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Happy Halloween!
| Happy Halloween everyone! Check out this site: www.halloween-safety.com for some helpful safety tips. Have fun tomorrow and we'll see you around soon!
Ps...Does any one watch a lot of horror movies? If so, drop us a line at info@houstonhaunts.com. Horror movies are one aspect of Halloween that continues all year long and we would like to broaden our horizon with some horror movie reviews. Hope to hear from you... |
posted by Michael | 10/31/2005 05:00:00 AM
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HoustonHaunts.com '05 Final Haunted Attraction Awards and Review
| "Good Evening fellow Necromaniacs" - Alfred Hitchcock
This haunted attraction season has been interesting and exciting to say the least here in Houston. From the "challenge" of the much talked about Mansion, the moving of Phobia 59 to the Phobia 290 site, the Castle of Doom being rebuilt from the ground up, to the announcement of Astroworld's death. So, with one week left in the season, we thought it would be important for you to know what we've seen with our own flesh and bones so that you can make a good decision about hitting up one (or 2, or 3, or more) of our wonderful local attractions.
Best Haunted Attraction 2005 - ScreamWorld
Not without much argument amongst the HoustonHaunts.com staff we finally chose ScreamWorld as the best all around attraction for the 2005 season. At $18 (a cheap $12 on Sundays, excluding Oct 30th) we felt that patrons get the most bang out of their buck. With many years of experience behind them, they continue their progress to create the perfect attraction. This attraction has the single longest walk thru, combining all 3 of their attractions (that used to be completely separate) under one roof. The overall detail they put into their attraction is second to none. From the outside farm scene to the beautifully painted classic monsters 3D section of their haunt, you can tell that someone in this organization has a true passion for Halloween.
What was the deciding factor??
When the creators of this site almost fell down because of perfectly timed scares, during the 2nd time through.
What's the drawback?
The lines for this extremely popular attraction get very long, very fast. This produces the "herd" effect inside the attraction, understandably since no one likes standing in line for too long they must push the people thru. Fortunately, ScreamWorld has lots of stuff to look when it starts getting crowded.
Honorable Mention - Phobia
PHOBIA! They really deserve more than a "mention" since they were the attraction that split our staff in half. Talk about civil war. If you like in-your-face actors that don't break character and will do anything for a scare, then this is definitely the place to be. Phobia took their original attractions (The Darke Institute and 3D Clown Phobia) and implemented them into their 290 location perfectly to create a "compound of fear" that takes on a carnival-like atmosphere. The detail is great and some of the animatronics are the freakiest we have ever seen. So what's the problem? True there are 4 definitely separate attractions, but it gets a little expensive when the attraction haunts you to pay for all of them.
Best Mental Scare - Phobia
Phobia takes this one easy. Disturbing is the word that rampantly runs thru our heads when we think back to our experiences there. Like we said before, the animatronics were crazy looking (we had no idea that animatronics could move like that!), the lighting was excellent, and the actors were crazy-sick. Simply put, this place made us worry that we might have some nightmares afterwards.
Honorable Mention - ScreamWorld
ScreamWorld is usually the winner here due to their attention to detail, which earns them an honorable mention this time. One particular detail that plays repeatedly in our heads is the skinned mounted deer head (who thinks of this stuff??), many of these small instances add up as the attraction gets busy.
Shock Factor Award - ScreamWorld
These guys know how to place their actors, period. No other haunt has figured out how to use their actors more effectively, period. The ironic part is that the actors are not even what got us. The added air cannons and the vehicle scene is what pushed us over the edge (of darkness?).
Honorable Mention - The Carnage
We got to see The Carnage on a particularly slow night so we are not 100% sure that we got the full effect (or if we got more than we bargained for) when we walked thru their attraction. We are pretty hard to scare, so when we can all point out at least 3 different spots in the attraction that shook us up some, we have to say they did a good job.
Best Scene - The Carnage
The outside fog scene at The Carnage is set in a room that is rather well lit. We admit the originality and risk of having such a bright scene was what won us over. We though it was genius that they were able to make our co-founder stumble backwards in fright even in such luminous conditions.
Honorable Mention - The Castle of Doom
The tunnel-vortex is a commonly used part of most attractions, but somehow the one in the Castle of Doom completely rocks! Maybe it is the colors they used inside, maybe it was they way they setup the scare, but when they shook the railing our minds decided to stop reasoning and we went spinning.
Best Actors - Phobia
I remember last year there was some question to whether or not Phobia hired the hundreds of actors that the owner claimed. Well, whoever was questioning this must been scared out of their senses when they went to see, because to us it seemed like actors were oozing from the walls...and the owner said he was missing many of his employees. But as you know, an over abundance of actors doesn't make the actors good. Not to worry, these guys (and gals) were the craziest bunch of actors we have ever seen. They were throwing themselves against walls, crawling on the ground and screaming their friggin' brains out. We are seriously wondering where Phobia picks these people up from, they were that good. We have to give special recognition to the wandering Jason character (who didn't break character when we asked for a photo with him) and the Jim Carey-clown-nutty guy who was hanging from the ceiling. Good job guys.
Honorable Mention - The Carnage
The green monkey guy who runs the falling elevator wins the honorable mention single handedly. You know who you are and any patrons that visit The Carnage will not soon forget you either. What can we say? You made our night with that excellent costume/makeup, story setup, and that laugh! You rock dude.
Odds and ends we think you should know...
Disclaimer!! These are our opinions and should be recognized as such, we really think that there is something for everyone with all of our 10 great attractions here in Houston. Particularly since Houston is so large, it takes us a good 30-40 minutes to get to Castle and Sanitarium from our roost in North Houston. We suggest you go to one close by and then a few others depending on what you and your group likes. Again we have gone to these attractions at odd times and under special circumstances at times (due to the fact that we try to have a life outside of this) so we may end up having a very different experience in these attractions than you.
Attractions we did not get a chance to visit and we apologize!
The Haunting at Bear Branch and Fright Fest. We have visited Astroworld during Fright Fest in the past and think their houses are good, but we like Fright Fest because of the parks decoration and the rides...at a relatively cheap price you get to spend a whole day in the park.
Some more about the attractions not mentioned above...
The Haunted Trails - This is a great trail down the road from ScreamWorld, definitely a follow up attraction if you get a chance. We love the effort by these guys and being outside is always a plus. Parting comment: we dig the great spider webbed tunnels.
Nightmare on the Bayou - Being that the house is supposedly on haunted land adds a little something to it. We liked their details but overall we had mixed feelings about the different parts of the attraction. I enjoyed the little splash of water while other on our staff disliked it. I liked the fact that we had the 3D glasses on throughout the attractions, other weren't so happy. We all love the huge animatronics on the outside and we all dig the hearse crawl. The attention to detail was good and most of the actors seemed passionate about their job. Parting comment: did we fail to mention that we love Party Boy?
The Mansion - Ahh...The Mansion. We have heard that people really do get their money back, but then, we also have all heard about the urban legend attraction that was too scary to finish. This isn't too scary to finish, but we don't mind them tapping into the legend. Finding your way to the finish line in the CORRECT manner is the "challenge" to it all, which is still pretty cool. The location is scary and so is this awesome building. The length of the walk thru is decent, but we feel that to be more effective the attraction should be more focused. The Mansion has tons of potential and we hope to see them again next year. Parting comment: their web site kicks a**.
The Sanitarium, The Castle of Doom, and Haunted Woods - The Sanitarium is the brother attraction to the Castle of Doom and definitely a follow up or starter attraction of the two for you south-siders. Splitting the attractions up for them has shortened the lines at both attractions which means they can put more space between parties going thru. The actors drive both locations with intensity and pride which shows. These are definitely actors-in-your-face types of attractions. Parting comment: we should also mention that the daunting facades of these haunts are well worth seeing to get you into that Halloween spirit.
We hope this helps you get the most out of your final week of the season. We wish you a safe and fun Halloween 2005!
- The HoustonHaunts.com Staff |
posted by Michael | 10/31/2005 04:45:00 AM
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Thanks
| Thanks Castle of Doom, Phobia, and ScreamWorld for letting us come out and sell some of our shirts at your attractions! 2 more nights left in the season, so let's go out and support our houses! |
posted by Michael | 10/30/2005 11:02:00 AM
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Raven logo tee's
| Hey guys, hope you are having fun getting scared out of your minds. We need some diversion after the not-so-scary losses that our hometown heroes dug up. Anyways, this is a big weekend for all scare seekers so we'll be out at Phobia (Friday) and ScreamWorld (Saturday) soaking up the atmosphere. Come out and support us by buying one (or two) of our cool raven logo t-shirts. See ya soon... |
posted by Michael | 10/27/2005 07:42:00 PM
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Reviews and Shirts
| We are currently working on our award section for the attractions...we apologize for the drag. We should have it up soon, hopefully so you can get some use out of it.
In other news...We will be over at the Castle of Doom tomorrow night (Saturday 22nd) selling our shirts. Come out and meet us! We are selling them at $10 a piece and $15 for 2. Support us and the Castle. We hope you are all being safe and enjoying this great Halloween season. |
posted by Michael | 10/21/2005 05:00:00 PM
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HoustonHaunts.com T-shirts!
 We've been busy here, but look at the fruits of our labor! We had some shirts made, we'll let you know soon where you can pick one up! |
posted by Michael | 10/14/2005 05:22:00 PM
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1st Annual Silver Screams Film Festival
Wow. This looks like a blast! We stumbled across this a couple of days ago and have been trying to get this out to you asap. Apparently the Angelika Film Center is putting on their 1st Annual Silver Screams Film Festival this weekend (October 7-8).
"This nonprofit showcase of treasured horror films will return grand old gems to full, big screen glory for the enjoyment of fans that love them and new generations that surely will. More recent thrillers with Houston ties will also be screened, as well as the winner of the Festival’s “Little Shorts of Horror” film competition. To further enhance the festival spirit, horror film actors, historians, directors, screenwriters, art, memorabilia and exhibits will be featured. Films will run from 5:30 PM through a midnight screening of Texas Chain Saw Massacre Friday, October 7th, and from 11:00 AM through the midnight Closing Feature of Dark Night of the Scarecrow on Saturday, October 8th. Tickets may be purchased through this website; $13 for adults, $7 for kids 12 and under. An All Festival Pass is $125. Tickets sold at the door, based on availability, will be first come, first served." Being that I am a big fan of the book and 2 films titled "The Shining," I will most definitely be trying to get tickets to watch the Kubrick version of this film on Friday night. Here is the schedule from the website:
Friday, October 7
5:30 pm - Unspeakable (2002)
7:51 pm - The Wolf Man (1941)
9:34 pm - The Shining (1980)
12:08 am - Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Saturday, October 8
11:00 am - Ghostbusters (1984)
1:00 pm - Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
2:59 pm - Dark Water (Japanese Version) (2002)
5:03 pm - Frankenstein (1931)
6:55 pm - Rosemary's Baby (1968)
9:48 pm - Mr.Hell (2005)
12:05 am - Dark Night of Scarecrow (1981)
Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance |
posted by Michael | 10/06/2005 08:31:00 AM
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WWE Champs and cell phones
| It looks like we are only going to get one chance to meet somebody famous this season. Since we are not wrestling fans, we actually don't know how famous this person actually is. Judging by the fact that he was a champion at some point (and from Houston), we figure he is at least well known in some circles. WWE Champ Booker T is going to make an appearance over at ScreamWorld this Friday night (October 7) from 8 to 9 pm. At 6 foot 3 and 250 pounds, this guy is more SmackDown monster than man! Yea!
Sorry, the WWE got a hold of me. Thought we would also let you know that we updated the cell phone version of our site. You can find it on your cell by typing in: http://cell.houstonhaunts.com into the address line of your cell phone's website browser. Our cell site is for those times when you are hanging out with your friends and one haunted house is just not enough...look at the cell site "on the fly" and find another house to go to. |
posted by Michael | 10/04/2005 08:12:00 PM
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Standing room only tickets
| Like we said in our last post, we are Houston Astros fans. We got so excited about the series we went out and got a couple of "standing room only" tickets to give away here on our site. The tickets are for the Astros vs Braves game this Saturday (October 8th)...time has yet to be announced.
So what do you need to do to win these sold-out prized possessions? Go to our forums and upload a picture of your greatest costume creation into our contest board, we'll have a thread dedicated to this contest. We are judging on 1.creativity, 2.cool factor and 3.quality of picture. Contest ends Thursday at 8 pm, so hurry up and post those pictures. |
posted by Michael | 10/03/2005 10:03:00 PM
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Confessions from the HoustonHaunts.com staff...
| What treachery! We were out of town for business during the premier weekend for Houston's haunted houses, thus, we have nothing to report back to you. Of course, if any of you would like to, we invite you to leave an informative review about the weekend (see below on how to comment).
How to comment
When you choose to comment, a window will pop up and there will be 3 choices under "Choose an Identity."
1. If you have a blogger.com account, you can sign in here.
2. If you choose "Other" then you have the ability to leave your name and your web page if you have one...this is the recommended choice.
3. Choosing "Anonymous" allows you to post, uh, anonymously.
Other confessions...
...We realized we had not updated the calendars on The Carnage and Nightmare on the Bayou pages. That situation has now been resolved.
...We love baseball and would like to congratulate the Astros on winning the NL Wild Card. Go 'Stros! |
posted by Michael | 10/02/2005 08:12:00 PM
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