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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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