinda ok since they skipped the pre show, but slaughter was actually very impressive.
Side note, hopefully they get rid of the 5min preshows before every god damn maze. Holy shit just let me walk through the maze and get out and not stand in a uselessly long line to try and feed me a story I can just walk through and figure out myself
Permit has been issued for the 2026 Carowinds Maze project. It directly references the 2025 Action Theater upfit project. Not sure if these are alterations to the existing maze, or if a new / 2nd maze is going in the building.
Don’t quote me on this but I’m pretty sure Conjuring (the house currently in AFX) has a split path to funnel more people. Or is at least spilt in some areas. So it would be interesting to see if they could fit another maze in there. The only other thing I can think is work being done to The Conjuring. My hope would be they strip away the live theatre part and make it a full blown maze. The reality would probably just enhancements.
Don’t quote me on this but I’m pretty sure Conjuring (the house currently in AFX) has a split path to funnel more people. Or is at least spilt in some areas. So it would be interesting to see if they could fit another maze in there. The only other thing I can think is work being done to The Conjuring. My hope would be they strip away the live theatre part and make it a full blown maze. The reality would probably just enhancements.
The Live Theater / Interactive parts are what made Conjuring so good. Why would you want to remove them? Like I knew absolutely nothing about the IP before doing it at Cedar Point last year and was absolutely blown away.
I get that people don't like that it's an upcharge, but it was REALLY DAMN GOOD. I probably don't want to see a bunch more money going to additional, similar upcharge products at SCarowinds, but I also definitely don't want to see The Conjuring dumbed down to remove the interactive/immersive theater elements either. For now at least, I'm very content with one upcharge experience alongside the normal lineup of included houses.
The Live Theater / Interactive parts are what made Conjuring so good. Why would you want to remove them? Like I knew absolutely nothing about the IP before doing it at Cedar Point last year and was absolutely blown away.
Don’t get me wrong I loved it. I did it a few times over the season and several times the scares were missing and it ended up just being the theatre part of the attraction. I know those are staffing issues and not the attractions fault by design, but I figure if I’m paying extra for this attraction I would want to have elements that are scary present also. So, my proposal would be to make it more in-line with a traditional maze. It’s also
the parks fault for not staffing it properly but that could be said for SCarowinds as a whole.
Seeing images come out of SCarowinds Preview Night and things seem promising. Jason: Blood Reign looks like another HHN-level experience, but from what I’ve gathered outside of Jason as a character there’s nothing tying it to the movies. Apparently the house is set at a camp but not THE camp…..which is interesting. Probably a licensing issue. Scare zones look great. They’ve done some cool entrances/gateways into scare zones and that seemed to be a thing of the past after The Playground was retired, so I’m happy to see that back. Restricted looks like another terrible attempt to recycle Blood Yard props….somehow a scare zone based around mannequins has zero mannequin actors. Everyone is a normal human with green splotches on them who move like dolls but have nothing outside of movement to sell the point of the zone. I’ll give a final judgement in-person but that zone looks rough. Looks to be another great year and another step back towards what the event used to be!
Just got back home after visiting SCarowinds opening night last night. Also my first time checking out the park's event. Not a bad event and had a great time. I do feel like it falls short in comparison to other Halloween events at parks that I've been to. I also, unfortunately, didn't do two of the attractions, (Paranormal and Conjuring) due to long lines so my opinion may not hold much water. However, with it being opening night, and the temperature being in the fucking 90s, also may have played a role into the experience. It was still a great visit and I was glad I got to check it out.
Jason: Blood Reign - First house of the night we did since it was new and I'm a huge fan of slashers. Friday the 13th and Halloween are my two favorite franchises so when I heard it was going to be at SCarowinds, I had to check it out. One thing that stood out, it had quite a line but didn't look like it would take that long. We waited close to an hour before we got in and it's not like they were sending small groups in at a time. I'm sure the Express Pass also played a role but the line moved very slowly. I waited in longer lines at KD's Haunt that moved faster. Anyways, the house itself was very well done. The props were great and I absolutely loved the references to each of the movies.My favorite room has to be the one with the cabin and the lake with the water falling around it and it was neat seeing Jason walking on the pier across. One thing I did find underwhelming was that for a house as big as this one, I felt like there should've been more scare actors. It felt like a few times, I was walking a bit before I encountered an actor pop out. But with it being opening night, it's a good possibility they were understaffed. 8/10
Silver Scream Studios: Director's Cut - This one was...okay I guess. The start of the maze was kind of weak in my opinion, but it did get a little better halfway, but not enough to save it. I don't find clowns scary at all so that may have played a role, too. 5/10
Slaughterhouse - Honestly, might have been my favorite house of the night. From the start. the cattle pen queue really sets the tone for what you're about to walk into. This one really felt like you were in a twisted slaughterhouse on a farm. It reminded me a lot of KD's Blood On The Bayou at certain points, which is also my favorite house at Haunt. Nice use of fog and strobe lights as well. 9/10
The Toothfairy - Another solid house. I enjoyed the theme to this one too and they did a great job making a house to the tooth fairy very effectively. The scare actors may have been some of the best ones we've seen all night. Well staffed and they were all very active and interacted well with guests. Can't say I was a fan of squeezing into the hallway with whatever the fuck that thing is trying to suffocate and make you feel claustrophobic. Not for those reasons alone, but the fact it was already 90 out and no AC in the house (Yes I hate the heat LOL). 8.5/10
I know, I probably missed the best attractions with Conjuring and Paranormal. If we were doing SCarowinds for two days, we probably would've done Haunt passes one day and the Conjuring the next. Paranormal had long lines for most of the night so we didn't get a chance to check that out. Hopefully I can come back next year to experience them.
Now for the scare zones, this in my honest opinion, is where the event falls flat. I'm assuming The Hollow was in between Celebration Plaza and Carousel Park? If it was, I wouldn't have known it was a scare zone if it weren't for the scare actors there. Lost Souls, was super weak. We walked through about three times and it seemed like none of the scare actors bother scaring anyone. Either just standing or roaming around. Restricted was probably their best one, but even that had some issues. Grave Gardens and Carnevil were okay. Nothing spectacular and the actors were hit or miss.
Other notes:
Other than the preview night the night before, I may have been the first official guest to enter SCarowinds yesterday. We walked a little early from the Springhill after checking in, talked to some of the security and cops and let us hang out in the plaza after checking our ID's so we got in as soon as the gates opened and I was the first one to get scanned in.
Lines for rides weren't too bad, especially in the first two hours. They were all walk ons and longest was probably five minutes. Fury 325 still has the best operations I've seen on any roller coaster.
I've had smoked sirloin at KD, CP and Carowinds. Carowinds has the best one, hands down.
Overall, I had a great time visiting SCarowinds, and I'm glad to have made the trip down.
Glad to hear the new IP house holds up! Definitely missed out not hitting Paranormal and Conjuring (my two favorites from last year), but glad the other houses were still reasonably good.
Definitely agree on path scares at Caro. They're really bad—pale in comparison to the likes of KD and BGT or even Dorney. Certainly the weak point of the event.
